Western Bulldogs young gun Marcus Bontempelli's pre-season scare

[bornadog]

September 10, 2014 - 4:19PM
Emma Quayle (http://www.theage.com.au/afl/by/Emma-Quayle)

Football writer with The Age




http://images.theage.com.au/2014/09/10/5749098/Article%20Lead%20-%20narrow6116102610f0s11410330185572.jpg-300x0.jpg
Bontempelli was voted by his peers as the league's best first-year player. Photo: Getty Images


Marcus Bontempelli briefly feared his debut season was over before it had started, but he avoided what the Western Bulldogs thought might be a major knee injury in his first six weeks at the club.
Bontempelli jarred his knee during a marking contest early in the pre-season, with medical staff concerned he had ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament.

The teenager, voted by his peers this week as the league's best first-year player, was quickly sent for scans that showed he had suffered bad bruising and would need just a few weeks off the track.
"It turned out to be nothing too serious, but at the time it happened it was a bit scary," Bontempelli said on Wednesday. "The pain was really bad and like nothing I'd ever felt before, so it put some questions into my head and I wasn't sure what I'd done.

"We were doing a bit of one-on-one marking at the time and I probably went up against someone I wasn't ready to be in a contest with, Jack Redpath, and he kind of came across to kill the contest and I hyperextended my knee and jarred it a bit.
"Immediately I thought it would be the worst-case scenario and I think some other people at the club were a bit worried too, but thankfully it wasn't anything near that bad.

"They checked it out straight away and it seemed pretty sound, but I had to go and get scans and when it came back with just bone bruising I think everyone was relieved and I felt pretty lucky to escape with that.
"It meant I got to have a bit of a break, and that might be something that helped me get through the season."

Bontempelli, who finished just one vote behind Brisbane's Lewis Taylor in the Rising Star award, was a runaway winner of the AFL Players Association's best first-year player award on Tuesday night.
The No. 4 draft pick polled 343 votes, finishing ahead of St Kilda midfielder Luke Dunstan (69 votes), Taylor (62), Essendon's Zach Merrett (53) and North Melbourne defender Luke McDonald (53).
Dyson Heppell, Jaeger O'Meara, Jeremy Cameron are some recent winners of the award, with Michael Barlow, Joel Selwood, Chris Judd, Adam Goodes, Brett Deledio, Marc Murphy and Daniel Rich also on the honour roll.

Bontempelli played 16 games in his first year, and said one of the keys to adapting to life as an AFL player had been finding ways to absorb as much information as possible.
"It's a tough thing to prepare for because I know I did as much as I could and I still had to take a backwards step when I got here," he said.

"I think the best thing to do is make yourself like a sponge, especially early. Write as many things down as you can and go away from every conversation and every meeting knowing you've taken something from it.
"It's information overload when you first get in, so it's important to sort through it and make sure you take things in."



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/western-bulldogs-young-gun-marcus-bontempellis-preseason-scare-20140910-10ew5e.html#ixzz3CtOr6jwO

[bulldogtragic]

Maybe a rhetorical question. How the *!*!*!*! can MB finish second in the Rising Star but poll nearly 300 votes more in the AFLPA.

If someone prosecuted the AFL for rigging the system, this would be the smoking gun evidence to convict them.

But more positively, it must be nice for Marcus to not just win, but to win by such a margin.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

It's an indictment on the Rising Star Award as it is currently adjudicated.
Having said that it's not a conspiracy, it's not rigged. The problem is that there are multiple personalities judging the Rising Star who consider themselves experts, many of whom want to be seen as 'the smartest guy in the room' and who's votrs are publicised afterwards. They are not held accountable to vote to any other criteria than who they feel was the best.
Lewis Taylor had a consistent season, but I think Voss (and I rarely agree with him) was right when he said Bont impacted more games at an A grade level than Taylor. And as an 18 year old that is significant. He impacted results and influenced games not just contributed.

[1eyedog]

Maybe a rhetorical question. How the *!*!*!*! can MB finish second in the Rising Star but poll nearly 300 votes more in the AFLPA.

If someone prosecuted the AFL for rigging the system, this would be the smoking gun evidence to convict them.

But more positively, it must be nice for Marcus to not just win, but to win by such a margin.

Not only that what the hell is Marcus doing up against Redpath in his first few weeks at the club. Redpath is one of the heaviest and clumsiest blokes on any AFL list. It's kind of like pitting a Lambourgini against a Panzer :p

[Remi Moses]

What on earth is Mark Robinson Smoking?
Reckons because Bris Vegas are scheduled at crap times the players don't see Taylor play.
Geez Robbo, the Western Bulldogs are just so prime time.
Must be all those Friday night games:rolleyes:

[Greystache]

Maybe a rhetorical question. How the *!*!*!*! can MB finish second in the Rising Star but poll nearly 300 votes more in the AFLPA.

If someone prosecuted the AFL for rigging the system, this would be the smoking gun evidence to convict them.

But more positively, it must be nice for Marcus to not just win, but to win by such a margin.

Seems to me the player's wanted to make a statement. To win by such a margin, when you consider your own team mates will automatically award you 30-40 votes, means that almost no one voted for anyone but Bonti.


What on earth is Mark Robinson Smoking?
Reckons because Bris Vegas are scheduled at crap times the players don't see Taylor play.
Geez Robbo, the Western Bulldogs are just so prime time.
Must be all those Friday night games:rolleyes:

Brisbane do play at terrible times, I know because I usually catch a half of their game before trudging off to our usual Sunday twighlight game.

Robbo's probably too busy furiously writing his weekly Essendon propaganda piece (I think he calls it the tackle) for Monday's HS to see the final game of the round. :rolleyes:

[Bulldog4life]

What on earth is Mark Robinson Smoking?
Reckons because Bris Vegas are scheduled at crap times the players don't see Taylor play.
Geez Robbo, the Western Bulldogs are just so prime time.
Must be all those Friday night games:rolleyes:

A lot of the players would have played against Bonti & Taylor. Didn't watch them from afar. Robbo quite conveniently forgot that too.

[LostDoggy]

An award voted by your peers, who know what it takes, who see you up close. Or an award voted by a handful of AFL panellists, many of whom have agendas in play.

I know what I'd prefer to win.