Now Ol Smokey & myself had a decussion going about Mark Coughlan & l have not asked him lately his view on where Cogs is at or his future so Smokey the ball is in your court. Lets us know. My opinion is Cogs, Pettifer & JON for Sandilands clean swap
I wondered when we would conclude this one TM!
FWIW I still think that the club did all the right things in sending Cogs for that treatment OS. Once he was re-contracted (I won't debate the smartness of doing that while he was rehabilitating) then we had to give him every chance of recovery, especially given he was a key player in our list and former best and fairest winner. If it was a list-clogger then maybe a different story but the club had to spend some money to protect and try to recover it's investment in it's key asset. Hindsight tells us he recovered but not to the level we all hoped but at least the club knows now what it must do. We both agreed it would be good if he could recover and I'm sure we both agree it's a damn shame he didn't - we sure could have used his talent around about now.
And also FWIW, I agree with you about developing and conditioning our young players. We have generally been terrible at that for many, many years now and I would hope that our much vaunted review of all things Football Department finds this and brings about significant change.
Yes l agree the best option was what you said to get the treatment, He is at least playing football & did return to AFL & was riding on adrenalin in his first game & played well l thought.
Natrualy that game would have zapped him completely & he would have got a huge shock how quick the game had become.
The win that night was what he & RFC needed, they pumped that theme song out & it was spine tingling stuff to everyone around.
& so
l ate my humble pie that Coughlan did return to AFL football
you get the tick of approval
Smokey do you think that now Coughlan has had a year running around & his growing confident with his body, that with another pre-season he could step up that next level required.
Remember when he was fit & playing some years ago the pace of the game had increased with rule changes & how elite the players had to become in fitness.
We have seen that he has become slow in leg speed & judgement with his timing & was dropped accordingly & you can see his struggling in the VFL for speed but l have seen this before with many players after recovering long term injuries & been through long recovery myself so l know what it takes on a personal level.
There is no doubt in anybodys mind that he would be playing & be plauged with the thought of breaking down & being possible career ending. l beleive he has not exerted himself fully this season.
? Is it possible & do you think Coughlan can push himself harder now if he has that confidence in his body.
? Would it be worth the club giving him a 1 year contract like Richo to give him a chance with a uninterupted pre-season to bring him up to the speed of the game.
? Is it a option for the club to try trade him end of season possibly to his home state clubs or to other clubs & would they be interested
? Is he able to adjust to the pace of the todays game.
? Has the game gone past him in terms of not playing for many years.
? Is this the last year we will see Mark Coughlan a AFL footballer