Updated ,first published
Western Bulldogs star Sam Darcy suffered a serious-looking knee injury at GMHBA Stadium in a devastating blow to the club’s flag hopes.
On a dirty night against the Cats that Dogs coach Luke Beveridge described as “pretty traumatic”, giant forward Darcy fell to the ground clutching his left knee as he led out towards the ball during the second term. The visitors suffered further carnage on the injury front with Tom Liberatore concussed and key defenders James O’Donnell and Rory Lobb both succumbing to hamstring issues.
The 22-year-old Darcy will have scans on Saturday to confirm the extent of the injury, with Beveridge comparing Friday night to round 18, 2016 when Mitch Wallis broke his leg and Jack Redpath hurt his ACL. The club won their drought-breaking flag that season, having lost their skipper Bob Murphy to a knee injury earlier in the year.
“It’s important we process the things that we weren’t executing at the start of the game and come together during the week with a venom for the next challenge,” Beveridge said.
“It’s been obviously a really traumatic night.
“We will need to make sure by the time we get to the game on Thursday night we process that and accept that it has happened and spin ourselves out of it.”
Sam’s father, Luke, a 226-gamer for the Bulldogs, tore his ACL against the same opponents at the same venue, at the same end of the ground, in the same round (six) of the 2005 season.
The Bulldogs’ shocking run on Friday night overshadowed the Cats’ brilliant performance as they annihilated their opponents from start to finish with star forward Jeremy Cameron kicking seven first-half goals to help his team to a 57-point lead at half-time.
He waited until there was just eight seconds of the clash remaining before he kicked his 10th goal. It was the second time in his career he had reached that tally. He became the first player to kick 10 goals in a match at GMHBA Stadium since Gary Ablett snr kicked 10 against Melbourne in round 16, 1994.
Cameron had to survive a score review before being awarded the goal, but arguably his biggest smile was reserved for defender Jake Kolodjashnij, who earlier kicked just the fifth goal of his career.
Geelong already had control of the game before Darcy’s injury as they dominated territory and had a 32-point lead at the first break, with Beveridge bemoaning their poor ball use.
Geelong eventually ran out 75-point winners as they celebrated Mark Blicavs’ 300-game milestone and Kolodjashnij’s 200th in style after a third-quarter lull. Cats coach Chris Scott paid tribute to Kolodjashnij’s resilience to fight his way back to the AFL after facing so much uncertainty last season when he was sidelined.
Bailey Smith was outstanding against his former club and Max Holmes was equally damaging. Oisin Mullin blanketed Marcus Bontempelli (who also wrenched his knee at one stage), restricting him to just 14 disposals. Ed Richards, who came into the game under an injury cloud of his own, battled hard for the Bulldogs.
But the big blow was the loss of Darcy, with Scott saying the Cats’ coaches felt terrible, too, when they saw the youngster go down.
“It’s easy to not get carried away with our performance when you think about the challenges the opposition had,” Scott said.
Bulldogs football manager Matthew Egan told Fox Footy at half-time that they would wait for scans on Saturday before declaring the extent of the injury.
“The mechanism didn’t look great, but we just can’t confirm everything,” Egan said.
“Unfortunately, I’ve been here before where I’ve said it’s a serious knee injury, and we think ACL, and it wasn’t.
“So we need to be positive and just wait for the scans.
“He was in the rooms trying to help the boys in the huddle, and it looks like he’s coming out on to the bench.
“So that’s the sort of character he is and let’s just hope it’s positive news for us.”
Darcy punched the ground before being helped from the playing arena. He managed to hobble down to the rooms to have his knee tested. He had his boots off as he stood with the forward group at half-time. Several teammates and coaches gave him a consoling handshake or pat on the back.
The incident had cast a pall of silence over the crowd with the Bulldogs’ flag hopes immediately nosediving on the back of the potential ACL injury.
Darcy had started the game in the ruck but was playing forward when the incident occurred.
He suffered a knee injury last season but returned after missing two months with a hyperextension. That injury to the same knee was diagnosed as an “impaction fracture” and the ligament was stretched.
The Bulldogs already have ruckman Tim English and defender Connor Budarick sidelined, with Cody Weightman still recovering from a long-term injury as they play Sydney on Thursday night.
Geelong next head back to Adelaide to face Port Adelaide with their season starting to hum.
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