We take a look at some of the key take outs from Coach John Longmire's weekly press conference on Monday afternoon ahead of our clash against the GWS Giants this weekend.
Luke Parker’s injury
It's terrific to hear that he didn't have any significant ankle damage, so that was a real positive to come out of it. It could have been a lot worse and it's up to us, I guess, whether he gets back, as far as how deep we go (into the finals).From where we were Friday night to where we are today, (it's) a little bit more positive news which is a real plus.
Chances of Parker getting back into the side
Oh yeah, once you win a best and fairest in a Grand Final year … you're not a bad chance to get back in. I think if you're going to judge a player on their ability to get back and play a bit earlier rather than a bit later, it would be Luke Parker. His ability to be able to bounce back and his resilience is second to none, but it still means he has to be completely off his legs for a good week to 10 days, then he can get going again. The good thing is that it gives him a glimmer of hope.
Franklin’s return from injury
We need to make sure that he's feeling really good on Thursday before we play him, so that's why we don't want to make any decisions on a Monday. We'll wait and see how the week pans out - there's not much room for error if he gets injured again so we need to be mindful of that.
Laidler injury
Laidler hasn’t actually got a strain in his hamstring. He has the old back related hamstring so the good news is he had a scan and it doesn’t appear to be a tear there. We have a number of blokes we will wait to see how they pull up on Thursday and he is one of them but the good thing is he doesn’t have a tear.
Gary Rohan’s knee
The good sign is Gary played the game out after getting the knock in the first quarter. He was able to contribute really strongly, it was a bit sore yesterday but it is better this week. We are confident he will be right.
Facing the Giants on Saturday
They’ve had a very good season in terms of winning games of football and introducing terrific players to the team. We’ve seen them close up so we know they’ve got great depth and appreciate the ability they’ve got throughout their whole list.
