Recruit set to have a blinder
JOSH Corbett thought his chances of returning to play state league football, let alone the AFL, were over when he went blind in one eye this year.
A stray finger during a marking contest while playing for Werribee in the VFL left the Suns recruit blind in his left eye for a month.
Corbett, 22, had played only nine games and his plans of going to the preseason draft – and his future in football – looked in tatters.
“The first two months I was pretty nervous about it all,” Corbett said.
“It was a strange injury and you don’t hear much about them. When it happened the doctors wanted to make sure my health was the most important thing.
“Luckily I ticked all the boxes and the people around me created a good environment and kept me in a good mindset.”
The 190cm forward compared the injury to a cork in his eye and said rest was the only thing he could do.
“It was a freak accident,” Corbett said.
“I was looking at the ceiling and couldn’t do a lot. I couldn’t even focus on the television.
“There was a big blood clot in the front of my eye. It was a matter of doing some slow walking, then running and then weights, eventually, but I couldn’t put too much pressure in my eye.
“I couldn’t risk bursting a blood vessel in my eye because it would cause permanent damage to my sight.”
Corbett said his eye was close to full capacity again but would never be as good.
The Warrnambool product still managed to win the Fothergill-Round-Mitchell medal for the most promising young VFL talent in 2018 after kicking 22 goals in his nine games.
Corbett has gone from having his football career in doubt and stacking bags of fertiliser for 40 hours a week for work to joining an AFL list with Gold Coast who picked him as one of three Special Assistance selections the Suns were given access to.