By Beth Newman
After two injury-riddled seasons, Regan Finlay is raring to go in 2014.
A broken foot in 2012 kept him to only a handful of games, and a plantar fascia injury held him back last season, but the Surfers Paradise midfielder says he is good to go now.
“Being fully fit going into the season feels amazing, feels so different to be fit for a game really is something different I haven’t had,” Finlay said.
“I’m keen for this year and to see what I can do.”
Last year’s injury kept him out for a month in the middle of the season, and restricted his game time in numerous other games, as the 25 year-old attempted to manage it.
Looking back, Finlay admitted he should have considered taking a longer break to be able to be healthy for the Demons’ finals campaign, but he really just wanted to play.
“It didn’t feel too bad, I was running well in training and then just the high intensity of the game just stopped me.”
“If I had actually had six weeks off in the middle of the season and then had a really good run into the finals that probably would’ve been better, but it’s always easy to say that in hindsight.
“I just wanted to play footy.”
Finlay said it was extra frustrating, having missed out on so much footy the season before.
“Last pre-season I did was a fairly good pre-season and the first couple of games I actually played pretty well but then I did my foot,” he said.
“It killed me; I didn’t know what I’d done wrong.”
“it’s just a hard thing to do, watching and it’s harder again because you’re not working with a group and you’re trying to push yourself to work harder but you just don’t get as much out of it as you would with a group.
From the final siren on that 2013 semi-final, until Christmas, Finlay was completely off his feet, and built his way back to full fitness, able to participate in full-speed running early in the New Year.
The Demon is determined for 2014 to be the end of his run of bad luck.
“I couldn’t be any happier now and going up into this league, for us it’s a good opportunity.
“For me I just want to have a full run and hopefully string a full season together.”
The QAFL will be the state’s premier community-based football competition, providing an important step in the state’s talent pathways.
Clubs applied for a QAFL licence based on six core pillars – administration, finance, brand and culture, performance, facilities and strategic plan.
Following this process, it was determined the QAFL would be a 10 team competition involving Broadbeach, Labrador, Morningside, Mt Gravatt, Palm Beach, Sandgate, Surfers Paradise, University of Queensland, Wilston Grange and Western Magpies
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