After missing the early stages of 2010, Kristin Thornton is enjoying being back on the field.
With the midway mark of the season already here, Sydney Swans midfielder Kristin Thornton knows he doesn’t have much time to impress the Club after returning from injury.
Thornton has spent a substantial amount of time off the field recently, with a knee injury sidelining him for the majority of the pre-season and the start of the 2010 season. But three weeks ago he was able to play his first Reserves game for the year.
Being injury-free is an exciting prospect for Thornton, who wants to return to the form which saw him debut and play eight senior games in 2009.
“I’m definitely making the most of it. I’m trying to enjoy my training when I’m out there running around with the boys. I am definitely a big fan of it at the moment,” Thornton said.
Thornton has been no stranger to long-term injuries since he came to the Club with pick number 54 in the 2005 draft. Following a knee reconstruction in 2008, Thornton impressed in 2009 before injury struck again late last year - this time on his other knee.
“There wasn’t a moment where I actually got injured. It was from the end of year medical with our doctor Nathan Gibbs. I was leaving the doctor’s room and I just said to him ‘There’s a bit of a sore spot in my knee over here, can you have a look at it for me?’ He said ‘you may as well go for a scan’ so I went for a scan and they said ‘you just need to get some cartilage out’.
“That was September last year and it was going well. I started running and getting my fitness back and then one day I just crunched my knee somehow, just running normally and it just stayed swollen from then but they couldn’t really find anything. It stayed swollen, so when they went in again they found a big piece of cartilage floating around, which was in February,” Thornton said.
Missing out on the pre-season meant Thornton had to catch up on lost time. This involved hours of running, and while he watched from afar as his teammates battled through their pre-season, Thornton’s was still just as tough. He didn’t get away with anything, with head conditioning coach Rob Spurrs making sure Thornton did lots of running to in the lead up to his return to footy.
“When I was able to start running again I did a lot of running with our conditioning coach, Spurrsy. I thought I probably did too much, that’s what I thought, but they didn’t seem to think so!” Thornton said.
Thornton, who was selected in the fourth round of the 2005 draft from the Peel Thunder in Western Australia, isn’t the only one in his family to suffer on the injury front. His twin brother Bryce and older brother Ashley both also needed knee reconstructions in recent years. However, Kristin is hoping that sharing injuries with his brothers isn’t something that continues.
“We’ve all done our left knee ACL’s now, all on the same leg. They’re out of the way now so we are all good. They’re playing in the WAFL for the Perth Demons. At the moment they’ve both got hamstring injuries so touch wood I’m not following them there.”
The 22-year-old has suffered a tough initiation into life as an AFL footballer. He was delisted and then re-drafted by the Club as a rookie for the 2009 season following his knee reconstruction. He was then elevated and made his senior debut in April last year.
Thornton was happy with the way his season played out in 2009 and was rewarded for his contribution by being placed back on the senior list for 2010. He is now hoping to repay the faith that the Club showed in him.
“I’m halfway into the season now so I’ve got to make the most of everything. I just want to get back in the senior team and put my hand up and let everyone still know that I want to be at the Swans next year.
“I’m going to be doing whatever I can to get in the team and help the boys out and play my role so that I’m able to be here next year and a few more years after that hopefully,” he said.
Thornton’s positive approach has seen him slot into the Reserves side with ease since his return three weeks ago. He hopes to play a full game this weekend and to be knocking on the door for senior selection in the near future.
“It’s only my third game so far, so I can improve each week. But I’m happy with where I am going and where I am at at the moment as well.
“Hopefully a few more weeks (in Reserves) and I can put my hand up and hopefully they pick me.”
Thornton has been impressive for the Reserves since his return, and was a strong contributor in the side’s 102-point win against the Tuggeranong Hawks last weekend.
The Reserves have turned around their poor away form in recent times, and have only lost once in Canberra this year. That loss was against the Hawks earlier this season and Thornton says the side isn’t letting playing away from home be an excuse.
“We never used to be good travelers to Canberra. We got beaten by Tuggeranong earlier on in the year. We had a really strong attitude going into the game to not use the old ‘Canberra’ excuse.”
The Reserves play the fifth-placed Eastlake Demons side at Manuka Oval on Saturday, and will be looking to improve on their seven-point win last time they met.
“Our attitude has changed now heading down to Canberra, and hopefully when we play Eastlake on the weekend we can give them a real challenge, because they are a really good team.”
The Reserves will travel to Canberra early to take part in a football clinic at Manuka Oval on Friday at 4pm. The Reserves will put children from the age of five to 16 through their paces and Thornton says the players are looking forward to it.
“It’s going to be weird because people won’t have Goodesy to chase after or anyone like that, so they might be chasing after Nathan Gordon or Matt O’Dwyer or someone like that. It should be interesting to see who ends up being the crowd favourite on the day,” Thornton said.
