A POTENTIAL season-ending injury to Bathurst Bushrangers co-coach Tim Hunter has added salt to the wound for the team following their loss against Bathurst rivals Giants in senior men's AFL Central West action on Saturday.
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Hunter dislocated his shoulder during the second quarter of the Bushrangers' 11-10-76 to 9-9-63 loss at George Park 2, where his side managed to go almost goal-for-goal with the Giants until the last quarter.
It's the first loss for the Bushrangers in their six-year history against the Giants while fielding just a single team in the top tier men's competition.
"Once you take a marking target like Tim out of the middle of the ground it becomes hard to adapt. We couldn't change our game style and get any flow going through the middle," Hunter's fellow co-coach Matt Archer said.
"Unfortunately Tim dislocated his AC joint and ... at the moment it's looking like it will be a long term sort of thing. That's disappointing since he's a big part of what we do.
"Giants were definitely the better team on the day though and they deserved the win."
Archer said his side got stuck in an unfriendly rhythm that they couldn't shake themselves out of for the entire match.
"It was neck and neck all game and each quarter ended up playing out the same way - we'd start off the quarter well, they'd finish stronger and we just didn't make the most of our opportunities towards the start of each quarter," he said.
"Even in the last quarter we had a lot of the momentum and had the ball in our forward half to start with but we missed a lot of easy shots. Last week we got away with it and this week it cost us.
"We had a lot of set shots that we just didn't kick and probably another two not listed on the tally that missed completely. We probably just didn't get the game on our terms and we felt like we were behind the 8-ball the whole time.
"The fact we even got ourselves in a position to win could be seen as a positive.
"We were disappointed with our efforts though. They were the hungrier team and their workrate was a lot better."
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Alexander Grant
Part of the Western Advocate's sports desk in Bathurst.
Part of the Western Advocate's sports desk in Bathurst.
