Fremantle face season-defining selection call on ruck Sean Darcy after lengthy injury layoff

The Sean Darcy decision has the potential to make or break Fremantle’s season. But an untimely hamstring injury to Luke Jackson might force the Dockers’ hand. Do they pick him?

The Sean Darcy decision has the potential to make or break Fremantle’s season.

After missing the Dockers’ first four games, Darcy (knee/ankle) made a successful return for WAFL side Peel Thunder last weekend and is pressing for an AFL return.

He finished with 12 touches and 19 hitouts but was arguably beaten by Claremont big man Oliver Eastland. But an untimely hamstring injury to Luke Jackson might force Fremantle’s call.

On one hand, Fremantle is playing Richmond. If the Dockers can’t beat the predicted bottom four finishers without Darcy and Jackson, then there’s something severely wrong.

But on the other hand, Carlton showed us what can happen when you underestimate Richmond. These are four premiership points Fremantle can’t afford to drop so rolling the dice and playing Darcy is a viable option.

It looms as the ultimate intersection of sports science and team balance.

Will Sean Darcy return for the Dockers? Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images.

Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir would like Darcy and midfielder Hayden Young to play after just one WAFL hitout.

“Sometimes my plans and everyone else’s plans are different, but I would like them straight back in,” Longmuir said post-match. “And given we’ve got a few injuries, maybe that’s the way we have to go.

“But we’ll weigh that up during the week.”

Fremantle’s doctors and physios might have a different view.

The reality is that the way the Dockers have managed Darcy in the last few years hasn’t worked.

Last year, the 26-year-old played just 12 games. A knee injury delayed his start to 2024 and when he returned in round 6, he lasted just three games before pinging a calf.

He missed a fortnight and then played six straight games until suffering a concussion.

He strung together three more games before a knee injury ended his season. He also missed two games in 2023 with a hamstring before an ankle injury ruled him out for the remainder of the year.

Unlike some of his teammates, Darcy has been given a direct passage to the AFL when declared fit.

Before Saturday’s return, he hadn’t played WAFL since early 2019.

Darcy has admittedly done things differently this off-season. After surgery on his left knee at the start and end of last year, Darcy is noticeably trimmer.

He visited the Aspetar Sports Medicine Clinic in Doha at the end of January in a bid to improve his longevity. And his approach to rehab after unexpected ankle surgery to ease an infection has been meticulous.

The question the Dockers have to ask themselves is whether Darcy will be best served by at least another week in the WAFL or a managed return to the AFL.

“The way you bring him in now sets him up for a successful year that he can survive a full season and hopefully play finals if they get there,” former West Coast physiotherapist Steve Gravina told The Footy Interchange podcast. “The club are going to lean on the potential of this guy being a matchwinner for them.

“But then the high-performance committee needs to say well do you want this guy for this week or the whole year? If you want him for the whole year, you need to be really calculated with how you treat him in the next month.

Daniel Turner and Sean Darcy grapple last season. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images.

“It might compromise his output because he’ll lose continuity if he’s not able to be out there for an extended period to work himself into the game. But he’s protecting himself in the long run.

“You want a fit Sean Darcy for the second half of the year rather than a matchwinning Sean Darcy this week.”

If he returns against the Tigers, Gravina said that Darcy will need another ruck, either Liam Reidy or forward Patrick Voss, to support him.

“They’re going to have to now find a way through a higher rotation to allow Sean to have a chop-out,” he said. “The 90-100 minutes of solo rucking is a huge ask for someone who’s had such a compromised pre-season.

“He just wouldn’t have ticked off all of those milestones to suggest he can handle that. It’ll be a high rotation role I’d imagine this first week.

“And depending on how he pulls up, you nurse him through the weeks at training and use the weekend game as your big hit for the week.”

Originally published as Fremantle face season-defining selection call on ruck Sean Darcy after lengthy injury layoff