A bit of action involving suspensions today, along with injury reports, with updates on Tom Green, Zach Merrett, Jarrod Witts, Max Gawn, Bailey Smith, Jayden Short, Will Gould, George Wardlaw and Aaron Hall.
UPDATES
GWS Giants midfielder Tom Green (AF $868k SC $536k MID) has accepted his one match suspension for his tackle on Josh Ward, meaning he will miss this weekend’s game against Brisbane. GWS coach Adam Kingsley said they thought about challenging, but opted not to. On the suspension, he said: “I probably thought it was fair in the end to be quite frank. Having watched it on replay it was a little bit too aggressive, so we spoke to the group about that sort of tackle. We’ll endeavour to not have those tackles in our game.”
In terms of why they didn’t challenge the suspension, Kingsley said: “The impact was graded as medium and in order for him to get off we’d have to prove that it was low and there’s just a bit of a risk attached I guess to doing that, so we felt like it was going to be a difficult case to answer, so we’ve just opted to take the week.”
Zach Merrett (AF $928k SC $578k MID) went to the tribunal this afternoon to challenge his own one game suspension, but his appeal failed, meaning he will miss the ANZAC Day clash against Collingwood.
Anthony Caminiti (AF $356k SC $229k FWD) copped a three-game suspension for his striking charge from the Tribunal.
In Gold Coast’s official injury report, ruckman Jarrod Witts (AF $845k SC $617k RUCK) is expected to train this week to potentially return for this week’s game against North Melbourne. He has missed the past two games through injury, but would be a welcome return for both the Suns and Fantasy coaches.
Melbourne could receive a big boost for their ANZAC Day Eve clash against Richmond, with captain Max Gawn (AF $849k SC $622k RUCK) potentially returning. Melbourne High Performance Manager Selwyn Griffith gave an update on how Gawn is tracking ahead of this week’s game. He said: “Gawny had a really good session over the weekend. He’s integrating into full training this week and similarly to the other players, if he can get through our full training session, he will be available for selection.”
West Coast released their injury report, and this isn’t much good news unfortunately. Elliot Yeo (AF $572k SC $337k DEF) will miss 3-4 weeks after scans confirmed an adductor muscle injury. Dom Sheed (AF $613k SC $365k MID) is still a few weeks away from the throat injury he suffered at training, Elijah Hewett (AF $251k SC $137k MID) has a swollen ankle after slipping at the first centre bounce and will spend time on the sidelines (no exact timeframe yet).
In some better news for the Eagles, young gun Reuben Ginbey (AF $489k SC $297k D/M) was not listed on the injury report and is cleared to play against Port Adelaide after being subbed out of the game against Geelong.
Western Bulldogs midfielder Bailey Smith (AF $852k SC $503k MID) will miss this week’s game against Fremantle, but is no certainty to return next week either, with the club taking a conservative approach with his calf injury. Western Bulldogs Head of Sports Medicine Chris Bell gave an update on how Smith is tracking. Bell said: “Following our main training session last week, Bailey developed some calf tightness. He did have some intermittent tightness over the pre-season, so we are going to be conservative with when he does return to play. Bailey won’t play against Fremantle this week, but we’re optimistic he’ll make a return the week or two following.”
Richmond star Jayden Short (AF $820k SC $544k MID) is expected to return for their ANZAC Day Eve clash after recovering from a calf injury, as long as he gets through training this week.
Sydney coach John Longmire was asked about Will Gould (AF $208k SC $124k DEF) and if he could potentially come into the 22 this week. He said: “Yeah he’s a chance. He can play down back for us, he leant some things coming out of the game, he was okay. I was just talking to him before, and it was a big stage for him and Corey (Warner) to play their first game. They came through it alright, it was a great experience for those guys, and we will be playing some more younger guys this week.”
North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson was asked about George Wardlaw (AF $294k SC $194k MID) and if he would be making his debut this week, but Clarkson said his debut will have to wait another week. He said: “Probably not this week, because we didn’t even play him in the game against Sydney in the reserves game. It’s just all part of his program that we give him a rest. He had a really strong block of training and then we wanted to play him for three or four games, give him a break then build again. He’s a big part of our future, but that’s why we have been really patient.”
Clarkson was also asked about Aaron Hall (AF $797k SC $539k DEF) and if he would be returning to the side, and it could be as early as this week. Clarkson said: “I think he’s played some really good footy (at VFL level), particularly over the past month. He was a little bit the same as George (Wardlaw), he’s had a lot of soft tissue issues over the last three or four years and we deliberately held him back. He had a little bit of achilles soreness over the summer. For the first couple of rounds it was difficult to bring him into the side because he wasn’t quite ready match conditioning wise, and we were winning so there wasn’t much change. He’s putting his hand up and he’s nearly ready to go, he’ll be a chance to come into the side this week.”
