HAWTHORN is in a strong position on the injury front heading into Saturday’s Grand Final against Fremantle with a number of its stars cleared of injury.
Lance Franklin, Brent Guerra, David Hale, Paul Puopolo and Cyril Rioli have all trained strongly early this week and have been cleared to play.
Franklin hurt his elbow in the opening quarter of last Friday night’s Preliminary Final and sent a scare through Hawks fans as he disappeared down the race for treatment.
He returned to the field shortly after and played out the game with strapping.
The Hawks star said on Saturday there is no concern with the injury, and Head of Coaching and Development, Chris Fagan confirmed Franklin is ready for the Grand Final.
“He trained fully on Tuesday; he was up and about and looking forward to the game on the weekend,” he told hawthornfc.com.au
Rioli, who played his first match in a month after missing with an ankle injury also pulled up well and will play.
“We weren’t certain how it would go but it’s been a really positive result, so much so that he’s been able to train and has no ill-effects at all from the game,” Fagan said of the dynamic forward.
Guerra, Hale and Puopolo were sore during parts of the Preliminary Final win but have also been cleared to play after training strongly in the team’s main training session yesterday.
It means the only concern for the Hawks is deciding who will replace the injured Brendan Whitecross.
The luckless Hawk ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in the last quarter of the thrilling victory over the Cats and will miss the Grand Final.
A number of players put their hand up for selection in the Grand Final side in Box Hill’s VFL premiership win on Sunday, including Shane Savage, Jed Anderson, Taylor Duryea, Jonathan Simpkin and veteran Michael Osborne.
Fagan said a dilemma at selection looms.
“It’s all looking good, we’ve just to work out who comes into the team for Brendan,” he said.
“There were a lot of great performances from the guys at Box Hill. A number of our young guys have put their hand up and it’s going to take a lot of debate this week to work out who will come into the team.”
