GREATER Western Sydney's midfield stocks have taken another hit ahead of Sunday’s tricky away clash with Geelong, with tagging ace Toby Bedford ruled out with the eye injury that saw him forced off in last week’s derby.
With back-to-back wins at GMHBA Stadium over the last two years – and four in a row in total - the Giants won’t fear the trip to the Cattery but repeating the feat for a fifth time has been made all the more difficult with the loss of another key midfielder.
Bedford was collected in the eye region by Swan Lewis Melican on Sunday which saw the Sydney defender suspended for three weeks and Bedford miss the entire second half which impacted the Giants' hopes of victory, considerably.
That will be the case again on Sunday with Bedford joining Josh Kelly, Stephen Coniglio and Brent Daniels as high-quality midfield options sidelined for the encounter with Geelong, who sits just one spot above them on the ladder.
“Toby’s no good. He saw an ophthalmologist and the decision was that he won’t play. There’s a little too much concern over his eye,” coach Adam Kingsley said on Friday.
“It’s a real shame, he’s been a terrific player for us, tagging the best inside mids so we’re going to have to work through that against the Cats.”
Bedford is likely to return for next week’s home game with under-pressure Fremantle with hope Coniglio will be back for that as well along with Darcy Jones who will miss the Geelong visit with swelling of his knee.
In their absence, there’s a chance last year’s first-round draft pick Cody Angove will debut against the Cats with Harry Rowston also a chance to come in to beef up the lagging midfield numbers after some excellent VFL form.
The prospect of a fourth straight defeat for the Giants seemed unfathomable a month ago but it’s a real one unless they can deliver yet another, backs to the wall performance in Geelong like in the two years previous.
Those victories have been by just four points, in 2024, and seven points the season prior with the 2023 win coming in Toby Greene’s 200th game.
Kingsley is hoping that same formula might help his side again this week.
“We’ve had a couple of milestones down there, maybe that’s helped us. We have another this week in Tom Green’s milestone 100th game. Moments like these we like to celebrate with each other and play at a relay nigh level," he said.
"He’s (Green) a high-quality player, a great leader for us and really popular around his teammates. We’ll try our best to celebrate that milestone for him with a win.
“We’re looking forward to getting away as a group again. They’re a high-quality team in good form but we’ve had some success there the last couple of years."
Kingsley concedes Bedford would have been a strong option to try and tag the red-hot Bailey Smith and there are forward line headaches to go with that, most notably Patrick Dangerfield off his 13-possession, one-goal final term in the win over Collingwood last week.
“It’s a hard match-up he’s been fantastic. I feel like we have a couple of options but they have some other forwards too. (Jeremy) Cameron’s reasonable. He’s going to take some beating too,” he said.
While there is increasing concern around the Giants' flag credentials amid their form drop, inside the club there is a feeling of calm about their prospects which is being led by the coach.
And born from their strong showings in the second half of the season.
“It feels like our seasons last year and the year before have played out quite similarly in terms of this time of the year so we haven’t lost confidence in what we do, or our game we just need to do it a little bit better,” Kingsley said.
“The last few weeks have been disappointing but I don’t feel like our game is too far away. There are elements of our game that we needed to tidy up. We feel like we’re improving on that stuff we just need to do it for a little bit longer in games and perhaps the results will be different.
“I feel like we do play our best footy in the second half of the season and that’s important but you’ve got to bank wins.”
