Sport

Giant finals hope dashed

FEELING the loss of team talents Jesse Hogan and Toby Greene, the GWS Giants failed to sparkle in their 15.13 (103) to 10.8 (68) loss to Geelong in the semi-final on Friday night, ending their finals’ dream.

Hogan was a late withdrawal when he didn’t recover from a calf injury sustained in the elimination final in time to play, while Greene was suspended for making contact with an umpire in the same match.
That left the Giants’ forward line already missing Jeremy Finlayson and Brent Daniels short of its usual firepower and they couldn’t hit the scoreboard enough despite having the same number of inside 50s as the Cats with 49 each.
“Having [Hogan] down there would’ve brought another threat to Geelong’s defence,” Giants Coach Leon Cameron said.
“But you can’t sit back and say ‘What if we had player A, B and C’. We’ve been dealing with injuries all year and had to deal with it tonight.
“It is frustrating at times. You want a healthy list out there as much as you can.
“But that’s one thing I love about our club; we crash and bash and put our bodies on the line.
“We had a number of players out, it’s not just one player that cost the team.”