Greater Western Sydney's feud with the injury gods has continued as two Giants left the MCG on Friday night in the arms of trainers, while a star battled through the match sore.
Brent Daniels left the game in the second quarter after what appeared to be a bad calf injury. Minutes later, emerging key forward Max Gruzewski dislocated his patella and took no further part in the game.
The Giants now have 15 players on the injury list. Coach Adam Kingsley gave an update on how the duo were doing and disclosed that star defender Lachie Ash played the game under duress.
"We will scan (Gruzewski's injury) just to check to see if there's anymore damage, hopefully not," Kinglsey said in the post-game press conference.
"I think he might have had (a patella dislocation) four years ago, same sort of thing from what I am told, which he had surgery on. We will get that scanned and keep our fingers crossed.
"(Daniel's injury) didn't look great running, or limping off, getting helped off. But I don't know the severity of it aside from what we all saw. It looked bad.
"(Ash) seems okay. He was pretty sore. He 'guttsed' on really well. I don't think (he will need scans)."
Gruzewski was noticeably emotional after he injured his knee in a contest. The 21-year-old Giant has had an impressive 2026 season, but had been stuck behind Jesse Hogan and Aaron Cadman in the key forward pecking order.
With Hogan expected to miss the next two months with injury, Kingsley said Gruzewski was devastated he couldn't take the opportunity to make the forward line his own.
"(Gruzewski) seems okay now, he's settled down, but it's hard for him," he said. "He's trying to establish a career, he's desperate to get in, he saw an opportunity with Jesse out for a little while.
"I've got a run of games where I'm going to be able to cement myself into this team', and he's done a terrific job when he has been in the team.
"Not only kicking goals but competing and bringing the ball to ground and following up and doing all the stuff you want key forwards to do. So it is really disappointing he doesn't get a good run at it now."
A controversial moment from Friday night's game occurred in the first quarter when a 50m penalty was awarded to Hawthorn. The heavy penalty saw Hawk Calsher Dear march to the goal square to boot an easy major, after initially lining up from 40m out on a tight angle.
The 50m penalty was due to an interchange infringement, with GWS' Finn Callaghan stepping slightly over the yellow interchange line instead of the white boundary line when he came off the bench.
Kingsley said while he didn't see the incident, he thought the penalty was a bit extreme.
"An inch or two (over the line)?" He said.
"A 50m penalty seems a bit excessive. Walk in goal, I mean, he could have still kicked it anyway, who knows, he is a pretty good kick."
