Max Gawn says mental aspect crucial when dealing with long-term injuries
I’VE had my fair share of time on the sidelines. Long-term injuries crush you mentally. That’s why I took on the task of lifting struggling Division 2 club Portsmouth all the way to mid table in the EPL. And it was a god-send, writes Max Gawn.
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TWO days after my second knee reconstruction in 2012, I knew that I had to find something to occupy my time away from the club.
I was 21 years old. It was my eighth knee operation in four years and I was well and truly conditioned to being away from football.
But this didn’t mean I would pass with flying colours.
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Curve balls are thrown throughout rehab and setbacks almost always happen, especially with knees.
The mental game is one of, if not, the most important component during this time.
While long-term injuries are part of the majority of AFL players’ careers, most make it back, some struggle when they do get back and for others it’s career ending. Though those that do come back tend to return stronger and better. They come back with a body armour, a sense of being unbreakable.
Getting your life organised away from the club is the first crucial step — yes, university and TAFE courses are a great place to start, but you need a downtime plan as well.
Such as an obsession with books, joining a board game club — which I think is the path teammate Jake Lever has taken — or, in my case, a computer game addiction.
This is when I took on the task of lifting struggling Division 2 club Portsmouth all the way to mid table on the Premier League in five seasons of the Xbox game FIFA.
This, for those who know manager mode on FIFA, is an extremely time-consuming job and it took me about four months of solid commitment to gain Premier League status.
Not only were Portsmouth struggling with player morale, they were also in a financial crisis, but I managed to get both back in the positive.
Once in the top division, rather then attempt to take the title, I cashed out and took an offer elsewhere.
FIFA management skills aside, the main thing that I got out of being injured for almost four years was to love the club I was at — to support the boys and ride the rollercoaster with them.
In that period, I attended every game played in Melbourne, sitting in N56 at the MCG on level 2, standing up in applause after goals and going home grumpy after losses.
Unfortunately during that period at MFC I was grumpy almost every Saturday.
But this was my footy fix, the thing that kept me dreaming of a return.
I was too young to sit in the coaches box like Jake Lever is doing now or sit on the bench like Sam Docherty is doing at Carlton.
And with just four senior games to my name I could hardly offer any advice to our No.1 ruckman Mark Jamar.
Footy to me was watching and supporting.
The problem with not being involved is, unfortunately, a feeling of guilt.
Wanting to help but not being able to. Or being able to accept your monthly wage and say, “I deserved that this month”.
This is the one that I had continuous struggles with — the feeling of belonging and not being ashamed of collecting your cheque.
One thing I did do was to help out with the membership and marketing side of the club.
I had a weekly segment on the club website called “Gawn in 60 Seconds”.
This segment, although it wasn’t worth the wage I was getting, at least let me feel involved and to be a contributor.
I also created a segment in weekly opposition meetings called a “Gawndog Fact”, which was a unique fact usually about the opposition midfield.
Yes, these are novelty things, but it kept me sane.
I worked incredibly hard in the gym — that is a given and is the only way you become physically ready to play — but you have to go over and beyond rehab when you’re out.
In terms of footy, you have to keep learning, you have to stay up-to-date with game plans and other team-orientated factors, but I encourage coaches and players to go easy on meetings.
Maybe set up a routine of going to four in every five meetings, so you don’t cook yourself.
There will be counter arguments to this that we get paid well and are involved in AFL environment for a living, but this is partly the issue.
Imagine any job where you have to still turn up and not be able to do the one thing your employed for.
Add to this scrutiny from family, friends, media and coaches.
Heading into Round 23, 2014, I thought all my injury woes were in the past and I was finally having a free run at things.
But after a ruck contest went wrong during that match against the Kangaroos, I had to start the 100m walk to the bench. It took me 10 minutes to get there.
While the boys were still playing, I was alone in the Etihad rooms, sobbing and dreading a third reco.
Which FIFA club would I take to the Premier League this time? What can I get my bench press to this time? Is 2015 a write-off?
Later that week scans cleared me of an ACL but I still had to have surgery on my meniscus, which wiped me out for half of the 2015 pre-season. I dodged a bullet.
Now when I see players return from long-term injuries, such as teammate Aaron vandenBerg, I have so much admiration for what they have had to go through.
Aaron hasn’t played a game of AFL for more than 700 days.
He left behind his family and friends in NSW and Canberra to live in Melbourne, he has had setback after setback, and yet he has pushed on.
His mind-numbing activity to get through involved a mixture of university and running a family business.
I have nothing but good things to say about guys such as Jack Trengove, Alex Johnson and Daniel Menzel and what they have been through.
Jack would go for two-hour walks listening to business podcasts to put his mind at ease.
To show the frustration that is present in rehab, even Jack Trengove, who never complained once about his cursed run with injury and always smiled, became grumpy when told he couldn’t join in on a hike in a pre-season camp.
That’s right, he cracked the sads over not being able to go on a horrible three-hour hike.
Why? Because he wanted to be involved and be a footballer like the rest of us.
At that point, after a morning circuit on the beach, I would have quite happily swapped spots.
Sadly, there are multiple examples of guys who have fallen this year to long-term injuries.
The most recent being Nic Naitanui and Lynden Dunn to the dreaded ACL.
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Dunny is a guy who has never played a final and was looking like eclipsing that this year and Nic Nat has just been through a year out and now has to do it all again.
The sooner they get back to the football club and start getting involved in any way they can the better for those two.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see both sitting in the coaches’ box in the upcoming finals series.
Dunny, a friend and former teammate, is a big Mario Kart fan and I hope he takes the Mario Brothers scene by storm and clocks that track record he has been striving for around Moo Moo Farm.
I also hope the very best for Nic, the game will miss what he can do, how he can turn a game and jump on peoples’ heads. I’m sure he can find a balance that will help him return bigger and better.
Because mind-numbing activities and playing a role at the football club are equally as important as weights and cross training when going through rehab.
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