Sam Lloyd could miss the rest of Bundoora’s season with serious injury

Bundoora has been dealt a massive blow ahead of the NFL Division 1 finals with Sam Lloyd suffering a potentially season-ending injury.

Sam Lloyd in action for Bundoora. Picture: Stuart Milligan

Bundoora’s premiership hopes have been dealt a major blow after Sam Lloyd suffered a potentially season-ending injury on Saturday.

The star forward broke his wrist in a seemingly innocuous incident in the first quarter of the Bulls’ 42-point win over Macleod at Yulong Reserve.

Lloyd underwent surgery on Sunday morning and will be in a cast for at least the next six weeks.

While Bundoora isn’t ruling him out of a late return, it would take a miraculous recovery with the NFL Division 1 grand final scheduled for September 18 – seven weeks away.

Bulls coach Michael Ryan said surgery had gone well.

Sam Lloyd in action for Bundoora. Picture: Stuart Milligan

“It was totally innocuous, copped a bump – fair, nothing untoward – that just got him in a sweet spot,” Ryan said.

“He spent Saturday night in hospital, had surgery on Sunday morning, surgery went really well and he’ll be in plaster cast for the next six weeks.

“It’s going to be an uphill battle to get him back this year but we’re going to give him every chance depending on how long our season goes on for. We definitely haven’t ruled him out.”

Lloyd has made an instant impact this season after calling time on his AFL career.

The former Richmond and Western Bulldogs forward had kicked 36 goals before the weekend’s game – second most in the competition.

He also rotated through the midfield, giving Bundoora extra grunt in the engineroom.

After booting five goals against the Kangas, young key forward John Jorgensen will now lead the Bulls’ attack.

Jorgensen has 27 majors on the season – sixth most in Division 1 – followed by Jesse King (20) and Nathan Thomas (11), while Jacob Maynes will now have a bigger role.

Bundoora also have Northern Football League legend Gary Moorcroft waiting in the wings.

The three-time premiership player returned to Yulong Reserve from Bright before the transfer deadline and has kicked 24 goals in four reserves games, including a bag of seven on Saturday.

John Jorgensen in action for Bundoora. Picture: Stuart Milligan

Gary Moorcroft in action for Bundoora.

“He’s a pretty good insurance policy, Gaz played really well on the weekend,” Ryan said.

“There’s an opportunity for Gaz if he feels like he’s body is up to it.”

Star midfielder Daniel Younan made his return from injury in the 15.13 (103) to 8.13 (61) win but could be recalled to Essendon’s VFL side.

Ryan was confident he still had the firepower to challenge come finals time.

“The good thing is, you can see it in our results this year, we’ve been so flexible and able to kick winning scores,” he said.

“To kick 100 points without Sam hitting the scoreboard and being ruled out from early in the game shows we’ve got some real flexibility in our front half.

“Although Sam’s out and he’s super important to us I think we’re well rounded enough to mean it doesn’t automatically put a line through us.

“It was great to see John Jorgensen step up, Jesse King, Jacob Maynes and Nathan Thomas.

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“Johnny’s had a really good year, he was a bit quiet early but his past six or seven weeks have been awesome.

“That comes with consistently playing senior football, he’s still only played 14 games of senior football.

“He and our forwards coach, Chris Hunt, have been doing a mountain of work and I think that’s a big reason why John, Jesse and Jacob are playing such good football.”

Bundoora’s finals campaign starts three weeks early with West Preston-Lakeside, Greensborough and North Heidelberg in the run home.