Hawks' Guerra loses fitness battle

Updated September 24, 2012 19:24:14

Hawthorn defender Brent Guerra has run out of time, declaring himself a non-starter for Saturday's grand final against Sydney.

Guerra had hoped to recover from a hamstring injury he suffered in the final quarter of the Hawks' win over West Coast in round 23.

However he spoke to coach Alistair Clarkson on Monday to tell him he would be unavailable for selection, before sharing the news with his team-mates.

The club issued a statement late on Monday confirming Guerra's decision.

"As desperate as I am to play on Saturday, I realised that I couldn't guarantee to Clarko or the team that I could do everything that would be asked of me in a Grand Final," Guerra said in the statement.

"It was a gut wrenching decision to make and it was difficult to address my teammates and coaches today, but they know they have a job to do on Saturday and that needs to be their only focus right now."

Guerra played 19 games for Hawthorn this season.

He was part of the Hawks' last premiership side in 2008.

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First posted September 24, 2012 18:54:39

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Guerra, McGlynn must prove fitness

Updated September 24, 2012 12:50:08

Four-time premiership-winning coach Leigh Matthews says he would take some convincing before he risked Brent Guerra or Ben McGlynn in Saturday's grand final.

Hawthorn's Guerra and Sydney's McGlynn are desperately trying to recover in time from hamstring injuries and return to their sides for the match.

Guerra suffered a serious hamstring injury in round 23, while McGlynn was in tears after his strain during the qualifying final win over Adelaide.

Normally, neither side would even consider recalling the players so soon after hamstring injuries.

But given it is the grand final, Guerra and McGlynn are being given every chance to show they can return.

They will have to train at full intensity on Tuesday and then back up on Thursday to have any chance of earning a recall.

Matthews, now an AFL commentator, told Channel Seven's Game Day he would be "very, very nervous" about picking either player.

"The problem with that kind of injury, is the fitness test accurate?," he said.

"It is maybe with shoulders and upper bodies, but (it's a) hamstring."

Matthew famously put Nigel Lappin through a vigorous fitness test on his broken ribs before clearing him for the 2003 grand final.

Hawks football manager Mark Evans said Guerra had done everything right in his recovery, but now had to step up to match intensity.

"You would always rather know earlier in the week than later, but we do have two main training sessions," Evans said.

"It would depend how he went in that first session as to whether we could declare him in or out from there, or whether you'd to wait and see how he'd recovered from that.

"If he is going to play, he's going to have to lift the intensity from where he's been at.

"He's been building over the last three weeks into some good running, agility and light skills - he'd need to go through full intensity running, full intensity training, full skills ... with no awareness and then pull up well out of that."

In other injury news, Sydney's All-Australian defender Ted Richards will play despite hurting his ankle in the Friday night preliminary final win over Collingwood.

Hawks captain Luke Hodge missed their preliminary final win over Adelaide with gastro, but he could be back at the club by Monday and is a near-certainty to play.

Team-mates David Hale (head knock) and Xavier Ellis (cramp) should also be available.

AAP

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First posted September 24, 2012 11:03:11

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Hawks set to lose Guerra

Updated September 01, 2012 18:08:44

Hawthorn is likely to be without defender Brent Guerra for the finals after scans revealed he has sustained a torn hamstring.

Guerra suffered the injury during the fourth quarter of Friday night's 25-point win over West Coast at the MCG.

He is still experiencing bleeding at the injury site and the Hawks are not expecting to know how long he will be sidelined until early next week.

"Over the next three to four days we'll work on reducing the bleeding in his hamstring," Hawks football operation manager Mark Evans said in a statement.

"Brent's a diligent player and we expect him to make every effort in his rehabilitation."

Evans says the Hawks will "explore every option" to attempt to speed up Guerra's recovery from the injury.

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First posted September 01, 2012 18:06:04

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