heath Scotland??

[bwphantom]

Scotland the brave
By Emma Quayle
January 28 2003


Collingwood onballer Heath Scotland is on the track, but has eased back his training regimen to make sure his osteitis pubis doesn't flare again.

Heath Scotland knows nothing if not the signs. And so when the Collingwood onballer felt a familiar twinge of pain in his groin a few weeks back, he knew it was time to reel in his training program.

"It was that same feeling. I think it was just that our training had been so intense that I really started to feel it," said Scotland, whose osteitis pubis battle is nearing its two-year anniversary. "I was sore for a while but we just wound back my training to make sure it didn't flare again."

Now, things feel fine and, while Scotland will stick with his restricted program until the Wizard Cup starts, and maybe even beyond then, he feels he is starting to gain more control over the complicated condition.

"It's been two years now and I still haven't shaken it properly, but I know a bit more about how to make sure it doesn't get bad again. I have to keep icing it and making sure I get the right treatment," Scotland said.

"I have to look after it all the time because, if I get lazy, then I know it's going to flare up. It's something I think I'm always going to have to be aware of, but at the same time, I still want to be able to train and do everything."

And, more particularly, do it at Collingwood. This time last pre-season, Scotland was not a reluctant Magpie, but one who had nonetheless wrapped up a recent search for a new home during trade week in 2001.

Then, when he returned to begin this pre-season, as a grand final player who had gone a long way towards securing a full-time senior spot, Scotland was out of contract and spoken of as a target for Richmond in the pre-season draft. Only at the end of November did a new, two-year Magpie deal come through.

"It was probably a bit unusual to be in the same situation again, but the circumstances were completely different. At the end of 2001, I didn't really know where I stood at the club and whether it was going to be better for me just to get out of here and try to go somewhere else," Scotland said.

"My future was all over the place then, but this time around, it was a different thing. We were a finals side and we had played in a grand final, so there was no way that I ever wanted to go anywhere else last year.

"The contract took a while but I had no problem coming back. The club had agreed to a new contract and it took a little while to fix a few things up but I didn't feel like there was any real hurry for me to get signed up."

What Scotland was concerned with, however, was getting a good start on the growing collection of players certain to try and steal even the short time he spent in the middle last season. Shane Woewodin has come along, Mark McGough looks as certain as any young player to improve and coach Mick Malthouse has already suggested draftees Luke Shackleton and Bo Nixon are in strong positions for early senior games.

Despite his growth last season, Scotland still felt disappointed that he couldn't get off the bench more often; this year, he knows it is again going to be a battle to hold his spot. "It's going to be hard, but I still have to remember that I probably didn't do as much as I wanted to do last year. There has to be a time when just to get a game and to get in the side isn't enough for you any more," he said.

"I didn't only want to be in the team last year, I wanted to be worth a bit more than that. I still want to do that, I want to be a bit more permanent in the midfield rather than just a patch player coming off the bench.

"Personally, I want to try and step it up a lot more and think that, even though there is a lot of competition going for those spots, I'm someone who can be really important to the team and help make it better."

Has anyone heard any more than this.
How is he training etc???

If your not bleeding Black and White, you don't truly support Collingwood!!!!!

[Mike]

This one's already been done BWP

http://www.magpies.net/nick/ubb/Forum1/HTML/006250.html