{"id":778375,"date":"2026-07-04T10:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T10:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/778375\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T10:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T10:54:16","slug":"afl-2026-giants-end-dockers-winning-streak-upset-lachie-whitfield-injury-demons-v-hawks-results-comeback-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/778375\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL 2026: Giants end Dockers winning streak, upset, Lachie Whitfield injury, Demons v Hawks results, comeback, reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Giants<\/a> have snapped a three-game losing streak in the most unexpected fashion \u2013 by ending the Dockers<\/a>\u2032 club-record 14-game winning streak in Canberra on Saturday.<\/p>\n

But it has come at a cost \u2013 star midfielder Lachie Whitfield<\/a> missed the second half with a concussion having copped a nasty blow to the head in the dying seconds of the second quarter.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Giants star Lachie Whitfield was ruled out of the remainder of his side’s clash with the Dockers with a concussion.\u00a0Fox Footy<\/p>\n

Whitfield was involved in a marking contest with teammate Harry Himmelberg and Docker Sean Darcy when the incident happened. Whitfield was helped to his feet and walked off the field, but was ruled out with a concussion at half-time.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old had been superb to that point, registering 20 disposals. Whitfield\u2019s addition takes the list of crippled Giants to a whopping 15.<\/p>\n

The hosts led for just about the entire match and eventually ran out 16.13 (109) to 13.10 (88) winners<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Off-contract at season\u2019s end, Toby Greene<\/a> was among the Giants\u2019 best with 27 disposals and three goals. Jake Stringer<\/a> was also in sensational form, slotting seven majors.<\/p>\n

The Giants weren\u2019t the only team with a fresh arrival into the casualty ward. Fremantle midfielder Hayden Young also left the field in the second half with a suspected groin injury.<\/p>\n

The loss sees their two-win cushion at the top of the ladder halved after the Swans\u2019 victory over the Bulldogs<\/a> on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the Demons<\/a> notched up a 35-point win over the Hawks<\/a> in Launceston, but at one point looked on track to lose the unlosable.<\/p>\n

The visitors were just about perfect in the first half while the hosts were woeful. The Demons carried an 86-9 lead into the main break.<\/p>\n

In commentary for Fox Footy, 1988 Brownlow winner Gerard Healy labelled the Hawks\u2019 first-half performance \u201cembarrassing\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Demons extended the lead to 96 midway through the third term before all but walking off the field.<\/p>\n

The Hawks completely flipped the momentum and went on a tear to kick the next 12-straight goals \u2013 the Demons didn\u2019t so much as kick a point \u2013 to trim the lead to 24, and threaten to smash the record for biggest comebacks in history.<\/p>\n

It was not to be. The Demons kicked the last two goals for a final margin of 35 points \u2013 19.11 (125) to 14.6 (90).<\/a><\/p>\n

When asked post-game if he could make sense of what had just happened, Dees skipper Max Gawn<\/a> gave a flat \u201cno\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir third quarter was immense, and their third set up their fourth to be honest,\u201d he said on Fox Footy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Demons did their best to cough up a 96-point third quarter lead.\u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cMomentum is a funny thing \u2026 there was a bit of luck there, but when you have the momentum the luck goes your way sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The loss ends a 12-game winning streak the Hawks had held at the venue. It\u2019s also the Demon\u2019s first win from six matches outside Victoria this season.<\/p>\n

It also smashed the Hawks\u2019 previous biggest half-time deficit at the venue, which was 31 points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Giants have snapped a three-game losing streak in the most unexpected fashion \u2013 by ending the Dockers\u2032…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-778375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}