Ankle surgery rehab taking longer than expected
SYDNEY Swans veteran Michael O'Loughlin's last chance to play for the AFL Indigenous All-Stars is slipping with reports he won't be ready for football proper until Round 1 of the 2009 premiership season.
The All-Stars v Adelaide match will be played in Darwin on February 7 but O'Loughlin’s post-surgery rehabilitation on an ankle has gone longer than expected, and it seems he won’t be fully fit and functional until late March.
O'Loughlin, 32, a 14-season 286-game veteran and 2005 AFL premiership player, has never played for the All-Stars.
"If I miss the first one or two games, I'd rather that than (games) at the end of the season," O'Loughlin said yesterday.
The Swans virtually barred O'Loughlin and Adam Goodes from the 2007 match against Essendon after a decree that they play just five minutes per quarter.
But the pair could be in Darwin in the week leading up to the match next month with the Indigenous players' AFL community camp held in Darwin and Palmerston.
"Mick is probably the only one at this stage with a question mark, however we are still confident," Swans coach co-ordinator John Longmire said. "We've got a number of weeks before Round 1 to go, so we're hopeful he will be up and running by then."
Meantime, dual Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes is looming as a possible captain of the Swans for the 2009 season. He is one of a number of players jockeying for the posts of co-captain.
In the west, Fremantle pair Des Headland and Antoni Grover have joined the club's leadership group for 2009.
Headland and Grover join giant ruckman Aaron Sandilands, Luke McPharlin and captain Matthew Pavlich as club leaders.
"The five players in the new leadership group have, collectively, played more than 700 AFL games and we will be calling on that experience, both on and off the field in 2009, to lead what is now one of the youngest playing lists in the AFL," Dockers coach Mark Harvey said in a statement.
"Each is a consummate professional and they are all committed to taking the Fremantle Football Club forward in the coming years."
DARREN MONCRIEFF
Info@AboriginalFootball.com.au
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
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Last Modified on 06/01/2009 08:24