Jamie Charman Den Diary

Like big Leuey said in his Den Diary last week – I am pretty frustrated at the moment.

Last month I spoke about how tough it was to finally overcome a broken wrist and knee injury during the pre-season – only to suffer a further setback last Friday night against Collingwood.

I was really pumped up for the game, but obviously it didn’t go to plan.

Basically I sprained my ankle early in the match and have some pretty severe ligament damage which will probably keep me out of footy for around a month or so.

It could’ve been much worse I guess with initial fears that it was broken – but the news was still just the tip of the iceberg for me.

With Matthew Leuenberger out for 12 weeks with his knee injury, I was really determined to get back into the team and help shoulder most of the ruck load.

By half-time I was on crutches with my ankle wrapped in ice.

I probably haven’t been the greatest company since. In fact, my friends and family are beginning to wonder whether I have taken one too many angry pills as part of my recovery.

But I have calmed down a fair bit in the last couple of days and am now pencilling in my return for maybe Round 8 against the Crows or Round 9 against the Saints.

So far 2009 hasn’t been too kind to the Brisbane Lions ruckmen. With four out of five ruckmen now on the injury list, we should probably have our own casualty ward down at the Club right now.

Tassie draftee Bart McCulloch is almost 200cm tall and is only a couple of weeks away from getting back on the field after getting over a quad injury while rookie ruckman Joel Tippett is back in training after a back problem.

Daniel Murray has just come back from a groin injury over the pre-season and looked pretty lively in his first hit-out for the Club in the reserves last weekend.

He is a big fella for only 18, has good mobility and can take a strong grab.

But I would imagine Mitch Clark will carry most of the ruck duties for the next month or so.

Mitch has been really impressive this year in the middle. We all know he can go forward and kick goals and has even done well as a defender – but I reckon he is really suited to the ruck role.

He has a great leap, moves well around the ground and is aggressive at the contest when the ball hits the deck.

Last week he had a game-high 24 hitouts, collected 14 disposals and laid six tackles opposed to in-form Magpie ruckman Josh Fraser.

He’s not the kind of guy who is going to be daunted by the prospect of playing the role of number one ruckman – in fact, I think he will relish the challenge.