Aiden Bonar has overcome two knee reconstructions to be a top 10 draft prospect
AIDEN Bonar spent 26 months of his junior career recovering from knee surgeries, but after starting the year believing he wouldn’t be drafted he is a chance of being picked in the top 10.
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AIDEN Bonar sat in the Bendigo changerooms with tears streaming down his face.
Ten minutes after an opponent fell across the explosive midfielder’s leg, a Lachman test showed Bonar had ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
Bonar was best afield the previous weekend but started this TAC Cup match for Dandenong on the bench.
In the opening minutes he interchanged with best mate and No.1 pick fancy Luke Davies-Uniacke.
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Seconds later and his season was over. In the changerooms his dad was so upset, he walked out.
Discharged from Bendigo hospital at 9pm, a lonely three-hour drive home preceded 14 months of rehabilitation.
It was 2015, Bonar was 16. The previous three years he won three flags at Seaford and was named best-on-ground in the grand final every time.
In 2016, Bonar finally returned. He got through three games … and then did his right knee again.
“I twisted going for a ball and I just felt it loose,” Bonar said.
“Straight after I knew it was gone. I was devastated.
“In the first few months of my rehab there was a patch where I thought I wouldn’t get picked up with two knees.”
It was a natural fear. But the second reconstruction would be different.
Robbie D’Orazio already managed Davies-Uniacke and Hunter Clark and they suggested he sign Bonar too.
D’Orazio — who has half of this year’s top-10 prospects — listened, and when Bonar’s knee went again, he called top surgeon Julian Feller.
Bonar first went under the knife of a local surgeon using a hamstring graft.
Feller used the patella tendon and Bonar knew it was a better operation.
“The next morning you wake up from surgery and actually have to walk around, and it felt a lot better,” he said.
His rehabilitation was also different — Bonar picked a new personal trainer and did four intensive sessions per week.
They still continue, with a session on Tuesday pushing back a Herald Sun photoshoot.
Every Wednesday after school, Bonar would bounce on a trampoline for an hour and 45 minutes. Each jump produced more strength and power in his legs.
He did three months of gymnastics and worked on his running with Olympian Craig Mottram at Haileybury.
Bonar’s dad would wake at 6am every morning to help him exercise and his mum kept driving to watch footy training, even after he had his licence.
After 11 months and three weeks Bonar was ready to return, nervous about his lack of touch, but not his knee.
Before the fourth game, when the knee went the year before, the demons resurfaced.
“I didn’t really get much sleep the night before that game,” Bonar said.
“But I knew if I could get past the fourth game I could fly through.”
When 2017 began Bonar believed he wouldn’t be drafted this year.
By draft combine, he had met 15 clubs including coaches Don Pyke (Adelaide) and Ross Lyon (Fremantle).
Collingwood will be the first to consider the Magpies fan at No.6, but St Kilda at No.7 and 8 looks more likely.
The Saints passed on the dynamic Christian Petracca in 2014. Is this their chance to grab a player with breakaway power?
If Bonar isn’t St Kilda’s man he could be off to GWS (No.11) or Sydney (No.14).
Bonar equalled the standing vertical jump record at draft camp with 89cm and then finished second in the 20m sprint (2.9sec).
The kid of Papua New Guinea (mum) and Scottish (dad) heritage is high risk, but high reward.
After a flat TAC Cup finals Bonar won 20 disposals, five clearances and kicked a goal in the All-Stars game on AFL Grand Final day.
He watches a lot of David Mundy and Brendon Goddard and is a genuine utility.
“I’m really versatile,” Bonar said.
“I can play at either end and am just a big, strong-bodied midfielder.”
Bonar has spent 26 months of his junior career recovering from knee surgeries. But at 190cm and 89kg he looks be ready to play AFL next year.
Originally published as Aiden Bonar has overcome two knee reconstructions to be a top 10 draft prospect