Callum Ah Chee is pressing for selection for Adelaide’s clash with Hawthorn on Thursday night after two months out of the AFL side with hamstring injuries. The Crows recruit said on Monday he was confident the setbacks were behind him, with the club weighing whether to bring him back for the trip to Launceston.
Ah Chee, who joined Adelaide at the end of last season after winning two premierships with Brisbane, said the layoff had been difficult. “It has been frustrating,” he said, adding that he had wanted to show what he was capable of after arriving from the Lions but that the hamstring problems had made it “a little bit up and down.”
The 28-year-old first strained a hamstring in February while playing for Western Australia against Victoria in AAMI AFL Origin, then tore it in round two and was sidelined again. He returned in state league ranks on May 9 and said he would have preferred another SANFL outing, but the club’s schedule left the decision in Adelaide’s hands. The SANFL had a bye last weekend because of a representative match against WA.
He said a strong training session on Friday gave him confidence his body was ready, even if the past two months had tested him. “But that’s for me to work through... I would have loved to be on the park but I’m looking forward to getting back out there now and putting all that behind me,” he said.
Adelaide sits in eighth spot after five wins in its past six games and travels to Tasmania to face the sixth-placed Hawks, who were beaten by 39 points by Narrm on Saturday. Ah Chee said the chance to help the Crows secure another away win before the bye made the contest bigger still. “It would be a massive, massive win,” he said. “We’re really starting to build our brand of footy... it would be great to go get a win away, and then come back and rest up afterwards heading into the bye.”
But he also pointed to the trap in facing a side coming off a heavy defeat. “It’s not going to be easy. They’re obviously coming off the back of a loss and looking to bounce back, so it’s going to be a tough contest,” he said. Adelaide’s selection call now shapes as one of the main questions heading into Thursday night, with Ah Chee pushing to turn a frustrating spell into a first AFL appearance since his hamstring problems began.
