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Comeback kid set for a new start
March 05 2003
After a year working towards his second comeback, Richmond's Marc Dragicevic hopes to write a new chapter in his football diary, reports Emma Quayle.
Some achievements do not seem particularly big at first glance. Like picking up a few possessions in a reserves practice match. Or reaching a point in life where you can no longer reel off the latest Days of Our Lives plot lines.
Marc Dragicevic knows better than most that his second attempt at an AFL comeback will not be easy. Still, the Richmond midfielder couldn't help but be delighted when the final siren rang at Whitten Oval last Saturday, signalling an end to the Coburg-Port Melbourne scratch match, and his understated return from reconstruction No. 2.
The game was played one year to the day after Dragicevic's knee collapsed underneath him in the first minute of Richmond's third pre-season game against Carlton last March, resigning him to another operation, another year in rehab and more time in front of the TV set living vicariously through Victor, Hope, and all who inhabit Salem, USA.
"It was a really good feeling, that's for sure. It was very enjoyable just not to be in the stands," said Dragicevic of the game, in which he was thrown in for the third term and, with serious butterflies, made a wonky start.
"For my first kick, I picked the ball up just inside the centre square and booted it and it was just a mongrel floater . . . it just kept going in the wind and bounced into the goal square and hit the post.
"It would have been a great start, but I still felt so good out there. Just being able to get into a few contests, go body on body with someone and even wake up having that general soreness. I haven't had that in a while."
True confidence still eludes him - not until his third or fourth full match back does he think he will feel completely comfortable on the ground again - but the one thing Dragicevic knows is that he has done everything possible to get himself back to where he was.
From the moment he opened the diary he kept to help himself through his first reconstruction, the 21-year-old ignored the final line that read, "I hope I never have to write in this book again", and set about applying himself to almost the same program that got him through his first year off.
"I'd write down all my feelings, and all the mini goals I got that no one else knew about," said Dragicevic. "If I was angry, I'd write that, and I'd write in it if I was really happy about something, or proud. The way I saw it, no one else was going to read it, so I just wanted to be really open with myself."
The book, he said, will "hardly be a best-seller. It's no Harry Potter". But that shouldn't matter. Dragicevic has done the gym work, the laps of the Prahran pool, the bike riding, the twisting and turning and, more recently, the contact work at training. "Marc's looking terrific," said Richmond fitness co-ordinator Noel Duncan. "From the start, he really took ownership of his program. He was the one who decided that he was ready to play."
Rather than wallow during his time out, Dragicevic spent as much time as he could around the club. He took some gym equipment with him on his end-of-season Europe trip, learning "to do leg squats on pillows, and whatever I could find", and transformed from someone who could barely muster a stroke to a capable swimmer who can handle two or three kilometres.
When Dragicevic surfaces for season 2003, he will be nine kilograms heavier than in his last real senior game, but nursing the same ambitions he always has.
Figuring out what the coaches expect will take more time, although he knows they will not rush him. His next step is to play a full reserves match, starting this Saturday against Box Hill.
"It's such a different perspective being out, having to watch games. In your mind, you become the best player there ever has been . . . you have to remember it's so hard out there, it won't be easy," he said. "It's hard to gauge what the coaches are expecting. In the start, I think it will be just to play games and build my confidence, pick up the pace, make gradual improvement and enjoy myself.
"I think they'll be looking at me to do that, like the new recruit. But I also have goals, individual goals, that I think I can do, and I want to try and show them that I can play good footy again."
Comeback kid set for a new start
March 05 2003
After a year working towards his second comeback, Richmond's Marc Dragicevic hopes to write a new chapter in his football diary, reports Emma Quayle.
Some achievements do not seem particularly big at first glance. Like picking up a few possessions in a reserves practice match. Or reaching a point in life where you can no longer reel off the latest Days of Our Lives plot lines.
Marc Dragicevic knows better than most that his second attempt at an AFL comeback will not be easy. Still, the Richmond midfielder couldn't help but be delighted when the final siren rang at Whitten Oval last Saturday, signalling an end to the Coburg-Port Melbourne scratch match, and his understated return from reconstruction No. 2.
The game was played one year to the day after Dragicevic's knee collapsed underneath him in the first minute of Richmond's third pre-season game against Carlton last March, resigning him to another operation, another year in rehab and more time in front of the TV set living vicariously through Victor, Hope, and all who inhabit Salem, USA.
"It was a really good feeling, that's for sure. It was very enjoyable just not to be in the stands," said Dragicevic of the game, in which he was thrown in for the third term and, with serious butterflies, made a wonky start.
"For my first kick, I picked the ball up just inside the centre square and booted it and it was just a mongrel floater . . . it just kept going in the wind and bounced into the goal square and hit the post.
"It would have been a great start, but I still felt so good out there. Just being able to get into a few contests, go body on body with someone and even wake up having that general soreness. I haven't had that in a while."
True confidence still eludes him - not until his third or fourth full match back does he think he will feel completely comfortable on the ground again - but the one thing Dragicevic knows is that he has done everything possible to get himself back to where he was.
From the moment he opened the diary he kept to help himself through his first reconstruction, the 21-year-old ignored the final line that read, "I hope I never have to write in this book again", and set about applying himself to almost the same program that got him through his first year off.
"I'd write down all my feelings, and all the mini goals I got that no one else knew about," said Dragicevic. "If I was angry, I'd write that, and I'd write in it if I was really happy about something, or proud. The way I saw it, no one else was going to read it, so I just wanted to be really open with myself."
The book, he said, will "hardly be a best-seller. It's no Harry Potter". But that shouldn't matter. Dragicevic has done the gym work, the laps of the Prahran pool, the bike riding, the twisting and turning and, more recently, the contact work at training. "Marc's looking terrific," said Richmond fitness co-ordinator Noel Duncan. "From the start, he really took ownership of his program. He was the one who decided that he was ready to play."
Rather than wallow during his time out, Dragicevic spent as much time as he could around the club. He took some gym equipment with him on his end-of-season Europe trip, learning "to do leg squats on pillows, and whatever I could find", and transformed from someone who could barely muster a stroke to a capable swimmer who can handle two or three kilometres.
When Dragicevic surfaces for season 2003, he will be nine kilograms heavier than in his last real senior game, but nursing the same ambitions he always has.
Figuring out what the coaches expect will take more time, although he knows they will not rush him. His next step is to play a full reserves match, starting this Saturday against Box Hill.
"It's such a different perspective being out, having to watch games. In your mind, you become the best player there ever has been . . . you have to remember it's so hard out there, it won't be easy," he said. "It's hard to gauge what the coaches are expecting. In the start, I think it will be just to play games and build my confidence, pick up the pace, make gradual improvement and enjoy myself.
"I think they'll be looking at me to do that, like the new recruit. But I also have goals, individual goals, that I think I can do, and I want to try and show them that I can play good footy again."
