Injury fires Pies in dark

By Brad Kingsbury
A SICKENING injury to top young ruck prospect Nick Shannon marred Narre Warren’s thrilling three-point victory over Hampton Park at the Booth Reserve on Saturday.
The game was delayed for more than 30 minutes and ended just before 6pm in almost complete darkness after the 17-year-old landed awkwardly after jumping for a mark and badly broke and dislocated his ankle close to three-quarter time.
A decision was made not to move him and an ambulance was called to removed the shocked and agonised Magpie from the field, causing the interruption, with scores locked at 54 points apiece.
After senior umpire Rohan David and coaches Josh Taylor and Matt Shinners conferred, they agreed to complete the match under the Redbacks training lights, resulting in a classic quarter that saw Narre Warren triumph with the last kick of the game.
The Magpies kicked with assistance of a steady breeze, but Hampton Park opened the game on song, led by Taylor with midfielders Nathan Dawes and Linden Fredericks, together with strong marking centre half-forward Matt Shorey who was dominant all day.
The home side led by two points at the first change and extended that to 14 points at half-time, despite the efforts of Magpie ball-magnets Daniel Borninkhof, Chris Potalej and first gamer Daniel Uzarevic.
The battle continued to entertain the big Anzac Day crowd in the third term, with Narre Warren, though inaccurate, levelling the game before Shannon’s injury caused the long stoppage.
The wind abated slightly in the final term and the two sides continued the battle with Hampton Park retaining a slender advantage until the death-knock.
With only seconds left on the clock, Borninkhof won the ball out of the centre and booted it long towards goal.
It drifted towards the points, but took a severe bounce left which saw it avoid the approaching Redback defenders and roll through for a goal, giving the Magpies a thrilling three-point result with the siren sounding after the resultant centre bounce.
Shinners was thrilled with the win, but said the celebrations were tempered by Shannon’s serious injury.
“Hampton Park certainly rise and play good footy against us and it’s always a good hitout for both sides,” he said.
“It see-sawed as a game, but my boys kept fighting and I thought they deserved their win.
“Hampton Park probably moved the ball a lot cleaner than we did, but some of the footy from both sides was really good, especially in those conditions.”
On Shannon’s injury, Shinners said it was just a shocking accident.
“It was a terrible thing to happen to a young bloke in his first senior game,” he said.
“He has already had an operation to pin the breaks and the family is waiting to see an orthopaedic surgeon to see what the next step is.
“We’ll keep close contact with him and his family and support him as a club.”
Taylor was bitterly disappointed with the result, but praised the efforts if Shorey, who returned to the Redbacks after a season with Garfield last year.
“We played some really good football and Matty was brilliant again. He’s been our best player two weeks in a row,” he said.
“It’s disappointing. We were in front nearly all day and I thought we played the better footy.
“Narre Warren is a good side, but to get beaten on the last kick after it bounced through like that, well – it’s just very disappointing.”
Taylor acknowledged that his players were behind some opposition sides in fitness after a late start to pre-season caused by a change of coach.
“We aren’t running games out well enough and we’re working very hard to get up to the level (of fitness) required,” he said.
“It’s improving and we’re doing a lot of running at training to try and catch up at the moment.”