AFL pre-season news: Every injury and selection issue at your club for the 2022 season
Tough Swan Callum Mills moved heaven and earth every week to get up for matches as he fought a long battle with injury. After missing Sydney’s finals loss, it’s time to get it right.
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New Sydney co-captain Callum Mills has declared his recovery from a “fickle” achilles tendon injury is on track but he will be eased back slowly into skills training.
The 24-year-old midfield star, named this week as a co-captain alongside Luke Parker and Dane Rampe, managed the injury through the second-half of last season.
The injury forced Mills to miss Sydney’s one-point elimination final loss to cross-town rivals Greater Western Sydney in Launceston.
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Mills has started to progress to modified training and has learned from the challenges of managing the “hard to read” injury last season.
“It’s tracking in the right direction,” Mills said. “The rehab is on track and fingers crossed things keep going well.
“I am running and doing stuff like that and I joined in on a drill (this week) with the main group. I’m going to be easing back in slowly but we will be right. They (achilles injuries) are just fickle and hard to read. We learned that throughout the season last year.
“We are just taking our time and making sure it’s right to go for the whole season.
“I probably had it from halfway through the season last year or (from) the first quarter of the season. Part of the rehab is getting the calf and the body strong to be able to handle the season and we should be good to go.”
While he was sidelined for the elimination final, Mills said the Swans had been using the loss to the Giants as “fuel” over the pre-season.
“It’s always hard missing a final and not being out there with the boys, especially with such a tight loss,” Mills said. “It was heartbreaking but we go again this season and we use that as a bit of fuel.
“Every final is bloody tough. There is no such thing as an easy win, you are going to have to really earn your way throughout the finals series,” Mills said.
“I think the other thing they learnt is that things go up a whole lot when we go into finals. We will be better for the experience but hopefully hungry to do more.”
Mystery surrounds Hurley return, Tippa on mend
—Rebecca Williams
Essendon has described Michael Hurley’s progress from hip surgery as “really positive” but the club remains reluctant to put a time frame on when he can step up his training or a potential return date.
In a bid to extract another year out of his AFL career, Hurley underwent hip joint replacement surgery last September – the same procedure that helped get three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray back playing elite tennis.
Hurley’s 2021 season was wiped out by a debilitating injury after a pre-season hip infection put him in hospital and resulted in weight-loss of more than 10kg.
The 31-year-old resumed running after Christmas and has been gradually building his loads up since then.
Essendon’s general manager of football Josh Mahoney said Hurley’s progress so far had been encouraging.
“Michael is progressing really well, he is doing a lot of running outside on the ground and just building his loads up,” Mahoney said. “He started running post-Christmas and has been building up since then. So he is tracking along really well.
“I think the response of his body from the surgery suggests it was a good decision to get that done and since then it’s been progressing really well and really positive.”
Following the hip surgery last year, Essendon stressed Hurley’s recovery would be slow but said the operation had given him a chance to return to playing AFL that he otherwise would not have had.
Mahoney said it was too early to tell when Hurley could progress to football training or a possible return.
“Given the nature of his injury we have been reluctant to put time frames on it,” he said.
“(We’re) building it up bit by bit and seeing how he reacts to it and the pleasing thing is that he has reacted to it really well and pulled up really well from each bit of progression.
“Without putting timelines on it we are just going to keep building it up and see how we go.
“It is probably a bit early to tell on that but there are positive signs.”
Small forward Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti remains on a modified program after injuring his calf before Christmas.
Mahoney said McDonald-Tipungwuti is back running but is still a few weeks away from rejoining the main group.
“He had a slight calf (injury) just before Christmas so he just missed a couple of weeks and that has modified him a little bit over the break and he will be still in modified training for a period of time,” Mahoney said.
“He is probably over the calf, we are just working on getting him back physically and into good condition.
“He has been in the rehab group running, he has been doing a lot of training just outside of the main group at this stage, in the rehab group.”
Tigers provide Dusty update after kidney scare
Richmond star Dustin Martin is back to his usual playing weight and has been cleared to return to full contact training almost seven months after suffering a lacerated kidney.
Martin lost about 15kg after being injured in a collision with Brisbane’s Mitch Robinson in Round 18 last year, but has put the weight back on after a bumper summer on the track and in the gym.
Martin has been completing most of the work on the track with the Tigers’ main group for the past three weeks, but is being integrated back into full contact work this week as preparations ramp up ahead of pre-season matches in early March.
“He’ll be available to play all of those games,” Richmond Physical Performance Manager Peter Burge told News Corp.
“He’s back to his usual playing weight but the main thing is his strength and power markers in the gym. That’s what we’re looking at and typically they line up with his weight being around the same it’s been for the last five or six years.
“Everything’s pretty normal with Dustin right now. He has done a lot of hard work. It’s the hard work here but it’s also the work he does outside as well. He’s got some pretty strong routines.”
Tigers key forward Tom Lynch has been recovering from a hamstring injury in recent weeks and is “not far off” a return to training.
Kane Lambert is continuing to manage lingering hip issues, while fellow midfielder Jack Graham is managing a back and hamstring issue.
However, the rest of the Richmond playing group is in relatively good shape entering a major training block over the next month.
Burge said 2019 best and fairest Dion Prestia had had his best pre-season with the club after being hampered by soft tissue injuries which have restricted him to 18 games across the past two years.
“Last October or November he set out to really get some work into himself so when he came back he was well ahead of everyone else,” Burge said of Prestia.
“He couldn’t have gone about it any better, to be honest. He had a real determination in his pre-Christmas stuff to give himself every chance and give himself every chance with his work on the track and in the gym as well.
“There’s some things we have altered with his gym program to try and prevent some of the issues he’s had the last year or two. But if you just get some continuity through December and January it really does set you up to play more games.”
Bruce on the mend as skipper cops cruel blow
Western Bulldogs forward Josh Bruce has taken a major step forward in his recovery from a serious knee injury by starting running at training.
In a pre-season boost for the Bulldogs, Bruce was seen jogging at Whitten Oval on Friday.
The 29-year-old was the hard luck story of the Bulldogs’ run to the Grand Final – when they were heavily beaten by Melbourne – after rupturing his ACL on the eve of the finals in Round 21 against Essendon.
Bruce, entering his third season at the Kennel, collapsed in the dying moments of the game at Marvel Stadium.
Before then, had kicked 48 goals for the season – his best return since 2015 when he was at the Saints.
He is not expected to back playing before late August.
In Perth, West Coast captain Luke Shuey lasted just one contest during match simulation at Australia Day training.
Shuey won the opening clearance after starting in the centre square at Mineral Resources Park and it was quickly apparent he was in trouble as he walked off the field and into the rooms.
The Eagles on Wednesday afternoon confirmed the 31-year-old will be sent for scans after sustaining “a leg injury” during the session.
Port Adelaide was struck by a double blow earlier this week after forwards Charlie Dixon and Orazio Fantasia suffered pre-season ankle and knee concerns.
Dixon, 31, will be in a moon boot for the short term after tearing ligaments in his left ankle, landing awkwardly on a teammate’s foot in a marking contest at training on Friday.
The club is waiting for swelling to go down before a decision is made.
It is not the same ankle as his season-ending injury in 2018. Fantasia, 26, is having issues with his right knee and will speak to a surgeon about how best to address it.
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