Quicky
Brownlow Medallist
- Joined
- May 27, 2008
- Posts
- 26,091
- Reaction score
- 32,196
- Location
- Wherever I May Roam
- AFL Club
- Collingwood
- Other Teams
- Socceroos, Melbourne Victory
Tom Hunter will go down as one of those sad stories in football. A hard nosed footballer with a reputation for putting his head over the ball and winning the hard footy. It was this trait coupled with congenital cervical stenosis (his spinal canal is too narrow for his spinal cord) that prematurely ended a promising career.
Hunter was forced to retire after a collision to his head from Luke Shuey in the NAB cup semi final against West Coast. It would be his last game of AFL. It was a big blow to our VFL team which had already lost so much experience and talent from the previous season.
In many respects you could consider Hunter a lucky man. The knock he suffered could just as easily left him in a wheelchair. As it stands it lead to the determination of the seriousness of this medical condition. A condition which could well have gone undiagnosed he wasn't playing at this level.
Hunter was kept on at the club to continue his re-hab and was used as a match-day runner for the remainder of the season. He wishes to remain involved in football and is now trying to learn as much as he can on the other side of the white line. He has aspirations to one day get involved in coaching.
It is a credit to Hunter how well he handled himself after what must have been devastating news. Instead of being bitter he was philosophical and very mature about the situation:
"You are walking and you have two functioning legs. A lot of people have it worse than me.
"I like to stay positive. It happens, and you have to cop it on the chin. A quote I like is, 'You can't control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude'."
It's a sad story but in many ways also a positive one. You could do worse than learn something from Tom's attitude in all of this.
Hunter was forced to retire after a collision to his head from Luke Shuey in the NAB cup semi final against West Coast. It would be his last game of AFL. It was a big blow to our VFL team which had already lost so much experience and talent from the previous season.
In many respects you could consider Hunter a lucky man. The knock he suffered could just as easily left him in a wheelchair. As it stands it lead to the determination of the seriousness of this medical condition. A condition which could well have gone undiagnosed he wasn't playing at this level.
Hunter was kept on at the club to continue his re-hab and was used as a match-day runner for the remainder of the season. He wishes to remain involved in football and is now trying to learn as much as he can on the other side of the white line. He has aspirations to one day get involved in coaching.
It is a credit to Hunter how well he handled himself after what must have been devastating news. Instead of being bitter he was philosophical and very mature about the situation:
"You are walking and you have two functioning legs. A lot of people have it worse than me.
"I like to stay positive. It happens, and you have to cop it on the chin. A quote I like is, 'You can't control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude'."
It's a sad story but in many ways also a positive one. You could do worse than learn something from Tom's attitude in all of this.
