He has got back to where it was pre injury.
its just now how much improvement has he got in him.
Hes 24 and played 73 games.
I Bet he loves playing in the backline now with McKenna and Saad back there.
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The thing is prior to injury he was too skinny. Still showed plenty of times that there was a good footballer inside that stick figure but it’s a lot harder to be consistently good in contested situations when you’re built like that.
Thankfully since late 2017 he has put on some bulk and I have no doubt that this has helped him reach his current level of output.
Ah you must be talking about the mercurial, youthful, Inspector Gadget.
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He was in our top 5 players in the preseason before he got injured. He is only going to get better.
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Worth keeping in mind how few games he has played with Redman, Saad, Francis and even McKenna.
A lot of meshing together growth to come.
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So what you’re saying is nobody will be able to score against us again?
No need to be arseholes about it.
It’s always nice to let the kids kick a couple to encourage them to show up next week.
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Gleeson’s pseudo coaching role during his injury layoff would have had him spending a lot of time with both Redman and Francis. He’s played a big role in their development as defenders imo.
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Still no mention from @Ants?
Big critic from memory.
Hate for him to a DP & wait for a quiet game before then commenting
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I think he’s been solid so far. Not particularly better than Ridley earlier in the year. Seems to have tightened up a bit on his defensive side (which was my major criticism), but be doing a lot less going the other way. Which is a balance change I heartily approve of. I think he’s helped that Redman is getting the tougher gigs, which means he’s playing on weaker players less likely to exploit him. e.g. Redman picked up Lynch a good deal last Friday. I’m not sure who Gleeson was on, but unless it was Smith (unlikely) he shut them down. But that is a lot weaker player than some of the jobs he was previously getting.
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I only noticed him on Lynch who I thought he well beat, even though he is conceding a bit on size.
What he’s got over Ridley is a more gung-ho approach to attacking the contest, & then counter attacking very quickly & effectively which often catches the opposition out on the turnover.
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ttps://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-07-26/tough-bomber-reveals-gruesome-detail-behind-horror-injury
Ouch!
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ouch indeed !!! It’s got to be challenging to come back and have confidence in your body.
Tough Bomber reveals gruesome detail behind horror injury
Martin Gleeson carried off after suffering the ankle injury in the JLT Community Series in 2018
MARTIN Gleeson could tell the news wasn’t good. It was March last year, and the Essendon defender had flown for a mark in the Bombers’ JLT Community Series clash with Geelong in Colac.
It was like hundreds of marking contests Gleeson had been a part of before. Except this time Gleeson landed awkwardly on his ankle and needed to be taken off the field.
The talus bone in the middle of Gleeson’s left ankle split in half … Gleeson asked where the fracture was, not knowing that the two bones in front of him were meant to be one
“I was a bit bewildered at what I’d actually done,” Gleeson told AFL.com.au this week.
His dad was at the game and drove him back to Melbourne that afternoon, and Gleeson went immediately for scans.
Martin Gleeson had to be helped from the field after landing awkwardly on his left leg. #JLTSeries
“I walked out of getting an x-ray and the guy couldn’t tell me what I’d done, but he said ‘Are you sore?’ And I said ‘I’m not too bad at this stage’ and he raised his eyebrows,” Gleeson said.
“Then I had a call from ‘Reidy’ (Essendon club doctor Bruce Reid) straight away and he said ‘You’ve got to go straight to the Epworth Hospital, you’ve got a pretty nasty ankle injury, you’ll be getting surgery at 7.30 in the morning’. I got sore straight away once I knew what had happened.”
What had happened was serious. So serious that Reid, who has been Essendon’s club doctor for nearly four decades, has only ever seen it once before.
The talus bone in the middle of Gleeson’s left ankle split in half. So much so that when he was looking at the x-ray, Gleeson asked where the fracture was, not knowing that the two bones in front of him were meant to be one. The break then dragged his heel forward about a centimetre, dislocating it.
This was the start of a long road for Gleeson – a full season on the sidelines, more than 12 months between games at any level and 656 days separating appearances in Essendon’s AFL line-up.
Now back in Essendon’s side, the 24-year-old has detailed the scale of the injury and challenges to return.
Essendon was at first optimistic the injury would mean only three months on the sidelines, with Gleeson to be available later in the year. But after surgery, which had to be immediate to prevent any bone dying, nothing was certain.
“I thought if I did everything right then I might be able to pull off some miracle,” Gleeson said, “but then I was on crutches for 16 weeks and in a moonboot for 18 weeks, so I knew it was going to be a long way back.”
The first two weeks were the worst. Gleeson was in a cast, his ankle swelling and throbbing with every move. After eight weeks, he was allowed out of the boot to walk in the pool, doing more aquatic exercises over four weeks.
At the four-month mark, by then off the crutches, Gleeson walked on the AlterG anti-gravity machine, which allows athletes to use it at a lower percentage of their body weight.
Once out of the moonboot, he spent another three weeks building up his calf muscle before he ran again for the first time since surgery. It was round 21 last year, and he shared the moment with teammate Josh Begley, who was recovering from a knee reconstruction.
“Looking back I can’t believe how bad I was at running. You think you’re fine but watching back it was horrible, but it was amazing to do,” he said.
Essendon offered Gleeson the chance to go away during the season. But, aside from the odd day off-site, Gleeson wanted to remain at the Bombers’ Tullamarine base as his teammates surged for a late – and ultimately unsuccessful – bid at the finals.
He found comfort in watching documentaries about sports people from around the world who had overcome adversity, including NFL superstar Tom Brady, who endured a knee injury early in his career before returning to be the greatest quarterback in history.
Occasionally Gleeson wished he was in the same boat as Begley: dealing with a common long-term injury that has a prescribed rehabilitation process.
“I like to map things out, and I could do that to a degree, but it was also about how I felt and was getting through each session. For me that unknown was definitely the worst part, and there were times I wished I had a different injury, even a bit more serious, just so I knew what the outcome was,” he said. “It kept me up at night for sure.”
Gleeson was running again by the start of pre-season in November, but it wasn’t right. For three months, he struggled to get the stiffness out of the joint. Every time he stepped up his training a ‘hot spot’ emerged.
The Bombers tried to change his training and running loads, saw another ankle and foot specialist, and sent him to the gym to strengthen the muscles around the area.
“It was going OK, but he just didn’t have the full range of movement back as quickly as he and we would’ve liked,” said Dan Richardson, Essendon’s football manager.
“That was just another challenge for Marty and our medical team to work through, but it was another case of never being really sure how quickly he’d get back to full range and back playing … because it was so uncommon.”
Eventually, by early March, Gleeson had rejoined full training and he returned to play in a VFL practice game weeks later. He was equally nervous and excited, and focused on landing right when he leapt in the air.
Essendon VFL
@essendonvfl
](https://twitter.com/essendonvfl)How good is it seeing this guy back? @martygleeson35
But as his concerns with his body were eased, he had other questions to conquer: could he get back into Essendon’s side and contribute?
Gleeson, in the three years prior to his injury, had become a staple of Essendon’s backline. His brave intercept marking, rebound and run, and ability to play on a range of forwards saw him settled in the defence, playing 60 of a possible 67 games from 2015-2017.
Gleeson’s return was pushed back a little further after fracturing his cheekbone in the VFL in April – “I felt a bit sorry for myself at first, like ‘Of course this would happen to me’,” he said – before he finally won his place back for the Bombers against Greater Western Sydney four weeks ago after showing his class in the VFL.
The Bombers have had four wins since then, and Gleeson has produced some crucial moments in frenetic last quarters against North Melbourne and Adelaide.
His confidence in the air is back, his courage hasn’t gone missing, and he’s found his place in a team that’s very different from the one he last played in (only 10 players from Essendon’s 2017 elimination final loss to Sydney faced the Crows last week).
The doubts Gleeson had – about his injury, performance, and ability to fit back in – have been wiped out.
“I’m back loving it. At the end of this year it’ll be good to sit back and reflect on the journey and everything that’s happening and give myself a little pat on the back,” Gleeson said.
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Ridley is a smooth mover and looks like being a player. Gleeson is experienced and doing all the things Ridley can do but more of the time, with greater confidence, and leading out on the field. Love him. Love our depth, especially Zerk and Rids.
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Really admired Marty Party rocking up to VFL games in the moon boot & crutches last year to sit on the bench & help out.
He could have stayed at home feeling sorry about his situation but he made the effort for both himself & the club.
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Great article about the horror injury Marty endured. Really happy for him that he has been able to fight his way back into the side. Wishing him an injury free future… he deserves it.
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This^ is why I just could not u/stand the knocking.
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Henry Slattery played 61 of a possible 67 games from 2007-2009.
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17 disposals, 6 one percenters and 7 intercepts a game vs 14, 1.5 and 4.2
Streets ahead.
Reading this joint you would think Ridley was Dustin Fletcher incarnate.
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