GWS Giants colleagues tell Bríd Stack: Don’t worry, we’ve got your back

Alyce Parker called for greater focus on the safety of players, and did not agree with comments around the inexperience of Stack playing AFL

Bríd Stack with husband Cárthach and their son Cárthach Óg.

GWS Giants colleague Alyce Parker says the club is fully supportive of Bríd Stack in the wake of a nightmare few weeks for the Cork GAA legend.

Stack, in a raw, honest dispatch for the last weekend, said she was "totally disheartened" by the decision to overturn the three-match ban handed down to Adelaide’s Ebony Marinoff after an incident in a pre-season game that left the Cork woman with a broken neck.

Parker told the AFL’s ‘Credit to the Girls’ podcast: "For me, being the closest player (to Bríd) when it happened, was incredibly confronting, with the fear I had for her safety.

"She's very lucky to be walking away with a brace for six weeks and the poor thing with a broken neck, no-one should ever have to deal with that.

"The sacrifices she's made, along with her family, to come out here and start an AFLW career, to have this happening is so disheartening. It was upsetting for her, us, the entire club."

Stack has been taken aback at the tone of some of the commentary, mainly on social media, since her Examiner column last Saturday. Much of it suggested the injury was down her own lack of experience in the code.

Parker called for greater focus on the safety of players, and did not agree with comments around the inexperience of Stack playing AFL.

"Our first focus is Bríd and how she is, but her safety goes first. This week has been a huge learning for us, and I guess the AFLW as well, that the safety of the players should be first and foremost," she said.

"We completely throw our support behind Bríd, and the allegations of her being new to the sport or not experienced – we don't agree with that.

"She's a very talented and experienced athlete, and it was just a terrible incident that we didn't have a lot of control over, but I think going forward, it's so imperative – particularly now after the seriousness of the incident – that the safety of the athlete comes first, and that's how we're treating this with Bríd.

"We'll be behind her the whole way, when she comes back and joins us on the track, it'll be a special day for all of us. But I think there's a lot of learning to come out of this week."