Retired 13. Tom Lonergan (2003-2017)

[CF]

Tom Lonergan


Fast Facts

Jumper No: 13
Height: 197 cm
Weight: 97 kg
DOB: 17 May 1984
Recruited From: Calder U18


Outlook

After his courageous comeback to VFL football in 2007, Lonergan made it a complete return by reappearing in the Cats’ senior colours for the first time since losing a kidney in late 2006. Forced his way into the line-up in round 10 after a string of solid performances at VFL level and did not lose his spot. Kicked a more than useful 32 goals in his 16 appearances and attacked the ball with confidence and enthusiasm. Kicked the first goal of the Grand Final but didn’t quite achieve the fairytale result he and the Cats were hoping.


SEASON BY SEASON HIGHLIGHTS

2008
# Made return to AFL level against Carlton in rd 10, kicking two goals
# Went on to the 16 games (15-1) and kicked 36 goals
# Ranked 4th on Geelong’s goal kicking list
# Played all three finals, including the grand final, where he kicked the opening goal of the match
# Kicked four goals in four games (vs. Adel, Freo, Melb, WC)
# Had career bests with 18 possessions and 11 marks in QF win over St Kilda

2007
# Bravely came back to football. First VFL game was against Tasmania mid season
# Played well all year but was brilliant on VFL grand final day
# Kicked five second half goals and six for the game in premiership win
# Named as Norm Goss medalist as best on ground in grand final
# Won the Cats community champion award

2006
# Nearly lost his life after collision in rd 21 game with Melbourne. Lost a kidney but survived
# Played three games (1-1-1)
# Had a great VFL season, finishing 2nd in Geelong’s best & fairest

2005
# Made AFL debut in rd 9 against North Melbourne, kicking two goals
# Played four games (1-3) and kicked five goals

2004
# Spent the season at VFL level

2003
# Spent the season at VFL level

2002
# Represented Vic Country at U18 national championship
# Played in TAC Cup grand final at MCG for Calder Cannons – a one point loss

 

[Metallica_Man]

Re: No. 13 Tom Lonergan

Courageous Cat won’t look back

By Ben Broad 5:23 PM Tue 16 October, 2007

THE man who has overseen Tom Lonergan’s progress during much of his football development believes the Geelong youngster won’t simply be making up the numbers on the Cats’ senior list next season.

Leigh Tudor, Geelong’s VFL premiership coach, says now Lonergan has fully overcome the injury that threatened his life less than 18 months ago, he is ready to blossom at the top level.

“It’s a really great opportunity for him,” Tudor said.

“Now he can be there for the first day of pre-season, set himself up for the practice match series, and get himself going and he really has to have in his mind that he’s there to play AFL football, and he is.

“He deserves his opportunity and now he’s got to take it.”

After de-listing four players during the AFL trade period, the Cats’ decision to upgrade Lonergan – on a rookie contract with the club in 2007 – was one of the feel-good stories of the post season.

It was round 21 at Skilled Stadium last year when the 23-year-old courageously backed into oncoming traffic, the resulting collision leaving Lonergan hospitalised, with the versatile Cat needing a kidney removed.

He lost more than 15 kilograms and had to re-consider his future, with many believing it wasn’t worth the risk of continuing his career.

But Tudor said Lonergan’s determination – and courage – was evident from the moment he ran out for his first match this year.

“His first game he took five marks, three of them were contested and two them were backing back into packs,” Tudor said.

“He’d just started to play the best footy of his career when it happened … I’m sure he would have had doubts [about his ability to come back], but his first game… you wouldn’t have known it.”

Lonergan enjoyed a superb comeback season, which was capped off when he was named best on ground in the VFL Grand Final last month.

That day he kicked six goals in Geelong’s easy win over Coburg.

Despite that performance further raising his stock, Tudor doesn’t believe it swayed the Cats as to whether or not they would upgrade him to the club’s senior list.

“No, I wouldn’t think so, to be honest,” Tudor said.

“He’s been outstanding all year. It’s really surprising how durable he’s been, to come back from what he went through.

“I hardly gave him any rest near the end, he was playing full games of football … so no, it wasn’t just the Grand Final, it was his whole year of football, it was his whole attitude, his work ethic and his relationship with the club.”

Tudor said he had taken particular joy in Lonergan’s return to the top level, having shared in the youngster’s tough journey.

“My first involvement with Tom was at the Calder Cannons actually,” Tudor recalled.

“I was an assistant coach there, so I’ve actually come through the whole way with him and it’s just been amazing, absolutely amazing to see how he recovered.

“The work he put in and how he just kept backing up and then by the end of the year in the VFL, he was my most durable and versatile player … you could throw him anywhere.”

 

[Metallica_Man]

Re: No. 13 Tom Lonergan

Lonergan ready for the next challenge

WHEN Tom Lonergan flew out of Australia at the end of the 2007 football season, he was hopeful he had done enough to secure his spot back on Geelong’s senior list.

A meeting with the coaching hierarchy at Skilled Stadium at the end of the club’s dominant year had left the 23-year-old optimistic that he would earn another crack.

Still, the man who lost a kidney – and was lucky not to lose a lot more – when backing into a pack a little over a year ago, knows nothing in life is certain.

So when Lonergan received confirmation the Cats had elevated him back onto their senior AFL list, he was willing to indulge a little and celebrate – even if those around him looked at him blankly when the excitable foreigner rambled on about a game which they had barely heard of.

“I was on a bus by myself [when I found out I’d been elevated], going from Germany to Italy,” Lonergan explained.

“I had a Heineken in my backpack, so I thought I’d crack one out. I told a few people but no one understood, obviously, because they were from all over the world.

“They weren’t interested! That was good though, no one really cared.”

Now back on the senior list, and in superb physical condition, the courageous Cat is pumped up to make his mark in the AFL.

“I’m stoked,” Lonergan said of his re-drafting.

“I thought after the year I had that I might have been a chance to get back on [the senior list] … so I’m pretty stoked to be back on the list and hopefully it’s smooth running from here on in.”

Lonergan enjoyed the chance to reflect on what had been a tumultuous period in his life.

“It’s been a bit of a roller-coaster,” he said.

“There’s been some highs and lows, so it was a good time to get away [during the off-season].

“You hear a lot of people say that footy can be over tomorrow. If you get an injury similar to the one I had … it does put a lot of things in perspective.

“When you go through all that time away from the game it makes you really hungry and really makes you want to get back out there,” he said.

“That was the one thing I learned [when I wasn’t playing], it was that I was really hungry and that I wanted to play senior footy and prove that I could play at senior level.”

Lonergan hasn’t played senior football since round 21, 2006 – a day during he impressed across half-back for Geelong before one too many acts of bravery changed his footballing path. A collision while backing into a pack left the young Cat in hospital facing a major operation.

“I’ve only watched it three times,” Lonergan said of the incident. “Each time I watch it I sort of look away.”

The horrific injury resulted in the versatile big man losing 17kg from his 197cm frame. The personal war he waged to again pull on the boots helped inspire Geelong’s VFL team – of which Lonergan played a starring role – to go all the way in 2007.

His performance in the VFL Grand Final was particularly notable: Six goals - including five in the third quarter, resulted in best afield honours for the former Yarrawonga boy.

But now, with a spot on the Cats' list sewn up and a clean bill of health, a new test awaits. He must try to break into Geelong’s all-conquering senior line-up.

“That’s the new challenge, isn’t it?” Lonergan said.

“I think other guys on the fringe are probably asking themselves the same question: How do I do that?

“They [the senior side] had a fantastic year and had a lot of things go right for them.

“They just thoroughly deserved it and I’ve just got to do my best, train hard, put my best foot forward and hopefully a bit of luck falls my way and I can break in somewhere.”

from gfc.com.au

 

[CF]

Re: No. 13 Tom Lonergan

2008 stats

Awards

Geelong
Runner up VFL best & fairest 2006
Community champion 2007

Representative honours
Victoria Country under 18 2002

Premierships
NAB Cup 2006 (Geelong dft. Adelaide)
VFL 2007 (Geelong dft. Coburg)

VFL
Norm Goss Medal 2007

 

[CF]

Re: No. 13 Tom Lonergan

[YOUTUBE]m9Esywd0aUw[/YOUTUBE]

 

[CF]

Re: No. 13 Tom Lonergan

Tom Lonergan bravely conquers adversity



TOM Lonergan's is a story that ranks comfortably among the AFL's great stories of bravery.

Those of Robert DiPierdomenico, who punctured a lung the last time these sides met in a grand final in 1989 but ignored the pain to be pivotal in the Hawks' six-point victory.

Of Kangaroo Jason McCartney, who fought back from horrific burns suffered in the 2002 Bali bombings for a memorable return against Richmond in June, 2003, when he kicked a last-quarter goal and then assisted in another that put North Melbourne in front with seconds to play.

Every time Lonergan takes the field, as he will in today's grand final, or even hits the training track, the Cat is at greater risk than any rival of a serious health problem.

Just over two years ago, Lonergan lost his right kidney and nearly his life when struck hard in the ribs while backing into a pack to take a courageous mark late in his seventh game of AFL.

Lonergan was placed in an induced coma after losing litres of blood and lost 17kg as a result of the trauma.

"If someone had told me two years ago where I would be now, I'd laugh and wouldn't believe it at all," Lonergan said yesterday.

"To get out and play footy again ... to be able to get out of bed was great, but to be in a grand final is nothing I expected, so I am really happy to be here."

After strongly considering retirement - his is not a dicky knee that might lead to 12 months on the sidelines - Lonergan, 24, returned via the reserves midway through last season, which drew rare praise from club doctor Chris Bradshaw.

"Jason McCartney played that one senior game before he called it quits. He made the monumental effort to prove that he could get back and do it," Bradshaw said.

"Hopefully, Tommy will be different. He hasn't got the external scars that Jason McCartney had. Hopefully he'll just get better and better and better."

Lonergan, whose family will be at the MCG today, said he preferred not to dwell on either the initial injury or the inherent danger of playing.

"Once I made my decision to come back to footy, I haven't looked back," Lonergan said.

By the end of last year, he had received a promotion back on to Geelong's senior list after kicking six goals to earn best afield honours in the Cats' VFL premiership on a day that "was personally a pretty emotional day and big for the club".

While it took Lonergan until round 10 to break into the side given the presence of boom youngster Tom Hawkins, he proved a revelation and has kicked 34 in 15 games.

As Geelong coach Mark Thompson said recently: "To make his way back into the team and play the sort of footy he has played, it's just fantastic.

"I know for a while there he was just motivating the whole footy club; he's that sort of special person around the club."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24407815-5012432,00.html

Miracle man: Geelong player Tom Lonergan


THIS time two years ago Tom Lonergan was struggling to walk and his speech was slurred.

That image of his best mate will be with Henry Playfair when he sits back on the couch at his parents' home in Wagga Wagga tomorrow and flicks on the TV to watch the Grand Final.

All week he has been thinking about Lonergan running out on to the MCG, but still he's struggling to believe it's actually happening.

"I have thought about it a lot and it seems like it has been a bit understated," Playfair said.

"For me seeing first hand what exactly he went through and how he was tossing up whether he was going to play again.

"Now he is about to play in an AFL Grand Final . . . it is just amazing."

Playfair shared a house with Lonergan, Charlie Gardiner and Matt McCarthy a few years ago in Geelong. The four are still close mates, despite their careers taking them in very different directions.

"I firmly remember the first few days after he was out of hospital and just how much weight he had lost," said Playfair, who this year relocated to Sydney to play with the Swans.

"He couldn't talk, he was really slow in his speech and was so drawn in the face. He had these huge scars and it was just so hard to picture him getting back."

While Lonergan's comeback from horrific injuries suffered in the Round 21 game against Melbourne in 2006 has been well documented, his mates believe the magnitude of what he has done has been downplayed.

"People see him bouncing around now and think he's going all right," McCarthy said. "They don't put two and two together and realise, 'Oh, that's the guy who was nearly dead'."

McCarthy, who was delisted by the Cats at the end of 2006 and did not play anywhere this year, said he was glad Lonergan had ignored his advice.

"We thought he was every chance not to pull through at one point. I mean, footy was the furtherest thing we thought was ever going to happen," he said.

"He was that frail, just so thin, and he was weighing up what to do. And (it's) lucky he didn't listen to me because I told him to give it away."

Gardiner, who was traded to St Kilda last year, remembers sitting by Lonergan's bed while he was in a coma for three days following surgery to remove his kidney.

"I remember being in the hospital and seeing the state he was in," he said.

"It was a pretty dark and sad time. While people have recognised (his comeback), I don't think they truly understand just how incredible and amazing it is that he's doing what he is doing."

His friend's strength of mind once he decided to continue playing is something Gardiner admits was extraordinary.

"Never have I once heard him get down about it," he said. "Immediately after he was always positive about getting back and he was always confident he would do it."

Playfair agreed. "I never heard him say that he wouldn't play again. He never doubted whether he would get back to playing AFL," he said.

"You never saw him say, 'This is too hard'. You never had to spur him on, he was just motivated within himself."

McCarthy said Lonergan's laid-back country-boy nature - he grew up in Yarrawonga - helped him deal with the enormous mental stress associated with the recovery process.

"He has just got this attitude where he wouldn't think about it too much," he said.

"He's not blase about it, but it wouldn't stress him.

"He just thinks, 'Oh well, I've still got one (kidney), so let's go'. With most people you would think it would be going through their head every second, but he just seems to put it to one side and gets on with things."

The four became mates when they moved into a house in Newtown owned by former captain Ben Graham.

"It was a big old house and Tom lived in the laundry," McCarthy said. "He was meant to only be there for a few weeks but ended up making it his own . . . he stayed there for a couple of years."

And Lonergan's mates all agreed that the fact he was playing the best game of his seven-game career when he got injured had been significant in his comeback.

"The game he got hurt in he was playing really well, the best game of his career," Playfair said.

"I think it was lucky he had that game because he would have thought through his whole rehab, 'I did it that day, I played like an AFL player should'.

"So then I guess coming back he did have the self-belief. He did want to prove to people that he could come back and play well."

Ten months after the incident, Lonergan made his return to football in the VFL wearing a protective guard.

He naturally took a while to find his feet before choosing the biggest stage of all to officially declare he was back.

In the 2007 VFL grand final Lonergan kicked six goals in the second half, including five in the third quarter, to win the Norm Goss Medal for best player on the ground.

The club immediately promoted him back on to the senior list as had been agreed when he started his comeback.

And in Round 10 this year he made a triumphant return to the AFL kicking two goals, against Carlton.

He has not been out of the side since, with the 24-year-old becoming the Cats' second tall forward option alongside Cameron Mooney; a return of 34 goals from 15 games earning him a Grand Final berth.

And Playfair is predicting something special from the No. 13 tomorrow.

"It wouldn't surprise me if he bobbed up and kicked eight," he said.

"That's the type of person he is. He didn't do a heap last year, and then come the big day he delivered."

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,24403938-19742,00.html

 

[CF]

Re: No. 13 Tom Lonergan

[YOUTUBE]cnvhHt5-0mo[/YOUTUBE]

see the Tom Lonergan Comeback Video Click Here

 

[LifeSpan-Void]

Re: Like a phoenix from the ashes - Geelong Board player review is back!

Sorry about the delay, I've had exams
Tom Lonergan player review 2011

With the dust settled now on a victorious season in 2011, we have the opportunity to look back on the season with a more objective appraisal of the players that contributed to achieving the third flag of Geelong's modern era. No player on Geelong's list could lay claim to entitlement for inclusion in the victory more than Tom Lonergan, with the 2011 premiership completing a remarkable, at times miraculous reversal of fortune for the 197cm forward-cum-defender from Yarrawonga.

A lot of ink was dedicated to the "stories" of the Grand Finals, predominantly following Tarrant's East/West/East journey, Krakouer's Out/In/Out journey and Podsiadly's Nowhere/Somewhere career path – as well as the speculation surrounding the ubiquitous Mick Malthouse. A few mentions of Lonergan’s near-fatal 2006 collision with Brad Miller were made but given that Lonergan had played in the 2008 Grand Final loss, it seemed that his story was deemed told, and would be confined mostly to news outlets outside of the metropolitan area.

A brief history:
So yes I will make mention of the fact that Lonergan was hospitalised after that 2006 game, and that he was placed into an induced coma and due to the severity of his injury underwent an emergency nephrectomy as the only means of curbing massive internal bleeding. I will mention that during his hospital stay he lost 17kg and was discharged a pale shell of his former self – and nobody would have blamed him had he decided to retire then and there. His desire to play on was duly noted by Geelong, who allowed him to recover and rebuild himself by placing him on the rookie list for the 2007 season. I will mention that he fought his way back to be BOG in the VFL grand final that year, and subsequently earned a senior recall in 2008 after Nathan Ablett followed in the great family tradition of quitting football without warning or reason and Hawkins fell victim to a “hot spot” midseason. Despite kicking a respectable 36 goals in 16 games, there was outside doubt as to Lonergan’s long term worth as a player. 2009 saw Lonergan given a second run as a defender in a very unsettled season (9 games), the low point a dirty night on Jonathan Brown in a rare loss. With Harley’s departure after the 2009 Premiership, Lonergan seized the chance to be a permanent inclusion in the 22, and became a reliable 1-on-1 defender, getting shutdown roles on players like Franklin and Dawes. Yet after Geelong’s rather undignified 2010 exit, questions were still being asked in relation to Tom’s place in the side – was his disposal under pressure as questionable as some were suggesting? Was he really only getting games to boost his currency at the trade table?

Fast forward to 2011, and Lonergan again begins the season in the 22. Unobtrusively doing jobs in scrappy wins against St Kilda & Sydney among others, his first big scalp for the year came when he restricted Buddy Franklin to 1.5, forcing him wide at all times so that any marks he took resulted in low-percentage shots on goal. Through the season Tom also did jobs on the likes of Dawes, Tippett, Riewoldt/Koschitzke, Watts and Kennedy and was rarely beaten while remaining relatively low-key to most viewers – this would again fuel discussion that his place in the side was far from assured, and that he was playing merely to keep his spot on a weekly basis. There was a notable difference in Lonergan’s game to previous years however. It wasn’t that he was playing in front of his opponent, because that was something he’d always done; it wasn’t a newfound courage that he played with, that had been evident from a very early point and hadn’t changed one iota after his kidney removal. It was confidence. A confidence that we have seen before, in other Geelong defenders of recent times – a knowledge that they are each a cog in a machine, and reliant on each other to get the job done – furthermore, knowing that the job was going to be done based on that understanding. What once had been a trust shared between Harley and the others was now Lonergan’s responsibility, and one he would take to the absolute highest level in 2011.

Tom’s masterwork for this season was by far his effort on Chris Dawes and Travis Cloke in the 2011 grand final. After keeping Dawes almost statless in the first half (and thus sowed seeds of self-doubt into Dawes’ mind) he was then moved onto Cloke - where he virtually eliminated him from the game after Cloke had started with authority on Taylor (although admittedly he kicked two of his three goals from a very long way out) to the point where Cloke was under so much pressure to deliver anything that he shanked his final shot at goal when the game was all but over. Not only did he wear Cloke down with spoiling pressure and break his run, but outmarked him when Collingwood was pushing into their attacking 50. The only real blot on Lonergan’s copy book was a fairly blatant shove into Cloke’s back as he missed a marking opportunity early in the final quarter that resulted in a free, but even that one action could have been considered a mark of dominance. As Cloke missed the ball and began to skew off balance, Lonergan appeared to take it as an opportunity to grind Cloke into the dirt, just as Geelong used the final quarter to drive Collingwood’s collective nose into the turf.

Lonergan had proven himself finally to anyone who still had doubts about his ability to play under pressure, and cemented his place in the side as the first-choice stopper for an opposition’s No. 1 key forward. Luke Power declared him as Geelong’s best tall defender, Chris Scott describes him as deceptively tall… almost ruck-sized, but with amazingly quick closing speed.
At 27, he still has plenty to offer the team and will make the post-Scarlett transition much easier for the next generation of Geelong defenders along with Harry Taylor.

 

[dazbroncos]

Talk about zombie thread...

Article in the Addy suggests that Domsy signed a one year deal at end of 2016.

I was not aware he was OOC end of last year.

Seems as he was and 2017 will be his last.

http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au...r/news-story/790e286ce2d460c53ea4985460632dac

Go Catters

 

[dazbroncos]

Domsy retired..

What a servant of the club and to him, the truly best wishes for the future.

GO Catters

 

[CabWesty]

As brave as they come. Thanks Domsy for being such an amazing team member.