One-Eyed Richmond Forum
Football => Richmond Rant => Topic started by: one-eyed on January 06, 2008, 10:16:58 PM
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Mark's in the swim
Sunday Herald-Sun
January 06, 2008
MARK Coughlan expects to be ready for Richmond's season opener as he continues to recover from two knee reconstructions.
The Tigers' gun midfielder has not played for 18 months and admits he is starting to feel anxious.
He did a time trial on grass on Friday while his teammates ran the Tan and Saturday he completed the Lorne Pier to Pub 1.2km swim.
"The nerves are starting to come up a bit," Coughlan said. "It will be like playing my first game again.
"Each week is a big step for me and a big step in my confidence. I'm on track to be fully training in a month and I'm hoping to play a pre-season game or two which will then lead into the start of the season.
"Ideally, I'd love to play Round 1, but it's a week by week thing.
"I need to get a few games under my belt. I need to prove myself again.
"I've been out of footy for a while and I'll need a few games to get used to the pace of the game."
Coughlan's enforced break began in Round 12, 2006, when he snapped the anterior cruciate ligament against Hawthorn. Last February he had to have a second operation.
"I will have had 13 months before the start of the season which is more than enough for a knee reconstruction," Coughlan said.
"I'm slowly coming out of all the swimming and bike riding, and cross training-type things and getting more into footy stuff now.
"My preparation has been much better than it would have been coming back last year. I've had a lot of time to get over it."
Coughlan said he couldn't wait to join teammates such as Brett Deledio, Nathan Foley and recruit Trent Cotchin in the midfield group.
The best and fairest winner's return will be welcome news for coach Terry Wallace.
Last year the Tigers were without most of their leaders as Coughlan was joined on the sidelines by Nathan Brown - still recovering from his broken leg - and ruckman Troy Simmonds, who was diagnosed with a blood clot on the lung.
Brown and Simmonds are also back and training well.
But neither was up for the challenge of swimming in yesterday's hot conditions.
Coughlan was joined by Foley, Andrew Raines, Angus Graham, Will Thursfield and Danny Meyer.
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,23010963-23211,00.html
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IMHO, first and foremost he needs to play some footy. Whether that's just intra-club he needs to to play some contact footy. You can do all the rehab in the world but nothing will give him confidence like running around and actually getting "hit".
Personally, I would not consider him for our first round NAB Cup unless he plays some intra club stuff and I'd play him against Foley
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I hope he wears rubber thongs in the shower otherwise there may not be any intra club or NAB matches.
Seriously, Cogs is like a new recruit all the swimming weights and bike riding mean nothing when you'll get hit hard on the field. Its all in the head for Cogs. Hopefully mentally he is still strong and is not afraid to put his body on the line. I don't expect miracles but if his knee hold up we might start seeing some quality footy from him from about round 8 or 9 onwards.
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i would play Coughlan in our intra-club matches ...
then play the last 3-2 practice/NAB Cup matches ...
we have 2 intra-club matches don't we ???
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we have 2 intra-club matches don't we ???
We usually have that probables vs possibles intra-club match a week before our first NAB Cup game. It's probably only a month away too :o.
I just hope Cogs can get through the year without any mishaps and as WP says get some footy back under his belt.
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Mark deserves a change of luck.
Fingers crossed. :pray
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Cogs is all class with a capital C. You dont loose that. May be a bit rusty and dusty for a month but come round 1 I expect him to be one of the 1st picked against Carltank. I'm predicting he will have the C beside him name in 2009 .......Coughlan (Capt)
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We can't post whole Sportal articles but here's a snippet. For the full article click on the link - http://sportal.com.au/afl-news-display/coughlan-makes-comeback-43395
"He [Cogs] was able to cope with the increased workload (on the weekend) and we don't see any reason why he won't be able to continue to cope," Armstrong said.
"He played well. He found plenty of the ball as Cogs always does and he pulled up well."
"He won't go to Cairns this week (for the Tigers' practice match against Melbourne) instead he will play in an intra-club game for Coburg."
"He will probably play close to 100 percent of game time in that match and then maybe he might be a chance to return (to the seniors) for week three (of the pre-season)."
The most important news for Tigers fans is Coughlan is firmly on track to be available come Round 1 against Carlton at the MCG on March 20.
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Encouraging. 8)
Softly, softly.
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That is really good to hear as here is a leader to follow. And like it has been said softly softly, with him. Be great to have him back in the side.
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Cogs in :cheers
Johnson out. ;D :thumbsup.
Cannot wait to see this happen.
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So far everything is going to plan. Fingers crossed :pray. We miss Cogs' footy smarts in the midfield.
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So far everything is going to plan. Fingers crossed :pray. We miss Cogs' footy smarts in the midfield.
ditto
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So far everything is going to plan. Fingers crossed :pray. We miss Cogs' footy smarts in the midfield.
:-\ :-\ :help :-\
Please explain
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So far everything is going to plan. Fingers crossed :pray. We miss Cogs' footy smarts in the midfield.
:-\ :-\ :help :-\
Please explain
Cogs can actually win the footy and dish it out by hand to a teammate running into space rather than backwards to someone flatfooted 2 feet away like most of the mids now ;).
I still think Cogs' got more fitness to catch up on. He kept up with his group of runners for the whole 200m or 400m but was always at the tail of the group. In fairness he never was one known for pace before he did his two knees.
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What the box taught a Tiger about footy
Geoff McClure
The Age
February 29, 2008
SPENDING long periods on the sidelines through injury tends to teach footballers a lot about themselves, about how they cope with such cruel twists of fate and, when they return, how they get through the fear of repeating the injury.
Nobody knows that more than Richmond ball-getter Mark Coughlan, who has had two knee reconstructions in the past two years and has not played an AFL game since round 12, 2006.
But the Tigers' 2003 best-and-fairest winner, who turns 26 in April, has revealed his long stint out of the game taught him something else — he now knows why, on those odd occasions when he has been dragged from the ground, his coach did it.
It is, he said, all a result of spending time in the coach's box alongside Terry Wallace and his team, an experience he said he would recommend to all players should they ever get the chance because it had shown him a lot more about on-field reality than he previously had encountered.
"I was in the box a couple of times. It was good … different," Coughlan said this week.
"It was quite hard not to say anything and I had to bite my lip a few times. It was my first time and a fair bit different to what I expected. There's so much going on that you don't actually realise. I've never been in a commentary box before, but I imagine it was almost like that in some ways just because of the number of stats that are being read out. It's all, 'This bloke's struggling against this bloke and this match-up's struggling, so we have to make this change'."
Then this: "Meanwhile, Terry's got to take it all in and make a move, so it's really quite complex. I understand more now why I do get dragged sometimes."
Oh, and being out of the game also taught the unlucky Tiger a few things other than football.
You see, Coughlan, whose second reconstruction came after an unfortunate slip in the shower, also revealed he had bought himself a new bath mat … this time, a slip-free one.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/sport/what-the-box-taught-a-tiger-about-footy/2008/02/28/1203788542347.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
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What the box taught a Tiger about footy
Bring spare headsets :lol.
If we want Cogs to play round 1 then he's going to have to play next week against Geelong.
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SEN has someone on before 2pm talking about Beau Muston and he mentioned he also dealt with Cogs. Not sure if he's a doctor or physio but he said Cogs is mentally right about his knee but so far his 25 possession (for Coburg) are more like 18 handballs and only 7 kicks rather than a bag of kicks.
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SEN has someone on before 2pm talking about Beau Muston and he mentioned he also dealt with Cogs. Not sure if he's a doctor or physio but he said Cogs is mentally right about his knee but so far his 25 possession (for Coburg) are more like 18 handballs and only 7 kicks rather than a bag of kicks.
Those are pretty normal stats for Cogs aren't they? He's always been good at extracting the footy and getting it into space. I don't care if he never kicks the ball as long as his hand passes hit their mark to a player in a useful position.
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Agree RROFO. From the scratch matches I've seen Cogs play this year he's used handball not because he was trying to avoid to kick but more in and around contests to get the footy out to a teammate in a better position running past into space.
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Seriously, I'd much rather see Coughlan handballing than kicking ;D
Much better skill as a handballer compared to kicking :thumbsup
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so did Coughlan get 7 kicks and 18 handballs playing half a match with Coburg ???
that is a good sign ...
i think he should play again Geelong ... not the full match obviously ..
i actually thought he would play last week
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Seriously, I'd much rather see Coughlan handballing than kicking ;D
Much better skill as a handballer compared to kicking :thumbsup
lol.
Will be interesting to see how Mark goes against the Cats.
Bartel is the benchmark for his type. It'll be no easy task.
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Tiger Coughlan's luck due to change
Sam Edmund | March 07, 2008 12:00am
MARK Coughlan will today take the biggest step in his latest recovery from injury when he plays his first senior game for 18 months.
Richmond's gun midfielder will line up against Geelong at Skilled Stadium long overdue for a change of fortunes in the club's last practice match of the year.
Coughlan has struck nothing but trouble since winning the 2003 best-and-fairest.
The 25-year-old missed most of 2004 with a nagging groin injury. He has had two knee reconstructions in the past two years and has not played an AFL game since Round 12, 2006.
Richmond assistant coach David King said last night the club was itching for Coughlan to recapture his best form.
"We'd love to see him up and firing and back to the Mark Coughlan of old, but we're just not sure how far away that is," King said.
"He's had a couple of runs at Coburg and he hasn't missed any preparation so it's just a matter of finding out if he's at the right level."
King said Coughlan would be rotated through the midfield today and predicted he would play about 65 per cent of the game.
He said Coughlan's renowned courage would be the one thing unaffected by back-to-back knee reconstructions.
"One thing you know about Mark Coughlan is he's a very tough, hard at the ball player and that's something that hasn't been impacted by being injured for two seasons.
"I think he'll be fine."
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23332359-19742,00.html
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Although the team copped a confidence whack, today was big one for Cogs and a major boost for his confidence in his knee. On ya Cogs :clapping