The Dustbin
26 Mar 2005, 07:43
The Age
March 26, 2005
Some specialists believed Essendon's Courtney Johns, 20, would never run again after his freak injury in his draft year.
Courtney Johns refuses to let a freak injury stop him from making it in the AFL, Chloe Saltau reports.
Sometimes, Courtney Johns thinks about all that Essendon has invested in him and whether he will ever get the chance to show he is worth it.
"I've thought about that quite a bit. All I want to do is play a game, and that's me paying the club back, because when I've sat there and thought about it, the amount of money they've spent on me for doctors and MRIs and all that kind of stuff, it would be a fair bit," the 20-year-old said this week.
There is no doubt in the mind of John Quinn, the Essendon fitness coach who has made it his mission in life to get Johns playing football again, that he is worth it. Nor for those who watched the young key forward dominate games for East Fremantle before his left thigh bone was freakishly driven into his hip socket during a match in his draft year of 2002. The doctors who examined him, and the 15 other clubs that overlooked him as a result, might have been more sceptical.
Tonight, Essendon will begin another season without Johns, but Quinn this week was more optimistic than at any time since the Bombers ushered him on to the rookie list that the ambition would be realised
"This is probably the furthest we've advanced with Courtney in the three years he's been with us," Quinn said. "I personally have no doubt that we will get him up despite the predictions of the specialists, and I think if they could see him running right now, they would be shocked.
"They made no secret of the fact that they thought he would never run again, let alone play football, so it's a risk in which we are probably more likely to fail than we are to succeed," he said. "We've known that all along, but his attitude is fantastic. If he didn't have such a strong will, I don't know if Essendon would have stood by him as much as we have. When you can just feel the fire burning in his gut, it's very hard to say to someone, 'We don't think you're worth it'."
Johns feels he is getting closer to scrubbing his name from an injury list that regularly reads: "Courtney Johns (hip) - ongoing", a task to which he has singlemindedly devoted himself since moving to Melbourne. He played a handful of matches for the Bendigo Bombers in 2003, and his most recent surgery was to remove a piece of floating bone from his hip last May.
Recently, Quinn eased Johns from a sophisticated de-loading treadmill, which lifts up to 15 per cent of his bodyweight, to running on the grass for the first time in almost a year. The process has driven Johns "nuts now and then", but he is starting to see an end.
"It feels the best that it has since I did the original injury," Johns said. "A lot of doctors and physios had their opinions and that's fair enough, but that was definitely not what I wanted to hear and and I wasn't going to let that beat me. I've got to live my life and not die wondering, basically. This is what I want and I've got to do everything I can to get it. At the moment, things are looking pretty good."
And coach Kevin Sheedy has a new-found understanding of what he has endured, having recently had a hip replacement.
"He's really empathetic with Courtney, whereas before he could just see the potential," Quinn said.
That potential was obvious to everyone at East Fremantle, and Johns was tipped to be among the top few draft picks before the injury. "He played at full-forward and he could dominate a game when he was on song. He had a booming kick," said Kim Barrett, East Fremantle's football manager.
If that talent ever finds itself on an AFL ground, Quinn will be a satisfied man and Essendon's investment will have paid off. "We're nearly there. If we can get him running freely and then running off lines, he is right on target to be playing football by mid- to late-May," Quinn said.
"It's why I coach, to be able to allow people too achieve what they're capable of. To see Courtney Johns realise his ambition and his talent, and for the whole football world to say what a fantastic young player he is, that's the reward. We're still going about it quite cautiously, but we're very optimistic that, this time, Courtney Johns will play footy."
Sounds positive. :)
March 26, 2005
Some specialists believed Essendon's Courtney Johns, 20, would never run again after his freak injury in his draft year.
Courtney Johns refuses to let a freak injury stop him from making it in the AFL, Chloe Saltau reports.
Sometimes, Courtney Johns thinks about all that Essendon has invested in him and whether he will ever get the chance to show he is worth it.
"I've thought about that quite a bit. All I want to do is play a game, and that's me paying the club back, because when I've sat there and thought about it, the amount of money they've spent on me for doctors and MRIs and all that kind of stuff, it would be a fair bit," the 20-year-old said this week.
There is no doubt in the mind of John Quinn, the Essendon fitness coach who has made it his mission in life to get Johns playing football again, that he is worth it. Nor for those who watched the young key forward dominate games for East Fremantle before his left thigh bone was freakishly driven into his hip socket during a match in his draft year of 2002. The doctors who examined him, and the 15 other clubs that overlooked him as a result, might have been more sceptical.
Tonight, Essendon will begin another season without Johns, but Quinn this week was more optimistic than at any time since the Bombers ushered him on to the rookie list that the ambition would be realised
"This is probably the furthest we've advanced with Courtney in the three years he's been with us," Quinn said. "I personally have no doubt that we will get him up despite the predictions of the specialists, and I think if they could see him running right now, they would be shocked.
"They made no secret of the fact that they thought he would never run again, let alone play football, so it's a risk in which we are probably more likely to fail than we are to succeed," he said. "We've known that all along, but his attitude is fantastic. If he didn't have such a strong will, I don't know if Essendon would have stood by him as much as we have. When you can just feel the fire burning in his gut, it's very hard to say to someone, 'We don't think you're worth it'."
Johns feels he is getting closer to scrubbing his name from an injury list that regularly reads: "Courtney Johns (hip) - ongoing", a task to which he has singlemindedly devoted himself since moving to Melbourne. He played a handful of matches for the Bendigo Bombers in 2003, and his most recent surgery was to remove a piece of floating bone from his hip last May.
Recently, Quinn eased Johns from a sophisticated de-loading treadmill, which lifts up to 15 per cent of his bodyweight, to running on the grass for the first time in almost a year. The process has driven Johns "nuts now and then", but he is starting to see an end.
"It feels the best that it has since I did the original injury," Johns said. "A lot of doctors and physios had their opinions and that's fair enough, but that was definitely not what I wanted to hear and and I wasn't going to let that beat me. I've got to live my life and not die wondering, basically. This is what I want and I've got to do everything I can to get it. At the moment, things are looking pretty good."
And coach Kevin Sheedy has a new-found understanding of what he has endured, having recently had a hip replacement.
"He's really empathetic with Courtney, whereas before he could just see the potential," Quinn said.
That potential was obvious to everyone at East Fremantle, and Johns was tipped to be among the top few draft picks before the injury. "He played at full-forward and he could dominate a game when he was on song. He had a booming kick," said Kim Barrett, East Fremantle's football manager.
If that talent ever finds itself on an AFL ground, Quinn will be a satisfied man and Essendon's investment will have paid off. "We're nearly there. If we can get him running freely and then running off lines, he is right on target to be playing football by mid- to late-May," Quinn said.
"It's why I coach, to be able to allow people too achieve what they're capable of. To see Courtney Johns realise his ambition and his talent, and for the whole football world to say what a fantastic young player he is, that's the reward. We're still going about it quite cautiously, but we're very optimistic that, this time, Courtney Johns will play footy."
Sounds positive. :)