GWS Giants suffer triple injury blow with Dawson Simpson, Brett Deledio, Toby Greene sidelined

THE Giants’ premiership push has been dealt a devastating blow with three stars out for the season and more bad news for star goalkicker Toby Greene.

Injured GWS Giants players Sam Taylor, Brett Deledio and Dawson Simpson.

THE GWS Giants’ premiership hopes have been dealt a devastating blow with ruckman Dawson Simpson gone for the season, Brett Deledio scratched indefinitely and Toby Greene unlikely to be back until the finals.

Just 24 hours after being instilled as second favourites behind Richmond to win the flag, the Giants have been left reeling by a horror injury toll out of last Sunday’s win against Carlton.

Simpson’s influence in the ruck has been pivotal in GWS clawing its way back from an early-season personnel crisis, but he will miss eight weeks with an ankle injury, which would rule him out for the Grand Final unless he makes miraculous improvement.

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GWS is still assessing Deledio’s calf issue, but given his shocking history the club sounds pessimistic about his prospects.

Superstar small forward Greene and young gun Sam Taylor both pulled up with sore hamstrings, and are facing 2-3 weeks on the sidelines.

In more crushing news, gun midfielder Tom Scully has been officially ruled out for the season ending any hope he could provide a finals injection having been missing since Round 2.

The only silver lining for the Giants is that Tim Taranto, Dylan Shiel, Sam Reid and Ryan Griffen are all on track to return this Saturday against Adelaide in Canberra.

Toby Greene is facing more time on the sidelines.

GWS medical officer David Joyce confirmed the worst possible news for Simpson and Deledio.

“Unfortunately, Dawson has sustained quite a significant injury to his ankle. Essentially what’s happened is he’s torn the ligaments on the inside of his ankle called the deltoid ligaments and they’re tough, strong ligaments,” said Joyce.

“They’re hard to damage in isolation but most people have seen the incident and he’s folded underneath, so he’s injured that on one side and because of the way the foot has fallen he’s managed to fracture the ankle on the other side.

“Brett has unfortunately injured his left calf (adding to his well-documented issues). These ones we need to be pretty conservative with given the history we’re dealing with.

“We’ll finalise our plans over the next couple of days and see how he moves forward.”

Giants coach Leon Cameron has a headache on his hands when it comes to replacing Simpson in the ruck.

He may need to consider blooding rookie Matt Flynn, or enforcing a complete reshuffle and calling on Rory Lobb and Adam Tomlinson — a move which would leave Jeremy Cameron on his own in front of goal.

Dawson Simpson in the GWS rooms.

The news isn’t so dire on Greene and Taylor, but given the importance of securing a top-two finish, their absence for the final rounds of the regular season presents another significant hurdle.

“I think we’re in the ballpark of the 2-3 weeks,” said Joyce.

Taranto, Shiel, Reid and Griffen will all train in the Giants’ main session on Wednesday and unless they suffer unforeseen setbacks, all look likely inclusions for Saturday’s clash against Adelaide.

The Giants decided to put Scully’s long-term future ahead of possible short-term advantage for the club, and he won’t play again until 2019.

“It was a shocking (ankle) injury … and his ankle hasn’t quite reacted as well as we’d like,” said Joyce.

“We’ve taken a decision to wrap him up and not cut a single corner for his long-term health.”

Originally published as GWS Giants suffer triple injury blow with Dawson Simpson, Brett Deledio, Toby Greene sidelined