There were three groups of onlookers cheering on Sam Darcy’s return to the Western Bulldogs on Thursday night.
The first were the Dogs supporters, rapt to see their young star-in-the-making back on the field after what looked like a serious knee injury earlier in the season.
The second were neutral supporters, who long to see a return to a time when a big forward would take over a game in the air, and on the scoreboard.
And the third group were those connected to the game. From the administration down through to those at the lower end of the spectrum, a player like Sam Darcy extending, clunking contested marks, and kicking goals, are the types of things that bring people through the gates. they make them want to watch games to see what happens next. I sat somewhere between group B and C as I watched on this Thursday, and I did so with a smile, as the big fella from the Whitten Oval had a profound influence on the contest.
As covered in my review of the game, Darcy was able to force the Saints to alter their entire defensive structure. There was no high-press from St Kilda this week. There was no pinning the footy inside their own attacking 50 metre arc and earning repeat entries by adopting a full team press in one half of the ground. No, they were very concerned with what could and would happen if the ball somehow got out, and Darcy was left with a clean run at the footy in the Dogs’ forward half. So, several of those wall-builders retreated to help the defenders, and that was influence enough to change the way the game played out.
The game has been screaming out for a young player to come in and become the next big thing. We’ve had teases – his own teammate, Aaron Naughton, looked like a world beater early in his career, launching at the footy with a reckless abandon. But time has brought him back to Earth, and opposing clubs have worked out how best to play him.
Another teammate, Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, showed signs, as well. What happens next with him remains one of footy’s big questions.
But Darcy presents an entirely different set of circumstances to deal with.
As they say in the classics, or at least in classic coach-isms, smaller blokes get tired, but the big guys don’t get any smaller late in games. Darcy stands out like a beacon in the Western Bulldogs’ forward line, and the more you watch him play, you cannot help but start to think that he might be The One.
He might be the one to become the most dominant forward in the game since Lance Franklin.
He might be the one who the Dogs can build an entire forward structure around.
Hell, he might even end up being the one who makes 100 goals in a season seem like a possibility again. That’s what I heard from a couple of Doggies fans over the last 24 hours. Such is the belief, and its lethal combination with hope, that Dogs supporters are daring to dream again. They’re starting to realise what they have.
However, we got a glimpse earlier this season of just how quickly a dream can turn into a nightmare, and how quickly what you have can turn into something you lost, with Darcy hyperextending his knee in Round Six. It looked like curtains for him, but luckily, he escaped damage to his ACL.
That moment, and the way the momentum was halted, reminded me of the time Paul Salmon went down with a knee injury. It was a long while ago, now, but the feeling was similar. In a way, Darcy is quite similar to Salmon, although Salmon was a goal machine in an era where goal machines were permitted to be isolated against a hapless defender.
In his first season, Salmon played nine games, and whilst he had big games (six goals against the Hawks in just his fifth game were a definite warning shot), his full assault began in year two.
If you think what Darcy is doing now, or was doing at the start of the year, was impressive, get a load of this.
In the 13 games Salmon played in his second season, he kicked 63 goals. For the mathemagicians amongst us, that amounts to 4.84 goals per game. Contested grabs were not counted back then, but Salmon’s height and reach was not unlike that of Darcy – a regular key defender was simply unable to get to the footy to spoil it. He was just too big. Just too good.
And then tragedy struck, with Salmon buckling his knee as he tried kicking around his body. Collingwood’s Geoff Raines attempted a smother, and Salmon’s knee kind of whipped around Raines’ body.
His sensational run was over – an ACL injury would keep him out for over 12 months, and Salmon, himself, tells the story of how he was told he might not ever play again. In those days, an ACL injury often meant the end.
I mention this story, because things can change ever so quickly in football. Salmon seemed destined to become one of the dominant forwards in the game when he had those 63 goals in 13 games, and whilst he remained a huge threat in front of goal, he only ever surpassed that 63-goal total just once for the remainder of his career. That was in 1993, when he slotted 65.
Darcy seems destined to become one of the next generation of big forwards in the league, and perhaps he will be the best of them. Right now, he has contemporaries like Josh Treacy, the King Brothers, and Riley Thilthorpe, but when you watch him play, his ceiling seems the highest.
Many players have had the world at their feet, only to stumble over it and do a knee. It remains an ever-present hazard in the game we love. It was the one thing that could prevent Paul Salmon from being a century goal kicker at the age of 19, and it feels as though it is the only thing that will prevent Darcy from being the next big forward that people line up to watch run around.
I’ve never tried to catch lightning in a bottle. If anyone has, they’re either foolish, or exceptional, but my guess is you only get one shot at it. People look at players as though they’ll be around forever. I sure felt that way when watching Paul Salmon back in 1983. Even as a little more than a kid, himself, he was larger than life and had the Essendon household I was in at the time, in raptures.
And I saw how it impacted them when he was injured.
It taught me to appreciate what you have while you have it.
What I see in Sam Darcy is the opportunity for joy.
Joy for Bulldogs supporters.
Joy for the general football public.
And joy for the old school footy purists, who love a big forward going out there and dominating.
And right now, I am taking the time to enjoy watching him every time he plays.
If he is lightning in a bottle, it really is just the second time I have seen it. And by God… it is magnificent.
As always, massive thanks to those who support this work. You can see the amount of care that goes into it. I love footy, I love writing about it, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Without you, this whole thing falls over. Sincerely… thank you – HB
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