Flagstaff Hill captain Michael Shearer opens up about how he won an SFL flag and a best-on-ground medal with a torn ACL

Flagstaff Hill star Michael Shearer has revealed he played in last year’s Southern Football League grand final and won the best-on-ground medal with an ACL injury he’d suffered a month earlier.

Flagstaff Hill three-time premiership player and two-time Mail medallist Michael Shearer with his wife Czenya, who plays for South Adelaide’s SANFLW team. Michael played the final few games of the 2018 Southern Football League season, including the grand final, with an ACL injury. Picture: AAP/Dean Martin

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AS MICHAEL Shearer sits on his couch, recovering from his freshly operated-on left knee, he still finds it unreal he is a proud owner of a 2018 Southern Football League premiership medal.

Not because Shearer didn’t believe Flagstaff Hill could claim its third flag in a row.

But because he played the game with a torn anterior crucial ligament.

Even more remarkable was the two-time Mail Medallist also winning best on ground during the Falcons’ 100-point three-peat victory over Noarlunga.

Shearer, who had surgery only three weeks ago, after returning from his honeymoon with his wife Czenya, found out how seriously he had damaged his knee a month after his and the club’s third consecutive flag win.

This was despite sustaining the injury in the second-to-last minor round.

Michael Shearer with his wife, Czenya. Picture: AAP /Dean Martin

“Once I found out what I had done, and how serious the injury was, I kind of look back and am pretty surprised,” Shearer, of Moana, says.

“I definitely wasn’t expecting to be told I had done my ACL and I was obviously hoping that wasn’t the case.

“I’m obviously upset I’m going to miss this year, but I also think I’m pretty lucky to have got through and played in another winning grand final.”

The tough-as-nails, 29-year-old midfielder felt his knee “pop” during a tackle in the Falcons’ round 17 battle against Noarlunga.

He went back on in that game, before missing the final minor round against Christies Beach with what a physiotherapist believed was just “knee soreness”.

Shearer had another week’s break before he lined up in the semi-final victory and a further week off before the grand final.

Michael Shearer (front) celebrating with teammate Josh Vandermeer after Flagstaff Hill smashed Reynella in the 2018 SFL grand final. Picture: AAP/Mark Brake

“After I had hurt it, I went on to the bench and I did a few squats and it felt all right,” he says.

“I kind of jogged up and down the sidelines and it felt a bit better, so I thought I had just hyper-extended it or just got a knock. and I went back on.

“After the game, I went to my physio and he did the ACL test on me … but my muscles have always kind of been a bit stretchy.

“He thought there was just quite a bit of movement that was natural for me.

“Getting told it was OK just gave me that bit more confidence to get through that semi-final, then when the grand final came, I think I was just running on adrenalin and didn’t really feel it.”

Shearer has relinquished the captaincy and concedes he will find it tough sitting on the sidelines.

But he is set to be an assistant to new senior coach Darren Vanzetta and hopes to be back playing next season.