One of Greater Western Sydney's rising stars has challenged himself and the club's next generation midfielders to answer the call as their injury crisis took another turn for the worse on Tuesday.
While ruckman Shane Mumford is set to return this week to take on Collingwood's star big man Brodie Grundy, the Giants have lost small forward Zac Langdon and back-up big man Matthew Flynn to long-term injuries.
For the third time in as many years, injuries are threatening to derail the Giants' bid for a maiden flag.
Their best three on-ballers – Josh Kelly, Callan Ward and Stephen Coniglio – are sidelined, as is gun tagger Matt de Boer.
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On top of the departure last year of foundation player Dylan Shiel, the Giants have been forced to rely on their younger breed to drive their fortunes earlier than they would have preferred.
The Giants' injury woes have placed extra pressure on young guns like Tim Taranto.Credit:AAP
Once a strength, their midfield stocks are now being sternly tested. There will be a greater reliance than usual this week on Tim Taranto and Jacob Hopper – third- and fourth-year players respectively – while regular forwards Toby Greene and Daniel Lloyd are set for more time on the ball.
Taranto, the No.2 pick in the 2016 draft, has taken huge strides in his development this season but must now take on more responsibility than most other 21-year-olds. He has declared he is ready for the challenge.
"Myself, Hopps and Toby and a few of the other boys will have to lift," Taranto said.
"No doubt we'll have to lift and play our best footy the next few weeks. It's a good opportunity for us younger boys to get in there."
Earmarked as a likely top-four finisher for much of the season, the Giants' spot in the eight is suddenly vulnerable with games in the next fortnight against Collingwood at home and Port Adelaide away.
Taranto conceded that their recent run, which has resulted in four losses from the past five games, had hurt affected their confidence.
"Naturally it's dropped a little bit, but our challenge is not to let it drop too much and keep finding, enjoying our footy until it turns because it will," Taranto said.
Coniglio underwent knee surgery on Tuesday morning with no change to the prognosis of eight weeks, which means the club would have to make the semis for him to play again this year.
"He had surgery this morning and had some cartilage taken out so it's been a pretty good result. It looks like about eight weeks, where its seven or nine will depend on how he's going," Giants' head of football Wayne Campbell said.
"It will be slow at the start and then hell get his quad strength up and start running about the four-to-six weeks mark and hopefully be around that eight-week mark."
Giants coach Leon Cameron is aRead More – Source
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