AFL 2024: Latest injury news as opening round draws closer
Hawthorn has turned to one of the VFL’s best defenders to plug a hole in its defence after losing fullback James Blanck to an ACL injury.
Melbourne
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Hawthorn has officially elevated Box Hill backman Ethan Phillips onto its senior list as Hawks captain James Sicily backed the club’s close-knit defence to cover the “gut-wrenching” loss of key position backman James Blanck.
On a day when Sicily insisted he would not change his free-wheeling game this year, the Herald Sun can reveal Phillips was told by the Hawks he would be elevated to replace Blanck.
Box Hill key defender Ethan Phillips has impressed over summer after winning the 2022 Fothergill-Round-Mitchell Medallist with Port Melbourne.
He moved to the Hawks’ VFL affiliate Box Hill over summer and will follow a well-worn path of Box Hill listed players establishing senior careers with Hawthorn.
Phillips moved to Box Hill in October in an attempt to kickstart his AFL dream and could not have timed his run any better after finishing fifth in the Port Melbourne best-and-fairest last year.
The previous year he had finished second in that award but averaged 9.8 marks a game in the VFL as a dominant defensive presence.
It continues a remarkable streak of every player to win the Fothergill-Round-Mitchell Medal from 2006-2022 as the VFL’s best young player graduating to AFL ranks.
The full-time logistics worker will follow names including Kane Lambert, Michael Hibberd, Bayley Fritsch and Luke Ryan as former winners of that VFL award.
Blanck looms as a huge loss for the club after rupturing his ACL in Thursday’s intra-club match, leaving the Hawks vulnerable in terms of their key defensive posts.
Speaking at the club’s family day at Waverley on Saturday, the skipper said the season-ending Blanck injury — along with a hamstring suffered by the luckless Changkuoth Jiath to keep him out for up to eight weeks — had rattled the young Hawks at stages of the game.
But he detailed how they addressed the issue immediately after the game and he remains confident the Hawks can respond with young hopefuls to step into roles as the club also looks to secure another player before the SSP window closes.
“I am still confident (in the defence),” Sicily said.
“We have got young Jai Serong, who has just turned 21 and has played a couple of games and had a good preseason. We still have Denver (Grainger-Barras); we’ve got Josh Weddle …
“We will be stretched, but there will be some sort of silver lining (in his replacement).”
Asked if Blanck’s loss would mean he had to play a more one-on-one role rather than as a creative, intercept defender, Sicily said: “I don’t think so … we will see what happens in games.”
“Sometimes someone might get off the chain and I might have go to them, but hopefully not. I have full confidence in the other guys to do the job.
“We don’t really play match-ups anyway … it is all about helping each other out.”
He revealed Blanck turned up to the Hawks’ photo day on Friday, just 24 hours after suffering the injury, saying it was a mark of his character.
“I don’t know if I could have done the same thing,” he said.
“Life is not fair sometimes, particularly in Blancky’s case, where he has put in an enormous amount of work in the preseason and to go down with only 28 days to go until we play … (it) is a gut wrenching feeling.
“But I have enormous confidence in his ability to return to where he left off, because I went through the same thing with the same people that helped me at the club.”
He said the competition was on for spots in attack ahead of next month’s round 1 clash with Essendon, with Collingwood premiership player Jack Ginnivan, former Tiger and Sun forward Mabior Chol and top five draft pick Nick Watson all performing well in the intra-club game.
“It is hard to go past ‘Watto’ (Watson) and ‘Ginni’, they are very crafty, they manage to get goal-side and look very dangerous … teams will have their hands full.
“And ‘Cholly’ (Chol) … is getting so many shots on goal … (and will provide) a bit of a chop out for Mitchy Lewis.”
Sicily said the AFL crackdown on run-down tackles this season would prove challenging for players, but he said the Hawks had been working on new techniques.
“It is hard as a player, everything has to be done at full-speed otherwise you look silly,” he said. “We do practise technique, it is a part of our weekly training, trying to get it right as best as we can.”
GIANTS HIT WITH TRIPLE INJURY BLOW AHEAD OF OPENING ROUND
The Giants could be without three key players, including one of their brightest young talents, for their huge Opening Round clash with Collingwood.
Harry Perryman and Isaac Cumming are all but certain to miss out on the March 9 match against the Pies at Giants Stadium, while Finn Callaghan is in serious doubt.
The Giants are planning to be without Perryman and Cumming after they suffered hamstring and calf injuries respectively.
They are hopeful on Callaghan but he has plenty to do to be ready for their season opener.
The young gun suffered a shoulder injury at training on Monday.
He will miss the Giants’ upcoming practice games against Sydney and the Gold Coast to try and get him right for the preliminary final rematch in three weeks time.
The absence of Perryman and Cumming could open the door for young speedster Darcy Jones to make his debut.
Jones suffered an ACL injury last year.
Saints’ injury woes deepen as star defender ruled out
St Kilda is confident star dasher Jack Sinclair will play in round 1 but he is set to skip upcoming practice matches due to a calf complaint.
The dual All-Australian’s injury has been dubbed “calf awareness” by the club and he missed match simulation on Friday.
He has been dealing with the niggle since last week.
The Saints play Geelong in round 1 on March 16.
Sinclair has won both of the past two club best-and-fairest awards and has emerged as a dominant runner off half-back and through the midfield in recent years.
He polled 21 votes in the Brownlow Medal last season, finishing just outside the top-10.
Speedster Dan Butler took some literal strides towards full fitness on Friday after a summer dogged by an ankle injury.
The goalsneak ran laps after mostly being restricted to being on stationary bikes.
Butler remains in real doubt for that round 1 meeting with Geelong.
Tough midfielder Zak Jones was also out of training on Friday, after he was concussed on Wednesday at training.
Midfielder Hunter Clark is with Jones in the concussion protocols after he copped a knock late last week.
Former Carlton midfielder Paddy Dow (knee), Jack Hayes (knee), Ben Paton (pectoral) and James Van Es (ankle) remain in the club’s rehab group.
Mattaes Phillipou was one standout player in match play on Friday, as he continues in talks on a new contract.
Phillipou played every game in his debut season and is one of three players picked in the top-10 of the 2022 draft who is unsigned beyond this season, the others being Essendon’s Elijah Tsatas and Geelong’s Jhye Clark.
The Saints are happy with where contract talks sit with the young left-footer.
Forward Max King kicked multiple goals and appears back to full fitness after a shoulder reconstruction last year.
St Kilda faces Essendon in an unofficial practice match on February 23 and North Melbourne in an official outing on March 3, both at RSEA Park.
Roo recruit set to be unleashed in Pies clash
North Melbourne is planning to unleash recruit Zac Fisher off half-back in Wednesday’s practice match against Collingwood as he gets past a hamstring complaint.
The former Blue tweaked his hamstring in January and was initially cleared in scans, but was later diagnosed with a minor strain.
He has been in the North Melbourne rehab group for most of the last few weeks, often alongside Aidan Corr (knee), Eddie Ford (ankle) and Jackson Archer (groin).
Fisher sat out an internal practice match on Wednesday morning and was at Arden Street early on Friday doing a conditioning block to get right to face Collingwood next week.
Paul Curtis (ankle) tweaked his ankle at training last week but should play against the reigning premier.
North Melbourne plays St Kilda in an official practice match on March 3.
Corr and Ford should come into the mix by round 1, when the Roos travel to meet the GWS Giants.
Co-captain Luke McDonald has been slowly building up from a serious hamstring injury and didn’t play in the intraclub game this week.
Veteran Hugh Greenwood also didn’t play in that hitout after rolling his ankle at training earlier this month but the injury was not considered serious.
North Melbourne development coach Michael Barlow said Fisher had picked up speed after a slow start to pre-season.
“He was one pre-Christmas that probably was a little bit behind the eight-ball, probably had a little bit of a shorter break in terms of Carlton playing a little bit longer (into finals) and came to us and had a bit of a quad setback,” Barlow told RSN.
“He got himself right and his three weeks (around) Christmas were as impressive as any the way he ran and tested and trained.
“He has been managed a little bit over the last week or so just to make sure he becomes ready to play on Wednesday and into the St Kilda game.”
The Roos promise to have an exciting half-back line this season with Fisher to split minutes with Harry Sheezel and hyped draftee Colby McKercher.
PETTY’S NEW FOOT CONCERN ADDS TO DEMONS WOES
– Jon Ralph
Melbourne swingman Harrison Petty is battling a nerve-related injury to his toe as he battles to be ready for the Demons’ season-opener against Sydney in three weeks.
The Demons will kick off their pre-season clashes with a Casey Fields contest against Richmond on Sunday but Petty has not been involved in recent intraclub scrimmages.
The star Demon, set to be a huge part of the club’s forward line this year after the club denied him a trade to Adelaide, missed the final with a lisfranc fracture in his foot.
The Herald Sun understands the fresh injury is to the opposite foot to the lisfranc issue but means Petty has been held back instead of building connectivity in the Demons forward line alongside Jacob Van Rooyen.
New addition Shane McAdam has also been held back by recent calf issues but is not yet ruled out from round 1.
McAdam came across from Adelaide to play a key role in the forward line but the Demons still have work to do to find a round 1 forward line given Kysaiah Pickett is suspended for round 1.
The club is expected to showcase new players include ex-St Kilda wingman Jack Billings and exciting draftees Caleb Windsor and Koltyn Tholstrup in that clash against Richmond.
It comes as brilliant matchwinner Christian Petracca admitted the club’s focus this year was on building the team connection that the club witnessed in Collingwood this year.
Petracca told the Dyl and Friends podcast that during last year’s finals the club’s players “crumbled” under pressure and needed to work on how to rise to the occasion.
The Demons had players Steven May and Jake Melksham in a boozy scuffle in 2022 after premiership player May taunted his teammate about his lack of participation in the 2021 decider.
Petracca said he was determined to help tighten the bond between Demons players this year.
“It has been an interesting four months. I won’t touch on the individual scenarios (with Clayton Oliver). But culture is something you always have to work on. It is never going to be perfect. 2021 was a great year. Was it perfect? No. Every single year you can’t say we have a great culture and have to forget about it. You have to constantly work on it. You have to hold guys accountable and be transparent. I need to be better as a leader,” he said.
“And also being honest and vulnerable with each other. We have come into this pre-season really open minded. We don’t want to be what we were last year from an on-field perspective (in finals). That sucked. But then also off field we weren’t connected as well as we felt like we were. So what are things we can do to change and help this culture?
“The last two finals when the pressure mounted, we crumbled. That is reality. I don’t think it stems from skills or football. That is from an off field point of view. How can we become the most united and connected group? Look at collingwood, the way they engage with each other and celebrate the little things. Oleg Markov comes in and does one spoil. How they get around each other, how they celebrate? We have gone away from that over the last two or three things especially and these are things that are really controllable.”
The Demons lost in straight sets for the second season in a row but hope to rebound strongly, starting against Sydney at the SCG on March 7.
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