Hannebery injury free and ready to go
By Matt Rossleigh
Sydney Swans midfielder Daniel Hannebery is raring to go in Saturday’s season opener against GWS GIANTS after his first injury free off season.
The 22-year-old feels this has been his best pre-season yet and is keen to play his first competition match since September’s 10 point Grand Final triumph over Hawthorn.
“It’s been a good one for me [pre-season] after having my shoulders done last January when I went in for an arthroscopy,” said Hannebery.
“There’s no doubt I’ve had interrupted pre-seasons since I’ve started and so far touch wood I’ve been injury free and everything’s been going really well in the sessions.
“It’s good to get continuity and I feel really confident going into the season.”
Hannebery says the Swans can’t afford to underestimate the GIANTS after their impressive results in the Nab Cup, which included a 24-point victory over their “big brother” at Blacktown last month.
“You can never take any team lightly and I think GWS have proven in the Nab Cup they’ve certainly improved.
“We’ve definitely done our homework on them this weekend and it’s going to be a fierce contest.”
The midfielder re-iterated the comments made by teammate Josh Kennedy about the branding of the Sydney Derby as the Battle of the Bridge, which Kennedy said incorrectly defined the Swans as an east Sydney club.
“It’s clear we’ve been here for over 30 years and been the stand alone Sydney team so we don’t just have supporters in the east we have supporters all over Sydney,” said Hannebery.
“There’s no doubt we’ve got fans all over Sydney and I think our fans over in the west are pretty filthy about it.
“We’re just looking forward to playing on the weekend and I think we’ve had enough of the talk about all these bits and pieces and we’re pretty keen to let our actions do the talking.”
ANZ Stadium will host the Sydney Derby with the first bounce at 4.40pm with a curtain raiser between UWS GIANTS and Sydney Swans reserves to precede match.
Click here to buy your tickets for the match
