Sean Darcy: Fremantle Dockers ruck star no guarantee for round one as club defends call to head overseas

Sean Darcy can get back to being one of the AFL’s most dominant ruckmen, according to Fremantle football boss Joe Brierty - but the club can’t guarantee the big man will be fit and firing for the Dockers’ season opener after his return from overseas treatment. It comes as Freo defended the timing of the move in the wake of criticism from Seven analyst Kane Cornes, who described the decision as “panic stations and alarm bells”. Darcy will head to Qatar on Friday to work with world-renowned lower limb specialist Dr Enda King at the Aspetar Sports Medical Clinic, off the back of being sent for knee surgery last August to end his 2024 season after just 12 games. Dr King has previously treated the likes of Elliot Yeo, Jeremy McGovern and Heath Chapman. The move means Darcy is racing the clock for Fremantle’s round one clash in just over eight weeks. Should he miss, it would be the fourth time in the past five years Darcy has been absent for the Dockers’ season opener. But Brierty backed the timing of the call, saying Darcy was sacrificing a five-day break to head overseas and give himself the best chance of having an impact in 2025 and beyond. “There’s a block of time off for the players so it is not going to impact his progression and he also needed to get to the stage where from his movement and functionality perspective and taking on load, he’ll be doing a fair bit of testing over there,” he told The West Australian. “It’s not actually looking at the injury, it’s implementing new measures looking forward so he needs to be functionally in the space where he can do a lot of the testing which is quite rigorous. “We think this is a really good slot where he’s not going to miss anything here on the ground because he’s not going to be training through that period so it’s just an add on and a bit of value for what we’re trying to implement with Sean. “He’s transitioned back into the football program and this will aid that progression and assist him in getting back to full training, match simulation and then playing some footy.” Darcy will be worked back into match simulation when he returns from Doha, but Brierty stopped short of confirming he would be available to take on Geelong on March 15. “I’m not in a position to confirm or to know whether he’s going to be in a position to play in round one,” Brierty said. “It’s one of those ones where the next three to four weeks is a vital block as he’s implementing these strategies and transitioning back into full match simulation and those competitive minutes. That block of time will enable us to see how he progresses through that. “We’re setting up a program that allows him over February to get into some match simulation and competitive footy in early March. “Then how that kind of progresses along sets us up to see whether he’s ready to go for round one. It’s probably something that we get to the end of February that we’ll get a better line of sight on that one for the middle of March and round one.” Darcy has played just 27 games in the past two years because of the knee injury, but the Dockers re-signed the 203cm ruck to a massive contract in late 2023 that ties him to the club until 2030. Cornes - a long-time critic of that deal — this week said he couldn’t see Darcy finishing his career at Fremantle. But Brierty said the club was confident in the 26-year-old being “a really important part of our list for the long term” despite the recent setbacks. “He had a frustrating year last year in terms of his body and not being able to do what he wanted to do, but as a ruckman when he is fit and firing we know the calibre of the player,” Brierty said. “It’s our responsibility to get him up and going and make the investment that we need to and Sean obviously buying into that. “He’s been fantastic in the way that he’s gone about his rehabilitation so from our point of view he’s a long-term part of our journey and what we’re looking to do as a club. “And we know that when Sean is up and going he can be a dominant ruckman in the competition and that’s what we’re looking forward to seeing him return to doing this year.”