Fremantle in ‘panic stations’ over Sean Darcy as Kane Cornes questions if ruckman will see out his contract

Kane Cornes has once again put Sean Darcy in his sights claiming there is no way the Dockers big man finishes his career with Fremantle. The Dockers announced on Tuesday that Darcy would be flying out to meet specialists in Qatar to get on top of a knee injury that required surgery in August last year. With pre-season games and round one fast approaching, Darcy is in a race against time to be fit for their tough round-one away trip to Geelong on March 15. Darcy has been plagued by injuries in recent seasons, playing just 12 games last year. Cornes says this latest move should set alarm bells off at Fremantle. “I would think that’s spin. They can spin it any way that they want. It’s rare to see a player with under a month until pre-season games take off to Doha in the middle of the most important training period of the year,” Cornes said on SEN. “Players who complete 80 per cent of January training are set up for a great year. To take off to Doha on January 21 says to me that this is panic stations and alarm bells. “He had arthroscopic surgery on the other knee in the pre-season last year. Now he’s had surgery in August. If things are not tracking well from August to January, I would be really concerned.” However, Dockers captain Alex Pearce has full confidence the move will get the 2021 Doig Medalist back to his best and set him up for this season and beyond. “Sean has come a long way. He’s been able to join in some footy training with us over the last week, which has been really good to have him around the group,” he said. “We had [Heath Chapman] go over last year and he’s had some great results, you can see when he comes back, the way he prepares and some of the things he does differently in the gym, it seems to be paying off. He’s in really great nick at the moment and he had a really good year last season. “It’s a good opportunity for Sean. He’s at a stage now where he’s doing a lot of work, quite a lot of training. So hopefully (it can) refine a little bit of the biomechanics and different things. “And hopefully, lead into him playing round one or early in the season, wherever it is. And hopefully larger than that, he has a big impact for us throughout the season.” Darcy is on one of the biggest contracts in the AFL having signed a six-year extension at the end of 2023 at just under $1 million a season that was set to make the ruckman a Docker for life. However, Cornes doesn’t believe Darcy will see out his contract and questions if Darcy will even finish a Docker. “This deal, from the moment it was signed, I hate going back to the past, but this is exactly what I said this time last year – a seven-year deal for a 115kg ruckman who is injury-prone and can’t play forward, they’ve spent $1.9 million of their salary cap on two ruckmen – there’s no way Darcy finishes his career as a Docker. This is Brodie Grundy mark two,” he said. Grundy walked out on Melbourne requesting a trade to Sydney despite only being one year into a five-year deal. “The funniest part about this whole thing is Justin Longmuir getting his back up after Darcy played one good game last year. He said it was a message to those being critical of his contract. One good game and the coach bites back,” he said. “I hope he can get himself right, but it’s hard to when you’ve got significant issues with both knees and you’re that size and you play a brutal position. It’s hard to imagine him lasting until the end of 2030.”