Players who's career was ruined by injuries?
- Thread starter PowerfulPies2023
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As a Richmond supporter, Mark Coughlan and Tony Free come to mind, especially Cogs
sherb
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I said earlier that it didn't ruin his career as such, rather change its trajectory significantly.
From memory, he was back playing footy full time in Tassie in 1975. So the injury cost him three seasons (72-74) of football.
By 77, Hawthorn had convinced him to come back and play a season, after that one season he went back and played two more full seasons in Tassie (78 & 79), where he kicked a casual (nearly) 400 goals in all forms of senior footy.
He did kick well over 2000 career goals, but the bulk of them weren't in the VFL, and that's where the injury cost him - ie his VFL career. He kicked a s**tload of goals back home in Tassie instead.
Being injured sent him back to Tassie to live, he got involved in the pub business and that meant that he really couldn't devote the time to play footy full time in Victoria any more. No injury and that course of events probably wouldn't have happened, and God knows how many goals he would have kicked for the Hawks.
Are ACLs genetic related? His daughter is a promising basketballer and has done hers within the last 12 months or so
"Hentschel potential" - Shane Crawford
Strapping Young Lad
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Would’ve played over 350 games if not for the cancer though. It cut his career short.
Orange crush
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Despite being very highly regarded for what he did achieve, Beau Waters could have been much much more
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It changed his Hawthorn / VFL career. I think 1,800 VFL goals means a touch more than 500 goals in some Tassie League, 800 in another, and 700 VFL goals.
Full time at Hawthorn for his career he would have played 300+ games if he wanted.
Strapping Young Lad
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He player over 280 games, and missed all of 2016.
There’s 300 games without trying.
He was an incredibly mobile player who could play multiple positions, so I think 350 would have been easily achieved had he not battled with the consequential side effects of immunotherapy.
How did it cut his career short? He came back and played 3 more years, retiring at 32 - which is pretty old for an AFL player.
Missed potentially 18 games in his late 20's, so if all goes well might have played 300.
Some posters just make stuff up.
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Jason Winderlich, had absolutely everything a forward of center player needed, if he was able to play 200 games in a row without any major issues he'd have been fantastic, we still got some great games out of him but not as many as we should've.
Strapping Young Lad
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He missed 25 games in 2016 alone. Which would have put him at 308 if he still retired in 2019.
He could have easily played another 2 seasons if the side effects of his therapy didn’t impact him.
Look at Hawkins, Reiwoldt, N.Reiwoldt, Kennedy, Franklin… all playing to 35+.
Grand Uncle Horace
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Not an injury as such, but JSOS would have had a good career without battling the inherited Talent Absence Disorder.
sherb
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I made that point in my subsequent post, which you liked. I'm not sure why you felt the need to post this.
rye
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hannebery reached a very high peak in the game, but arguably failed to cement his place as one of the modern greats with his inability to get on to the park after that 2016 grand final
He missed the first 6-7 games of 2016 with a knee injury - Melomona's issue wasn't until May. So he missed a maximum of 18.
And Naming pretty much the only key forwards in history to play at that age is a bit deceptive - maybe name the other few hundred that didn't make it past 32.
What were the side effects that stopped him from playing for another 3 years - it seems in his retirement interviews that the club told him they wanted to move on without him - is there evidence it was cancer-related, or are you just going with "the vibe"??
Thorgils
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His strength was absolutely insane. Shrugged off tackles and push off players like they were made of cardboard. I used to watch him when I was a kid and it blew me away that nobody could ever wrap him up.
Max Bailey and Jaeger O'Meara looked incredible until injury cruelled them.
Anthony Koutoufides was also a terrible shame.
Retired at 27. Would've been 32 at the time of the 2018 grand final.
I would say there is quite a difference between a player having their career ruined by injury, and a player suffering a lot of injuries and still being able to carve out a long AFL career.
For me, a career ruined by injury is when player suffers a severe injury (or series of injuries), which results in their career being severely cut short.
A few names which spring to mind (which others have mentioned too) are Scott Gumbleton, Matt Egan, Mark Coughlan, Sean Rusling, Dan Menzel, Jack Trengrove, Jessie Smith, Trent Henchell etc. Careers of these players were undoubtedly ruined by injury, in that they had to retire long before their time, and in some cases, never made it back to football at all.
Whereas, I do not believe players such David Schwarz, Adam Cooney, Kouta, Jaeger O’Meara, Garry Lyon, Matthew Kreuzer, Shaun Rehn etc., had careers which were ruined by injury.
Did injury prevent them from becoming all that they could have been? In most cases, probably yes, but they were still able to go on and have long and fruitful careers
For me, a career ruined by injury is when player suffers a severe injury (or series of injuries), which results in their career being severely cut short.
A few names which spring to mind (which others have mentioned too) are Scott Gumbleton, Matt Egan, Mark Coughlan, Sean Rusling, Dan Menzel, Jack Trengrove, Jessie Smith, Trent Henchell etc. Careers of these players were undoubtedly ruined by injury, in that they had to retire long before their time, and in some cases, never made it back to football at all.
Whereas, I do not believe players such David Schwarz, Adam Cooney, Kouta, Jaeger O’Meara, Garry Lyon, Matthew Kreuzer, Shaun Rehn etc., had careers which were ruined by injury.
Did injury prevent them from becoming all that they could have been? In most cases, probably yes, but they were still able to go on and have long and fruitful careers
Strapping Young Lad
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Roughead was one of the most mobile talls in the game, and could play anywhere. I've already posted about the side effects he faced of immunotherapy. It had a huge impact on his body to fight the cancer.
Anthony Morabito and Scott Gumbleton are the 2 semi recent that i can think of that were cruelled by injuries at the top level
Justin Clarke (concussion).
He is going pretty well post career though, Rhodes Scholar.
The #UQ Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) Science (Mathematics, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering) and Bachelor of Science (Mathematics) student went to Oxford University where he studied a Doctor of Philosophy in hypersonic pulse tunnels.
He is going pretty well post career though, Rhodes Scholar.
The #UQ Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) Science (Mathematics, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering) and Bachelor of Science (Mathematics) student went to Oxford University where he studied a Doctor of Philosophy in hypersonic pulse tunnels.
Bugger
