Coughlan story starts again now
Jake Niall | April 24, 2009
THE last time Mark Coughlan played a game of AFL football, the contemporary version of the hands-in-the-back rule didn't exist. Kevin Sheedy and Chris Judd were ensconced at Essendon and West Coast respectively. Geelong was an under-achiever with questionable leadership and coaching. Ben Cousins was the reigning Brownlow medallist.
Lance Franklin was a precocious talent in his second season who had recently played reserves.
Buddy is a vivid memory of Coughlan's last game. It was June 18, 2006, at Launceston. Franklin booted six after Coughlan's knee collapsed. "I went down in the first five minutes and sat there and it wasn't a great day for the guys," he recalled. "It was sort of the birth of Buddy Franklin … the first time he sort of shone. I had to sit there and bear the brunt of that."
Coughlan did not contemplate then that he would spend most of the next three years in the same position — sitting, watching the Tigers (mainly lose), rather than playing the game. He thought he would return within "seven or eight months" because, "as a young bloke, you think you're almost invincible in terms of your body".
The first knee reconstruction was not a success and it would be repeated in February 2007. Last year, as he was striving to return, Coughlan's hamstring — collateral damage from the knee (which requires a graft from the hamstring) — would not co-operate. It would take a trek to Germany, to the soft-tissue specialist Dr Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfarth, and an injection of calf's blood for Coughlan to finally win his battle of wounded hammy in 2008.
The question isn't so much whether he considered retirement — "everyone that's had two or three years out of their sport would have thought about it at some stage" — but why he didn't give up. "Personally, just wanted to see if I could still do it," he explained. "I want to see if I've still got it.
"Then, there's a lot of, there's a lot of support from — members of the Richmond footy club, I just can't tell you how grateful I am. I really think they're the greatest supporters in the land. In three years, I haven't seen a negative comment made about me and I've watched every game that we've played."
The Tiger army might not have lavished such unconditional love upon a less capable player. Coughlan was the club's best and fairest in 2003, then seemed destined for the captaincy and he played the game in the preferred Richmond way: hard, willing to risk head and shin.
While Coughlan has faith in his body, he was cautious in his 2009 goals. "My ambition was to get a senior game … when I had the knee arthroscope (in pre-season) I just thought: 'I don't care whether it's between round one and seven, I just want to get a senior game and when I do I want to have an impact and stay in the side and make a bit of a difference'."
The midfielder said he would know within a month whether his career would continue. "It is what I want, but I've got to see how I go at senior level. I'll know after a month where I'm going with my career, whether I'm going to be another two or three-year player, or if it's going to be this year. That's basically how it is."
Coughlan admits to nerves about tomorrow night. The AFL footy of 2009 is somewhat different to the sport he experienced in 2006. In that sense, he's a kind of cryogenically-frozen footballer from the recent past, a measure of the game's progress.
Coughlan said he had been "pinged" a couple of times for hands-in-the-back upon returning to the VFL last year. "Head contact when you're going for a bump … I've been OK with that."
What about the rushed behind rule? "They haven't called one yet, have they?"
He was acutely aware that the rules governing conduct towards umpires had "changed a lot", adding, "you just can't say or anything demonstrative or make any hand signals or anything any more. It's becoming like rugby union I think in that respect, which is good for the game".
"There's certainly a big element of unknown for me when I go out there on Saturday night. Just in terms of where the game's gone.
"I don't think the game's changed dramatically in terms of you've still got to win your own ball, you know, the stoppages are really important, more important than ever, because teams are becoming so quick at — I think it's quick movement of the ball, as opposed to quick leg speed.
"The hardest thing was reading the flight of the ball, when the ball's in the air — that was the one that took a little while to come back."
Only a tiny minority of players survive out of the game for three years and, while Coughlan was never fleet of foot, he sees pace — whether he has enough of it — as another question that can only be answered on the field.
In the course of his sabbatical, Coughlan went overseas to Vietnam and America, studied accounting and finance, got involved in property development, spent time with his family — he lives with his sister in the CBD — and became another frustrated Richmond supporter.
"It's about keeping busy with your time and having not, not sitting down on the couch and having too long to think about it, because that's when you start to struggle."
Coughlan has an eclectic support group: the extended Tiger family and his own (who are in Perth), plus another member of the two-reconstruction support group, Carlton's Richard Hadlee.
Hadlee provided the positive example of what can be achieved. "Hads has gone through two knees and he's playing really good footy at the moment. I've been in touch with Hads, he's also from Perth, we played a little bit of footy growing up. It's actually guys like that as well that keep you on track, and just sort of give you a little bit of confidence."
Terry Wallace has been another key supporter, otherwise Coughlan would not have been given a two-year contract in 2007. Coughlan observed of his coach's awful situation: "As a person he's very consistent, very level. I haven't seen a change in his personality or attitude … Terry's been great to me when it's mattered in terms of keeping me on track."
When Wallace called to tell him he would play, Coughlan felt a "load off my shoulders". He had cleared "a hurdle I at one stage didn't think I'd get to".
As the interview concluded, I related to Coughlan the ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus, the man whom the Gods condemned to roll a rock up a mountain for eternity. Whenever Sisyphus reached the summit, the boulder would roll down the other side.
"What was it? Syphillis? That's a bloody terrible name," said Coughlan, who accepted the merits of the analogy, with this important exception. "Hopefully the rock stays on top this week."
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfnews/coughlan-story-starts-again-now/2009/04/23/1240079801805.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
