Grit and determination paying off for Menzel
FOUR years ago Daniel Menzel sat in the bistro at the Geelong Football Club nine days after his fourth knee reconstruction, crutches on the table, and vowed this was not the end.
Menzel said despite the odds, the tears, the frustration, the surgery, the rehab and the pain, there was one thing keeping him going — games like tonight.
The 26-year-old has returned to his home city of Adelaide to play in his first preliminary final having taken arguably the toughest road to reach one.
Forget for now that Menzel was dropped for the semi-final loss to Richmond and that he is yet to get a contract for next year.
Right now he is living in the moment and is two games away from a premiership which would be one of football’s greatest fairytales.
For so long it has been only a dream but it has been the one thing keeping him going.
“I think about my comeback every single day and maybe playing in a premiership,” Menzel told The Adelaide Advertiser in August 2013.
“As much as people say you were a part of the 2011 premiership, you know you weren’t (Menzel did his knee in the qualifying final).
“And one day, Mum said to me, ‘you should still be happy, you’ve played 21 AFL games’, and a lot of people would be happy with that, but my goals have never changed and I want to win a premiership and become the player I still believe I can.”
Despite all the odds, Menzel has been true to his word. He did not give up and returned to AFL football in Round 22, 2015, and has since played 38 games.
But there was more heartache last year when he played in the qualifying final win over Hawthorn then injured his groin and missed out on the preliminary final, which the Cats lost to Sydney.
Menzel’s mum, Cathy, says his journey from Golden Grove to Central District and Geelong, then four knee reconstructions in 21 AFL games, had changed him as a person and not only a footballer.
“I think he probably tried to wear a lot (of the emotion) himself and not involve other people, especially me. I think he tried to protect me quite a lot,” she said.
“He realises how lucky he is now but it’s through a lot of his own hard work.
“I just hope it’s a positive for him to be honest, I hope they win and get through.
“That’s all he wants to play for, to get to a grand final, that’s the ultimate goal.”
Cathy has ridden every bump of Menzel’s journey and it took a while for her to relax while watching him play.
“I am still on edge a bit, last week I was thinking, ‘please, please don’t try to prove too much and do too much’,” she said.
The only thing better than watching Daniel playing tonight would be seeing his younger brother Troy in the same game but for the Crows.
Troy has been in form in the SANFL but has played four AFL games this season.
“It’s disappointing but he’s not the only player, there are a lot of players who get disappointed,” Cathy said.
Menzel might be back home tonight but he will be firmly in enemy territory with Geelong facing a hostile Adelaide crowd.
But the president at his junior club, Ian Graham, said while there were plenty of Crows supporters at Golden Grove, none would begrudge Menzel if the Cats won.