Stafford surgery
17 November 2004
Herald Sun
Michael Stevens
RICHMOND ruckman Greg Stafford will be sidelined for a month with a knee cartilage injury.
Coach Terry Wallace said yesterday Stafford needed arthroscopic surgery to clear a problem which has troubled him for some time.
"He looks likely to go in for a knee op within the next couple of days," Wallace said.
"It's nothing that's happened to him in recent times, just an old war wound that's flared up.
"But it's just got to the stage where we reckon it's got to be cleared up now or otherwise it's going to be on-going for the whole of the summer.
"So that will put him out of action for a month."
Stafford, who will lead the ruck division this year after the departure of Brad Ottens, missed the last eight games of last season with a knee injury.
The Tigers are also closely monitoring the condition of midfielder and 2003 best-and-fairest winner Mark Coughlan.
Coughlan, who played seven games last season because of osteitis pubis, has yet to join in pre-season training.
Wallace said Coughlan would not resume training for at least another 10 days.
"His condition has not deteriorated, but is something that probably will have to be managed throughout his career," Wallace said.
"The sort of thing you wouldn't do with him is double him up with sessions in a day; you've just got to manage his program more individually."
Wallace has the Tigers on the same skills development program which lifted the Western Bulldogs from 15th to a preliminary final in 1997.
Track watchers believe the players have been subjected to torturous running sessions, but Wallace denied this yesterday.
"I wouldn't say we've been flogging them," Wallace said. "We've probably been doing more footy stuff than what they've been accustomed to.
"Probably a bit similar to '97, I suppose, taking the skill development stuff up a couple of levels.
"We're not doing any distance work at all, it's more 200s, 400s on the ground, rather than on an athletics track."
Former Hawthorn defender Mark Graham and former Collingwood ruckman Steven McKee – who started his career at Punt Rd – have been training with the Tigers, and Graham yesterday was one of many delisted players to nominate for Saturday's national draft.
"He's (Graham) in our calculations," Wallace said. "I think we've been pretty honest, saying that if we re-hash players, we'd only re-hash a couple of stronger-bodied types, either a ruckman or a taller defender.
"We only invited two down to train, Graham and McKee, but we've made no promises to either player."
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,11421588%255E19742,00.html
