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FOOTROT FLATS Slater buzzing for OriginFromBackPage

but Slater is likely to remain in Melbourne underthe supervision of the Storm medical staff, with afinal call to be made on Friday.

Meninga said he had lots of options if Slater wereruled out: ‘‘It just adds to the mire of trying to comeup with the right decision,’’ he said. ‘‘We just have tomake the right decision for the benefit of the team.’’

The likely Queensland squad is: Billy Slater,Darius Boyd, Greg Inglis, Justin Hodges, Brent Tate,Johnathan Thurston, Cooper Cronk, Matt Scott, Ca-meron Smith (c), Petero Civoniceva, Nate Myles,Sam Thaiday, Corey Parker, Matt Gillett, Dave Tay-lor, Ben Hannant, David Shillington, Dane Nielsen,Ben Te’o and Matt Bowen.

Season over for ClarkFOOTBALL

ByMARKSTEVENS

Mitch Clark

MELBOURNE was last nighthopeful forward Mitch Clarkwould be fit to resumetraining in early Novemberafter a rare foot injury cutshort his season.

Clark, the shining light ina dark season for the De-mons, suffered a Lisfranctear to his right foot againstGreater Western Sydney onSunday. A severe Lisfranc in-

jury ended Haw-thorn premier-ship hero TrentCroad’s career,but Melbournehopes Clark’s ison the lower end

of the scale.His injury may require

surgery with the club set tomeet specialists today.

‘‘The plan is we want himto be right for the start of thepre-season,’’ Melbourne foot-ball manager Josh Mahoney

said last night. ‘‘Tomorrowhe’s got a couple of morescans and we’ll work out ex-actly what the course of ac-tion is from then.

‘‘It will either be an oper-ation or just rest in a moonboot. It will depend on thesize of the tear.’’

Sports medico Dr PeterLarkins last night describedthe injury as the ‘‘most sinis-ter of the foot sprains’’.

‘‘When you talk about re-turn times, it is unpredict-

able,’’ he said. Larkins saidsix months was a realistictime out of the game, surgeryor not.

Lisfranc injuries are mostcommonly caused by excess-ive impact to the mid-foot,around the delicate metatar-sal bones.

If Clark has surgery, it islikely pins will be inserted tohelp the foot heal.

Clark landed heavily in thesecond term against theGiants and hobbled from the

MCG after also copping ahead knock.

o Brisbane midfield starSimon Black can avoid anAFL suspension despite astriking charge.

Black was charged withstriking Bulldogs taggerLiam Picken in the thirdquarter of the Lions’ win atEtihad Stadium on Sunday.

But the low-grade nature ofthe charge means Black canescape with a reprimand andstill play against Melbourne

at the Gabba on Sunday, if hepleads guilty and accepts apenalty discount.

The only other charges laidfrom the weekend’s round re-lated to a melee in Sunday’sclash between Melbourneand GWS.

Demons Nathan Jones,Daniel Nicholson, MarkJamar and Brent Moloneyand Giants Tomas Bugg,Taylor Adams, TobyGreene and Dylan Shiel allface fines.

Talented young touch footballers Justin and Caitlyn Costello have been selected to attend a national training camp in Sydney this weekend Picture: JUSTIN SANSON

Siblings a touch closer to playing for the green and goldTOUCH

ByGREGORMACTAGGART

HUMPTY Doo siblings Ju-stin and Caitlyn Costello willmove one step closer to thegreen and gold when they at-tend the Touch FootballAustralia national teamcamp being held in Syd-ney this weekend.

Justin, 19, earned selectionin the 20s Boys squad, whileCaitlyn, 16, was picked in the18s Girls squad.

Both were rewarded forfine performances at the Nat-ional Youth Championshipslast September and the 2012National Touch League inPort Macquarie.

The national camp allows

selectors to finalise theirteams ahead of the YouthTrans Tasman Test Seriesagainst New Zealand, to beplayed in February 2013.

Justin, who is a qualifiedplumber, has represented theTerritory from under-12 levelupwards and is excited aboutpressing his national claims.

‘‘I was pretty stoked when I

found out,’’ he said. ‘‘Mumrang me at work and told methe letter had arrived.’’

Caitlyn, who is studyingYear 11 at The GlennieSchool in Toowoomba, willbe on light duties at the campas she recovers from a seri-ous knee injury sustained atthe nationals in March.

‘‘I did my ACL while play-

ing for South West Queens-land Swans, so I’ll be doingrehab . . . and hopefully I’ll beback playing in October orNovember,’’ Caitlyn said.

Like Justin, Caitlyn hasbeen a regular Territory jun-ior representative and lastyear earned selection for theQueensland under-16 team’stour of New Zealand.

Touch football has been amajor part of both their livesfor many years.

Justin first took up thesport at the age of 11 after hisinterest was piqued bywatching his mum, Tressa,and dad, Peter, in the DarwinTouch competition, whileCaitlyn followed her broth-er’s footsteps as a 10-year-old.