In a year where the Giants had their poorest record since 2014 and Leon Cameron was released after round nine, Daniels could not play due to ongoing hamstring problems.
Stone’s hamstring issues, which began during the AAMI Community Series and hampered the former first-round choice throughout 2022, limited him to only one AFL appearance and three VFL games.
According to the source, James Rahme, Daniels, Stone, and the Giants’ head of medicine visited University of Wisconsin School of Medicine last September. Rahme joined the team a year ago after serving ten years as the head physiotherapist for the Manly Sea Eagles and Canterbury Bulldogs.
Greater Western Sydney dispatched the group to the US for research purposes to develop a regimen during the offseason that will enable Daniels and Stone put their hamstring problems behind them by 2023 and beyond.
A $4 million grant from the National Football League was given to the University of Wisconsin in 2021 to research the causes, symptoms, and possible treatments of hamstring injuries among professional football players.
The project’s goals are to decrease hamstrings strains in the NFL and find areas where it might mitigate injuries. In the NFL, where re-injury is also frequent, hamstring injuries are common, just like in the AFL.
Daniels and Stone reportedly underwent quantitative imaging, on-field biomechanical testing, and analytics to develop unique summertime regimens for western Sydney.
The high-performance division of Greater Western Sydney has also collaborated closely with renowned hamstring specialist Dr. David Opar, the director at Australian Catholic University and the only Australian participating in the NFL’s task force on soft tissue injuries.
To be ready for the selection by round one of the drafts, Daniels and Stone will increase their training loads before Christmas and are anticipated to be in full training by January.
The club’s rookies through fourth-year players will work with the new Greater Western Sydney coach Adam Kingsley and a new coaching staff at Giants HQ starting the following week.
Since the end of the regular season, Giants head of football Jason McCartney has hired former Western Jets coach Robbie Chancellor as head of development and added assistant coaches Ben Hart, Brett Montgomery, and Jeremy Laidler.