I actually attended a Devine Legends Lunch in Melbourne last week and was asked whether there’s a fine line between being courageous and being reckless or, as they said, ‘stupid courageous’. And I guess there is a fine line.
But in my defence, I genuinely thought I was going to take that mark. I know I’ve been criticised for not having a look, but next year I’ll do the same thing, take the mark and prove everyone wrong.
As a centre half-forward when the ball gets bombed into the forward 50, I suppose there are times when you are in a bit of doubt as to whether there’s a team-mate there or whether the ball is just going to fall into the hands of the opposition. So sometimes you just want to run back and force a contest.
On this occasion I didn’t have time to look and unfortunately paid the price.
It’s the first time I’ve ever been knocked out like that in my career and had concussive symptoms like being crook for a couple of weeks. But that’s pretty good odds considering I’m in my 13th season.
I’ve reviewed the video since the incident and you can see that I got to the contest a bit too late and didn’t have time to jump. With those types of marking contests, I’ve usually had time to jump and roll my body - I’ve been doing it since I was 15 years old.
I suppose the difference between the Mark of the Year I took back in 2002 and the one that hurt me this time was that I didn’t have time to jump and get that protection in the air.
So now I have to spend more time on the sidelines which is frustrating. Watching last Sunday’s game from the coaches box at the Gabba and not being able to do anything to stop Adelaide’s run-on in that last quarter was excruciating.
What’s also difficult to swallow from a personal point of view is the fact I’m going to miss my chance to have a crack at the Gold Coast SUNS this Saturday night. Like our fans, I was devastated to watch the boys go down in the first ever QClash and had Round 21 pencilled in my diary as a chance for the Club to get some sort of retribution.
But the boys have pretty long memories and will be doing everything possible to make sure that we get the win this time to give our Queensland fans at least something to brag about.
