Moss said Anderson, a body movement specialist, had put him on an specialist exercise and strengthening program that took just 15 minutes a day and it had been a resounding success.
But for a manic mission to mend Graham Moss’ injured right knee in 1976, the WA football great would never have become a Brownlow Medallist.
And with another Brownlow Medal to be awarded on Sunday, Moss has revealed how a relapse of his injury 44 years later has this time been fixed through the renowned non-surgical methodology of 1997 Sandover Medallist, Brady Anderson.
Moss was in blindingly good form as Essendon captain in 1976, his fourth VFL season, when he suffered what medicos at the time believed was a significant cartilage injury late in the round 14 match against South Melbourne.
“I felt a twinge late in the game and thought nothing of it,” Moss, the first WA player to win the coveted Brownlow Medal, told The West Australian.
“I woke up the next morning, it had blown up and I could hardly move. The doctors told me I’d torn a cartilage, then put plaster on it and I was on crutches.”
But Moss refused to concede his season was over and sought out the knee surgeon used by Hawthorn legend Peter Hudson. He was told only intensive physiotherapy on the suspected torn cartilage would give him any hope of playing the following weekend, so he enlisted the services of former Richmond player Barry Richardson for twice-daily treatment.
He trained gingerly on the Thursday and asked coach Bill Stevens and the rest of the selection committee, of which he was a member as captain, for a final decision to be made the following night. Club doctor Ian Zimmerman then drained the knee of significant fluid on the Friday night and told Moss he was mad to play.
But not only did he play against Melbourne at the MCG the following day, albeit with a mountain of strapping on the joint, he had 26 possessions, 13 marks and kicked five goals to earn the vital maximum Brownlow Medal votes than ultimately won him the gong.
“I remember doing things I’d never done before ... I even had a couple of bounces through the middle of the MCG and kicked a goal,” he laughed. “Had I not played in that game, I wouldn’t have won the Brownlow Medal.”
The knee injury came back to haunt Moss early in 2020 after aggravating it while pursuing his new sporting love for sailing, which included him competing in the 1995 Sydney to Hobart race in a crew alongside then-WA premier Richard Court.
After having the joint thoroughly assessed by a Claremont Football Club medico, he was given a clear message.
“He said my knee was rooted,” said Moss, who was then resigned to having the swollen and painful joint replaced until former Claremont teammate and 1967 Sandover Medallist, John Parkinson, urged him to consult Anderson before any surgery.
Moss said Anderson, a body movement specialist, had put him on an specialist exercise and strengthening program that took just 15 minutes a day and it had been a resounding success, as it had been with Parkinson.
“...it just got better and better and there is no pain whatsoever,” he said. “I’m just grateful that it worked.”
Link to The West Australian Article by Steve Butler
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