"I don't think the coaching staff were confident that someone could come back that quick."
That was the resounding feeling coming from three high-end local footballers - Ovens and Murray star Matt Hedin, and Southern Football League duo Phillip Ilic and Dale Alanis.
The trio are a part of a unique group who have opted against surgery when rupturing their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), returning a lot quicker than anticipated to the field.
Christian Woodford, a strength and conditioning coach with more than 20 years of experience and an honours degree in exercise neuroscience, has been pushing for the alternative rehabilitation, but only in certain cases.
"The ACL was fully ruptured. Left knee again, but I didn't have any other structural damage. So everything else, all the other tendons, ligaments, and whatnot around the knee was also intact," Wangaratta Magpie Hedin told Zero Hanger.
"I think it was 2018, and I'd just come off having done my first ACL in 2017. Basically, in the second quarter of my first game back (the injury recurred). That's when I got in contact with "Woody" (Christian Woodford) down in Melbourne. We had a look at the options of going through surgery, or at least getting back through there, looking at whether we could get back without an ACL.
"Woody designed a bit of a program, and about 12 weeks later, playing footy again, so it was pretty good for me at the time.
"Maybe it was just a blind faith that I had, and Woody was so confident, and it gave me the confidence to believe in it as well."
Hedin played the majority of the year, including the 2018 decider, although the Magpies went down to Albury by eight points.
"We were sort of competing for grand finals and trying to win a few premierships, so getting back as quickly as I could at least gave me a chance. We lost a couple of grand finals, but it gave me a chance to win and not have to go down that surgical route."
And Hedin hasn't had any issues since. He's continued playing for eight years without surgery, and has more confidence in his knee now, insisting he has "a greater range of movement now" than when he returned.
Alanis' reason for attempting the controversial ACL rehabilitation was to get back in time to play finals as curtains on his career were soon to be drawn.
The Cranbourne midfielder, 35, injured his knee, and eight weeks later was back onto the football field.
Alanis held off surgery due to being "on the tools for work", and shocked the Eagles' coaching staff with how quickly he recovered.
"Well, if this is going to be my retirement year and I can get back and play some finals for you, let's go for it," Alanis told Zero Hanger.
"I thought I was ready the week prior. I trained four sessions at football training at 110 per cent because I just wanted to make sure if I was going to step onto the field that it was ready, and I thought I was ready mentally, and I gave a really good test at training... I don't think the coaching staff were confident that someone could come back that quick.
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"He (coach Angelo Soldatos) just probably couldn't fathom the fact that someone could probably come that back that quick. So he was just stressing that I was probably making an ill-informed decision. But at the end of the day, like I was training in front of him, and he goes, 'Well, I can't deny the fact that you're getting through training at a high intensity'."
"Woody didn't sell me the dream. He said it depends on how much damage you've done. Like if you've damaged the meniscus next to it, or you know how you've damaged it, there's no chance you're coming back. But he had a look at my scan, and I'd only nicked my meniscus. Essentially, I just had the ruptured ACL with a little bit of bone bruising and just a tiny (bit of) damage to the meniscus."
Alanis and Woodford were dedicated to getting him back quickly, as Cranbourne made a push for the finals, designing three-hour sessions to ensure the strength load was getting into the knee and surrounding muscles.
Ilic, when reflecting on his season, took stock of how proud he was to play all 18 games of football.
The key defender for Keysborough ruptured his ACL in early December, putting a dampener on the holiday time and Christmas period.
"When I did it, I didn't even believe that I did it," Ilic told Zero Hanger.
"I thought I just hurt like something in the knee, and I was just gonna like play it off a little bit, but then it just sort of wouldn't go away, and I went to see the physio, got the MRI, and I was a bit shocked. Like, I genuinely couldn't believe it.
"When I was told about the ACL, they were literally telling me on the phone, and I was bloody doing squats and single-leg squats on the bad knee, they're telling me my ACL is blown. I'm like, what is going on here?
"Like, this can't be right. But then it sort of turned into a bit of like, f***. I'm gonna miss a year of footy here."
But Ilic used the quieter period as a way to trial what he had heard plenty about: Woodford's unique ACL recovery program.
"Once I made the decision to go and have a crack at it, I just wanted to make sure that I did everything to leave no stone unturned, and just do absolutely everything I can to make sure that it was the right decision for me."
By mid-February, when the footy pre-season was in full swing, Ilic was with his teammates, rarely missing a session and producing a strong season for the Bulldogs.
According to Woodford, he has worked with up to 35 players who have ruptured their ACL, with 70 to 80 per cent successfully making a quicker-than-expected return to the field.
Geelong's Gryan Miers has taken a similar path, albeit with a partially torn ACL, and has been viewed as a pioneer in the AFL for his unconventional approach to managing the injury.
