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WHEN Tom Williams hurt his foot midway through the VFL
season of 2005, he was told he'd be sidelined for two weeks.
Almost two years later, he was able to play again after
being diagnosed with a completely broken navicular bone.
"I know players play with it fractured, because it
doesn't really hurt, but I actually snapped it right through really bad. It
actually didn't hurt that much when I did it, and the Werribee doctor told me I
was going to be out for two weeks," Williams said.
"He just got the weeks and the years mixed up – an easy
mistake to make, I suppose!"
Williams described the navicular bone as being located
"under where the knot on your shoelace sits", and being one of those
bones that "doesn't get a lot of blood, which you need to heal".
The first time he broke it, he was simply running through
the midfield and felt it snap – although he conceded it was probably fractured
before then as he'd previously suffered a bit of pain in the region.
What would follow would be two years of aggravation, two 'almost
comebacks' (and two bitter disappointments), as well as a bonding experience
with the other Bulldogs confined to rehab for long-term injuries.
"Frustrating is an understatement," Williams said.
"It drove me insane, really.
"Two years on the sidelines … having 'Darc' there
helped me a lot because he did his injuries around the same time, and he was
out for the same time as well so I wasn't alone. "His wisdom helped me get
through it, and the five knees we had last year gave me a lot of company, which
helped.
"But, every time I did it, I was nearly ready to play.
I think the third time I did it, I was actually supposed to play the week that
I did it.
"I was training, and I was having a bit of pain, so I
had an x-ray and found out it had gone again, so I was in trouble again."
Now, his navicular is "as solid as a rock", and he
can get back to focusing on trying to get a kick – as well as coping with the
expectations placed on him owing to the fact he was drafted at No.6 in the 2004
NAB AFL Draft.
"It's not the first thing I think about, but I'm aware
where I went in the draft and of how other guys around me have gone," he
said.
"There is a little bit of extra expectation there, but
no one has really put pressure on me at the club. That helps a bit."
Williams lives with Ryan Griffen, who can relate to the
pressure of expectations after being picked with the third selection in the
same draft.
He believes residing with Griffen "helps to keep his
feet on the ground", while the support of his parents, Steve and Terri,
has helped him immensely – even if his former rugby-playing dad was a little
surprised he took to the rival game.
"It was a bit weird, because my dad just thought I
would play rugby," he said.
"I suppose they were surprised how quickly it happened,
and so was I. I didn't think it would happen that quick; I thought there was a
much longer process involved."
But it was ultimately an AFL presentation by former Sydney
Swan Mark Browning that convinced him to give the game a go – and he became
hooked.
"Mark came to my house one day, and I'm not sure how he
found out, but he just heard that I might be a good player if I started
playing," he said.
"He came around and gave me a presentation, and said, 'this
is what's required to be an AFL player'; running times, speed times, endurance
times, and I thought I might be able to do that, so I decided to give it a
crack because it would help my kicking for rugby.
"I turned out to like it a bit more than I thought I
would."
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