Daniel Menzel returns to Geelong to thank the team that was with him good times and bad before he starts afresh in Sydney
Daniel Menzel reveals how he returned to Geelong a week before Christmas to pack up his place and go out for dinner with three people who know him better than most.
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You could call it the last supper, but this was a much happier occasion, when Daniel Menzel went back to Geelong a week before Christmas to pack up his place and go out for dinner with three people who know him better than most.
Having already made the whirlwind trip to Sydney to set up his new pad in Bondi and start life as a Swan, Menzel went back to Geelong where he’d spent the previous eight years to say one last goodbye.
After 73 games but more time in rehab dealing with four knee reconstructions, Menzel wanted to say thanks to his physio Mark Young, doctor Drew Slimmon and strength coach Chris Dennis.
They’d all been there through the heartbreak, the anguish, the doubts, the frustration and the hopelessness to witness him rise again and as he left Kardinia Park for a second chance in Sydney they raised a glass to new hope and a job well done.
“I went out for dinner with my physio, my strength coach and doctor — basically the little team I’ve worked with over a number of years that got me back from my four ACL’s,” Menzel told The Advertiser.com.
“They all mentioned the fresh start will be amazing and to move forward from a lot of injuries I had at Geelong, to get a new opportunity and have coaches and fitness staff look at me as a new player rather than ‘we’ve been through a lot’.
“You develop a really close bond with those guys because they see you through the really difficult times and help you get through that.
“They’ve been massive for me and they’re one part that when you leave the footy club you’re a bit sad about but I’ll keep in touch.
“I also caught up with a couple of my welfare managers and the wider group, there’s a lot of respect there from mates at the footy club so it was a busy week but it’s all gone well.”
Menzel had his exit meeting with coach Chris Scott straight after the season but his final chat with him was while he was on holiday in the US.
“He called me and it wasn’t a great phone call because it was to say we’re going to part ways,” Menzel said.
“But that’s what happened, that’s the nature of footy and it was all the best from there.”
Menzel was in the US while his career was in limbo. The 27-year-old South Australian had averaged two goals a game for the past four seasons but was delisted by the Cats without a home to go to.
While his manager worked on finding him a new team, Menzel kept running and hit the gym while on holiday in America.
He’d been there a few weeks with some of his Geelong teammates but his childhood mates from Adelaide had only just lobbed when he got a call telling him to fly home for a medical with Sydney.
The next week was epic. Menzel flew from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, then LA to Melbourne, drove to Geelong, unpacked some stuff, flew to Sydney, had his medical and met the coaches before staying overnight.
The next day he flew back from Sydney to Los Angeles, LA to Minneapoolis, then Minneappolis to Pittsburgh and arrived just in time for a Steelers game with his mates. Not surprisingly he slept in the next day and they missed their next flight so they had to do a 13-hour road trip to Alabama.
“It was a lot of travelling in the space of a week,” Menzel said.
But it was worth it. Menzel got his holiday with his mates and signed with the Swans as a delisted free agent after they were satisfied his body would continue to stand up to the rigours of AFL footy.
“You spend a lot of time with the doctor and have a lot of scans on your knees and groins, and he does a lot of single leg tests, hopping tests, balance tests, things on the bench to test your flexibility and strength,” Menzel said.
“Your body would have to be in pretty poor nick not to pass the medical, it’s more the scans where things can show through.”
That’s largely what led to Sydney identifying a need for Menzel to have minor groin surgery which will keep him from running for the next six weeks but he hopes to be around the mark for Round 1.
“They saw that I had an instability imbalance in my pubic joint and that’s what was causing my inflammation and pain the last couple of years,” he said.
“I could have trained and played this year without the operation but we I was very happy to have the surgery to take away the pain I’ve had for a couple of years.”
There was a chance Menzel could have been back in Adelaide this year after brief talks with the Power but they never progressed.
“There was a possibility, some talks with Port Adelaide, but it didn’t go much further than that,” he said.
“In the six to eight weeks of trade period and free agency there would have been six to eight teams that I thought I would potentially be playing for, and if you asked me at the start of that or even mid-way through I wouldn’t have thought the Swans would be the team but I’m rapt with how it’s al turned out,” he said.
He teams up with a few old faces at Sydney including new chief executive Tom Harley — although he never got to play with Harley at Geelong because the premiership captain retired the year Menzel arrived — but he did play with his new forwards coach Steve Johnson.
“A lot of the guys I played with held Tom in such high respect and whenever I saw him we’d have a chat, and he was instrumental in getting me to the Swans which I’m very thankful for,” Menzel said.
“And when I spoke to John Longmire and Tom Harley in America they said that Stevie was the forwards coach and was that a positive? And it’s a massive positive. I love the way he speaks about footy and thinks different to most, I have no doubt he’ll be able to bring out the best in my game and our forwardline at the Swans.
“I think I will be a different player at Sydney, they will set up differently and there’s a really good mix of guys with different attributes.
“Working with Buddy will be massive but there are also a lot of good young players there like Will Hayward, Tom Papley, (Tom) McCartin, and if Sam Reid can get back we can play to our strengths.”
When Menzel was getting back from his four knee reconstructions at Geelong, one of the big things that used to get him through was picturing himself on the MCG on grand final day in a Geelong jumper.
Now the dream still lives but just in different colours.
“When it was up in the air about where I might be playing there were a lot of possibilities,” Menzel said.
“And when Sydney came up I was excited about joining such a successful team and I’m confident we can be challenging.”
Originally published as Daniel Menzel returns to Geelong to thank the team that was with him good times and bad before he starts afresh in Sydney
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