Injuries in past as pair eye title
IN the immediate aftermath of Southport’s NEAFL grand final win last season, two men struggled with grief amid the jubilation of their teammates.
It was the first senior premiership the Sharks had won in a decade but injury robbed Dylan Mutu and Charlie Ford of the chance to be part of the winning team.
Mutu, 23, was sidelined with a hamstring injury and Ford, 23, was recovering from surgery after doing extensive damage to his leg.
A year on and both will have the chance to be involved in the biggest game of the year and potentially raise the trophy they never had the chance to lift in 2018 when Southport take on Brisbane in the premiership decider at Fankhauser Reserve on Sunday.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” Mutu said of the change in circumstances.
“I feel the fittest I have ever felt. It was a goal of mine to get my body right and be here at this stage of the season and get to a grand final. To see that finally happen, I’m so proud.”
Ford echoed Mutu’s sentiments: “It means the world. It has been a long time coming and it’s exciting. I’m pumped and cannot wait to get out there and do the best I can.”
Ford tore the lateral collateral ligament in his knee, tore his posterior cruciate ligament and the hamstring and cracked the top of his tibia bone in a contest on July 21 in Round 16 of last season against Sydney University.
The pressure forward couldn’t walk for three-and-ahalf months, got the OK to run a month after that and was in rehabilitation for most of the pre-season before making a return in Round 1 this year.
“It was difficult and very upsetting to miss the grand final,” Ford said. “Having the setback was heartbreaking. I knew there was always going to be next year and I had to work towards that and accept the fact I was going to miss last year.”
Mutu, who has spent most of 2019 playing on the wing and on the forward flank, hurt his hamstring in Round 18 last year against Canberra.
He tried to make a return the week of Southport’s semifinal against Aspley but did more damage to the hamstring, causing it to become a grade two tear, and was ruled out for the season.
“I was distraught. I had been at the club going on five years and to see success finally happen at a club I was at for a while and not be part of it, really hit me hard,” Mutu said.