COACH Mark Neeld says that while he feels genuine empathy for sidelined key forward Mitch Clark, who will miss up to two months with a foot injury, he has stressed the importance of not losing sight of this round’s clash against Carlton.

Speaking on the Coach’s Office, Neeld said that while it was disappointing to lose such a talented player, it was important to keep focused about Sunday’s clash at the MCG.

“I spent some time with Mitch this morning and talked about his operation. He’s very positive about that,” he said.

“All operations are serious, we understand that, but it’s supposed to be a very simple operation, where they’re going to open it up and take a bolt out and it should all be healed somewhere between four to six [weeks], which would be great.”

“You just have to quickly move on, in terms of picking a side for this week. We know that Mitch is vital for our future, but we also know that he’s not going to play before the bye.”

Neeld was optimistic about Clark and key forward recruit Chris Dawes joining forces in attack during the second half of the season. Dawes returned via Casey last round after seven weeks on the sidelines with a hamstring injury.

“We’re hoping over the next fortnight that Dawsey can make his debut, and by the time Mitch comes back, with a bit of luck, Chris has played five or six games and then they can get going for the second half of the year,” he said.

Reflecting on last round’s 28 point loss to the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba, Neeld praised the continued emergence of Michael Evans, Dean Terlich and Matt Jones, who have played a combined total of 16 matches. He was also pleased with his team’s efforts on the road.  

“Brisbane really attacked us with the ball, and we were able to hold up for 60 or 70 per cent [of the match], but we just couldn’t go the whole way with them. We just need to continue to work with that,” Neeld said.

“If we could just eek out another couple of goals or stop a couple that would’ve really put us in a position to go right to the wire.

“It was another experience of travelling interstate against a team that’s still got some very good players – we know that Brent Moloney’s a good player and we know that Jonathan Brown’s a good player, so we thought we pushed them.”