INJURED Vic Metro star Jackson Trengove says he has taken inspiration from Geelong dynamo Joel Selwood as someone who can have an injury-riddled season and still be taken as a high draft selection.
Selwood, who was selected at No.7 by Geelong in the 2006 NAB AFL Draft after his year was ruined by a knee injury, has since become a star of the competition and a premiership player.
Trengove is sidelined for the rest of the 2008 season due to an injury on the outside of his knee – in his words "not quite the hamstring and not quite the knee".
"It's a really awkward one and a weird one to explain, because it's just on the fibula, but it's more near my knee, so that's why I say it," Trengove told afl.com.au.
"I've spoken to a few people and I've spoken to [Michael] Voss through the AIS and he said Brisbane is kicking themselves because they didn't draft Joel Selwood, but in the end it doesn't matter whether you're first or your 60th – you're there in the end and you've just got to work from there.
"Every one is on the same block after you get drafted by a club, so that's my main aim – to get my knee right."
The 196cm tall from the Calder Cannons is not letting talk that he is a top 10 pick interfere with his focus on getting back on the track.
"I don't worry about it too much. I let my footy do the talking and whatever happens at the end of the year happens. It'll probably send me down the list, but if it's meant to be, it's meant to be," he said.
Trengove sustained his injury at training before Vic Metro's match against Tasmania on the Queen's Birthday holiday.
He was philosophical about the injury, saying it was "a little setback, but not too bad".
"Where the hamstring meets the fibula, that got ripped off, just a slash of bone, and that just got reattached with the ligaments, so it got all put back on where it's meant to be.
"It happened at training and when I went to kick it, I got knocked under a bit of pressure and it got smothered and it knocked my knee out.
"At the start it was a little bit sore, but I didn't think it was going to be too bad and I thought it was just going to be a couple of weeks with stretched ligaments, but the next day I went in for scans and then in the afternoon I found out [I was out for the season].
"In one sense, it was the worse time it could happen and in another sense it was probably the best time it could've happened, as it's given me time to get back to do a pre-season and get back into it for next year."
Asked to describe himself as a footballer, Trengove said he was a competitor.
"I get out there and do my bit for the team and always give 100 per cent and put my body on the line for the team.
"I'm versatile. I can play in the ruck, down back and also up forward, so that's where my advantage is. For my height, I would consider myself a key back … and I've got a bit of a leap, to help go against the bigger bodies."
