DARREN MILLANE’S MEMOIR
Note: These handwritten notes, unearthed in boxes by Millane's brother Sean after more than two
decades, have never been seen by his teammates or coach Leigh Matthews.
Chapter ??
That Broken Thumb
Collingwood was to play Fitzroy, 2nd last round of the season 1990. We needed to beat the Roys as
to give us a greater chance of finishing in the top 3, thus the double chance. It was about the 10
minute mark of the first quarter, I was chasing a Fitzroy player around the outer wing. As he kicked
the ball I hit him in the hip with my right hand and I must have got him on the hip bone. I dislocated
my right hand thumb. I couldn’t get it back into place so I just started to run across the ground to go
off and see the Doctor. As I ran across the ball has switched sides and it was kicked to me. I tried to
mark the ball but I couldn’t grab it so I just continued to run off the ground. No one on the bench
knew what I was doing so there was confusion. They finally realised that I had injured myself and
they put someone else on. The doctor put my thumb back into place (Shane Conway) but there was
this abnormal lump on the top of my hand near the base of my thumb. The club surgeon (John
Bartlett) was nearby and he pushed the lump down and my thumb popped back to where it should
be. I was yelling at the two medical staff about giving me a pain killer, strapping it up, and returning
me to the field. John Bartlett said that I would be taking no further part in the game. Now at that
stage of the year I was either winning or in contention for nearly every media award available. All I
could think about was losing all this money. After about 10 mins of my abusing the medical staff, I
calmed down and began to feel the effect of the thumb. When your body is warm you don’t feel a
great deal of pain, now it was sore. Then all I could think about was that I would yet again miss out
on a finals series though injury. Both ‘88 and ‘89 I missed through last game injuries. After talking to
John Bartlett during and after the game I convince him that we might be able to make some sort of
brace, with pain killers, to get through the remaining matches. John warned me that it was a very
slim chance that I could come up, because the injury needed a pin put in and plastered for 6 weeks.
Leigh came up to me after the match and said bad luck, which made me, think that he had all but
ruled me out. We had to beat Nth Melb. The last round to make sure of the Double Chance and
during the week I had decided to front Leigh and ask for a chance to play. He said that if I didn’t play
against Nth Melb. He would rule me out for the entire finals series. I had to meet John Bartlett at his
surgery in Heidelberg, Friday afternoon at 3pm, then hopefully it was off to the club to meet Leigh
for a fitness test. John took the plaster off and I must admit the hand a little week and a bit sore. He
made a special brace for the thumb and taped my hand very heavily. Each time he applied tape I
nearly went through the roof, and as he had said earlier he thought we were asking just a bit much. I
went to my car and I deliberately tried to use the hand as much as possible. I couldn’t even open the
door of the car so I began to have doubts myself. I got to the club and I thought that I would try to
put one over my coach. I grabbed a football went into his office bouncing the ball and catching it, I
told him that it felt good and that John Bartlett said that it would be okay with pain killers, so I
shouldn’t really aggravate it with a fitness test. He believed me and said that I could play, as he said
that I had thrown the ball up into the air and when I went to mark it I favoured my thumb and
dropped the ball. He just look to me and said “why don’t we just have a little kick, that that you can
be sure of handling the ball.” Straight away I thought I was gone. We went onto the ground and he
was kicking the ball to me from about 30-40 metres away. This was alright because I would just pull
my right hand away a little at the last moment and from where he was he couldn’t notice. He called
me in and I honestly thought that I had bluffed him on my second attempt. No way, he decided to
drill the ball at me from about 10 metres away which meant I had nowhere to hide. Each kick I nearly
passed out and because the bone had started to knitt it just broke again. Finally, he gave in and
looked at the chairman of selectors, Ron Richards, and they both agreed that I could play against
Nth. Melbourne. I went home that night and I was in so much pain that I was vomiting and I was
about ready to ring Leigh and pull out. My mother was just about to ring when I thought about the
finals again and decided to get through the night and see how I felt in the morning. Surprisingly in
the morning I felt quite good and there was no pain at all. I went into see Shane Conway about 5
mins before warm up, to have the pain killers. That first needle was the most painful thing I think I
have ever come across. I was nearly sick, and needed a glass of water before the second and third
needles. The (sic) was ready to go, I gave it a good workout in the warm-up, breaking it again.
- ENDS -