Wingard may have to wait for his 200
HAWTHORN forward Chad Wingard is in doubt to play what would be his 200th AFL game against Essendon on Saturday night after coming down with a “non-Covid related” illness.
After being named in the Hawks’ team on Thursday night, Wingard missed the club’s captain’s run at Waverley on Friday morning, along with a scheduled press conference ahead of his milestone match.
“He just felt pretty ordinary,” Hawthorn teammate Luke Breust said.
“Unfortunately for him, it’s meant to be 200 games this week, so it would have been great to celebrate that milestone.
“We’ll give him every chance but it will probably be a gametime decision to see if he can get up or not.”
Connor Macdonald, Liam Shiels, Conor Nash and Daniel Howe were named as Hawthorn’s emergencies for their clash with the Bombers, with one of the four set to replace Wingard if he fails to recover in time and is forced to sit out the match.
The Hawks hold a 3-4 record entering this week’s match and are coming off consecutive losses since their Easter Monday triumph over Geelong.
“There’s been a few inconsistencies in our game this year but I think the best thing to do is to get out on the training track and continue to improve,” Breust said.
“We’re a young group and fortunately we’ve got young guys who can train hard during the week.”
Breust said while a 1-6 Essendon side might not have got many wins on the board so far this year, the Bombers were still dangerous when they got their game up and going.
“They certainly take the game on, they flick the ball around with handball, they’ve got some quality users across their half-back line and through the midfield that can really punish you,” he said.
“So if our pressure’s not up and we can’t turn the ball over, they’re going to score against us.”