THE SIGHT of Mark Ricciuto prowling
Ricciuto had 13 possessions and kicked twogoals in his return match, but how his uncooperative back pulled up after thecontest was always going to be more important than anything he did during it.
“I didn’t have high expectations today forkicks, marks and handballs, that’s for sure,” Ricciuto said. “I just wanted tofocus on doing my bit in the forward structure and make sure I played my rolein defensive pressure and tackling and stuff like that.
“There is a sense of relief because whenyou’ve had a bad run you do tend to doubt yourself a little bit and wonderwhether you can still do it.
“The game’s not getting any slower and whenyou watch games on TV they look even faster, but I felt good out there todayand got some real confidence back.”
The 31-year-old’s comeback was furtherdelayed after a re-occurrence of his bulging disc problem a month ago and whilehe realises it will be an ongoing management issue, he felt he had cleared amajor hurdle at the MCG on Saturday.
“With disc injuries you can have relapsesof it but it’s generally not as often and not as bad so I could get onetomorrow, I could get one in two weeks or I could get one in two years; I feelpretty good though,” he said.
“I had some power in the legs and theback’s as loose as it’s been in a long time. Touch wood, I think I’m just aboutdue for a good run. I’ve just got to look after my body and give it everypossible chance to be in the best condition.”
As expected, Ricciuto spent the vastmajority of his time up forward, but did slip into the middle on the oddoccasion. He knows his days as a permanent onballer are over, but he remainsoptimistic that he can still make his presence felt in the engine room whencalled upon.
“Last year I couldn’t train much from weekto week with the tendonitis, but I’m hopeful if I can pull up reasonably wellfrom games then I can do a bit more training and slowly start to do a littlebit more,” he said.
“It was never going to be like it used tobe three or four or five years ago, but we’ve got some younger players to dothe job through the midfield now, so my role will be to mostly play up forwardand go up on the ball just for short bursts of time.
“I enjoy playing up forward and that’s myrole and that’s where I do a lot of my training now, but I’m comfortableplaying in either position and it was just god to be out there full stop.”
