Sydney AFL coach John Longmire has praised the courage of his talented teenage midfielder Luke Parker for playing on after his jaw was fractured.
While some pundits thought the illegal bump on Parker, which earned GWS midfielder James McDonald a two-game ban was the big statement to come out of last Saturday’s first Sydney derby, Longmire thought otherwise.
“For me, the big statement out of the game was a 19-year-old kid who was cleaned up and had an injury being able to play the rest of the game out and play really well,” Longmire said on Wednesday.
“That’s the statement that really matters to me and really matters to Luke’s teammates.
“He’s a super-tough kid.”
Parker, who suffered a hairline jaw fracture, was eventually substituted.
“We had to actually make the decision to sub him. He didn’t want to be subbed – he wanted to keep playing,” Longmire said.
“He’s one of the toughest kids I’ve seen play at that age.
“He’s 19, he copped a knock, didn’t whinge about it, got up, dusted himself off and kept playing.”
It was initially expected Parker would miss two to three games with his injury, though Longmire wasn’t so sure.
“Whilst he’s hard and tough and fearless and will no doubt want to play, we’ll make the right decision based upon how he feels next week and that’s a decision that will be made by the medical staff,” Longmire said.
Longmire hoped injured veterans Ryan O’Keefe and Rhyce Shaw, both of whom missed the GWS game, would resume training next week, with the former already doing some running.
Longmire admitted Sydney needed to improve on the form they displayed in their 63-point win over GWS.
“Can we play better? Yes we can, and we’ll need to play better next week against Fremantle,” Longmire said.
He suggested he would consider supplementing his ruck division by possibly adding Mark Seaby to counter the potential threat posed by Dockers’ giant Aaron Sandilands.
“The good thing from our point of view is that we’ve got an option in Mark Seaby in particular that played really well (in the reserves) on the weekend. That gives us the chance to bring him in if we need to and that’s something we’ll consider next week,” Longmire said.
