“THERE are people doing it a lot tougher than I am at the moment.”
Having waited over two years to do what he loves, you could probably understand Sam Docherty being a bit bitter about the whole situation.
Carlton’s co-captain made his return from a lengthy injury layoff in the season opener against Richmond, with no crowd in attendance. Three days later, the season was postponed.
However, Docherty has a much wider perspective on things.
As he put it, “there are lots of deeper issues than just playing footy”.
“There’s a lot of perspective that you get in life, particularly in my life that I’ve had. Some of these things in terms of footy, it’s great to have but they don’t make your life,” Docherty told RSN’s Inner Sanctum.
“These people are having layoffs from jobs, losing their jobs and lining up at Centrelink. This is a wider community issue that we’re dealing with here.
“It’s going to be a rough ride for everyone involved in footy and everyone involved in the community. We’ve got to rally together and stay positive as much as we can.
“We will come out the other side: I don’t think anyone in their lifetime has ever seen anything like this and I hope we never have to go through it again.”
Casting his thoughts to the wider community, Docherty saved a mention for the ‘Carlton people’ who were currently living through this.
He said there was the sense of the unknown when it came to what the Club would look like once players inevitably return.
“As a football club, we care a lot about our staff, we care a lot about our players and we care a lot about our people,” he said.
“To see people going through that is really tough to see and it’ll be a weird experience when we get back to Club and we potentially only have about five staff [coming back when the players do].
“That’s the gravity of the situation. Holistically, if we can get footy back on track, it’s going to be a win for everyone.”
