Nathan Buckley’s final AFL sport in 2017 ended with a nicked hamstring.
Eight years in the past whereas teaching Collingwood, he tore a hamstring off the bone enjoying contact soccer.
Last yr, he tore a pectoral muscle off the bone.
So when the Brownlow Medallist makes his enjoying comeback this yr, he acknowledges there is likely to be penalties.
“I try not to think about the worst-case scenarios. I’ve tried to imagine some positive outcomes for this,” mentioned Buckley, half-grinning and half-grimacing.
“I expect to break something. I just don’t know what and I don’t know when.”
Buckley and four-time Hawthorn premiership participant Jordan Lewis have been recruited for the Carlton Draft, a group soccer program the place they are going to play for a rustic workforce someplace in Victoria.
It is designed to assist grassroots soccer, one thing draft commissioner and Brisbane nice Jonathan Brown notes has struggled after COVID-19.
But at Tuesday’s launch, the primary precedence for Buckley, Lewis and Brown was three older gamers having enjoyable at one another’s expense.
“We’ve convinced him, this old body, with even these s*** hamstrings, to pull the boots on,” Brown mentioned of Buckley.
Playing within the nation will imply Buckley and Lewis go full circle.
Lewis began his enjoying profession on the Warrnambool membership, whereas Brown’s previous workforce South Warrnambool are their arch-rivals.
Buckley additionally had his first style of footy within the nation as his Dad Ray coached West Gambier in cities corresponding to Millicent, Coleraine, Casterton and Hamilton.
“I walked around the oval watching the footy with a footy under my hand, eating Wizz Fizzes all day and playing Space Invaders at night,” Buckley mentioned.
Lewis says his physique appears to have held up higher than Buckley’s post-retirement, including “these thick quads and thick calves can hold up.”
He and Buckley are eager to place one thing again into the place their soccer careers began and Lewis says many golf equipment want all the assistance they’ll get.
“Growing up in Warrnambool, I saw a shift in the way players thought about their loyalty to football clubs and money was starting to talk,” Lewis mentioned.
“Players would travel two or three hours to other country towns and that broke apart a lot of country football clubs.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
