Golden Square star Jack Geary hasn’t given up hope of leading the BFNL into battle against Ballarat in a fortnight despite suffering a potentially serious facial injury on Saturday night.
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Geary copped an accidental elbow to his right eye in the first quarter of Saturday night’s loss to Sandhurst and missed the remainder of the game.
Geary was left groggy and still couldn’t see out of his right eye on Sunday.
The Dogs and BFNL skipper will have a scan on Monday to determine if there are any fractures to his cheekbone and/or eye socket.
“It’s not feeling sore today, so I’m hoping for the best,’’ Geary said on Sunday.
“It’s just swollen and bruised. If there was more damage I would have thought it would be more sore than what it is.
“I was going into tackle and I copped an elbow flush in my eye. It was just one of those things that happens.
“Hopefully, I won’t miss much footy. I’d love to play against Eaglehawk next week and I love playing inter-league footy every year, so I don’t want to miss that.”
Geary’s injury rubbed salt into Square’s wounds after they went down to Sandhurst by 22 points in their first night game at Wade Street.
Superior efficiency forward of centre was the difference between the two teams as the Dragons won 11.10 (76) to 6.18 (54).
The Dogs first 10 scores were behinds and they didn’t kick their first goal until the 23 minute mark of the second quarter.
The Dogs were within 10 points of the Dragons midway through the third term, but Sandhurst broke the game open with four unanswered goals in an eight minute burst.
The Dragons opened up what appeared to be a match-winning 33-point lead, but the Bulldogs refused to give in.
By three quarter-time the margin was back to 21 points and in the final term they got as close as 14 points before the Dragons capitalised on a couple of Square errors and steadied the ship.
“I knew Golden Square would be a big challenge and that’s the way it turned out,’’ Sandhurst coach Wayne Primmer said.
“It wasn’t a pretty game, but it was a high intensity game. Winning at Golden Square is never easy, so we were happy to get away with the win.”
Midfielders Joel Wharton, Lee Coghlan and Blair Holmes were best for the Dragons, while key forward Matt Thornton kicked two goals and was the best big man on the ground.
Golden Square coach Bernie Haberman was proud of his side’s efforts, particularly considering the Dogs were without leaders Geary and Brayden Dorrington.
“The fact we were able to work our way back into the game twice was a good sign,’’ Haberman said.
“We were 34 points down in the third quarter and a few of the boys said afterwards that in the past they probably would have rolled over. They didn’t do it this time and fought the game out really strongly.
“Sandhurst were more efficient than us and if you give a team of their quality half a chance they’re going to hurt you.”
Travis Baird, who was hampered by a leg injury, relished the opportunity to play out of the goal square for the Bulldogs.
He was aggressive, put on a lot of forward pressure and marked the ball strongly. He kicked 4.6 and some of those misses were chances he’d normally nail.
Despite the absence of injured defender Dorrington, Square’s defence held up well. Jon Coe, Jake Thrum and Clayton Anderson were rock solid.