AFL Richmond v St Kilda: Noah Balta avoids knee injury but still set for long lay-off

Richmond has received a sliver of good news from its nightmare loss to St Kilda with Noah Balta’s injury is not as bad as first thought. Here’s the latest.

Noah Balta went down with a knee injury in the third term. Picture: Michael Klein

Richmond has renewed hope that important defender Noah Balta may have dodged an ACL rupture in Friday night’s shock defeat to St Kilda at the MCG.

Coach Damien Hardwick admitted after the 40-point loss that the Tigers feared Balta had suffered a serious knee injury, but a club update on Saturday suggested his right knee was “better than first thought”.

However, the 21-year-old has suffered a significant ankle syndesmosis injury that will require surgery and likely still sideline him for an extended period.

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Superstars Patrick Dangerfield and Lachie Neale have both returned in recent weeks following syndesmosis surgery. Dangerfield missed seven games and Neale missed five. There are eight more home-and-away matches left as the Tigers’ spot in the finals hangs by a thread.

Balta will have scans on his ankle and knee in the coming days to confirm the damage.

He was trying to pick up the ball in Richmond’s defensive 50 in the third quarter of the Saints clash when he fumbled and was brought to ground in a Josh Battle tackle.

Balta’s right leg was caught underneath him and his right boot appeared to get stuck in the turf before he immediately grabbed for his knee.

The incident which led to Balta’s blow. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Fellow defender Nathan Broad sustained a low-grade syndesmosis setback and is in doubt for Thursday night’s clash with Gold Coast.

Broad grimaced as he underwent a fitness test at three-quarter time, but managed to return to the field in the final term.

Nick Vlastuin and debutant Samson Ryan also left the field during the contest for respective injury assessments.

“I don’t like to speculate but it doesn’t look great at this stage, which is disappointing for the lad,” Hardwick said of Balta post-match.

“Once we get further details, we’ll pass that on, but it looks disappointing at this stage.”

Richmond defender Noah Balta left the field after this passage. #AFLTigersSaintspic.twitter.com/XRCt35fZ8I

— AFL (@AFL) June 25, 2021

The Tigers’ top-four hopes are as good as shot after the shock defeat, now trailing both the Lions and Cats by three wins with only eight matches remaining.

They play both those sides in the run home, as well as the Giants, but the other games are all against teams outside the top eight.

“I’d like to think we’re a proud footy club and we don’t let people down too often … but I thought tonight we didn’t fire a shot, which is incredibly disappointing,” Hardwick said.

“Generally, we surge at some stage but we never felt that happened at any stage tonight.

“A lot of credit goes to the Saints – they played some really good footy – but I was disappointed that at no stage we probably challenged a side we thought we could beat.”

The Saints lost two players on the night, with Jack Billings copping a knee knock in the warm-up before his replacement, Nick Coffield, suffered a left hamstring injury in the third term.

Nick Coffield was subbed out and on ice in the third term. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Coffield post-game. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

That’s a night Leo Connolly won’t be forgetting.

Named the medical sub just minutes before the bounce after Jack Billings was withdrawn.

Makes his debut and racks up 11 touches in just 30% game time.

Walks off a winner against the reigning premiers. #AFLTigersSaintspic.twitter.com/KcrOPu5ZHW

— AFL (@AFL) June 25, 2021

Leo Connolly was upgraded to the medical substitute when Billings was pulled out, then he came in for his AFL debut once Coffield was subbed out.

St Kilda improved to a 6-8 record – just one game behind the Tigers, albeit almost 20 percentage points in arrears – and co-captain Jack Steele was thrilled with the performance.

“We were under the pump quite a lot over the last couple of weeks and it’s definitely nice to be able to come out and beat the Tigers on the MCG on Friday night,” Steele told Channel 7.

“I’m glad the boys responded. We were just really connected. Probably something we haven’t done all year is play out four quarters, so each quarter we broke it down and took it quarter by quarter.

“We were able to keep them to a low score, which is pleasing, but we were able to kick a nice score ourselves, so that was great, too.”