Eastern league champ Kyle Martin recovering from ankle surgery
With no football on this year, Noble Park’s captain has had an old injury attended to — and he’s worried the new salary cap might put some pain on Eastern league clubs.
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Kyle Martin has a leg up in locked-down Melbourne.
The Noble Park champion is recovering from surgery to his left ankle, which has troubled him for the best part of two years.
A screw has been attached to the ankle to help with the healing process.
It will be removed in two weeks and he can then work towards walking and rehab.
In the meantime he’s in a moon boot and on crutches.
“I’ve got to be off my leg for about three months before I can start weight-bearing again … it’s pretty significant, but I suppose it’s probably not the worst time to be stuck at home, out of all the mess that’s going on outside,’’ Martin said this morning.
“All things going well I should be fine to get into pre-season whenever it starts and do my rehab slowly. Come March next year I should be ready to go for sure. That’s the plan, anyway.’’
The ankle has been giving the Bulls captain grief for a while.
“Probably the last two years, I’ve been hurting it every couple of weeks, but I’ve been able to play through the pain and get through as you do’’ he said.
“After the first round last year, I did it pretty bad and had to carry it through the whole year, but once you get into the game you don’t think about it and it sort of goes away.’’
That fitted with former Bulls coach Mick Fogarty’s regular observation that Martin was “playing on one leg’’.
The injury didn’t prevent Martin from winning the 2019 best and fairest, extending his run of victories to five.
In fact, he’s won the best and fairest in 11 of his past 12 years of football, including three in the VFL.
But just before the COVID-19 shut down Martin hurt the ankle again in a scratch match.
“It’s fair to say if this season had gone ahead I would have been pretty useless I reckon,’’ he said.
Despite playing no football this year, Martin took a few headlines when he was named the No 1 player in local football. No one questioned it.
The former AFL Magpie, who returned to Noble Park ahead of the 2015 season, said he was flattered.
As for his own rankings, he said he’d always rated Leigh Williams highly.
“I think he’s be the most important forward at local level,’’ he said.
“Then you’ve got blokes like Lachie Johns, Charlie Haley … there are some good footballers running around.’’
Martin and the rest of Noble Park’s team-leadership players have recommitted for 2021 as the Bulls come into line with the $100,000 salary cap.
Martin said the new player-payments ceiling would make it tough for clubs and players.
“Our club went into it with the idea of signing all the leaders, and to everyone’s credit they’ve signed on and copped a hit, which I’m sure everyone across the state is going to have to do,’’ he said. “It’s good to start off on a good note and get all the leaders signed and hopefully the rest will fall into line. It’s not going to be easy. There are going to be some tough conversations out there.’’
Martin is concerned the new cap will “deplete’’ the league.
“I do worry about the competition itself because I feel players will branch out into leagues to try to find what they’re looking for,’’ he said.
“It might become the norm that players are going to filter from our league to other leagues, the ammos, or the country footy where there’s more money. You hope that won’t be the case but it will be interesting to see the fallout.’’
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