RDFL: Rupertswood footballer Sean Crawford makes emotional senior debut two years after cancer diagnosis

SPORTING clubs can be a sanctuary during the toughest of personal battles, as a young man who has made an inspiring senior debut for a Sunbury club knows all too well.

Rupertswood footballer Sean Crawford made his senior debut on Saturday. Picture: John Cicero.

SPORTING clubs can be a sanctuary during the toughest of battles.

Their importance has so often been emphasised in a time of need, stretching far beyond the ecstasy of victory or agony of defeat.

Sean Crawford was diagnosed with stage four non-Hodgkin lymphoma in February 2016, and forced to spend months watching, waiting and wondering if he would ever play a senior game for Rupertswood.

Throughout an uncertain period in his young life, the one constant for Crawford was the support of his family and Rupertswood Football and Netball Club mates.

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“All my close mates shaved their heads when I got diagnosed,” Crawford said.

“I was given a role down at the club helping out with the senior football club.

“While I was going through chemo I was on the sidelines, which (meant) I still felt involved.”

Rupertswood footballer Sean Crawford. Picture: John Cicero.

Emotions ran high when Crawford made an inspiring senior debut for Sunbury club Rupertswood in Round 6 of the Riddell District Football League season on Saturday.

The 20-year-old had already overcome the odds by featuring in the Sharks’ under-18.5 premiership seven months after the shock diagnosis.

He underwent six months of chemotherapy and has been in remission for more than a year.

“Probably a good six months that the club was crossing their fingers,” Rupertswood president Brad Pietromonaco said.

“He relapsed a bit as well. When the relapse happened we were really worried for him and his family as well.

“He’s come through the other end really well.

“There would have been a few mums that had a tear in their eye. That’s what it’s about.”

The half-back flanker would likely have pressed for a senior debut last year, but was restricted to eight games due to an ankle injury.

Tasked with delivering the news Crawford had earned a call-up, senior coach Nick Ash found he had left training early and was not present for the team announcement.

Sean Crawford pulls down a mark for Rupertswood. Picture: John Cicero.

But that did not detract from a special moment for those who supported the Sunbury resident and his family through a trying period.

“I got a message from one of the leadership group members saying ‘congratulations and I can’t wait to see you out there’,” Crawford said.

“I was like ‘what’s going on?’”

Crawford was chosen on merit rather than sentiment, having been one of Rupertswood’s best players in its 56-point reserves win over Woodend-Hesket in Round 5.

“It was pretty special,” he said.

“I haven’t played footy consistently for around two years with the cancer and then I had an ankle injury which kept me out for like the whole of last season.

“This year I have got a full pre-season in and I am starting to get back into it.”

Ash said seeing Crawford make his debut had been a “proud moment” for Crawford’s family.

“It was a fair shock for everyone around the club when they got told the sad news of what he was going through,” he said.

“He battled really hard, got through it has come out the other end.

“He always had the aspirations, and the club had the aspirations, of him playing senior football.

“He got his (reward) last weekend by playing his first game and playing really well.”

Pietromonaco said the club had been mindful not to rush the gifted junior footballer into the senior team as he continued his recovery during the past two years.

“He has been pushing on the door for a few years but we had to tick a lot of boxes to make sure personally mentally and physically he was ready,” he said.

“It’s a good story that he got his debut senior game and he held his own. He might be up there for a while. Everyone was just rapt.”