Josh Smillie [merged]

[Hard Roar Tiger]

They’re saying on the club website back to full training by end of Jan and match play in Feb. Pinch of salt and all that as we’ve heard it many times over but touch wood those estimations are correct.

It would be nice if this were stepped out with a little more detail. How do you go from full training to match play in a week or two? That actually sounds like it is the perfect way to do another injury unless the detail of the rehab shows how that scenario would play out

[Andyy]

Ok, so about 10-12 weeks.

[camboon]

I wonder who did the medicals on Smilie. And how thorough they were. Maybe the injury was unforeseen or his injuries were expected to self heal but a specialist assessment should be the minimum.
He walked in with his injuries so you can’t blame our rehab staff .

[ajGreen]

I wonder who did the medicals on Smilie. And how thorough they were. Maybe the injury was unforeseen or his injuries were expected to self heal but a specialist assessment should be the minimum.
He walked in with his injuries so you can’t blame our rehab staff .

It was well known he was made of glass by those that watched the u18s closely.

That said I obviously hope he has a very successful and robust career for the sake of the club and himself.

[Wazza]

With the amount of first round picks we had last yr, maybe it was purely risk vs reward in picking him. Has great upside if they can get him right. It's not like we are short of kids for the 25 and 26 season.
The tiges will get him right. Give them time. 👍

[Tiger Khosh]

Source on Smillies injury history in juniors? I can’t see much about him missing many games online.

I know Lalor missed a bunch and probably the most of any of our selections last year with a bunch of different muscle injuries. Hotton missed most of his u18 year with an ACL, Trainor missed some games with concussion and Faull missed a bunch with a back injury.

I think the only ones from last years crop who didn’t have some injury history were Armstrong, Sims and Alger.

[TigerLand]

I think what doesn't get mentioned is the amount of injuries young players get nowadays. As good as the crop of players were last year. The top 20 were riddled with injuries here and there. Jagga a knee too.

Trainor only one who avoided any injury and was reported that he was being rested as sub to manage soreness. Again, bad luck but it doesn't look good on the club. In their defence other clubs cop injuries too.

Add Gibcus issues and Clarke multiple knees, bad luck is bad luck but I'm sure there are things within our control that are needing significant improvement.

[Tigeritis™©®]

Any news on this kid. I'm hoping we get to see him play at some point.

[one-eyed]

Josh Smillie - Quad:

"Josh is a couple of weeks post surgery now and feeling really good. He is due to return running right in the middle of our Christmas break," Serpell said.

"So we will do some preparatory work with him before we go away and we will give him a delayed return-to-run, so he's in a good position come end of January - early February."

https://www.richmondfc.com.au/news/1939246/high-performance-update-pre-season

[Simonator]

Had a dream Smillie played and dominated in the first pre season game.

[Stripes]

We/he are very lucky that he was drafted as part of a group of high picks. If he had of been our one out, early choice, the heat would have been excruciating for the poor kid. The club may have buckled to pressure and thrown him to the wolves at AFL level which would have either immediately re-injured him or stripped him of all confidence.

The luxury of time is a gift few young draftees are afforded, especially those taken in the first half of kids picked. Smilie is being eased into his football career because we have older, more experienced players already in his role at AFL level and we have other young stars to already present to the hungry masses.

I think Smilie will end up being a crucial cog in our premiership machine. With his strength, size and skills, he will win us the inside ball and break out of contests to find our outside ball users (Grlj, Hotton, Cumming, Campbell, Rioli etc).