Sydney coach John Longmire has called for calm amid speculation about Paddy McCartin’s future as the defender begins the process to recover from the 10th concussion of his AFL career.
On Wednesday, the Swans were no closer to formulating a return-to-play timeline for McCartin, who needed assistance walking from the field after what appeared an innocuous brush with the SCG turf during Saturday’s loss to Port Adelaide.
The 26-year-old suffered eight head knocks between being selected by St Kilda with the top pick of the 2014 draft and his eventual delisting five years later. Concussion and other injuries restricted him to only 35 games in that time.
McCartin sat the entire 2019 campaign out after suffering the last of those eight concussions in the pre-season and eventually opted to miss two further seasons before making a highly anticipated return with Sydney last year.
But the apparent insignificance of the latest contact, McCartin’s extensive history and the ongoing concussion lawsuits being levelled at the AFL have combined to renew debate as to the tenability of McCartin’s career.
McCartin is still experiencing some concussion symptoms four days later but was with the playing group on Wednesday and “generally feeling okay”, according to Longmire.
The coach conceded the innocuousness of the contact was concerning but would not be drawn on McCartin’s future.
“Obviously people want answers of black and white, give us a timeframe, or give us this or give us that,” Longmire said.
“We haven’t had those discussions and the advice that we’ve had is just to focus on his recovery.
“That’s the most important thing for him to be putting his energy into right here and now. To go thinking any further than that is just a bit of a step too far.
“It will be what it will be.”
Contracted at St Kilda during McCartin’s early concussions, Leigh Montagna led calls for his former teammate to consider retirement but Longmire pushed back against the outside noise.
“Hopefully there’s not too much speculation about the ‘what-ifs’ because that’s not healthy for him,” he said.
“There’s an expert team involved that have been involved all the way along, the last three years, and will continue to be involved with Paddy.
“The most important thing and the best thing for Paddy is to focus on his recovery and not get too carried away about the ‘what-ifs’ or speculation without the experts’ advice.”
McCartin’s brother and Swans teammate Tom was also concussed last week but the Swans are still determining who will replace the pair in the backline for Friday night’s Gather Round clash with Richmond at Adelaide Oval.
Two of Longmire’s options, former Bomber Aaron Francis and youngster Will Gould, suffered training injuries over the Easter weekend and will face the clock to be available.
“Aaron had a bit of a tight hamstring and Gould had a bit of a sore foot. Both of them weren’t able to complete the session,” Longmire said.
“They did some training today. We’ll see what happens with those guys this week.”
Veteran forward Lance Franklin is no guarantee to return from his knee niggle for next weekend’s grand-final rematch against Geelong. Hayden McLean will line up in his absence for at least this weekend.
“The main thing is for (Franklin) to get himself right over the next few days, give it a rest,” Longmire said.
“Hopefully he bounces back okay and he’s able to do some training next week.”
