Welcome Welcome to Hawthorn, Chad Wingard. 200 games! Announces retirement (2 Sept 2024)

[Sirlemsip]

Keep Wingard and Watson both at Box Hill to build up fitness and form, and more importantly to build a strong partnership/understanding with each other.

When the time is right, bring them both in together, even better if Lewis has a chance to play with them at Box Hill for a couple of weeks as well.

I could see us giving both Gunners and Breust a rest ('Managed') week together.

An 8 man rotating forward line of Lewis, Chol, Dear, Watson, Wingard, Ginnivan, Moore and MacDonald (with Hardwick able to swing forward if needed) is goddamn scary.

 

[hk89]

AFL website reporting that Wingard was pulled out of the VFL game early due to reporting soreness. Does anyone have more details, is it an injury? Hope not, as he had a good day out the week before, and I was looking forward to see his class in the senior side soon.

 

[peetoo]

AFL website reporting that Wingard was pulled out of the VFL game early due to reporting soreness. Does anyone have more details, is it an injury? Hope not, as he had a good day out the week before, and I was looking forward to see his class in the senior side soon.

he went off during the game

 

[hk89]

he went off during the game

Yes, by pulled out early, I meant during game, rather than before. I was more asking about whether it was an actual injury or just precautionary.

 

[TylerDurden]

 

[cryptor]

Just get him right for finals

 

[HedgeFund]

Just get him right for finals please

FIFY

 

[tendon]

Sammie on SEN this morning saying Chad has a small tear in his calf and looking at 4 weeks on the sideline. Rotten luck for him after the work he's done to get back on the park after the achilles injury last year

 

[HoldingThe Ball]

As much as a fit Chad can bring - I think that's probably it for Chad with us.

I've no doubt he will find a gig at another side should he want to go on - but his spot, at our stage of development is better served going to a younger guy.

Such a shame that we rarely got to see Wingard at his best, but his body is telling him that he's pretty much done.

 

[mustang]

As much as a fit Chad can bring - I think that's probably it for Chad with us.

I've no doubt he will find a gig at another side should he want to go on - but his spot, at our stage of development is better served going to a younger guy.

Such a shame that we rarely got to see Wingard at his best, but his body is telling him that he's pretty much done.

Another that we spent so much on getting to the club, would have been great if it all had clicked for him at Hawthorn, was as good as Rioli in his prime.

 

[Simon Crawshay]

4 weeks on the sidelines plus another couple of weeks to get his fitness / touch back means Chad is probably done for the year (in terms of playing senior footy anyway).

Must be so frustrating for him to have put so much work into recovering from his Achilles only to go down with another Calf strain.

That's the issue I saw with giving him another contract at the end of last year, players with history of soft tissue injuries very rarely get less prone to suffering them as they get older.

Still it was probably worth one last try but surely this will be it for Chad (at the Hawks at least).

 

[Billyc]

The club did right by him giving him this year. It would be hard to justify another year given his injury history. Could not possibly have any confidence in him playing large chunks of a season

 

[Bugs1977]

4 weeks on the sidelines plus another couple of weeks to get his fitness / touch back means Chad is probably done for the year (in terms of playing senior footy anyway).

Must be so frustrating for him to have put so much work into recovering from his Achilles only to go down with another Calf strain.

That's the issue I saw with giving him another contract at the end of last year, players with history of soft tissue injuries very rarely get less prone to suffering them as they get older.

Still it was probably worth one last try but surely this will be it for Chad (at the Hawks at least).

Would've looked bad if we just cut him loose without getting him right. The message there is we look after our players and don't just abandon them. He's on the rookie list so it's not like it's a huge cap hit. Pretty sure the club knew there were going to be hiccups like this after his Achilles but the fact we didn't just abandon him matters and if that's the last we see of him then as sad as it is then we move on.

Chad is on that new Indigenous board that was recently assembled for the club so one would think that he still has a huge role to play in helping the club move forward in healing from the racism saga that still lingers over the club. His tenure on field obviously hasn't panned out the way we and he would've liked but with how successful the club has been over last 40 years we obviously get more right than we do wrong.

 

[TazHawk15]

Sadly, Father Time keeps kicking him in the nuts.

 

[Steven Tyler]

Sadly, Father Time keeps kicking him in the nuts.

Or the calf’s

 

[Paul Kersey]

Terrible news. Remember his first few years at Port and thought he could be anything.

 

[Simon Crawshay]

Would've looked bad if we just cut him loose without getting him right. The message there is we look after our players and don't just abandon them. He's on the rookie list so it's not like it's a huge cap hit. Pretty sure the club knew there were going to be hiccups like this after his Achilles but the fact we didn't just abandon him matters and if that's the last we see of him then as sad as it is then we move on.

Chad is on that new Indigenous board that was recently assembled for the club so one would think that he still has a huge role to play in helping the club move forward in healing from the racism saga that still lingers over the club. His tenure on field obviously hasn't panned out the way we and he would've liked but with how successful the club has been over last 40 years we obviously get more right than we do wrong.

Depends on how you look at it I suppose.

For instance I hope we look after Sam Butler with another contract after he suffered that horrific broken leg as that was clearly a case of a workplace injury and clubs have a duty of care to look after players when those incidents happen.

Chad though it hadn't really been a case of him suffering a bad on field injury, it's more his body has been unable to cope with the strains that AFL footy place on a player. Not his fault or the clubs, just a case of unlucky genetics (others like Burgoyne win the genetic lotto).

Look it was only a one year rookie contract so not the worst outcome in the world but I doubt the clubs goodwill will extend for another year after this latest setback.

 

[TazHawk15]

Sadly, Father Time keeps kicking him in the nuts.

Or the calf’s

Which at my age is where your nuts end up dropping to.

 

[Bedi]

really crappy news

 

[SSSSSS]

Which at my age is where your nuts end up dropping too.

 

[HedgeFund]

Hoping he can return mid August. Still a chance of playing VFL finals with Box Hill.

Helping them get as deep as they can into September would be a handy way to finish.

 

[offtherails9]

Poor guy. Honestly such a great talent that's had rotten luck.

One of my favourite moments that I can't seem to find was either last year or the year before when he took an advantage inside 50 and gestured to the crowd before kicking the goal, I think we lost the game but it got me up.

 

[TylerDurden]

Cant help but imagine him in the 3 peat fwd line, in his prime, alongside Bud, Cyril and Shaun. Would've been absolute chaos!

 

[kazzooka]

4 weeks on the sidelines plus another couple of weeks to get his fitness / touch back means Chad is probably done for the year (in terms of playing senior footy anyway).

Must be so frustrating for him to have put so much work into recovering from his Achilles only to go down with another Calf strain.

That's the issue I saw with giving him another contract at the end of last year, players with history of soft tissue injuries very rarely get less prone to suffering them as they get older.

Still it was probably worth one last try but surely this will be it for Chad (at the Hawks at least).

I think early last year he was 50/50 at best for a contract for 2024. He then started playing really well and earned this year, to then cut him loose when he got injured and still needed recovery support would have been poor.

Chad did everything right in his rehab but just hasn't been able to get fit and in form. For a 2025 contract he probably would have been expected to get back into the AFL side and play well. It doesn't look likely at this stage. He has 7 weeks to recover earn an AFL game and play well to get any chance.

Fingers crossed we make finals and he can negotiate his contract with a norm, premiership and Gary Ayres medal round his neck.

 

[TazHawk15]

Cant help but imagine him in the 3 peat fwd line, in his prime, alongside Bud, Cyril and Shaun. Would've been absolute chaos!

I imagine the 3 Peat would have become Fourthorn.