A team of injured what might have beens

[perfectionist]

The Saints have prematurely lost many players over the years through injury, usually knee injuries which once were almost impossible to fix. Here are a few that I can think of (a couple continued their careers elsewhere but injury was the reason they left the Saints):

Backs: Allan Jeans Luke Penny Wayne Judson

Half Backs: Leigh Fisher John McIntosh Dean Rice

Centre: John Bonney Joel Smith Ross Oakley

Half Forwards: Ian Cooper Brian Gleeson Aaron Hamill

Forwards: Jim Wallis Bill Stephenson Xavier Clarke

Followers: Lazar Vidovic Barry Pascoe

Rover: Graeme Gellie

Can anyone think of others? Comments on the players also welcomed.

[kosifantutti]

Geoff Linke

[Freebird]

Rod Owen could have been anything

[satchmo]

Rod Owen could have been anything

Except sober!

[Dr Spaceman]

Fergus Watts

[RW&B]

Goose.

[saintspremiers]

Cripps.

Not the traitor one, the original.

[BigMart]

Jarred Allen, Luke Ball, Barry Brooks, Matthew Ferguson

Lazar was injured at 30yo, Joel Smith went on to play 200 games, and was an AA, Dean Rice also went on to play 200 games and play In a premiership....

[dragit]

justin koschitzke

[St Chris]

justin koschitzke

+ 1.

[bigcarl]

Rod Owen could have been anything

Except sober!

[saintsRrising]

X Man

[Sainternist]

Dean Rice was good value. That really shat me up the wall with him ending up in a Scumbagger premiership team.

Joel Smith doing his knee in '97 still hurts. Gee, he would have been handy in that finals campaign.

And then you've got Kosi and Hamill absent through injury for two PF's.

Ouch!

[Richter]

Luke Ball. Yes he has had a good career but his best season came when he was 20/21 years old. If not for the OP what could he have been...

[HitTheBoundary]

Geoff Linke

I think he had two goals before half time in his second game (?)
I remember thinking "this blokes good" right before he did his knee.

[Cairnsman]

Luke Ball. Yes he has had a good career but his best season came when he was 20/21 years old. If not for the OP what could he have been...

Wasn't OP all the rage back when LB was inflicted. You don't seem to hear much about it these days. Does that mean the science has found a way to deal with it?

[saintjake]

I'd put the G-Train in there for sure, if his hands weren't so f*#ked from arthritis he might have still been around for '09

[BigMart]

Gehrig would have been 33 in 2009 and moving much like Kosi does now...

Not sure he would have suited the Ross GP of fwd line frontal pressure

[stinger]

paul dodd is the obvious ommission ....represented victoria....got injured..only played about three games in the following three years.....jimmy guyatt...a real gun....done at 24 with a badly injured knee

[SaintPav]

Silvio Foshini.

[perfectionist]

A couple on the list deserve special mention. I never saw Brian Gleeson play, but my father said he was an out and out champion. He started as a ruckman/forward at 18, and at age 22, won the Brownlow Medal in 1957. He was injured in a practice game in 1958 and never played again.

I did see Graeme Gellie play. He arrived as an older player (23) but in his first season won the B&F. He was the perfect footballer (think Michael Voss or Joel Selwood). He could run, kick both feet, handball both hands (30 metres) and take a speccy. And, he was tough. In the last game of 1978 we played Carlton. The previous week we had blown our chances of a finals berth but Carlton were playing for the double chance and were the in-form team with 7 wins on the trot. We took them apart and Graeme Gellie was BOG with 31 possessions. He did his knee in the next preseason and it was almost three years until he played another game. He came back at the end of the 81 season for a few games and then tried again in 1983, but he just couldn't run anymore. He went on to become coach, but had the worst team the Saints had fielded in thirty years. We can only guess what might have happened had he been appointed in 1990 rather than 1984. He was a bit like Michael Malthouse but a much better footballer.

[BigMart]

What happened to MacIntosh??

He only played 50 or so games, yet considered a champion?

[PADDLEPOP1001]

John Mcintosh was one of the best footballers I have seen ,he was around 6ft 3 and was extremely mobile ,was a beautiful right foot kick but could kick just as we'll on his left (Saw him do a stab pass at training left foot over 40 metres sensational)he came in the top 3 or 4 in the brown low in the two full seasons he played and did his knee just before the 71 granny ,I often think he should have been in our hall of fame side!

[bergsone]

What happened to MacIntosh??

He only played 50 or so games, yet considered a champion?

Did his knee,chb who A.Jeans often moved forward,and could kick goals.Really missed him in early 70s,when we were a contender.IMO could have been a great of our club

[SaintPav]

He went on to become coach, but had the worst team the Saints had fielded in thirty years. We can only guess what might have happened had he been appointed in 1990 rather than 1984. He was a bit like Michael Malthouse but a much better footballer.

Not withstanding our crap list, I heard Gelllie was a terrible coach. He had a bit of trouble motivating the players and I heard one story, though I'm not sure how true its is, where he got them in a circle and asked them all a question along the lines of "what are we here for?". He went around the group but wasn't happy with any of the answers and then he turned to them and said something like: "we're here to get the ball". The players groaned and some senior guys walked off.