It’s been one of them better years for the Giants organisation in terms of injuries throughout the season although veteran Giant Todd Kelman may disagree as he sat out two long periods of time with injuries in the first half of the season missing 12 games of the teams total 23 games lost to injury this year.

In all the Giants had a full squid for 27 of the 50 games played this year, comfortably over 50% in all and this has been a rarity for the Giants in previous seasons, especially last year when it seemed a star player was falling to injury just as the other came back.

Stats are not accurate in guessing that the Giants probably where one of the luckiest teams around when it came to games missed due to injury and they go into the playoffs with only one player still on the injury list.

Alongside the 23 games missed due to injuries, the Giants lost 5 games through suspensions or international call-ups. Mel Angelstad and Martin Klempa missed a game each in January due to suspensions and Leigh Jamieson missed 3 games in December when he was called up to play for the Great Britain team.

Curtis Huppe arrived with two games already completed in the schedule after work visa problems delayed his arrival. But since them games Curtis has remained fit and played every game he was available for.

Todd Kelman was the unlucky man of the year missing 12 games over two different occasions when he went down with a foot injury in October missing 9 games and then missing 3 games in early December after taking a dangerous high stick to the face against Nottingham in which upon his return, Killer had to play a number of games with a full face cage.

Up until this season Todd was the all time leader in games played for the Giants having only ever missed a handful of game in his first 4 years with the team. He was passed by the only other man to play 5 years with the Giants, Shane Johnson, but with his injury woes on going Todd may yet regain his title as most games played for the Giants by the end of this season.

Roman Gavallier, Shane Johnson and Mark Levers made up the other players who missed only a handful of games throughout the season.

So who completed every game this year and stayed (touching wood), injury free for this season (so far!!)?

Well the most impressive was probably player coach Tony Hand. He came to the team wanting to play from the start and did just that for the next 50 regular season games. Unlike pervious coach Rob Stewart who came with the intentions to be a bench coach that where soon evaporated for the best part of the season when players got injured over and over throughout the year.

Another was Curtis Bowen, the assistant coach who in previous years has taken different knocks that have kept him out of action, including a bad eye injury last season. Another player who had a injury troubled year last term who kept out of the medical room this season was Jason Bowen who completed all 50 games and in his 4th season with the Giants notched up his 200th appearance in a Giants jersey.

Snipers George Awada and Fredrik Nasval played every game along with the young power-forward Dairmuid Kelly. Finally the local boys who both passed 100 games played for the Giants towards the end of the regular season finished with 50 games played for this year with Mark Morrison only missing one Giants game since he signed at the start of last season.

So as mentioned before, it’s Shane Johnson who is the only man injured on the squad going into the playoff campaign. He injured his knee in a game late in the season against Cardiff and has not played since. All being well he wont be out to much longer and the lucky year the Giants have had with injuries wont turn unlucky in the playoffs…

We shall wait and see and keep you informed if and when anymore news on Shane’s health breaks.

LIST OF GIANTS INJURIES AND SUSPENSIONS 2004-2005

T. KELMAN (12 Games)
06-Oct  Vs Guildford     FOOT INJURY
09-Oct  Vs Basingstoke   FOOT INJURY
10-Oct  Vs Coventry      FOOT INJURY
15-Oct  Vs London        FOOT INJURY
16-Oct  Vs Sheffield     FOOT INJURY
23-Oct  Vs Edinburgh     FOOT INJURY
24-Oct  Vs Cardiff       FOOT INJURY
26-Oct  Vs Nottingham    FOOT INJURY
30-Oct  Vs Dundee        FOOT INJURY
19-Nov  Vs London        FACE INJURY
20-Nov  Vs Basingstoke   FACE INJURY
28-Nov  Vs Cardiff       FACE INJURY

L. JAMIESON (5 Games)
07-Nov  Vs Sheffield     INJURED
13-Nov  Vs Nottingham    INJURED
11-Dec  Vs Fife          INTERNATIONAL DUTY
12-Dec  Vs Edinburgh     INTERNATIONAL DUTY
17-Dec  vs Hull          INTERNATIONAL DUTY

R. GAVALLIER (3 Games)
10-Oct  Vs Coventry      INJURED
15-Oct  Vs London        INJURED
16-Oct  Vs Sheffield     INJURED

C. HUPPE (2 Games)
11-Sept Vs Sheffield     UNSIGNED
12-Sept Vs Coventry      UNSIGNED

S. JOHNSON (2 Games)
04-Mar  Vs Cardiff       KNEE INJURY
06-Mar  Vs Sheffield     KNEE INJURY
11-Mar  Vs Coventry      KNEE INJURY
12-Mar  Vs Coventry      KNEE INJURY
17-Mar  Vs Sheffield     KNEE INJURY
24-Mar  Vs Cardiff       KNEE INJURY

M. LEVERS (2 Games)
08-Jan  Vs Sheffield     INJURED
09-Jan  Vs Basingstoke   INJURED

M. ANGELSTAD (1 Game)
01-Jan  Vs Newcastle     SUSPENDED

M. KLEMPA (1 Game)
14-Jan  Vs Basingstoke   SUSPENDED

On the subject: Injuries | ALL SUBJECTS |

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