The news has not been great for Dan McStay over the last few months.
Whilst his new team surged to win the flag, McStay sat in the grandstand, nursing an injured knee stemming from the Magpies’ thrilling Preliminary Final win over the GWS Giants. When people say a win came at a cost, this is what it means. McStay was hopeful he’d be right to play, but scans the morning after the game indicated his expected recovery time was around eight weeks.
He was done.
It must have been bittersweet for him to watch the Pies and Lions battle it out on the last Saturday in September, knowing that, irrespective of the result, he was going to have played in fewer Grand Finals than both his new teammates and his old ones. Whilst he no doubt celebrated the triumph of his new club, and would have appreciated the calls for all players to receive a premiership medal, the sad fact was that he wasn’t a part of that last game and the celebrations would have been lined with a touch of sadness.
Of course, the old footy adage that there’s always next year would have had him fronting up for the 2024 preseason, ready and raring to go. Is knee should have been right to go. He should have been cherry ripe. And just like that, there wasn’t a “next year”. In fact, it won’t be until 2025 that McStay pulls on the black and white guernsey and runs onto the park for the Magpies.
You have to ask – how much will this club miss him?
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