Collingwood champion Mick McGuane chats to Darcy Moore about injuries, missing the Grand Final, his headband and more
Collingwood revelation Darcy Moore sits down for a Q&A with former Pie Mick McGuane and opens up about why he didn’t put up his hand for last year’s Grand Final, his ‘unpopular opinion’ about Nathan Buckley, his trip to Germany and much more.
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Collingwood defender Darcy Moore has opened up on his persistent hamstring issues of 2018 and the whirlwind trip to Germany in the off-season that helped him “out of the woods”.
In an exclusive interview with Herald Sun columnist and 1990 Collingwood premiership player Mick McGuane, Moore says he has got better at “holistically managing” himself as an athlete since a trip to Germany last October to see world-renowned sports doctor Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt.
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Moore also reveals why he missed last year’s Grand Final, what he bonds with captain Scott Pendlebury over, how dearly he wants to become an All-Australian and his inspiration behind wearing a headband.
MM: Darcy, it looks like you’re playing with a free spirit at the moment. Is that the way you feel?
DM: Yeah, totally. I think coming back from injury your first five or six games are the most enjoyable because you don’t take it for granted. When footy’s taken away from you with injury it does make playing again a lot more enjoyable and you don’t sweat the small stuff as much.
MM: Give us an insight into your headspace. You played seven games last year in a land of frustration. How did you get through it?
DM: It was pretty tough to put so much into rehab and then to feel like you’re constantly failing all the time was pretty disappointing and anyone will tell you rehab’s really demanding. The main thing was probably to try and draw breath because you’re constantly trying to get better and get back. To come back and not be able to get through two games in a row for the whole year was really disappointing but it’s something that I’ve come to terms with when you’ve got the body shape that I do and you’re the kind of athlete I am.
MM: On the back of that, did you ever start to doubt that you would get your body right?
DM: Definitely. Particularly after the second hamstring last year, that was probably the hardest one because it was really a sign that I wasn’t out of the woods or even close to being out of the woods. But it was important for me to look bigger picture. I was 22 years old and I’d had six hamstring strains or tears so what are we going to do about this? It was not too much about fixing the injury itself but more about holistically managing myself as an athlete.
MM: In layman’s terms, for people who don’t know what you went through, what was the actual problem with the second one?
DM: All three of them were different injuries. Each injury wasn’t particularly severe. They were interrelated but they weren’t in the same spot which is probably more frustrating because it wasn’t one spot of tissue failure, it was a more general failure of the hamstring muscles.
MM: That led to a pretty unique decision to be made to see Bayern Munich’s head doctor?
DM: Yeah, I made the decision at the start of pre-season to go over to see Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt and that was a really unique experience.
MM: Just explain what he can do that our physios or doctors can’t do here.
DM: It’s very different. The main thing was his experience. He’s been dealing with issues like this for 40 years, where in football it’s only been the last five or 10 years that there’s been serious research done into soft tissue injuries. He said it’s not a really drastic injury but it’s a constant management of it. He just had a really interesting, different manner.
There was some broken English but he really felt like a guru, like an artist, more so than a practitioner. He knew about football and he really respected what we did and he didn’t treat us like foreigners, he really treated us very well and welcoming. He actually invited us out to dinner and his dog bit me on the hand. I told him that his dog bit me and he said, ‘He does that all the time, he bit Usain Bolt a couple of weeks before the World Championships’. I thought, ‘I’m in good company then’.
MM: Jamie Elliott went to Germany with you. How long were you both there?
DM: It was a six-day round trip so it was very exhausting with the jet lag. We were waking up every day at 3am and Jamie and I would be walking around Munich at 4am in the morning trying to kill time and then be in the clinic basically all day and then be back to bed and up again in the morning. But clearly it was beneficial for both of us to go see him and it helped having Jamie there as well. It definitely brought us closer together.
MM: Now you’ve had that experience, do you bring those treatment measures back here today and still work with them?
DM: Yeah, bits and pieces. We’re in a position now where we’re able to manage it which is working pretty well.
MM: I want to take you back to Grand Final week last year. I watched you train and watched the group train. Were you right to play?
DM: No. If I was right to play, I would have played. These issues weren’t specific around one injury or one specific bit of muscle failure, it was my whole body as a system just wasn’t functioning at all. I could get through training and then I would be way too sore afterwards or I just didn’t have the freedom to run out there and play football. It was far too big of a risk and I just couldn’t provide any assurances that I would hold up.
MM: I’ve always told people that don’t get to this level that there’s more than just to play in the game. There’s the emotional burden as well. How did you cope with that?
DM: It was really tough. Watching the boys experience the whole week and go through it all took me back to when I was eight or nine years old in 2002 and 2003 when Collingwood were in the Grand Finals. It really took me back to those days and how it was a dream come true. To be watching it and not be a part of it was difficult but as soon as that ball bounced and to watch the boys play as well as they did, that was the most enjoyable part of the whole week. The way they played, as a teammate, just made me so proud.
MM: Fact or fiction: were you in talks with the Sydney Swans last year?
DM: Not really, to be honest. I didn’t really have much room in my head for anything other than my body last year so that was really my main focus.
MM: You started in 2015. You’re 60 games into a career with a lot of upside. The Nathan Buckley of 2015 compared to the Nathan Buckley of 2019, what’s changed?
DM: It’s a very unpopular opinion but I don’t think much has changed. When I came in he really struck me as a man who was clearly very driven and very professional and all the traits that have been reported on in the last 18 months were there for me from the start.
MM: Personal preference — forward or back? Watching you in your TAC Cup days, people tend to forget you played some strong footy down back.
DM: I really don’t have a preference. After last year I just like playing, so wherever I end up I don’t really care.
MM: Right now, there’s a fair argument that yourself, Tom Langdon and Jeremy Howe are the intercept mark kings of the competition, matching Jeremy McGovern, Tom Barrass and Shannon Hurn as the benchmark. Why is it that the three of you are playing so well?
DM: Clearly we’ve learnt a lot from West Coast and that’s something we’ve mastered and that they base their game on. But I think we’ve just played a bit of footy together now and chemistry’s a huge thing, knowing when to defend and support your teammate and when you can be more offensive.
MM: I love players that defend but want to go and mark the ball. Is that an intuition thing that you believe you’ve got or a directive from the coaching staff? And with Jordan Roughead being recruited to the club as more of a lockdown player close to goals, has that given you the freedom to be more aggressive up the ground?
DM: You use the word intuition. I think that’s the key word. I don’t think it’s something you can over coach or over-think. When you’re out there you’ve just got to make a decision in the moment.
MM: I loved the match up against Joe Daniher on Anzac Day. You were good for Collingwood and he was pretty good for them in the view he kicked four goals by game’s end. Do you enjoy playing on the game’s best forwards?
DM: It was awesome. Joe’s someone who I really admire and he’s a really great player and a great character. That was a lot of fun and I love playing on the best players and felt like we had a really good contest. It’s probably my favourite part of playing at the moment, coming up against great players and really testing myself.
MM: You’re at university, studying commerce. How are you combining the rigours of AFL footy and also the time to study?
DM: The more I’ve gone on with my career, I’ve enjoyed uni more and more. I do two subjects at a time and head in there three times a week for a couple of hours. Melbourne Uni has a lot of international students now so it’s a real melting pot of different 20-something uni students. It’s just a great environment to be in and a nice pressure release from AFL footy. I’m actually by chance in a tute with Tom McDonald from Melbourne so we’ve had a good time this semester doing assignments together and that sort of stuff. It’s really hard as a young player to find that balance and work out what your style is but I feel like I’m at a point now where that balance, that pressure release, is really important to me and uni has fulfilled that.
MM: We must touch on your dad, Peter. I loved him as a kid, being a mad Collingwood supporter myself. How has his influence been on you as a young man growing up and does he still offer up advice?
DM: I think his main influence has been as a father and dealing with the personal challenges that are associated with being a footballer. He’s someone who clearly was as big a name as there was at the time so he had to deal with some of the pressures associated with that. He’s got a lot of really valuable life experience.
MM: What’s your relationship with your captain Scott Pendlebury like?
DM: It’s pretty good. He’s got an appreciation for fine wine and he’s a bit of a coffee connoisseur so we bond over that. I think I have better tastes in both of them than him. We often argue about that.
MM: You’re in the conversation right now for All-Australian contention. All you can do is play each game on its merits. But to be a part of the best 22 players in the competition is something that would drive some individuals. Is that you?
DM: Definitely. I think to be an All-Australian is an accolade that every player in the competition would aspire to on some level, it’s just about how much you think about it and how much you focus on it. It’s obviously an ambition I’ve got and a goal that I’ve got but I’ve got a pretty steep task of playing on some bloody great forwards to get to that spot so I’ll see how I go. It’s something that I think I’m capable of, but I’ve got to keep focusing on the task at hand.
MM: Last one. The inspiration of the headband. Where did that come from?
DM: There was no real inspiration. I’m a big fan of Keira Knightley from Bend it Like Beckham and she’s a bit of a doppelganger now so I feel like I have to wear it. I’m starting to see little kids come to clinics now with No.30 with headbands as well and ever since that I’ve thought, ‘I’ve got to keep it’.
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