Coleman Medal frontrunner Jeremy Cameron is back for the GIANTS’ Friday night clash with Hawthorn in Canberra.
Cameron has recovered from a calf injury that forced him to miss last weekend’s Sydney Derby XVIII win and is one of three inclusions for the prime-time game at UNSW Canberra Oval.
Dashing defender Adam Kennedy returns after starring for the GIANTS’ NEAFL side, while Dawson Simpson might join Shane Mumford in sharing the ruck duties against the Hawks.
With wet and windy conditions predicted for Friday evening in Canberra Cameron said the GIANTS will wait until Friday until they decide if they’ll play two rucks.
“We’ll determine if we’ll play those two rucks tomorrow, when we look at the conditions,” Cameron told reporters at Canberra Airport on Thursday afternoon.
“We’re confident that Jeremy Cameron will get up, he trained yesterday but we’ll make that final decision tomorrow morning.
“Adam Kennedy has been added to the squad as well and he played his first full game last week after getting over the heart issue he had a few weeks ago.
We feel as though there’s a lot of hungry players to come in and add value to our squad and we feel as though we can pick a team to take it up to Hawthorn.
Forwards Jeremy Finlayson and Harry Himmelberg, and defender Connor Idun come out of the side that beat the Swans by two points.
Finlayson has been sidelined with a hamstring injury and Himmelberg misses with a calf injury, while Idun has been omitted.
Josh Kelly and Matt de Boer were in line to return from injury however Cameron and the GIANTS opted to delay their returns by another week.
“They trained pretty well but we feel we need to give them another week of training,” he said.
“We were planning for one of them to come back this week, but we decided to err on the side of caution and give them another 10 days.
“Josh and Matty won’t play this weekend, but probably they’ll be nearly certain next week.”
The GIANTS suffered a 33-point-loss to the Hawks at the MCG in round eight and despite the GIANTS having notched up three consecutive wins, Cameron has his side prepared for another big challenge.
The GIANTS are looking to stay in touch with the top four while the Hawks need to win to keep their finals hopes alive.
“Every side you play against is going to be really hard to beat and clearly they’ve got an outstanding record in the last ten years, you don’t win four flags for no reason,” he said.
“They’re hard to play against, they did a good job on us at the MCG earlier in the year and we’ve won our fair share in the last three or four years against them, so we understand the magnitude of the game.
“It’s great to have a Friday night game in Canberra against a big club like Hawthorn.”
GIANTS v Hawthorn
Friday, August 9 at 7:50pm
UNSW Canberra Oval
FB: Zac Williams, Lachie Keeffe, Heath Shaw
HB: Adam Kennedy, Nick Haynes, Phil Davis
C: Lachie Whitfield, Jacob Hopper, Jackson Hately
HF: Bobby Hill, Brett Deledio, Brent Daniels
FF: Harry Perryman, Jeremy Cameron, Sam Reid
RR: Shane Mumford, Toby Greene, Tim Taranto
Interchange: Adam Tomlinson, Aiden Bonar, Jake Stein, Dawson Simpson
In: Adam Kennedy, Jeremy Cameron, Dawson Simpson
Out: Connor Idun (omitted), Jeremy Finlayson (hamstring), Harry Himmelberg (calf)
Emergencies: Jye Caldwell, Matt Buntine, Zach Sproule, Connor Idun
