St Kilda midfielder Nathan Freeman will finally make his debut against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night, after several hamstring injuries have kept him from playing at the top level since he was drafted at Collingwood in 2013.
Freeman was drafted to Collingwood at pick No. 10 in 2013. At the end of the 2015 season, Freeman was traded to St Kilda. When Freeman runs out on Etihad Stadium on Saturday night, it will be his 1718th day as an AFL player. The 23-year-old has come far despite the numerous injuries that have interrupted his career. After several injuries to his right hamstring, Freeman flew to Germany at the end of 2016 to receive treatment from Dr Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt. He returned to Germany a year later to receive more treatment from the hamstring expert, who has worked with superstar athlete Usain Bolt and soccer star Bayern Munich. Following treatment in Germany, the midfielder managed to go unscathed in his recovery, until surgery in February found a defect in the muscle. Since it was corrected, he has not suffered any soft-tissue injuries since. The most recent injury Freeman has suffered was to his left shoulder back in May. Freeman has played seven consecutive matches for St Kilda's VFL affiliate Sandringham since the shoulder injury. In his most recent game against Box Hill, he collected 37 disposals.
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St Kilda midfielder Koby Stevens has announced his retirement due to ongoing concussion symptoms suffered since the Saints' round one clash against the Brisbane Lions.
Stevens suffered a head clash with Lions midfielder-forward Mitch Robinson in the opening round, which resulted in the 27-year-old suffering blurred vision. The following week, Stevens lined up against North Melbourne, despite experiencing delayed concussion and not informing the club doctors. It was only until round four that Stevens spoke to the club doctors and was diagnosed with delayed concussion. At that point, Stevens was unaware he had played his last game of football. After announcing his retirement to his teammates on Monday, Stevens spoke to reporters about why he had remained silent on his concussion symptoms. "Prior to this year, I've hidden things before and gone out and played with symptoms, and that's just the person I was," Stevens said. "I didn't like showing any signs of weakness and that's what I loved about the game, is that it's such a brutal game and something I'm going to miss. "Looking back at it now, and everything that it's robbed me of the last three or four months, you've got to take care of your health first and concussion is a pretty serious issue." The forward Eagle and Bulldog had suffered constant headaches and dizziness, and could not return to the football club to train due to an elevated heart rate. He even found it difficult to leave his house in the past three to four months. Saints coach Alan Richardson said that Stevens needs to think about his future after trying his hardest to return to football. "It's been a long time coming — the decision. He's done everything he could to try and get right, but the reality is he needs to have a break. He needs to think about the next phase of his life," Richardson said. "Some of the examples that he's set for our players have just been outstanding in the way that he plays, but also the way that he prepares." Stevens was drafted in 2009 by the West Coast Eagles at no.23, where he played 11 games. He then moved on to the Western Bulldogs in 2013, where he played 63 games and missed out on the Bulldogs' 2016 premiership due to injury. At the end of 2016, Stevens joined the Saints and played 17 games between 2017 and 2018.
St Kilda has had a poor start to the season, with just one win against three losses. The club promised members and supporters that they would make finals in 2018, but with more tough games coming up, it doesn't look like things are getting any better for the Saints. So how can the Saints come back from this? Can they still make finals?
It was in 2014 that the St Kilda Football Club announced to their supporters that in 2018, they would make finals and even earn a top four spot. They then said that in 2020, they would have another premiership. In a more realistic 2018, the Saints sit 16th on the ladder ahead of round 5. Just one win against the Brisbane Lions in round 1, but it was barely anything to be proud of. The Saints have had a lot of bad luck in the last few rounds, but would you blame a bad fixture or poor skills? While the Saints have been hit hard with tough games at the beginning of the season, it shouldn't be as big of a worry when the football club wants to play finals. Poor form is what is letting the team down. The Saints have kicked more behinds than goals since round 2, due to poor goal-kicking. Their total scoring tally is just 19 goals and a massive 40 behinds, and that's only since round 2. But that's only when they seem to get a set-shot. Their poor inside-50 entries have let them down massively, with opposition defenders relishing in simple turnovers. While some might argue that St Kilda's poor performance over the last few weeks is due to coaching errors, senior coach Alan Richardson has stated that it is due to players being out of form. "We've got too many out of form, there's no doubt about that," Richardson said during the Geelong post-match press conference. "They'll be different reasons. If you looked at last week (against Adelaide), some of the contest stuff was okay but our ball use was deplorable. "We've got a few too many who aren't at their best, players that I rate that have done some pretty good work at this level. "It never works by talking about it, I'm going to sound like a broken record, it'll be on the training track. "I'm not saying we've got plenty of time to turn it around, we need to turn things around quickly." St Kilda has also been dealt with several injuries to key players. Forward Josh Bruce will be out for at least 6-8 weeks due to a back injury, while defender Jimmy Webster is battling a hip injury and Koby Stevens is out indefinitely with concussion issues. Defender Dylan Roberton will be on the sidelines for a while after collapsing during the clash against the Cats, which is believed to be a heart issue. Forward Tim Membrey will train this week to determine whether he is fit enough to play against the Giants. Another worry for St Kilda is supporter attendance to home games. Only 19,324 fans attended the round 3 clash against the Adelaide Crows, which saw the Saints go down by 49 points. St Kilda's lowest ever attendance for a home game was against Port Adelaide in round 19, 2001, where only 14,018 people attended. Richardson has called on support from the fans to attend this weekend's clash against the Giants and get behind the "hurting" players. "The most important message to the fans is our players need their support. We, like them, are hurting," Richardson said. "We're not playing the sort of footy that they'd want us to play and we're going to work our backsides off as a footy club and a playing group to regain that form." St Kilda, who faces the top-of-the-table Giants this weekend, will also find the next few rounds worrying. The Saints will face Hawthorn in round 6 in Tasmania, Melbourne in round 7, and then Fremantle in round 8 at Optus Stadium. But Saints fans may not need to worry too much. Last season, the Sydney Swans lost their first six games and became the first team to make finals after that losing streak. If the Saints can turn their season around, maybe finals aren't out of the question after all? |
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