Injury to Payne sours Sharks win

A KNEE injury to key forward Brenton Payne has soured the Southport Sharks’ 90-point NEAFL win over Greater Western Sydney.

Payne will have scans tomorrow after suffering a suspected ACL injury in Southport’s 19.19 (133) to 7.5 (47) win over a depleted Giants team with only 11 AFL-listed players at Fankhauser Reserve.

“We hope it’s not bad but we will find out on Tuesday,” Southport coach Steve Daniel said. “He has been really good for us so far this season and it’s a massive hole to fill.

“It’s a dampener on the win and we have got our fingers crossed that the scans come back positive.”

Daniel called on his team to respond after suffering their first loss of the season against Sydney University last week and the Sharks did it in emphatic fashion, setting the tone by holding GWS goalless in a first term where they kicked 6.5.

“I was really happy with the way we responded,” Daniel said.

Meanwhile the Suns NEAFL side lost to the Demons 11.14 (80) to 7.9 (51) on Saturday at Canberra Oval after taking minimal AFL listed to the game.