Duo seeks end to uncertainty
Emma Quayle | October 4, 2008
JACKSON Trengove is a key defender of the future, with speed, spring and a fondness for making big, thumping spoils.
Last year, he played on Matthew Kreuzer during the TAC Cup finals, and made him work very hard. A few weeks earlier, he took on Ben McEvoy, and frustrated the normally unflappable player who would later become the No. 9 draft pick.
Tom Swift is a smart, smooth midfielder, who can dance through the centre square, feed the ball out or run it away himself. He's quick, too, and at some stage in his career will wind up in an AFL team's leadership group.
Early this year, both Trengove and Swift were seen as two of the brightest prospects in the 2008 draft. Both should still be chosen high; Trengove is still a likely top-10 pick, and the rumour mill has Swift in Geelong's sights.
But Trengove hasn't played football for five months and Swift has played only a handful of matches in the past two seasons. They are the two big mysteries of this year's draft.
Swift's first problem arose in April last year: the day before his Australian Institute of Sport-AFL Academy group left for its tour of South Africa, the group played a game against Perth at Subiaco Oval.
Early in the game, he twisted the wrong way, fell and found out not long afterwards that he had ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
At the time — even though he was too young for the draft and had another year up his sleeve — he felt certain his chance was gone.
"I thought the clubs wouldn't look too positively on it, that it was over for me, but then I started to be more positive," he said.
Swift took it easy through the pre-season, came back in round four and played four games for the Claremont Colts before joining the under-18 West Australian state team.
He felt like he was getting better but in the final trial game before the national championships he landed awkwardly. This time, he injured the ligament running down the side of his right knee.
"At the time, I thought I'd done my knee again," Swift said. "I think once you've done one, you have that fear. But the left knee actually took a bit of impact on the landing, and it stayed strong when my right knee buckled. So it was disappointing, especially so close to the carnival, but I still felt like it was good signs for my left knee."
Trengove was injured while training with the Vic Metro team, the day before it flew to Tasmania to play its second game of the carnival. He was running with the ball and wasn't expecting the smother that crashed across his right knee.
As he hobbled off the track, he told himself he would be fine but the following morning, he was in pain, lots of it, and found out he had torn his hamstring from the top of his fibula bone. He watched Metro win the carnival while taking stats in the coach's box. He's had to learn some patience as he has worked through his rehab program, but he's not let himself worry about what the injury might mean come draft day.
"It was a bit hard because I'm the sort of person who just likes to jump in and do everything at once, but it's been OK. The clubs don't seem too worried about it, so that's a good sign," Trengove said.
"I just tried not to think of the draft and the camp … I thought whatever happened would happen and a part of me wanted to think about it and wonder about it, but I knew I couldn't change it. I wasn't able to play, so there was nothing I could do. I just had to do what I could do, and wait to get better."
Swift feels similarly. Had he re-injured himself in his first or second game back, he suspects he would be feeling a lot of uncertainty now. But he will be ready to go when he joins his new team for pre-season training, and the fact he had begun to find some form has made him believe he will belong, wherever he ends up.
"The best thing was that I was improving with every game. That was the most positive thing. And everyone always said it would happen that way, but you don't really agree with it until it actually happens," said Swift, who used his right knee injury to work on his left-foot kick and worked to build up his core strength.
"I was feeling really confident going into that last game, and I've tried to hold on to that.
"It was unfortunate and disappointing, and the last two years haven't been great. But I was able to prove to myself that I could get back and play some good footy even after the adversity I had the year before and that's been good for me.
"I probably still have a lot to prove, and it messed with my head a bit, but I feel like I've been able to put it all in the past now.
"If I'm lucky enough to be drafted by a club, I feel like I can go there and be just like any other player on the list. That's what I'm looking forward to."
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