Thursty and Sarge

[mightytiges]

Will - ACL
Sarge - collarbone

Gutted not by the loss but because of these two going down especially Will .

Knees to 3 key defenders in 4 years .

[mightytiges]

Forgot to that Pete Larkins said Newman was carrying a groin/upper leg for the whole second half so he might pull up sore and miss next week.

Thursty might also have done 2 or 3 ligaments. When he collided with Hayes sliding into his leg, the medial totally blew out when you see the footage up close then the ACL popped. Pete Larkins said in those type of injuries the posterior could have gone as well. Knees are meant to bend the other way  .

[Moi]

Ditto gutted - Schultzy is another Rory - not much luck with injury.
The only good thing about Will is it happened early in the season and hopefully he will be okay this time next year.  Poor kid  - he did a great job though last night.  He must have been having nightmares after being told he'd be on Riewolt, but he couldn't have done it better.

[JohnF]

Though i'm shattered with Thursfield going down with a knee I'm really optimistic on the whole. This guy will play in our backline for ten years.

I could see last year that he was talented and he is still growing and his body is still maturing. His stature didn't look much different to Reiwoldt's yesterday, and his atheltic capacity wasn't far behind either.

Give him a batch of Bulgarian horse steroids for the next six months and watch him return monstered out next year. Finally we will have a key backman who isn't an unco.               

[PuntRdRoar]

I really fear now for Jay in terms of him being a RFC player next year. If he misses the next 10-12 weeks...itll be near the end of the season...I can see the kid going home to SA if the right deal is offered.

[JohnF]

I really fear now for Jay in terms of him being a RFC player next year. If he misses the next 10-12 weeks...itll be near the end of the season...I can see the kid going home to SA if the right deal is offered.

No loss IMO.

[Bulluss]

Big blow for Sarge and Thursty.

Shultz was supposed to "make it in the big time" this season.

Thursty was coming off a interupted pre-season and sounded as though he had a great game. We get a promising player come through and he gets a short straw. Poor bugger.

Hopefully something good can come from it and someone like Humm can make it and prove his value.

[one-eyed]

Thursfield out for season
12:21:33 AM Sat 8 April, 2006
Amanda Buivids
Sportal for afl.com.au

If the loss on the scoreboard was not hard enough, the loss of youngster Will Thursfield with a crippling knee injury is a devastating blow for Richmond.

The 19-year-old defender, in just his seventh senior appearance, will miss the rest of the season after rupturing the anterior cruciate and medial ligaments in his left knee.

The promising defender limited St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt to a paltry three marks before being forced from the field on a stretcher early in the final quarter at Telstra Dome on Friday night.

Thursfield damaged the knee in a body contest with St Kilda's Lenny Hayes when the ball went to ground at centre-half forward.

It appeared the impact of the collision and the body weight of Hayes forced Thursfield's knee to buckle.

Treated by Richmond trainers, play was halted momentarily as he was taken from the ground by stretcher.

Richmond coach Terry Wallace said Thursfield will be on the sidelines for 12 months.

Wallace described the injury as a massive blow for the Tigers and for the teenager.

"He's a fantastic young kid," he said.

"The mark of respect he's held at this footy club goes that we played him in his first match, two weeks out of playing with Coburg (in the VFL) and played him on (Swan Michael) O'Loughlin last year.

"This year, in his first game we gave him Riewoldt.

"Will's (injury) is the devastating one. I don't know what we've done wrong on this ground. We lost Nathan Brown last year and now it's Will."

Disappointed with the team's 11-point loss, Wallace lamented the Tigers' mounting injury toll.

Jay Schulz is expected to miss the next three to four matches after sustaining a shoulder injury when tackled by Aaron Hamill midway though the third term.

Schulz was left dazed and groggy after being pounded into the Telstra Dome turf by Hamill on the outer wing.

He left the field immediately and did not return.

The Tigers went into Friday's match without Greg Stafford. The ruckman was late withdrawal for the second week in a row with a calf strain.

Wallace said Stafford is no certainty to line up in next week's match against West Coast at Subiaco.

"We were hoping he would have played. He's got a calf that tightens up after training, and you get to a situation with calves, where they are hard to read," Wallace said.

"It's likely to be a very nasty injury, so we just couldn't go with him."

St Kilda came out of the game with no injuries.

http://afl.com.au/default.asp?pg=news&spg=display&articleid=256041

[mightytiges]

We're got to hope that like Richo and Leppitsch, who also did their knees at an youngish age, when Thursty returns (touchwood he does with modern medicine) he hasn't lost a yard of pace which is his main asset. He contained Riewoldt because he was able to run and keep up with him all night.

[JohnF]

Hope so MT. Good thing is he won't lose his stamina and with the way he has grown over the last year its pretty safe to say the boy hasn't even reached his peak yet, so i expect him to come back as good if not better 

[mightytiges]

Hope so MT. Good thing is he won't lose his stamina and with the way he has grown over the last year its pretty safe to say the boy hasn't even reached his peak yet, so i expect him to come back as good if not better 

Let's hope you're spot on John  . Apart from Richo the return from injury gods haven't been kind to us  . About time we got a change of luck. Thursty is something special.

[WilliamPowell]

I really fear now for Jay in terms of him being a RFC player next year. If he misses the next 10-12 weeks...itll be near the end of the season...I can see the kid going home to SA if the right deal is offered.

well seeing he just signed a 2 year contract extension I don't see him going anywhere.

Was just a very unfortunate incident - although I do wonder if the AFL will look at the head slam

My mail is he'll be out for at least 4 weeks.

Will - ACL
Gutted not by the loss but because of these two going down especially Will .

IMHO it was the turning point of the match when Will went off. He had beaten Nick (I think he's over.... oops I am not allowed to say that ) Reiwoldt who until that point had taken 3 marks - once Joel went on him he took 5 in 10 minutes and it killed us. Even stupid dermie said it

[one-eyed]

Tigers' fears are confirmed
By Samantha Lane
The Age
April 9, 2006

ALREADY stung by consecutive defeats and facing a testing fortnight on the road, the pain intensified for Richmond yesterday as two key-position players, Jay Schulz and Will Thursfield, were diagnosed with serious injuries.

Seven-gamer Thursfield requires a total knee reconstruction after his team's 11-point loss to St Kilda on Friday night, and Schulz, who has been groomed for a key defensive role, could be sidelined for up to eight weeks after badly damaging the AC joint in his left shoulder.

The Tigers pair checked in at yesterday's recovery session at Punt Road — Thursfield on crutches, with left knee heavily padded, and Schulz with his left arm in a sling.

Scans confirmed that Thursfield's second season was ended after it was only three quarters old as he damaged both his anterior cruciate and medial ligaments in an ugly tangle with St Kilda's Lenny Hayes. Schulz injured his shoulder after being slung to the turf in an Aaron Hamill tackle during the third term at Telstra Dome.

"He's got a grade-three AC joint injury, so he's completely separated his AC joint," Richmond doctor Greg Hickey said of Schulz yesterday.

"Hopefully, we can get by without surgery on that, but he'll be getting an opinion on that, and at this stage you'd say minimum four weeks, and maybe up to six or eight weeks, depending on how it goes."

Brent Hartigan suffered only mild concussion after clashing with Aaron Fiora in the final seconds of the match, and Chris Newman slightly strained his lower abdominal muscles.

While Richmond could take some heart from its competitive round-two effort, which was a dramatic improvement on a dismal first outing, the now depleted side faces an uphill battle to win in the opening month of the season. The Tigers have an eight-day break before meeting West Coast at Subiaco. They face Brisbane at the Gabba in round four.

Senior defender Joel Bowden conceded yesterday that one win in the next fortnight would be a reasonable result for his team.

Richmond vice-captain Nathan Brown has got through two senior games since breaking his leg last year, but remains a week-to-week proposition.

"We're still, I guess, finding the perfect way to manage him during the week and during games," Hickey said.

There is some experience in the wings at Tigerland, with Greg Stafford and Mark Chaffey still to return from injury.

http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/04/08/1143916766966.html

[one-eyed]

Tigers in world of pain
09 April 2006   
Sunday Herald Sun
Jon Ralph and Scot Palmer

THE good vibes from Richmond's encouraging effort on Friday night were swamped by more bad news yesterday, with worst-case injury scenarios for youngsters Will Thursfield and Jay Schulz.

And Nathan Brown conceded he might have to miss the occasional match if the throbbing pain he feels in his leg persists.

After an 11-point loss to St Kilda, the sobering reality is that the Tigers will have to confront West Coast at Subiaco on Saturday night without Thursfield and Schulz.

Scans yesterday confirmed Thursfield, 19, has torn the anterior cruciate and medial ligaments in his left leg and will be out for the season.

Schulz has a grade-three AC joint injury. While several players rush back in a month from that injury, the club is aware his absence could be up to eight weeks.

Club doctor Greg Hickey said Thursfield's injury was especially shattering after he had rebounded from numerous pre-season injuries to get back into the senior side.

"He's had a tough time," Hickey said. "He missed the last month of last season with stress fractures in his back.

"He ended up having a procedure on his back just before Christmas and then he had a less severe medial ligament injury to the same knee. He finally made it back and was going really well."

Hickey said that while Brown continued to struggle with soreness in his leg after games, the club hoped he would play against West Coast. Coach Terry Wallace had warned his brilliant forward, recovering from a serious break to his leg, would have to monitor his training and might be rested at times.

After feeling the "throb" during the second half of Friday night's game, Brown admits Wallace could be right. At least he has an eight-day break before Saturday night's match.

Vice-captain Joel Bowden said the Tigers were determined to win one of their next two games – against the Eagles, then Brisbane Lions at the Gabba.

"It's such a hard competition that you have to get yourself up every week. We knew we had a tough first month," he said.

"We have got ourselves in a position where we are 0-2, so we would love to at least pick up one of the interstate games so we can have a win under out belt, but also some confidence.

"We have improved from last week, but to beat the West Coast Eagles in Perth will be one of our best performances."

The players were still disturbed yesterday by Thursfield's injury and the way his leg buckled.

"I knew he was in trouble from the beginning and I felt really emotional immediately," Bowden said. "He was back for his first game of the year and doing such a great job on Nick Riewoldt and in the end the injury is going to cost him his whole year."

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,18754043%255E19742,00.html

[Tiger Spirit]

Do we know if Will has had his operation and how things went?

Would be good to know.