Cameron says Greene contact with Dangerfield was a football incident

Giants’ coach Leon Cameron is hopeful star forward Toby Greene will be free to play against Richmond in round 22 after his forearm made contact with Geelong midfielder Patrick Dangerfield’s throat during the first quarter of the club’s upset win over the Cats.

Dangerfield spent the night in hospital with the Cats uncertain of the extent of the injury that occurred when he tried to tackle Greene and the Giant used his forearm to fend him away.

Toby Greene tries to fend off Patrick Dangerfield.Credit:Getty Images

Cameron, who was coaching at ground level, said he had not seen the replay but it looked like “a football incident from that close range where I was on the bench”.

Cats’ coach Chris Scott cautioned anyone from basing their judgement on replays where the contact can be slowed down and looked at from various angles.

“I just encourage people to look at those things in real time and sometimes contact happens that looks bad in a still or a slo-motion or leads to a serious injury, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the action in the context of AFL footy is as bad as it can look when you magnify these things,” Scott said.

He said Dangerfield was taken to hospital as a precaution because he was having trouble breathing and would remain in hospital overnight for observation. However, the club had made contact with the Brownlow medallist post-game and he was “feeling fine”.

“It will probably be a good 24 hours before we know the full extent of it but there is a reasonable level of confidence that it is not a serious injury,” Scott said.

Speedster Gary Rohan suffered a knock to his hip early in the game and sat out the last quarter while Zach Tuohy hurt his hamstring, with the defender likely to miss a couple of weeks at least.

The Giants also suffered an injury blow, with emerging midfield/forward Brent Daniels hurting his hamstring in the second half, but they expect to get key players Josh Kelly, Jacob Hopper and Phil Davis back next week as they fight for a finals spot.

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Peter Ryan is a sports reporter with The Age covering AFL, horse racing and other sports.

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