After an impressive first-up season of senior league football with Richmond in 2015, which saw him play every game, hard-running, young utility Kamdyn McIntosh suffered a serious ankle injury as a result of a training mishap back in May, and hasn’t played since. Tigers great Matthew Richardson caught up with McIntosh at Punt Road recently, in a ‘Roar Vision’ exclusive, to check on his recovery. Here’s what McIntosh had to say . . .
How the injury happened
“It was during Thursday’s main training session. We were doing a full-field drill and I came down and crumbed the pack . . . I was running on to my right side and then I got tackled by one of the boys . . . It unfortunately snapped a few of the ligaments in my ankle.”
Feeling frustrated
“I’ve had a few injuries over the last four years, but this one’s the biggest . . . It’s a bit daunting at times, just being on the sidelines watching the boys. You just want to get out there and run amok, especially after being out for so long and watching them play each week.”
Turning the corner
“The back-end of last week we started to ramp up all the running and the sessions got a bit more intense . . . The key is to keep building before the season ends . . . Hopefully, by then, I’ve got a good fitness level back and I’m ready to go on the two months off that we have. But the key for me will be to maintain that fitness level over the two months off because, coming pre-season, I don’t want to be on the back foot again with any other niggles . . .”
Coping with the challenge
“It’s my preferred foot, so I’ve had to change to a left-footer now. It’s definitely hard at times in terms of everything’s done on my right foot. I’ve got more balance and control when I’m on my right foot in the gym . . . So I’ve had to change a few things. I lost a lot of weight and strength through my right leg as well. Now that I’ve started running a fair bit more, we’re starting to put some kicking back into it and, hopefully, get the ankle a little bit better . . . It’s a little bit tough, but nothing that the physio staff here at Richmond can’t handle.”
Support in rehab
“I was the only one to be injured at that time. When I went in to get my scans I was thinking, I’m going to be in rehab by myself. I came back to the Club and, later on that day, I heard Bachar Houli got injured in the same session. So we worked quite closely together in our rehab programs – swimming in the pool, weights, strength sessions. Then, as the season went on, we got a couple more boys . . . Steve Morris, with his ACL, Corey Ellis with his groin, and Brett Deledio, with his calf as well. So I’ve had some guys to train with . . . We’ve been working pretty closely, but we’ve got different programs as well. So sometimes we are by ourselves and it gets a little bit hard. But the mental side of it, you’ve just got to get through it . . .”
Raring to return
“I definitely want to get out there. I get on edge because I get so bored sitting there . . . I see the boys having some fun out there. It’s not fun, when the boys are losing, but still, you just want to get out there. You feel that you can maybe do something . . .”
Aims leading into season 2017
“I’ve got a few goals. It’s going to be my second full pre-season (in the AFL), if all goes well. My first couple of pre-seasons I was a bit injured . . . I’ve got to keep working on my strength. I want to get stronger through the hips and be a bit harder to tackle. I wouldn’t mind getting a little bit bigger through the pre-season – through the legs, especially, because I lost a little bit of size with my injury. I wouldn’t mind moving back into the midfield. I played all last year on the wing, and this year I moved to the half-back line . . . I’ll do a little bit of work with ‘Cotchy’ (Trent Cotchin) and those sort of players in the midfield and then, hopefully, I can implement Dustin’s (Martin) ‘don’t argue’ into my game as well . . . I just want to get back out there with the boys in the pre-season.”
