Nathan Buckley believes COVID-19 cutbacks may have allowed illegal boots that injured Isaac Quaynor to slip through
The banned boot that caused the horrific leg injury to Collingwood youngster Issac Quaynor may have slipped through the cracks due to staff cutbacks at AFL clubs, Pies coach Nathan Buckley believes.
AFL News
Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says the stand downs and cuts of staff at AFL clubs may have led to Sydney debutant Sam Wicks wearing illegal boots that resulted in young Magpie Isaac Quaynor suffering a gruesome injury to his shin.
Quaynor had his shin sliced open by Wicks’ boots early on in the fourth quarter on Thursday night at the Gabba, with the cut six to eight inches long.
It was later revealed Wicks was wearing an illegal mix of plastic moulded and aluminium stops, worn widely by other players in the competition, which prompted the AFL to put players and clubs on notice by saying the responsibility is on them to show a “duty of care” to teammates and opponents.
Watch Footy LIVE & On-Demand Every Day from July 29 – August 17 with Kayo. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
Buckley, who revealed captain Scott Pendlebury could be back in Round 13 from a quad injury, said the amount of staff either stood down or let go by clubs because of the financial impacts of COVID-19 could have led to this slipping through.
“That has been one of the challenges that hasn’t been discussed as much over the past four to six weeks, when we’ve focused on what’s happening on field and less behind the scenes,” he said.
“Funnily enough we don’t have a boot-studder (Neil Price) on staff at the moment and I don’t know if many teams would.
“Personally when you sort of dig deeper into the issue I’m not actually sure if metal studs are the issue, for me it would actually be more of the shape of the studs, are they sharp or do they have a pointier end than the blades our moulded studs that we have used recently.
“I think it is probably a few things have come together, the Queensland grounds are a little bit softer, they are a bit heavier under foot and can get slippery so probably you have players wearing longer stops than they had before.
“I know clearly the rule against metal studs and stops have been there but I would suggest it is more the shape of them and really the boot-studders are the one who make sure that the boots comply and we sort of move on.
“The compliance can get a little bit grey and I think we’ve seen evidence of a few of those compliance issues not being attended to because of the changes in responsibility in football clubs and the AFL widely. It is probably one of those ones where a few things came into play, a bit of misfortune as well but the AFL has now cleared them up.”
Quaynor has been on crutches after getting the wound sewn up, and Buckley said he was hopeful the young Magpie would play again this season.
“It is just a matter of looking after the wound, making sure it doesn’t get infected,” he said.
“We anticipate we will see him (again) we are thinking a couple of weeks … but we will just have to wait on how it heals.”
MORE AFL:
Mabior Chol’s father breaks silence on groping incident
AFL legend Mick Malthouse asks the tough questions of Melbourne after another stuttering season
He had a much more definitive timeline on Pendlebury, who was a last-minute withdrawal before the Pies played West Coast in Perth in Round 8, after slowly increasing his running and doing some kicking on Saturday.
“He won’t be right for Tuesday (against the Crows), he may be right for Saturday against Melbourne but he still has a couple of sessions to go,” he said.
“It would be optimistic to expect him for Round 12 but we may get him beyond that.”
Star Adam Treloar suffered another soft tissue injury against the Swans and Buckley said the Pies would be cautious with his return.
Travis Varcoe missed Round 10 and left Collingwood’s Sunshine Coast hub to go to a family funeral, but Buckley said he had returned to Queensland and passed multiple COVID-19 tests.
Originally published as Nathan Buckley believes COVID-19 cutbacks may have allowed illegal boots that injured Isaac Quaynor to slip through