Stay up to date throughout Round 17 with our rolling injury report from the coaches post-game. With the nine-game round extending from Thursday night through until Sunday, these snippets of info will be key.
North Melbourne vs Western Bulldogs
North lost Luke Davies-Uniacke to concussion early on while Tristan Xerri came off late due to a head knock. Roos coach Alastair Clarkson said: “LDU was ruled out of the game with (concussion) protocols, but I think Big X is OK.
“I didn’t see anything. There’s probably two things that I’m not an expert on and that’s umpiring and concussion, so I probably won’t make mention of either one of them… Just had to get assessed by the docs but I think he’s fine.”
Clarkson said Nick Larkey copped a “knock to the knee”, but managed to play on.
Ed Richards appeared in strife with a shoulder injury but played on. Dogs coach Luke Beveridge explained: “I thought it was going to be worse than it seems to be. It seems like a minor AC joint injury, which you can always play with. So, that’s some good fortune for us.”
Carlton vs Collingwood
Neither side picked up any new injuries.
West Coast vs GWS Giants
GWS lost Jack Buckley to what coach Adam Kingsley described as a “badly rolled ankle” which will require scans. Kingsley said Jesse Hogan, who missed the game with illness and a lingering foot problem, wasn’t a guarantee to return next week.
Essendon vs Gold Coast
Jye Caldwell finished the game on the bench with his ankle iced up. Dons coach Brad Scott said: “He rolled his ankle. It was sore enough with 6 minutes to go we didn’t want to put him back on. We’ll have that scanned. When we have scanned at the moment, it’s usually not a good thing.”
Scott also revealed Xavier Duursma was almost a late withdrawal with a lower back concern. He said: “He had lower back spasms-slash-tightness. You can understand we’re a bit jumpy at the moment.”
Suns coach Damien Hardwick confirmed ruckman Jarrod Witts (managed) and defensive general Sam Collins (calf tightness) will play next week.
He said: “Both those two boys will play. Witta has done a power of work this year and we’ve had Ned Moyle in terrific form. We really want to give him an opportunity and rest up Jarrod off a short break.”
Geelong vs Richmond
Bailey Smith was a late withdrawal for Geelong due to illness. Cats coach Chris Scott explained: “Bailey, waking up sick, made it a little bit harder… I’ll probably follow up a little bit more, but experience tells me that when the medical staff tell you something and it’s emphatic, then the next questions don’t matter. You’ve just got to move on and get on with it.”
Scott praised debutant George Stevens who had 21 disposals, 8 clearances and a goal. He said: “We were confident that he could come in and display the traits that he’s shown at VFL level immediately at the AFL level.
“It’s rare for a very young player to come in, make his debut, play virtually as a permanent onballer against seasoned players. They’re (Richmond are) an experienced, high-quality group of players and George looked at home right from the start, which is, again, they’re high expectations from us, but we were confident he could deliver on that.”
Richmond coach Adem Yze confirmed Sam Lalor had re-injured the same hamstring that previously kept him sidelined. Yze said: “He’s done the same one, and I think the mechanism’s something that it’s hard to train. So yeah, it looks like a bad one, which is really disappointing.
The Tigers also lost Hugo Ralphsmith late due to a hamstring injury.
Brisbane Lions vs Port Adelaide
Port lost Sam Powell-Pepper to a serious knee injury. Power coach Ken Hinkley said: “Sam obviously looks like an ACL. Clearly we’ll get the scan back over the next couple of days, but that’s really, really sad, and when I think about that it gets a bit sadder for me because it’s my last game of coaching Sam, and he’s been such a great player for me.”
Port also had other injury concerns, with Dante Visentini (ankle) and Esava Ratugolea (hamstring) the exiting the game early. Hinkley said he’d expect Ratugolea to miss 3-4 weeks, while he was unclear on the severity of Visentini’s issue.
He said: “Visentini is ankle. We’ll wait and see what happens with that. I don’t quite know how long that may or may not be. Gie us Monday/Tuesday, we’ll tell you.”
St Kilda vs Hawthorn
St Kilda lost Jimmy Webster early to a calf injury. Saints coach Ross Lyon heaped praise on Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera for his display and offered an insight into his role.
Lyon said: ‘We injected him into the midfield and I thought he was electric. We did that early [in his career] and he wasn’t quite conditioned for it, his groins got a little bit sore. But we know what we’re building.
“Ultimately, Andrew McLeod used to play half-back, midfield, forward when he won his Norm Smith. Malcolm Blight moved him through the lines. We know he’s got half-back, we know he’s got midfield, and I think he can do a bit of forward stuff. We’ve got a long-term plan that he becomes great, rather than just a great half-back.”
Sydney vs Fremantle
Tom Papley was subbed out at half-time with an apparent hamstring injury, while Joel Amartey limped off late with an apparent groin concern.
Sydney coach Dean Cox said: “(Papley) got subbed out with his hamstring so we need to work out the extent of that, how bad that is, and the same with Amartey late in the game. We’ll see throughout the next couple of days how that settles, get some scans and the results will come from that.”
Adelaide vs Melbourne
Josh Rachele was subbed out for Adelaide after an awkward landing led to a knee concern.
