Isabel Huntington, the Western Bulldogs number one draft pick – I can’t speak highly enough of her as a person. She’s a smart person, a freakishly talented player and has a very composed head on her shoulders whenever she fronts the media.
But as her right knee buckled and she crumpled to the ground on Sunday afternoon against Brisbane, I could feel my heart sink for her. She is a class person and given what she has already been through – I will discuss this further down the piece – she worked hard to get back into a position to play the game she loves, only for the footy gods to turn around and continue to throw bad fortunes down her path.
My initial reaction was that what I feared when she got drafted by the Bulldogs back in November came to fruition on Sunday afternoon. When I wrote about the Western Bulldogs’ new crop of female draftees, I wrote in a piece late last year about our new group of draftees and mentioned how big of a concern it is to select Huntington, who did the ACL in her left knee in 2016 and missed the entire 2017 season, over someone who has already proven herself at senior state level in Chloe Molloy.
I do believe that Huntington has the edge over Molloy in terms of skill and athleticism. Her second quarter against Brisbane will attest to this – How many ladies can handle experienced defenders such as Kate Lutkins with such ease? How many ladies can take contested marks consistently like Huntington has in her first two weeks? How many ladies can turn a game on their head in the span of just a few minutes?
Bu at 18 years of age, turning 19 in less than a fortnight, Isabel Huntington already has two knee reconstructions under her belt. Let that sink in for a moment – two knee reconstructions at just 18 years of age.
That is a very scary thought and one that I fear might have serious repercussions for not just Isabel Huntington the player, but Isabel Huntington the person.
It’s been revealed by doctors that women are more likely to sustain ACL injuries than the men, and for those that don’t believe it, then you might want to look at the ever growing list of season-ending knee injuries that we’ve had so far this season. Huntington’s team mate Daria Bannister fell victim to it last weekend in the Bulldogs’ win over Fremantle. Carlton captain Brianna Davey did it on Friday night against the Giants.
Along with the likes of Kiara Bowers, Renee Forth, Aasta O’Connor, Sam Virgo and Kirby Bentley, who are all star players and they have all just recently undergone ruptured ACLs and knee reconstructions over the past couple of years – it almost feels like an epidemic. I absolutely hate it that there are so many good players that are being forced on the sidelines, but it’s not at the fault of the players – they just go out and play the way they play.
In an article on AFL Draft Central, Sports Physiotherapist Randall Cooper believes that women are five to seven times more likely to sustain knee injuries compared to the men and players such as Huntington are 11 percent more likely to suffer an ACL injury to the opposite knee and states that it is very common for female players to rupture your ACL multiple times, telling Draft Central that:
“If you have ruptured your ACL in the past, you’re much more likely to do it again and the risk is higher that you rupture the other knee, as we saw in the case of Isabel Huntington in round two. General statistics show you have a five percent chance of doing the same knee, but you’ve actually got an 11 percent chance of doing the other knee.”
In the case of Huntington, I’m very worried that it could be the continuation of what has already been a string of horrific luck. If you are 18 years old and you have already ruptured both of your ACL’s and on top of that you have broken your leg as a 16-year old, that becomes a massive red flag in my eyes. How many more knee injuries could she possibly take? She's too good of a player to have her career cut down with injuries.
Allow me to tell you a story about a player in the NBA who went by the name of Greg Oden. He was taken by the Portland Trail Blazers as the number one draft pick way back in the 2007 NBA Draft. Not many people would’ve predicted the string of injuries that was about to come his way, but the upside in him was tremendously huge. His presence as a inside scorer and a defender of the basket was huge as a College player.
A collection of knee and foot injuries throughout his career made him struggle to consistently get on the park, let alone fulfil his potential and he would go on to eventually retire at the age of 29, which some people have unfairly called him a massive draft bust.
In any code of professional sport, that is too early to retire.
Now I’m not saying that Huntington is the AFLW’s version of Greg Oden. She’s got a fair way to go to reach that status, but I wanted to share the comparison out there with you all. Both were rated as the best talent in their draft class and both were taken as the number one draft pick. Both of them may have started out their careers with serious injuries, but both of them also dominated their respective sports as kids.
Whilst Oden was racking up a multitude of awards in both High School and College, Huntington was dominating in a junior league that was full of boys. Playing for both East Sandringham and South Melbourne in the South Metro Junior Football League, Huntington would stand out above the rest for her outstanding abilities.
Year after year, she proved her abilities to all those that doubted about women’s football or believed that it could never really make it. When she put on a show for Vic Metro in one under-18 championship game in 2016, kicking five goals and recording 30 disposals in a game that only had 12-minute quarters, she announced herself as a future star of the AFLW.
We’ve seen promising players have their careers run down with multiple knee injuries. Ones that come to mind include Fremantle’s Anthony Morabito, Hawthorn’s Max Bailey and currently, Sydney’s Alex Johnson, who has had not played an AFL game since the 2012 Grand Final with multiple knee reconstructions.
The big question mark is whether or not she can keep herself at 100 percent when she fully recovered from her knee reconstruction. The Western Bulldogs clearly knew about her injury history, but they rolled the dice because they knew the talent was too good to pass up and that the Bulldogs needed someone that can play up forward in tandem with another talented lady in Katie Brennan, which up until this point, has worked magnificently.
On a more positive spin on things here, how good would it be to see her get through the rest of her career without any serious knee injuries?
In the span of three games – one practice game and two regular season games, there was enough in Huntington’s game to suggest that she will be a future star. She can run up the ground, she has the strength, the skill and the composure to be the AFLW’s next marquee player. Anyone that has watched her play will know how good she can really play and how much she can impact a contest.
And what she did against a team that I highly respect in the Brisbane Lions? How many teenagers can claim to have the game by the scruff of the neck? Against a team that made the Grand Final last year nonetheless? That’s a very damn impressive thing to do at such a young stage of your career and that’s why the Bulldogs were so keen to nab Huntington with the number one overall pick. The upside in this young lady is very, very scary. We’ve seen players come back from it before. Think of Bulldogs’ premiership player Clay Smith, who rebounded from multiple knee reconstructions to play a big part of the Bulldogs’ premiership success story of 2016. Also think of Geelong's Daniel Menzel, who overcame several knee reconstructions to play a big part of the Cats' forward line
Dare I say it, the foundations are there for the next face of AFLW. It’s all a matter of whether or not young Izzy Huntington can keep herself and more importantly, her knees fit.
Wishing you all the best in your recovery Izzy!