How Gus helped saved luckless Dogs enforcer from unthinkable injury disaster
Darcie McDonald from Fox SportsFebruary 23rd, 2022 7:12 am
The words “I’m really keen to play” are thrown around during pre-season almost as often as Kevvie Walters changes his halves.
Most fans barely bat an eyelid when they hear or read it — in fact it wouldn’t be a pre-season interview without it mentioned at least once.
But when those words come from Raymond Faitala-Mariner there’s something about them that hits different.
The Bulldogs second-rower is eyeing a Round 3 return from a long-term foot injury. If he runs out onto 4 Pines Park for that clash with Manly, it will be exactly one year and one week since he last played.
It’s not so much the injury itself that makes Faitala-Mariner’s comeback such a relief, but more so the significant setback he suffered during his recovery.
The 28-year-old played in the Bulldogs’ Round 1 game last season, but failed to finish the Round 2 game.
It was revealed that he had an incomplete fracture of the navicular bone in his right foot. The club released a statement confirming Faitala-Mariner would undergo surgery and be sidelined for what was meant to be 16-20 weeks.
If everything went to plan, Faitala-Mariner should have been back playing by the end of last season. But instead, his recovery time was doubled — and could have even tripled if it weren’t for Phil Gould.
“Two weeks into pre-season I started to feel pain in my foot to a point where I couldn’t really pull through,” Faitala-Mariner told foxsports.com.au as he recalled the initial injury.
“I went and saw a surgeon and he said there’s a stress fracture and that’s causing an overload.
“I think being a little bit overweight at the time didn’t help either… but I’ve always had a bad right ankle which could have affected it.
“I had surgery in March and the surgeon put three pins in my foot. I was told it would take around three to four months to heal. But when my running protocols began I was still feeling pain in my foot.
“A couple of weeks went by and ‘Gus’ proposed a second opinion because he was a bit confused as to why it’s still not healed.
“So I went and got a second opinion and that surgeon said the fracture is still there and it’s actually gotten worse. I had to have another surgery in August so that was a big setback.
“But this time round we’re good because the surgeon took bone from my hip and put it in my foot — which is what they should have done the first time.”
Fatiala-Mariner was coming off his best-ever season when the horror injury hit. He received the 2020 coach’s award after featuring in every game of the season and consistently being one of Canterbury-Bankstown’s strongest.
He admitted the setback was “frustrating” but the extended time on the sideline, with the help of his faith, has looking at both footy and life with a completely new outlook.
“I think 2020 was probably the first year I played a whole season without injuries so to have that setback last year, I just had to rely on my faith to get through it,” he said.
“I think that was the only way I could get through, to have some peace of mind that everything happens for a reason. That was my approach last year and hopefully God has better plans for me.
“I didn’t know what to do so I had a few conversations with my old man back home and he said ‘the only thing you can do is to fall back on your faith’ and being a big believer that’s what got me through.
“If anything now, I’m looking at footy as a small piece of the puzzle and looking at it from that perspective there’s no unnecessary pressure now. I’m just looking forward to playing again and when the opportunity arises, I’m ready.”
Faitala-Mariner will be carrying that approach into this season too. He won’t allow himself to look too far ahead this season and won't let any external factors rattle him.
“My approach after that setback was to just focus on what I can control so that meant doing all the rehab and the things I need to do to get my body right,” he said.
“I’ve had that same approach all through pre-season too so going into the season I’m just going to focus on games week by week. I think if things go well your footy will look after itself.”
The former Warrior doesn’t expect to walk straight back into the 17 when he is cleared to return. And he knows that coach Trent Barrett will have some tough decisions to make when that time comes given the club has added a stack of new faces to the squad including star forward Tevita Pangai Jr.
But Faitala-Mariner’s team-first attitude means he only sees that as a good thing — especially after experiencing some of the club’s darkest days since joining the Dogs in 2016.
“It’s a good a head ache for Baz,” he said.
“It brings out the best in the boys at training.
“And to be honest, because there’s a lot of competition — especially in the forward pack — the intensity at training has gone to another level with everyone pushing for spots. Boys are going in and doing extras so it’s pretty good to see.”
Former Dragons prop Paul Vaughan is also a new arrival to Belmore. Despite bringing over 180 games worth of NRL experience as well six games for New South Wales and two for Australia, the 30-year-old has also been able to get the best out of the Dogs’ next generation.
“Vaughany’s been good for us, especially for the young fellas like Chris Patolo,” Faitala-Mariner said.
“With his resume you would think he would be far away from the boys but he’s just one of the young ones, he’s always around the younger boys and joking around.
“And with Chris, I reckon him having a few games at the back end of last season gave him a lot of confidence coming into pre-season. You can just see it, he’s been putting shots on (at training).”
