Adelaide’s Paul Seedsman goes from serious groin injury to grand final in rollercoaster season
PAUL Seedsman couldn’t even run a lap of the oval at the start of the season and had to wait until Round 19 for a game but now he’s into an AFL grand final.
PAUL Seedsman couldn’t even run a lap of the oval at the start of the season and had to wait until Round 19 for a game but now he’s into an AFL grand final.
And the 25-year-old is proving one of Adelaide’s late-season wildcards after he kicked two goals in a breakout performance in their preliminary final win over Geelong on Friday night.
But for a long while this season it didn’t look like Seedsman would be playing at all after a pre-season groin injury dragged on for the first half of the year.
He says it was never diagnosed as osteitis pubis but he had to play a waiting game to return to football via the SANFL.
“It was a strange one, pretty unique, and it was frustrating because as we were going it was always two weeks away, two weeks away, but we never really knew (how long),” he said.
“It obviously went for a lot longer than we thought.
“I was walking or cross training and swimming, a lot of bike riding, all the fun stuff inside.
“That was the majority of the pre-season, I did my left one (groin) in about February then just as the left one was getting good to go the right one let me down.
“But hopefully I’ll look back at that and it has set me up for the years to come and now I’m feeling great.”
Seedsman, who played only Rounds 19 and 23 of the regular season, has become even more important to Adelaide’s side since running half-back Brodie Smith went down with a season-ending knee injury in the qualifying final against GWS.
“Unfortunately some blokes have been struck with some unfortunate circumstances and all I can do is go out there and take my opportunity,” he said.
“It has been one of those years, frustrating and at times you don’t think you’re going to get there but I’ve just had to keep plodding away and waiting for that opportunity.
“Now you don’t really know what to think other than you’re going into a grand final next week, but we move on to the recovery phase pretty quickly then get prepared.”
Seedsman joined Adelaide from Collingwood at the end of the 2015 season and said he didn’t need a grand final to vindicate to himself that he had made the right decision.
“I couldn’t be happier with the decision to come over here, the club has been unbelievable from top to bottom, from players to coaches to staff, it’s just a great footy club to be at,” he said.
“Every day is enjoyable and you look forward to going in there so no this is just the cherry on top.”
Seedsman played 15 AFL games for the Crows last year but did not feature in either final as he instead suited up in the SANFL.
reece.homfray@news.com.au