Adam Cooney speaks about the knee that has dogged him since 2008

Mark Stevens

http://i202.photobucket.com/albums/a...618-cooney.jpg

LANCE Franklin was the headline act in the 2008 qualifying final, kicking eight goals as Hawthorn delivered a brutal warning of what was to come three weeks later.

But the Western Bulldogs are still haunted by a far more sinister story that did not make the papers the next morning.

Adam Cooney suffered a heavy knock to his right knee as the "Buddy Show" rolled on, cracking the patella and messing with the delicate cartilage inside.

"It shifted the knee cap over and sheared the cartilage away," Cooney said this week. "The day after the game it just blew up. It was obviously a fairly forceful impact."

Almost three years on, Cooney is still in pain. The best he can do is manage the injury. There is no cure.

"I'm in pain pretty much most of the time. It's just always there," Cooney said. "It takes about 15 or 20 minutes to warm up and it's got that sharp pain when you run, but I suppose you get used to it after a while.

"I've got a fair bit of cartilage damage on the edge of the knee and that keeps breaking away every so often.

"It's not going to go away. I've got my head around the fact I'm not going to be ever able to play pain-free.

"I'm not the only one out there who's doing it, but it is frustrating."

Cooney's 22 home-and-away games leading into that 2008 final were good enough to win him a Brownlow Medal.

At age 22, there was so much up-side. But the knee, which was aching and swollen under the black suit pants as he made a memorable acceptance speech on Brownlow night, has cruelly intervened.

There were glimpses of Cooney circa 2008 last Sunday against Carlton, particularly when he marked a pass from Shaun Higgins at full-tilt and slammed a 40m goal through without breaking stride.

But the constant battle with fraying cartilage means he will battle to recapture the complete turbo-boost for which he's famous.

"Running-wise, I feel like I'm a bit quicker than the first half of the year, when I didn't have too much explosive speed," he said.

"It's come back a little bit, but I've probably lost a yard or two."

Asked to judge Cooney 2011 versus Cooney 2008, he hesitated before responding: "It's hard to say ... I'm definitely not close to that, I don't think."

Cooney has always been reluctant to go into depth about his injury in interviews and has avoided using it as an excuse - even when the critics have come hard and fast.

He has never been one to mope around and show the body language of a man wondering what his career might have been. It is just not his style.

But facts are facts and Cooney, who at times has been mis-read as too carefree, has been forced to confront his own football mortality.

Cooney is not out of contract until the end of 2013, when he will be 27.

You can bank on another deal of at least two years after that, but there are no guarantees Cooney will play well beyond 30 and push towards 300 games given the battle ahead.

"It depends on the mind as well," Cooney said. "It does weigh pretty heavy on you at times when you're struggling coming into games and you know you're not 100 per cent.

"It depends on the management issues over the next few years - I'd probably like to play until I'm 32, 33 ... whether I can or not remains to be seen."

Those "management issues" might include another rest before the end of the season - bad news for Bulldogs fans who have been again revelling in the cries of "Coon" in recent weeks.

"I probably have to have another break, maybe towards the end of the year," Cooney said. "If it gets sore, then I'm just going to maybe have to miss one or two here and there so I can just get that consistency of playing well rather than just battling through games."

Resting up is nothing new as Cooney missed a month after having 27 disposals in the Round 8 win against Richmond.

The Dogs thumped the Tigers, but Cooney's kicking efficiency reached record lows and it was obvious he was labouring.

Soon afterwards, he gave the knee what you could call a "lube job".

"I had a synovial fluid injection in the knee after the game to add some fluid," Cooney said. "I had a reaction. I was pretty sore the next couple of weeks.

"It wasn't great. I'd had one before and it had responded well ... it was just one of those things. Maybe I had an allergic reaction."

Cooney finally managed to get back out on to the training track and returned in Round 13 against Adelaide - in the unlikely role as substitute.

"It was probably more my decision than anything else, just because of a lack of match practice," Cooney said of spending the first 2 1/2 quarters on the bench.

Nathan Djerrkura was having a poor night and was subbed off. Cooney trotted on to the roar of the crowd.

"I felt good, actually. Halfway through the first quarter, everyone else was blowing and I felt pretty fresh," Cooney said.

The Dogs haven't looked back since, bursting clear of the Crows inspired by Cooney's presence and winning their past three against Gold Coast, Melbourne and Carlton.

Cooney was the Dogs' best against the Blues and close to the best against the Demons - a timely reminder that he is the club's most influential player.

The doubters, who have circled Cooney in recent years branding him lazy and complacent, have also been silenced.

Asked if the criticism stung, Cooney said: "It depends where it's coming from.

"If it is a highly respected figure in the football industry, you tend to take notice," he said. "If it's someone who is walking down the street and has got no idea about your body, or what's going on in footy, you tend not to take too much notice.

"It is frustrating when people don't know what's going on internally. There are reasons for it.

"People say I'm lazy and I don't work hard enough, which is probably frustrating because I'm doing the best I can out there. A lot of the time, I'm playing in pain."

The reason for Cooney's improved form in the past month is simple: He is back on the training track and is doing everything possible off it to get up for games.

"I've done a fair bit of work. A lot of cross-training and other stuff to try to get my body right.

"It's been a slow process and it's not perfect because I've still got a long way to go, but it's certainly a step in the right direction."

Cooney still laughs about being flabby in his early days at the Dogs and perhaps his diet was not always in line with a professional athlete's.

All that has changed, along with a meticulous attitude to his rehabilitation week after week. He has no choice.

"It's just a lot of anti-inflammatories, a lot of physio and maintenance. A lot of work in the gym getting strength around the quad," he said.

"I've worked a lot more since the injury, on my body and nutrition which is probably twice as good as it was the year I won the Brownlow.

"I think I've done pretty well in that aspect, which has sort of counteracted the injury a little bit."

With the Dogs now sniffing finals, any thought of "warehousing" Cooney for the rest of the season has vanished.

Asked if there was a time when he and the club were close to pulling the pin on the year, Cooney said: "To be honest, yeah, there probably was.

"The damage to my knee is such that I could have maybe pulled the pin if we lost a few more games and had no chance of making the finals.

"But the reality is, I might take the rest of the year off, then do a pre-season and my knee might not be any better than it was this year.

"There's probably no point in the end having the season off and then rolling into next season. I've pretty much got to try to get the most out of it while I can."

Cooney has had a series of operations on the joint, starting in the post-season of 2008 after he completed the last two finals hampered by the injury.

The latest procedure was at the end of last year, before a group of Dogs players headed to Hong Kong for an unofficial "footy trip".

Footage of Cooney skidding down a laneway on an Esky lid, and other teammates hamming it up, made news nationally as the club condemned their actions.

But Cooney said the incident in no way set him back in his recovery from surgery. "It was just one of those silly things you do when you've had a few on a footy trip," he said.

"It wasn't a great look, but it was certainly at the lower end of the controversial things that have happened in the world.

"From a club point of view, they weren't really happy with the way we were behaving and rightly so. We've just got to be smarter with the decisions we make in the future."

The footy trip is likely to be far more reserved this year, yet Cooney hopes to have a quiet drink or two to celebrate escaping a post-season clean-up on the knee.

"I hope so, yeah. It's just that the cartilage keeps breaking away. When you've got floating bits in there, it can get into the joint," Cooney said. "Once I had surgery the first time, it's damaged from then. The least amount of surgery I can have on it, the better it is going to be."

If he avoids another operation, Cooney may complete most of the pre-season heading into 2012.

"I got 70 per cent of one going into 2010," he said.

Cooney, struck down by osteitis pubis early in his career, has amazingly completed only one full pre-season in his nine-year career.

That was leading into 2008. We all know what happened then.

"I wouldn't mind getting another pre-season," Cooney said.

Someone cant add up 9 year career that makes him 27 now.
I must say Coons doesnt mind saying what he thinks, a nice change from the usual one liners most interviews are full of.

Well they can't add up because this is his 8th season. Anyway good to read all that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ledge

Someone cant add up 9 year career that makes him 27 now.
I must say Coons doesnt mind saying what he thinks, a nice change from the usual one liners most interviews are full of.

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And an even nicer change that he doesn't have to be an obnoxious twat, or trash his team mates, to say what he thinks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BornAScragger

And an even nicer change that he doesn't have to be an obnoxious twat, or trash his team mates, to say what he thinks.

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No idea who your talking about:rolleyes:

Good read on Coon, takes a lot of guts to play in pain, and deal with the doubters.

Good article this one.