Giant walk in the park ends in hospital ward
IF Greater Western Sydney ever wins a premiership, it will be a triumph over adversity rather than the cakewalk we all expected.
A team supposed to break over the competition like a tsunami instead keeps breaking apart at the seams.
Twice the Giants have been denied in preliminary finals caused in some part by concussion to star midfielders.
Yesterday, a Sunday walk in the park turned into an afternoon of injury carnage.
In the space of 15 minutes in the third quarter of an otherwise easy win over Carlton, Leon Cameron lost his entire bench of players.
And potentially, if those injuries linger, his road to that elusive premiership becomes littered with potholes again.
By halfway through the third quarter, all of Brett Deledio, Sam Taylor, Toby Greene and Dawson Simpson were done for the day.
The ultimate indictment of this one-sided 105-point victory: in the final term GWS still ran away from Carlton despite playing 16 or 17 players.
GWS had done as it pleased in the first half at Etihad, topping and tailing the first half with goals of ridiculous ease.
Carlton fans could only watch the game through gritted teeth and with fingers over their eyes. At least that way they could enjoy Harry McKay’s three-goal first half while ignoring the dozen Blues with four possessions or fewer.
Then the story became all about the men in orange dropping like flies. First the cameras focused on Deledio applying ice to his troublesome left calf, with youngster Taylor applying ice to his left hamstring beside him. Then Greene ran to the bench for a vigorous hamstring massage before he was shut down for the day.
Just as that decision was made, the trainers were sprinting out to Simpson, slumped in the centre square with a left ankle injury. None of those injuries would seem serious enough to eliminate the players from finals contention.
But at a time when clubs should be massing their forces for a finals run, the Giants were again hobbling.
McKay’s first half, where he should have kicked five goals from 18 inside 50s, was exciting. He kicked long bombs from 50, dribbling left-footed goals after baulking opponents and shanked two sitters.
Apart from that, it was a train wreck.