However, late in the session Stringer walked from the track mid-game to talk at length with fitness staff.

“They are a realistic chance to play, and we can’t bring them into the squad late, but we can take them out,” Rutten said.

The coach said the criticism of their performance in the second half against the Dockers was warranted, and he expected a response from the group.

“There’s a lot of players who, on reflection, if they had their time again, they’d like to do some things a bit differently,” Rutten said.

“Our guys aren’t shying away from it.”

The Bombers will be without key structural players Will Snelling and Kyle Langford, but Rutten said there were many areas they could address quickly with the team they had. He said their contest work was the major issue that let them down in round five.

“We certainly don’t want to be chasing 100 points every week, so we just need to continue the work on everything that goes into stopping the opponents scoring,” Rutten said.

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