News Matthew Egan launches legal action over the treatment of his foot injury

[AM]

I'll be very surprised if this makes it to court. I see an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed sum in Matty's future.

Extraordinarily hard to get the critical evidence necessary to win these cases. Medical indemnity insurers are a tough bunch who have some of the best legal medical specialists in their corner. If he wins it will be after a protracted harrowing fight is my guess.

One matter of interest will be just why he's left litigating for so long.

 

[BlakeyNoFlakey]

One matter of interest will be just why he's left litigating for so long.

I don't see any problem with how long it's taken him to make the decision. Sometimes people just take time to realise that events in their past were worse than they ever thought. It's probably come through his experiences as a coach that over time he's come to understand that the advice he got was dodgy.

 

[Vdubs]

Extraordinarily hard to get the critical evidence necessary to win these cases. Medical indemnity insurers are a tough bunch who have some of the best legal medical specialists in their corner. If he wins it will be after a protracted harrowing fight is my guess.

One matter of interest will be just why he's left litigating for so long.

? The 7 year "itch".
Wonder if he has discussed this with Bomber.
The whole Egan case has always left me uncomfortable, recall watching him hobble around our boundary lines when working in his coaching roles at Geelong. Just very sad.He has definitely had severe loss of enjoyment of life, and we don't know how that has affected him.

 

[AM]

? The 7 year "itch".
Wonder if he has discussed this with Bomber.
The whole Egan case has always left me uncomfortable, recall watching him hobble around our boundary lines when working in his coaching roles at Geelong. Just very sad.He has definitely had severe loss of enjoyment of life, and we don't know how that has affected him.

We do know it's 'severe' do we? I guess that will be tested with vigour should the matter end up in a Court of Law. The question of the date of discoverability will be amongst some of the many matters that will come under heavy scrutiny one would imagine.

 

[FredLeDeux]

? The 7 year "itch".
Wonder if he has discussed this with Bomber.
The whole Egan case has always left me uncomfortable, recall watching him hobble around our boundary lines when working in his coaching roles at Geelong. Just very sad.He has definitely had severe loss of enjoyment of life, and we don't know how that has affected him.

Who can know his motives?
Perhaps it's as simple as the fact that the foot's really been giving him gyp during the recent cold weather.
Perhaps he just wants some sort of vindication.
Perhaps there has been another physical development making the effects worse or potentially worse.
Who knows?

 

[alfy!]

Ugh, I expected better from these posts on the Geelong board.

 

[Sttew]

Not claiming loss of earnings, just damages, presumably for pain and suffering.

Which may explain why GFC is not named as a defendant - the club ensured he had employment and a career path

 

[vinum coupe]

I found some other threads on this from back in 2008. There were a lot of rumours. Such as "The doctors don't know what else to do"
And I found my posts on it.

I had emailed his dad on Sept 30 2008 asking about Matt.
And the response was something like "He's back running, will be ok for preseason"
6 weeks later he had retired.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Gosh he was good, thanks for the cameo. So sad when he went down wasn't it the last game of the season against Brisbane. Of course we would not have had Harry, oooooooooooooh imagine them together patrolling the halfback line.

We could absolutely still have Harry and to assume we wouldn't have, would be to assume that Geelong thought it was likely that Egan would not be part of the on-field future of the club, way back in October/November 2007 and kept him on the list for other couple of years, purely out of sympathy.

 

[Go Hoops]

Anyone who thinks the club won' t be dragged into this is kidding themselves. One of those named is still an employee. The club stood by Ego throughout his surgery and post his surgery. The money hungry ingrate can get stuffed. I hope he loses and has to pay all the costs.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Anyone who thinks the club won' t be dragged into this is kidding themselves. One of those named is still an employee. The club stood by Ego throughout his surgery and post his surgery. The money hungry ingrate can get stuffed. I hope he loses and has to pay all the costs.

Case closed then, I guess.

 

[goyoucatters]

We could absolutely still have Harry and to assume we wouldn't have, would be to assume that Geelong thought it was likely that Egan would not be part of the on-field future of the club, way back in October/November 2007 and kept him on the list for other couple of years, purely out of sympathy.

Without a direct comment from Wells or the like, we will probably never know.

I think the evidence stacks up to Harry being chosen as our first-rounder on the basis that Egan was at best only 50/50 to ever play again. That's how serious the navicular injury is. And how uncertain the prognosis was given Matthew (with the support of the club) had tried to get back incredibly early to take a shot at being available for the '07 GF.

I don't think he was retained out of sympathy. He was kept on due to that great intangible, hope.

A guy who was AA-quality was always likely to get several chances to see whether the dream was still alive.

Reminds me of a certain #10 right now.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Without a direct comment from Wells or the like, we will probably never know.

I think the evidence stacks up to Harry being chosen as our first-rounder on the basis that Egan was at best only 50/50 to ever play again. That's how serious the navicular injury is. And how uncertain the prognosis was given Matthew (with the support of the club) had tried to get back incredibly early to take a shot at being available for the '07 GF.

I don't think he was retained out of sympathy. He was kept on due to that great intangible, hope.

A guy who was AA-quality was always likely to get several chances to see whether the dream was still alive.

Reminds me of a certain #10 right now.

That's certainly not how I remember it, heading into the 2008 pre-season. At the time Taylor was drafted, Egan had been out of the game for a couple of months. Menzel has been out of the game for three years and counting. It's been a while since I've read it, but I'm sure the second Mission book would go into detail about the drafting of Taylor and the reasoning behind it. Though, if he was asked now, I'm sure Wells would say that he would have drafted Taylor regardless...what is to be gained from saying otherwise?

It should also be remembered that Tom Lonergan was two and a half years off being a staple in the Geelong defence: he'd just kicked six goals in a BOG performance in the VFL grand final and spent 2008 in the forward line. If we're playing the 'what if?' game, I'd suggest that rather than Taylor not being drafted at all, the more likely scenario would have been Lonergan being at another club, or out of the AFL before he played 50 games. Egan would have been in his spot and Egan is less than a year older than Lonergan.

 

[Partridge]

It should also be remembered that Tom Lonergan was two and a half years off being a staple in the Geelong defence: he'd just kicked six goals in a BOG performance in the VFL grand final and spent 2008 in the forward line. If we're playing the 'what if?' game, I'd suggest that rather than Taylor not being drafted at all, the more likely scenario would have been Lonergan being at another club, or out of the AFL before he played 50 games. Egan would have been in his spot and Egan is less than a year older than Lonergan.

It's very easy to think that the club plans everything so wonderfully it's all part of a grand strategy; but sometimes happy accidents occur. We certainly didn't plan for Egan to never play again, as I've said I remember seeing him training in early 2008 (and Taylor would have been in those sessions). Scarlett played another 5 years so it would have been very interesting to see where everyone would have fit. But fortunately for us, Egan's failure to come back opened a door for Taylor, which in a year or two opened a door for Lonergan.

 

[FredLeDeux]

It's very easy to think that the club plans everything so wonderfully it's all part of a grand strategy; but sometimes happy accidents occur. We certainly didn't plan for Egan to never play again, as I've said I remember seeing him training in early 2008 (and Taylor would have been in those sessions). Scarlett played another 5 years so it would have been very interesting to see where everyone would have fit. But fortunately for us, Egan's failure to come back opened a door for Taylor, which in a year or two opened a door for Lonergan.

I distinctly remember that at the start of 2008 the club was saying Egan was expected back later that season.
There was no suggestion whatever, at that stage, that he would not play again.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

I distinctly remember that at the start of 2008 the club was saying Egan was expected back later that season.
There was no suggestion whatever, at that stage, that he would not play again.

It was probably around the time that the second surgery had to be undertaken that a lot of us would have started to worry. Maybe I'm getting forgetful, but I just don't remember any sort of concern beyond a standard LTI, prior to the second surgery. And, without wanting to be too callous about it, I'm sure part of that (along with the general indifference regarding the departure of Nathan Ablett) was because we seemed to be doing fine without him.

This article (from May, 2008) certainly isn't happy reading, given where we're at now.

But Thompson acknowledged AFL culture had clubs racing to get players back from injury in quick time, and that in Egan's case, the Cats had not met their obligation to get their player injury-free.

“Generally in footy we try to race the process and try to create medical records as far as rehabs and everything else, we push,” he said.

“Even with (Sydney's Nick) Malceski this week playing in 89 days (since he suffered a serious knee injury), we just try to get better and better at what we do.

“We succeed in some cases, but we also fail in others and we haven't delivered (on Egan). We haven't healed his foot yet, so we've got to go back and make sure it gets healed this time.”

 

[Partridge]

It was probably around the time that the second surgery had to be undertaken that a lot of us would have started to worry. Maybe I'm getting forgetful, but I just don't remember any sort of concern beyond a standard LTI, prior to the second surgery. And, without wanting to be too callous about it, I'm sure part of that (along with the general indifference regarding the departure of Nathan Ablett) was because we seemed to be doing fine without him.

This article (from May, 2008) certainly isn't happy reading, given where we're at now.

It makes you wonder doesn't it, when you think about Cowan, and Simpson, and even McCarthy, how fast they've pushed themselves to overcome their respective injuries.

 

[FredLeDeux]

It makes you wonder doesn't it, when you think about Cowan, and Simpson, and even McCarthy, how fast they've pushed themselves to overcome their respective injuries.

You think they may have gone too fast?
I note that in at least one of Cowan's relapses it was clearly the club's fault for playing him much longer than had been agreed to by the fitness staff, who were stroppy about it.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

It makes you wonder doesn't it, when you think about Cowan, and Simpson, and even McCarthy, how fast they've pushed themselves to overcome their respective injuries.

Especially Simpson. He was pretty much a forgotten man (at least from the outside) when he came back into the team last year. Was he right to go? He had to be: West and Vardy were injured, so it would have been Blicavs and Walker against Leuenberger otherwise (and Leuenberger still slaughtered us in the last quarter...imagine what he would have done against Walker, instead of Simpson). Simpson looked to be going ok too: another injury to finish last year, but that was a collision leg break, looked like a successful rehab. Fast forward 12 months...

We went into Round 1 last year with West (who from memory had not played a single practice match, due to injury) and Blicavs, because there were no other ruck options, again besides Walker.

It's easy to 'take a conservative approach' when you have depth at a position, but the true test is when you literally have no healthy backup available and are forced to put a player out of position (especially as a tall forward/defender or ruckman) to cover; when you are genuinely risking being non-competitive in that part of the ground, to avoid playing an underdone player. Coaches routinely say that they have no fit players left on the park and so they put a guy out there who can't run, to essentially be a witch's hat. Fine. But, if you're doing that, you forfeit the right to say that you 'always take a conservative approach' with regards to player injuries, because that's clearly not the case.

 

[Partridge]

You think they may have gone too fast?
I note that in at least one of Cowan's relapses it was clearly the club's fault for playing him much longer than had been agreed to by the fitness staff, who were stroppy about it.

Not sure, but that quote from Thompson is pretty damning. Then again that was 6 years ago too.

Ultimately, for all the rhetoric the clubs speak, players are essentially very valuable chunks of meat. They aren't going to want them lying in medical rooms for years on end (well most clubs, we seem to not mind it).

 

[dazbroncos]

Im not wondering if the Egan experience shaped the clubs action towards its injured player going forward. Not suggesting fault in either direction, but after seeing Egan go down and come back too soon - perhaps that has molded the ethos of player treatment since.

Drum, Menzel, Cowan, Brown, Motlop, Simpson, Vardy - all given AMPLE time to prove their fitness after injuries.

Just a thought. Perhaps the ghosts of Egans past have shaped the Cats player injury modality going forward. Hard for Egan to see it surely but perhaps there was some good come from it after all….

GO Catters

 

[Partridge]

Especially Simpson. He was pretty much a forgotten man (at least from the outside) when he came back into the team last year. Was he right to go? He had to be: West and Vardy were injured, so it would have been Blicavs and Walker against Leuenberger otherwise (and Leuenberger still slaughtered us in the last quarter...imagine what he would have done against Walker, instead of Simpson). Simpson looked to be going ok too: another injury to finish last year, but that was a collision leg break, looked like a successful rehab. Fast forward 12 months...

We went into Round 1 last year with West (who from memory had not played a single practice match, due to injury) and Blicavs, because there were no other ruck options, again besides Walker.

It underscores how fragile our entire big man setup really is right now. We have two proper ruckmen, and three quasi-ruckmen on our entire list: McIntosh, Simpson, Blicavs, Vardy, Walker. Of those, McIntosh missed the best part of 3 straight seasons; to his credit, he's been able to perform pretty admirably for us this year. However he turns 30 on Thursday week. For all the criticism Brown cops for playing 13 games in 6 years, Simpson has played 24 games in 7, and is far from being over his troubles. Vardy has accumulated 21 games in 5 full seasons before next year rolls around. We better hope that Blicavs and Walker don't get injured anytime soon.

That doesn't even touch on another curious part of the ground - the backline. We've used the same three tall defenders more or less all season - Lonergan, Taylor and Rivers. Lonergan is 30; Rivers will be before next season. It's still staggering that they haven't tried to groom anyone in any of their three positions at any point this year. Even when they had the perfect opportunity with Melbourne, Bulldogs and GWS in successive weeks. It's going to be very interesting to see how quickly guys like Hamling come on, and equally how fast their perception will change around here if they don't.

 

[Partridge]

Im not wondering if the Egan experience shaped the clubs action towards its injured player going forward. Not suggesting fault in either direction, but after seeing Egan go down and come back too soon - perhaps that has molded the ethos of player treatment since.

Drum, Menzel, Cowan, Brown, Motlop, Vardy - all given AMPLE time to prove their fitness after injuries.

Just a thought. Perhaps the ghosts of Egans past have shaped the Cats player injury modality going forward. Hard for Egan to see it surely but perhaps there was some good come from it after all….

Of that list, you'd say only two look to be over their injury troubles. Worrying to put it mildly.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Im not wondering if the Egan experience shaped the clubs action towards its injured player going forward. Not suggesting fault in either direction, but after seeing Egan go down and come back too soon - perhaps that has molded the ethos of player treatment since.

Drum, Menzel, Cowan, Brown, Motlop, Simpson, Vardy - all given AMPLE time to prove their fitness after injuries.

Just a thought. Perhaps the ghosts of Egans past have shaped the Cats player injury modality going forward. Hard for Egan to see it surely but perhaps there was some good come from it after all….

GO Catters

A bit apples and oranges, I reckon. Most of those players were not considered touch and go to be right for a grand final with an accelerated rehab and none, besides maybe Motlop were anywhere near AA calibre. Most were fringe senior players, at best.

Steve Johnson in 2009/11 on the other hand...

 

[dazbroncos]

Of that list, you'd say only two look to be over their injury troubles. Worrying to put it mildly.

I wasn't so much potting the club ( and i don't think you are either) for them still being hurt but rather the club is giving them time to get right, as say opposed to the Egan situation where he clearly came back too soon (fault aside).

Go Catters