How is your recovery going from your achilles injury?
RR: The achilles has got a bit of publicity. A lot of people think that I'm finished. I was watching the TV show I did the other day [20 to 1] and they wrote down on the bottom of the screen: 'Former AFL footballer Russell Robertson'. Everyone has been ringing me since saying: 'Have you retired?' That's not the case.
The Melbourne Football Club has been going through its transitional phase, getting rid of a lot of older guys, and people probably think I'm one of those who have gone too, because I haven't played since round 10 this year.
I'm still very much here and I'm on the road to recovery. I've been jogging and would love to do a lot more, but they're holding me back.
Are you further advanced than you initially thought in your comeback?
RR: The surgeon Jim Schneider did a fantastic job, so [the club medicos have] been very impressed with that aspect and the reattachment. In terms of where I'm at – are [the medicos] surprised? Probably.
I still have a fair bit of pain, but that's purely and simply from running again. The legs haven't been doing anything for five months and they've been lying dormant. The achilles is like rope and it needs to be made supple again. That's a process and that takes time. It's going to take a good seven months, [to recover] from the actual rupture.
Over the next two months, I'm going to be going through a lot of stress and duress with it, but in terms of strength the achilles is really strong. I'm really genuinely excited about the pre-season games and I can't wait to start – I'm 99.9 per cent sure [I'll be playing].
When I ruptured my achilles, the physios and doctors said: 'It sounds ridiculous, but it's probably a good time to do it'. We were at the bottom of the ladder, we weren't going to be playing finals and it was a six-month injury. They said: 'You're not going to miss next year'. So that was a positive in a really dismal time. It was a really appalling time for me.
So we're five months down the track and I'm looking forward to stepping up my training with the team we've got.
So much has happened at the club this year and since you're injury occurred. You've had some long-term teammates leave the club – David Neitz, Adem Yze and Jeff White. How have you found that transition?
RR: I had time to reflect on that the other night, when I left training and I was the last one there. I was icing up, looking at all of the lockers and thinking to myself: 'I started this trip as a real unfashionable [draft] choice and no certainty to even make one game'. I remember the guys getting around then and I thought about all of the guys I've been through the journey with so far. Most of the guys that have finished up over the last couple of years are a little bit older than me – 'Whitey', 'Ooze' and 'Woey' [Shane Woewodin] – some of the closer mates of mine.
It's a weird sensation being one of the last ones out of that group, along with Jimmy McDonald. Jimmy is older than me, so he's done fantastically well. He came in the same year as I did and we had a giggle the other day at some of the young pups that we've got here. We're finding it hard to relate with their 'Facebook' and other bloody stuff I don't understand. I laughed at the old guys when I was a kid, so it's come full circle.
Are you finding you're having an even greater influence around the club now, because you are now one of Melbourne's longest serving members?
RR: I've always been one to say a bit in meetings and speak up. I find myself relaxing a little bit in that regard now. I love the guys to have a bit of faith in me as a leader – and I want to be that for them – but it's time for the younger guys to step up, take over and take control. I've just got to get out on the park now. For James McDonald, it's going to be hard for him getting out on the park, because his body is getting older too. We've got to concentrate on that. It's up to the other guys now and not just even 'Greeny' [Brad Green] and 'Brucey' [Cameron Bruce].
While there is huge responsibility on us guys – the responsibility of the performances will fall on our shoulders. It's [up to] the other guys that have to take control in meetings and say: 'This is my football club, I want to go somewhere and I want to take these young guys with me'.
I'm not 100 per cent sure what I'm going to do and how I'm going to do it leadership wise, but I'll definitely be trying my arse off – that's for sure.
