Injury heartbreak for McGovern

Talented Adelaide Crows forward and former North Albany junior Mitch McGovern has failed in his bid to be declared fit from a hamstring injury and will miss the Crows’ tantalising AFL grand final clash with Richmond at the MCG on Saturday.

Two seasons after older brother Jeremy represented the West Coast Eagles on grand final day, Mitch will be the hard-luck story of the last day in September as the Crows aim to win their first flag since 1998 without him.

The recently re-signed Crows forward was hopeful of returning to the senior line-up following the hamstring complaint, which kept him out of Adelaide’s preliminary final win over Geelong last Friday.

The high-flying WA product kicked a goal and had 11 disposals in the opening week of the finals against Greater Western Sydney, but has been hampered by the hamstring injury ever since.

Crows coach Don Pyke ruled out McGovern returning to the side following their 90-minute session at the Adelaide Oval on Tuesday morning in front of more than 7000 fans, and it was later confirmed by Crows chief executive Andrew Fagan.

After completing only parts of the training session, Pyke confirmed McGovern would miss the season decider in a brief media interview immediately afterwards.

“Unfortunately he won’t come up — it’s an opportunity for someone else,” Pyke said.

Speaking to the media after the bumper training session, Fagan confirmed the bad news for the Claremont product.

“Unfortunately, Mitch needed to get through today’s session and, as Pykey said earlier, he didn’t quite pull up,” he said.

“It’s a sad story for Gov, but one man down, another one up.”

The 22-year-old earned a three-year contract extension in August after being a vital cog in the Crows’ potent forward line with 20 goals from 13 games, resisting the temptation to return to his home State.