“The medical staff are pretty concerned. At this stage, they’re fearing the worst. It looks like a possible ACL. We’re just going to have to wait til tomorrow and get scans to confirm,” Egan said on Channel Seven.
Beveridge said that if Darcy’s injury resulted in a long-term absence, the Bulldogs would need to adjust their playing style, without their best forward.
Physiotherapist and triple-premiership AFLW defender Libby Birch told this masthead that all the initial signs were that Darcy had ruptured his ACL.
She said the hyperextension of the knee was a “mechanism for an ACL” and the fact that Darcy had grabbed at his shin was a bad sign.
“When players grab at the shin, it’s likely that the ACL has ruptured,” she said.
“The feeling is of the shin falling away from the knee. That’s why players grab their shin, it’s a telltale sign of an ACL.”
Birch also said a 2022 study showed that a family history of ACL injuries left an athlete 2½ times more likely to suffer a rupture. Darcy’s father Luke suffered two during his playing career.
The 208-centimetre key forward went straight to the change rooms after he hobbled off the field, visibly in pain and accompanied by medical staff.
Birch explained why the club doctors would have said they feared the worst for the young forward, even without having done scans.
“They would have done the ACL test in the rooms, and the reason they’re suggesting it’s an ACL is because there [would have been] way too much movement in the knee, suggesting the ligament is not intact,” she said.
Darcy has been a pillar of the Bulldogs’ forward line and particularly crucial due to the prolonged absence of Jamarra Ugle-Hagan.
But it was after Darcy went down that the Dogs took over the game, kicking seven consecutive goals en route to their 18.19 (127) to 8.8 (56) demolition of St Kilda in front of 35,511 at Marvel Stadium.
They held the Saints to a goalless second quarter, whereas the Bulldogs’ Aaron Naughton and returned captain Marcus Bontempelli kicked two apiece. By half-time, the Bulldogs led by 26 points.
From then on, the Bulldogs dominated the stoppages and territory game. The St Kilda defence was under siege, facing 69 inside 50s and recording only 31 of their own.
Stepping up in Darcy’s absence, Naughton was the beneficiary of many of the Dogs’ inside-50s, kicking three goals, which could have easily been more if not for inaccurate kicking.
The Bulldogs were also bolstered by the return of Bontempelli for the first time this season.
His legendary Easter Sunday reappearance was capped off with 30 disposals and two goals, looking like he hadn’t missed a beat.
Sorely missed by Bulldogs supporters, he was given an almighty cheer when his name was announced pre-game. The Bulldogs move to 3-3 for the season and creep inside the top eight.
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St Kilda, after an impressive opening 10 minutes, looked lethargic around the stoppages and were squarely outworked around the ground.
This was encapsulated when speedy Saints’ winger Bradley Hill was caught in a chase-down tackle by Tom Liberatore in the final term.
The few inside 50s they tallied in the second half were largely squandered. Mitch Owens (three) and Jack Higgins (two) were the only multiple goal scorers for St Kilda. Naughton (three), Rhylee West (three), Bontempelli (two), Matthew Kennedy (two) and Joel Freijah (two) were the most damaging for the Dogs.
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