David Teague told SEN Breakfast this morning that he is not concerned about his players casually playing other sports during the off-season.
Young star forward Charlie Curnow dislocated his knee playing backyard basketball in October with a small group of Blues teammates and required surgery to repair the damage.
The story invited criticism of Curnow's professionalism and opened the discussion about what AFL footballers can and can't do once the season has finished.
“I was disappointed. You never want any of your players to get injured, but we knew that was a possibility and we’re probably glad in hindsight that it happened then and not in December, he told SEN Breakfast.
“You address it if it was something they shouldn’t have been doing, but what Charlie was doing was fine.
“They’ve got to live. They can’t live in a cocoon and we needed him to test it out, to be honest with a bit of training.
“He physically could have played the last couple of games, but we didn’t want to test him out at that intensity.
“We wanted him to go surfing, play a bit of basketball and we wanted him to find out (how his knee felt), as long as it was controlled and it was, he was playing with teammates.
“I think if we get our players in a really good headspace, that will allow them to perform at their best and sometimes they need to be able to go and have a surf, shoot some hoops and things like that.”
Teague expects Curnow to be fit and playing at full capacity throughout the 2020 season.
“He’s had an operation. It surprised me the other day, he was already in here riding and I just didn’t expect him to be riding already so I think he’s progressing well, he’s come back in good condition physically other than his knee. He should be right if everything progresses,” Teague said.
