Wales, Hosking suffer serious injuries in AFLW draw

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Wales, Hosking suffer serious injuries in AFLW draw

Essendon have been praised for holding their nerve after ruck Steph Wales was hurt late in their AFLW draw with Richmond.

The chaotic finish to Saturday night’s game in Darwin came at a high cost to the two teams. Wales was stretchered off with a knee injury and Richmond’s Sarah Hosking was on crutches post-game.

Hosking, who has a history of hamstring injuries, clutched the back of her right leg and had to be helped from the field.

Richmond had the last five inside 50s of the game, but the ******** grimly held on to secure the draw.

“We’ll get her home and get that scanned, first thing on Monday,” Essendon coach Natalie Wood said of Wales.

“I don’t think we can underestimate how much of an impact that had, late in the game, seeing Steph go down in such agony.

“To our group’s credit, they really rallied in that last two minutes. They didn’t go away from what we were trying to do and perhaps at the end of the game, that’s when the emotions spilled over.”

Richmond coach Ryan Ferguson also said Hosking’s injury “doesn’t look great”.

The inaugural Dreamtime in Darwin game, a key feature of the AFLW’s Indigenous round, was massive given there is only one more round until finals.

Essendon remain eighth, half a game ahead of Melbourne and a game clear of Geelong. The ******** will play arch-rivals Carlton next Saturday night at Ikon Park.

Richmond are sixth and cannot be knocked out of the top eight, but the draw might have cost them any chance of a top-four berth.

They host second-placed Hawthorn next Sunday.

“It’s not the result, but a result,” Ferguson said of the draw.

He added they took far too long to shut down Essendon’s uncontested marks, only doing so in the last term.

The Tigers rallied from a goal down at three-quarter time and dominated most of the last quarter, but could only manage one goal.

Captain Katie Brennan, who overcame an ankle injury to kick two goals, scored a behind with less than two minutes left to tie the scores.

“In the last quarter we showed, with a mindset, what we can do with taking those (uncontested marks) out,” Ferguson said.

“We were sloppy in that regard and it did change the game when we took it out.

“We have to be sharper with that side of things.”

Wood said the hot and humid conditions were “next level”, but she and Ferguson praised their players for how they dealt with the Top End climate.

The two coaches also lauded the Dreamtime match concept, with their teams heading north for four days.

“We had a lot of experience where you go to give and you walk out having received,” Wood said of their community work on the trip.

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