Phil Davis confident of playing in Grand Final despite wearing runners in final training session
GWS co-captain Phil Davis insists he’ll play in the Grand Final but after being the odd one out at Giants training with his choice of footwear, the intrigue has started.
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Phil Davis struck a curious pose at the MCG on Friday, wearing nothing more than joggers for GWS’s final session on Grand Final eve.
The Giants captain was the odd man out not wearing studs for the light kick around, but Davis dismissed any intrigue at the pre-match press conference by insisting he is “confident” of delivering the gold stud of leading the club onto the field for their first ever decider.
It’s understood Davis has not trained in any real sense for the Giants all week and has instead focused on recovering and rehabbing the calf which severely hampered him in last week’s preliminary final against Collingwood.
That’s not unexpected — he was never required to train or pass a fitness test to play, but it does add to the intrigue surrounding the key defender, who was forced to play forward last week due to his injury.
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Earlier this year in a match against the Sydney Swans at the SCG, the club indicated Davis was right to go on the Thursday only for him to pull out on game day.
But there is no next week on the last Saturday in September, and Davis sounded unconcerned as he talked down his fitness as a non-issue.
“I’m feeling really good. It was obviously a disappointment not to be able to play a role on the weekend, but I pulled up really well and I’m really looking forward to tomorrow afternoon,” he said.
“I did some work (on Thursday) and ticked all those boxes so I’m very confident. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.”
Lachie Keeffe was dropped from the Giants’ side that beat Collingwood last week, a decision which would suggest GWS are confident about Davis given Keeffe played a vital role in filling in down back for Davis when he went down in the early stages of the prelim. Keeffe is on standby as an emergency.
“He’s just unlucky,” said coach, Leon Cameron.
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“We had Whitfield and Greene come back in and there was always going to be an unlucky story.
“(Lachie) has been terrific since he arrived at this footy club. He’s a bit of a Mr Fix It, Lachie and went down the back end and played some key position last week when he was earmarked to play as a second string ruck on (Brodie) Grundy.
“It’s one of those things and if you could play 30 players or 40 players you’d play them all because they all deserve today.”
Originally published as Phil Davis confident of playing in Grand Final despite wearing runners in final training session