Jarrad Grant back with sting in his tail
Jarrad Grant back with sting in his tail
Jackie Epstein | February 06, 2009 12:00am
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,25014501-19775,00.html
WESTERN Bulldogs top draft pick Jarrad Grant is stung by something that happened in season 2007. It's not the late February encounter he had with a stingray in Port Phillip Bay, rather the fact he didn't play a senior game in his first season.
"I take a fair bit of notice that nine of the top 10 last year played and I was the only one not to," the No. 5 pick in 2007 said yesterday.
"I've got to wait and my time will come.
"It was frustrating, but I've got to deal with it and it looks promising for this season."
Grant was at a recovery session at Port Melbourne beach when a barb cut through tape on his left foot and he was rushed to hospital.
He was on crutches for a few days and endured pain and swelling in the ankle.
Soon after that the highly rated forward was struck down by osteitis pubis and he sat out the remainder of the year.
"We didn't really know what it was at first," Grant said.
"So we were a bit cautious and the boys started to go into a bit of shock and thought we should call an ambulance.
"It was a pretty serious case and the bruising didn't go away for a while.
"Then I got OP six weeks in which was something different for me. It's a frustrating injury because you don't think it's too much, but it just restricts you in what you can do and running is a big part of the game.
"So we pulled the pin, tried to put some weight on over the course of the year, get all that fixed and looked at it for the long run."
Grant has added 8kg to his slender frame and ran in the forwards during an intraclub scratch match on Wednesday.
Yesterday he was back in the water with teammates at the club's community camp in Inverloch. Coach Rodney Eade said Grant would be in the mix to fill a forward pocket/flank position.
"I would think he'll play in Darwin," Eade said referring to next Friday's NAB Cup match against Essendon.
"He played about three quarters and got a kick in the ankle. It built up a little but he's been going OK.
"He's still slight so he's not going to hold down a key position but certainly long term we'd like to think he would."
Since his stingray bite there have been two more incidents involving West Coast's Daniel Kerr and Essendon's David Hille.
"It was kind of like a crab nipped you or sliced you, just a quick slash," Grant said.
"It gets itchy around that spot every now and again, but the doctors guarantee me it has nothing to do with it."