PERTH, AUSTRALIA - APRIL 03: Liam Ryan of the Eagles acknowledges Darcy Tucker of the Dockers while being stretchered from the field during the round three AFL match between the West Coast Eagles and the Fremantle Dockers at Optus Stadium on April 03, 2022 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images via AFL Photos)
Freo optimistic about ruckman, defender’s knee injury ‘very bad’
The Dockers suffered another two injuries in their loss to the Magpies
FREMANTLE is optimistic about Sean Darcy’s ankle injury, but Brandon Walker will miss “a fair bit of footy” owing to a knee issue.
Darcy and Walker were injured in the third quarter of the Dockers’ 46-point loss against Collingwood on Saturday at the MCG.
The setbacks compounded Freo’s recent injury difficulties, as Justin Longmuir’s squad fell to a 7-10 record, with finals hopes vanishing quickly.
Walker will be out for an extended period of time due to a knee injury, although Longmuir was more optimistic about Darcy.
“He (Walker) has committed a serious offense.” He’s in pain. “We’ll get him back and scan him, but he’ll probably miss a lot of football,” Longmuir added.
When it came to Darcy, he said: “It was a bit of an innocuous injury, the way it happened, but he’s gone over on his ankle so we’ll get him back, scan him, hopefully it comes up all right.”
The Dockers started well before getting blasted away by the Magpies’ 10-goal second quarter.
Longmuir stated that the term and game will serve as a learning experience for some of his young Dockers, notably Neil Erasmus, Matt Johnson, Liam Henry, and Nathan O’Driscoll.
“The energy and the speed with which they played with around the midfield in that second quarter was top shelf, top shelf,” he went on to say.
“We want to get to that level obviously.”
The Pies’ second quarter set up another comprehensive victory, bringing their record to 15-2 and putting them three victories ahead of third-placed Brisbane.
Collingwood coach Craig McRae stated that the quarter was close to his team’s finest.
“We want to be exciting to watch and hard to play against,” he told reporters.
