IVEY’S KNEE FOR SPEED
IF a week is a long time in football, just put yourself in Jordan Ivey’s shoes and try to comprehend what the past 14 months has been like. After suffering a ruptured ACL last May, Ivey has had to bide her time and watch from the sidelines as her new teammates have blazed the trail for the Geelong VFLW side. But today the wait is finally over, with the former Carlton utility set to don the hoops against the Southern Saints. It will come as no surprise to those closest to her that Ivey would have liked to have been back sooner than today, but the 25-year-old says the extra time training and putting strength into her legs will be worth it. “I’m really, really excited, it’s been a long time coming,” Ivey said. “To actually be playing on the weekend is hard to believe in that sense but I can’t wait to put on the jumper and have a run around. I thought I’d get back within 12 months and it has been pushed out to about 14, so I’ve had a couple of little setbacks along the way which has drawn it out and been pretty frustrating at times.
“But in hindsight I’m glad I’ve waited this long because I’m feeling a lot more confident now and haven’t had any issues with me knee whatsoever. I’ve learnt to have a lot of patience in that time but it’s all paid off.”
Geelong has stuck by Ivey throughout her lengthy rehabilitation, selecting her as one of its inaugural AFLW-listed players for 2019.
She says the encouragement of the coaching staff, physios, strength and conditioning team and her teammates has helped enormously in that process, but anybody who watches the Cats closely would know that she too has been a major support for them, helping out where possible at training and on match days in various roles.
With the Saints sitting in sixth spot on the VFLW table, just six points behind fourth-placed Geelong, it will be a fiery welcome back to playing for Ivey, who said while there were no great expectations on her she was admittedly a hard taskmaster.
“Being my first game back, I haven’t played any practice matches or anything, so there will be no expectations, it is just about finding my feet again,” she said.
“Obviously I hope to have some sort of contribution but at this stage I just want to get through the game and then re-asses and go from there.
“That is my outlook but I have higher expectations on myself than other people so I’d like to have a crack and do something, but we’ll see how we go.”
In a wretched twist of fate, Ivey’s teammate Lara Williams suffered a seasonending knee injury in the Cats’ loss to NT Thunder last week, meaning the pair won’t have the chance to play together until 2019.
“She actually spoke to me before the NT game and was saying how well I’d done to get through to this stage and was really looking forward to playing with me,” Ivey said.
“So that was really disappointing but I know she will have all of the same support that I had and they will look after her really well.”
The Cats take on the Saints today at Deakin University, starting at 1pm.