Richard Hadley
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THERE are times when Richard Hadley looks around the Lions' locker room at the Gabba and wonders quite what happened.
Before his comeback from two knee reconstructions in round three against Sydney, Hadley's most recent game was the 2004 grand final - when he was aged 21.
Among his teammates against Port Adelaide that day were the now departed Mal Michael, Darryl White, Justin Leppitsch, Brad Scott, Jason Akermanis, Craig McRae, Martin Pike, Alastair Lynch, Clark Keating, Michael Voss, Dylan McLaren and Blake Caracella.
Now, preparing to play his seventh game of the year against Collingwood on Saturday, Hadley suddenly finds himself a "middle-aged" player and he admits it's a strange feeling.
"It's definitely a bit different," Hadley said.
"I was used to being the youngest one out there. I was a bit wet behind the ears and I don't think I took it all in.
"It all happened so quickly that I never had time to sit there and think about it all."
Hadley's situation is made slightly more odd by the fact that his absence has allowed younger Lions to pass him in the "games played" stakes. Eight weekends into his seventh season at the Gabba, Hadley has just 33 games to his credit. By comparison, teammates Jed Adock (aged 22) and Justin Sherman (20), have played 40 and 48 games respectively.
The tall midfielder says the game changed for the quicker in his time away, with new kick-in rules providing for much faster end-to-end transition.
"I definitely reckon things have got quicker - particularly with how quick teams are able to take it down the other end of the ground after a kick-in," Hadley said.
"The last three weeks we haven't been at our best with our ball use and that's where you really can get hurt these days, on the turnover. You give it away and next thing you know it's at the other end going through the goals.
"I'm feeling my way back into things. Last week I got a fair few touches and but I'm still struggling a bit with my disposal and my timing around the stoppages.
"I'm getting better every week though I think and I don't think that timing is too far away."
Hadley, like fellow long-term injury victim Nigel Lappin, says a lack of match-conditioning has him pulling up more than would normally be the case after each outing.
That he is getting the opportunity to pull up sore at all is partly down to eight days spent last August with US "knee whisperer" Bill Knowles.
"He (Knowles) had done a lot of work with skiers and snowboarders - those guys do ACLs all the time. And some English sporting teams had sent their players over there," he explained.
"I'd done a year-and-a-half of rehab by that stage and it was great to get some fresh ideas. I had a ball - Bill was the kind of guy whose enthusiasm and energy just rub off on you.
"I ended up doing a lot of different things that probably wouldn't have been part of my program here. It wasn't just about the leg - it was about the rest of the body as well."
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