INJURIES are to be expected in sport, but sometimes clubs are left wondering if they are truly cursed or simply unlucky.
Mallee Eagles may be wondering if they are under the same curse as some of Australian sport’s unluckiest sides, including the NRL’s Penrith Panthers who suffered 11 season ending injuries in 2015, or the Fremantle Dockers, who currently have 15 players on the willow long term, including Brownlow Medallist Nat Fyfe.
One of the Central Murray Football Netball League’s (CMFNL) unluckiest streaks began in Lalbert in the first two weeks of the season when 12-goal hero Andrew McDonald suffered a serious knee.
The tall had been plagued by anterior cruciate ligament injuries at Kerang, but surprisingly, his injured knee showed no sign of damage to the same ligament.
Then came Sam Sheppard.
While he was riding a motorbike, a woman pulled out in her car, hitting the Eagle and knocking him off his bike.
He managed to go over the bonnet but tore his ACL in an accident which could have been a lot more serious.
Next on the list was Dave Sheehan.
He would break his arm during a match and get screws and plates in his arm.
Cue an infection and the stalwart was back in hospital with a longer recovery than first expected.
Dave Comben is sidelined with a niggling hamstring and Matt Batten dislocated his shoulder in a match before the much-publicised injury to Nathaniel Kendell in their match with the Cohuna Kangas.
The match was called off with the ruckman fracturing his back, leaving him unable to walk for a week.
Mallee Eagles president Geoff Kendell said his son was up and walking at home, but was concerned for the welfare and careers of all his players.
“We don’t want anymore of these injuries,” he told The Guardian.
“They are all career finishing injuries, the whole lot of them. I have never seen anything like this before. It is up to the individual if they will keep going, but under the circumstances, that could be it.
“If you were a big man and you were playing with the Mallee Eagles, you would be worried … we have been knocked down in our tall department, but it is going to hurt from now on I think.”
The side is “a bit jaded” according to Kendell, with concerns about the dynamic of the side.
