Brown injury recalls memories of Frank Bourke

[Mopsy]

I remember as a youth just after the end of the war in the forties going to see the tigers and watching Frank Bourke (father of Francis) in action playing at full forward in his first season for the Tiges. (He had played one game in 1943 while on leave from the army)

I think had kicked somewhere around 37 goals in the first seven games that year before tragically breaking his leg against South Melbourne which virtually put an end to his career, (He came back and played one game the next year and then retired back to his farm in Nathalia.)

It was a sad day in the clubs history when it happened for he had the ability to be 'anything' so to speak.

Modern medicine has made giant strides since those days and like Frank Bourke, Nathan Brown will be back and I am certain we will have the pleasure of seeing him 'on fire' agian in the future.

[mightytiges]

Thanks for sharing that memory of Francis' dad Mopsy. I never knew that was what happend to Frank Bourke. What a tragedy .

It's sad and tragic to see any footballer have his career ended through serious injury. Learning that Freezer in his prime would never play for us again after doing his knee is that sadest moment I can remember in footy at Richmond over the last 25 or so years.

Modern medicine has made giant strides since those days and like Frank Bourke, Nathan Brown will be back and I am certain we will have the pleasure of seeing him 'on fire' agian in the future.

Thankfully with most injuries now modern medicine can "fix" guys who even 20-30 years ago would have been forced into early retirement. Especially so with knees (ACL in particular).

Still there's no guarantees as we saw with Dragga, Freezer and Jason Snell at Geelong.