OLYMPIC coach Alex Tagaroulias hopes the bye this week will give Reece Papas, Blake Green and Tim Stewart a chance to be back from injury to help their shot at the finals.
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A 3-1 loss to Edgeworth on Sunday left Olympic on 17 points, and still in third, with three weeks of the regular season remaining.
After a week off, Olympic host Adamstown then travel to Valentine to press claims for a top-five finish.
Green and Papas have been out with hamstring strains, while Stewart is returning from a knee injury. He came off the bench in reserve grade last week. Tom Curran is also out but he may not return this season.
"With the break coming up, I'm hopeful of getting close to a full deck coming back," Tagaroulias said. "Hopefully things go our way over the next couple of games, then we'll have these guys."
Tagaroulias welcomed the bye after a frustrating day against the Eagles.
Olympic missed chances before Jared Muller equalised in the opening minute of the second half. However, a long-range strike from Kristian Brymora and follow-up effort from Damon Green gave Edgeworth the points.
"We had our opportunities to score one or two more and then we had one or two opportunities not to let them in the way they got in," Tagaroulias said.
"It was a long cross to the far post for the first one and then a long ball from one side to the other for another. With long balls like that, you would like to think you could adjust a little bit faster."
"I think we played well enough and there was an opportunity to get something out of the game.
"It was a shame because again results went our way on the Saturday, for us to move clear. We kept our spot but that cluster moved closer."
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