Patience Vital As Mystery Of Groin Goes On
The Age
Friday July 6, 2007
SO THIS is what the great unknown is like. It's unfamiliar territory for me, and I must admit I'll be a little bit anxious heading to training this afternoon.
How's the groin injury? Has it improved? Will I be right to play this Sunday or will I be taking another week off? With this injury, we are going into it pretty blindly. We didn't know whether the week off was going to make a massive difference. We still don't. We had to do something, otherwise the downward spiral keeps going. I've mainly done off-leg work this week. I jogged on Tuesday and Wednesday, and pulled up OK, but it was nothing too strenuous. Today is the big test for me. We're going to do more high-intensity running and marking contests and things like that, so that will tell us a bit of a story. If my strength is OK in the hips, I could be able to play deep in the square; if I am feeling all right running-wise, I can play up the ground and play my usual role. We've also thrown up the option that I might play two weeks and then miss one, just to get myself right. I wouldn't want to, but it could be an option. There are still a lot of questions to be answered and the simple fact is I won't know until after training today. If it hasn't improved much, do we take another week off? That's why this has been so frustrating. If you do a hamstring, you know what to do and what to expect - two or three weeks and you'll be back. But I could be out for four weeks and it still hasn't improved. But I won't be trying to cover it or play through this if it hasn't improved. I've got to be honest with them. I've sat out a week already and if I'm not really honest with the medical staff and Roosy, just because I want to play, what was the point of missing last week? Speaking of last week, I thought the guys had a real crack at it against Geelong. I thought we started well, the intensity was up and the pressure was on, but I think the difference between the two sides was the skill level. They are pretty good users of the ball and we've still got a bit of work to do. I'm not the best spectator, and it was tough watching the game from the coach's box, particularly because we could have won it. We had our chances. Whether I'm there on Sunday, it's a crucial game for us. We don't want to get to a stage where we've got to rely on other teams to lose to make the finals. Without looking too far ahead, we've got to win this week or else, all of sudden, we've lost three in a row and are having a mid-season slump. It's a big day - Mick O'Loughlin breaking the club record for games, Adam Goodes playing his 200th, "Spida" Everitt playing his 300th and getting AFL life membership, and Sean Dempster playing his 50th. There are a whole heap of milestones there and a pretty significant one for the club in terms of Mick's. It's great to see him breaking that record. He's such a likeable person, and along with Paul Kelly, he's the Swans' favourite son who gets along with everyone at the club, not just the players, but everyone. That's just off the field, without even touching on his talent . . . and as for that, there's a reason why he's been known as Magic all these years.
© 2007 The Age