Players who's career was ruined by injuries?

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Nathan Brown.

Was on the trajectory to become possibly the best player in the competition in 2005, almost singlehandedly winning a string of matches off his own boot in the first couple of months of that season.

But when he finally came back in 2006 from the broken leg that he suffered in Round 10 against Melbourne, Brown had pretty much lost his magic, and hardly played at all in 2007. The ongoing complications from his sickening broken leg had snuffed out his playing career.

Now it is us that have to endure him every 2 minutes spruiking his betting agency on the telly, so I'm not sure if a broken tibia or fibia or whatever it was would be any more painful.
 
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OnceWeWereKings said:
From a Carlton perspective.

Knees stopped Kouta from having an extended period as the best player in the comp.
Was establishing himself as an unstoppable force in ‘00, ‘01 when respectively picked up an MCL then an ACL.
Robbed him of his key attribute, which was pretty much unrivalled athleticism for the time.
Was pretty much doing everything for those two seasons, playing mid, back, forward, getting it close to 30 times and averaging two goals a game (When focussed forward of centre)

Judd probably another, was the best outside mid I’ve ever seen in his WC days, an absolute jet. Numerous injuries robbed him of his explosive capabilities, but like most true greats that loose a one wood, pivoted and turned himself into a contested ball beast. I think his ability to do so has been underrated by many as his shoulders were shot from the get go. Built up an incredible core strength to compensate for the loss of his explosiveness.
Click to expand...

Always thought Kruezer should have been a star
 

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Chad Wingard since coming to Hawthorn.

dual all-Australian at port Adelaide by the age of 22 to one of the most injury plagued players in recent times
 
The Cobain effect in full swing here. Every one of these blokes was going to be the best player in the country at least, if not an all time great, when cut down by injury.

The reality is like all players - most would’ve just been okay - good, with the odd spark of brilliance that many players display every so often.
 
David Schwartz, Steven Tingay, Glenn Lovett, Paul Prymke, Sean Charles, Allen Jakovich, Luke Molan, Jack Trengove, Garry Lyon.
 
A less glamorous one is Tom Langdon who was a very handy defender for the pies, and would have otherwise likely locked down a permanent role in a strong back six. Was one of the best players across the 2018 finals series but then only managed to play another handful of games before retiring due to recurring knee injuries.
 
Anthony Morabito would've been huge, this is just from his debut season.

Forgive the cheesy music, but look at the combination of speed and power. He should still be playing today.

Our current coach Justin Longmuir had his career cut short due to a knee injury.


Another bad loss was Clem Michael, son of South Fremantle legend Stephen Michael, unfortunately I can't find any highlights of him.
 
Trent Hentschel and Andy Otten a couple of Crows undone by their knees.
 

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Clay Smith
Shane Biggs
Jack Redpath

One knee between them
 
Jesse Smith for North. Won the Larke medal in front of the likes of Brett Deledio, Marc Murphy, Ryan Griffen ect. He could play all across the ground, was a smooth mover, had compsoure and had a beautiful kick. His elimination final against the Hawks in 2007 was bloody good and had him destined for great things.

He had to change his running gait due to the ankle injury sustained 2006, after the 2007 season his body just couldn't handle the workload and his ankle, knees and hamstrings would constantly give him issues. Spent another 4 years on AFL lists but only played 2 more games after that 2007 season.

It's a cruel sport sometimes.
 
BulldogMuscle said:
Clay Smith
Shane Biggs
Jack Redpath

One knee between them
Click to expand...

Clay Smith in particular, was a first round pick, ended up with 3 ACLs.

Showed his grit with 4 first half goals in the 2016 Prelim v GWS and was a major reason we won that game and the following week.

Similar to Tom Boyd, not in terms of injury, but in terms of those 2 playing a very influential final series. If only big Tom actually enjoyed playing AFL........
 
Dogs till i die said:
Clay Smith in particular, was a first round pick, ended up with 3 ACLs.

Showed his grit with 4 first half goals in the 2016 Prelim v GWS and was a major reason we won that game and the following week.

Similar to Tom Boyd, not in terms of injury, but in terms of those 2 playing a very influential final series. If only big Tom actually enjoyed playing AFL........
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Club would look very different these days if we managed to keep TBoyd, Redpath, Biggs and C. Smith all on the field.
 
Nick Holland looked like he was going to break 1000 goals early in his career
Still got 150 odd games but was never the same after injury
 
Kreuzer for Carlton and Jack Trengove for Melbourne are the ones that come to mind for me.

Kreuzer ended up getting a fair decent game time in his career, but every time it looked like he was just getting into form and playing to his capabilities he suffered another injury. I feel constant injuries he got in his early-mid career ended any chance of him reaching his true potential later in his career.

Jack Trengrove in his first couple of years indicated that he was a worthy high draft pick, but then pretty much couldn't get on the park because of injuries which took it's toll and he had to retire because of it.
 
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Jarryd Roughead, cancer.

If he doesn’t get that he probably kicks over 800 goals, and Hawthorn win another flag(in 2016).

As it was he came back to the game and battled on but had reportedly lost the sensation in his limbs(due to the therapy he undertook to kill the cancer)which impacted his ability in games and made him a much lesser player. Retired at the age of 32.
 
Sean Rusling looked a player before the shoulders went. Would’ve been an incredible partner for Trav Cloke over ten years.
 
Bowen Lockwood :(

On SM-G975F using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
Bunk Moreland said:
The Cobain effect in full swing here. Every one of these blokes was going to be the best player in the country at least, if not an all time great, when cut down by injury.

The reality is like all players - most would’ve just been okay - good, with the odd spark of brilliance that many players display every so often.
Click to expand...

Not sure what Cobain did to deserve this.
Produced arguably the best album of an entire decade, maybe a few decades given the wasteland of the 80s, the best live album of all time, and another studio album that stacks up to anything from the 90s as well. He wasn’t ‘going to be’ anything. He already was.
 
Matthew Egan. All Australian CHB as essentially a kid, in an all time defence, five weeks out from a 20 goal grand final win, never plays again.
 
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