Tenacious Tiger small defender Steven Morris has put the anguish and aggravation associated with 2014 behind him, as he throws himself into pre-season preparations for season 2015.
Morris severely damaged his shoulder during last year’s pre-season competition, but further enhanced his already impressive reputation for courage and toughness by playing through the entire 2014 season, missing only a couple of games in the process.
He subsequently underwent a shoulder reconstruction at season’s end, but has now fully recovered, and is raring to get stuck into the fray again.
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“It’s all sorted now. I’m back into training, full contact, and the shoulder’s coping really, really well. So onwards and upwards from here,” Morris said.
“It was frustrating because I couldn’t do what I wanted to be able to do. I wasn’t able to train like I would like to train . . . I had to sit out of sessions at training, and it was frustrating watching the other boys go about their weekly routine, especially when we were struggling in the first half of the season . . . and also not being able to play to a standard that you’d like to be able to play to.
“But you’ve got to look past that and, now I’ve had the surgery, I’ve been able to do pretty much every session for the past month fully.
“Hopefully that holds me in good stead for the season to come.”
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Morris was recently rewarded for the exemplary way he goes about his football, both on and off the field, with inclusion in Richmond’s playing leadership group for the 2015 season.
“It’s a massive honor to be alongside Trent (Cotchin), Ivan (Maric) and Brett (Deledio) as our captain and vice-captains,” he said.
“From my point of view, to be able to sit alongside them and just learn from them, first and foremost, learn from their experiences and what they can pass on to myself, it’s a great experience for me . . . it’s certainly something that I’m very proud of.”
