Harrison Petty felt fine when he lined up for a kick on the last line of defence at the MCG on April 19. Then, in the round six match, the 26-year-old was hit by head spins and blurred vision, shanked the ball off the side of his boot and handed Will Ashcroft a goal.
The Melbourne Football Club defender said he knew something was wrong the moment the ball left his boot, and the confusion only deepened when he tried to work out whether he had to stop or play on. By just before three-quarter time, his day was over.
Ed Langdon, Xavier Taylor and Blake Howes were first to him before doctor Jacob Jewson and physio Zach Nelson helped him from the ground. Petty later visited a neurological physio and then went through a battery of tests after the match, including checks with a neurosurgeon, a dizziness expert and a cardiologist. Doctors eventually diagnosed him with a vestibular migraine and cleared him of concussion.
The result mattered because Petty had suffered multiple concussions before, which made the episode seem dangerous at first. He said he had never had a migraine before April 19 and was baffled by the symptoms, especially given how quickly they came on in the middle of a game. He has since spoken about how migraines run in his family, saying his brother and sister get them badly and his grandparents suffer from them too.
Petty said the medical review was exhaustive and left little doubt by the end. “They checked everything. I saw pretty much everyone to do with the brain and heart and everyone sort of got back to the idea that it was a migraine,” he said. “They're pretty common in my family. They say it runs genetically, which I actually didn't know that my brother and sister get them badly, and my grandparents get them really badly too. I had no idea.”
He returned to play a fortnight after the incident and has played two games since, resuming in defence under senior coach Steven King and backline coach Jared Rivers. That has taken him back to the role he knows best after spending time at the other end of the ground last year. Petty said he has enjoyed being back behind the ball and wants continuity in his game, even if he remains willing to go forward when the team needs him.
“I grew up playing as a defender, and played a lot of AFL footy as a defender, so it's good to sort of get back there and settle down there with [Daniel] ‘Disco' Turner and Jake Lever,” he said. “I'd probably like to settle somewhere and try and get some continuity in my game. But I'm happy to do anything for the team, if that means I need to play forward.”
For Melbourne, the episode ended as a medical scare rather than a concussion setback. For Petty, it became another reminder that a frightening in-game collapse does not always mean the obvious answer, and that his season is now moving again in defence.
