Captain feeling Pinch
THE moment inaugural Suns Winter Series captain Beth Pinchin felt her knee buckle from beneath her in her first QAFLW match of 2019 against Coorparoo, there was one thought which put her at peace.
“I’ve done my ACL before and this felt different,” the Coolangatta Bluebird said.
“I didn’t hear a pop so I got off the ground and the physio had a look and said that my ACL felt fine so I just thought at least it wasn’t that again.”
However, the Suns skipper still faces a significant period on the sidelines with a bucket handle meniscus tear.
The 22-year-old is expected to spend 12 weeks on the sidelines and looks certain to miss the 2019 Winter Series after having surgery late last week.
“It was my first game back and I took a mark and went to play on but I didn’t realise that someone was behind me,” she said.
“She pulled my jersey back so I fell backwards and felt this sharp pain.
“I tried to stand up but fell straight back down and my teammates had to lift me up.”
Despite being unable to play any of the club’s four games, Pinchin has still been named in the Suns 2019 Winter Series squad and will look to still have an impact on the club’s emerging stars.
“Just to have the opportunity to be a part of it even if I can’t train or play will be a great experience,” she said.
“I think I’m going to take on an off-field role like maybe a bit of coaching or recording statistics or something like that.”
The injury blow cuts even deeper for Pinchin who was hoping to use this season as her AFLW audition with the Suns set to enter the competition in 2020.
“It puts a bit of a dampener on it,” Pinchin said.
“Obviously not being able to play QAFLW this year, recruiters will be going off what they’ve seen in the past so I’ve got to hope that’s enough. I’m going to do everything in my power to get back playing.”
Pinchin will miss this tomorrow’s QAFLW clash against Bond University.
“There’s a bit of rivalry between the Coast sides,” she said.
“Coolangatta is coming off a loss so there’s a bit of fire in the belly. We were on top of the ladder earlier in the season and now Bond is so that shows the depth of talent we have on the Gold Coast so fingers crossed it’s an all Coast grand final.”
Tomorrow’s match kicks off at 3.45pm at Bond University.