It’s been a frustrating couple of seasons for Gold Coast ruckman Zac Smith. The Queensland product has suffered two long-term injuries in successive years, but is hoping to put his injury woes behind him and complete a strong pre-season.
 
The 24-year-old played ten consecutive games last year between rounds nine and 18 before succumbing to a serious ankle injury that required four months of rehabilitation. The latest injury came after a full knee reconstruction in 2013 after he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in round eight.
 
Smith has endured a frustrating period but can now see the light at the end of the tunnel with the NAB Challenge matches drawing nearer. His immediate focus is to gain some consistency on the track in the remaining summer months, building into the 2015 campaign and the new era under Rodney Eade.
 
“It’s been a rough couple of years in terms of injury. When you have injuries like I have it keeps you off the track and your game goes down a little bit because you’re not getting that touch and you’re not getting that continuity out on the track with the boys,” Smith told NBN News.
 
“So it’s just been a goal of mine this pre-season (to get some continuity in training). My consistency out on the track is going really well so that’s been a positive.”
 
“It was just frustrating, I’d come off twelve months of rehab for my knee and then I’d strung ten games together – they weren’t the greatest games – but then out of nowhere I hurt my ankle. I probably didn’t realise how serious it was (at the time of the injury) but that took 16 weeks to get right as well.”
 
After a bleak couple of summers spent in the rehabilitation group, Smith is thrilled to be training with the main group this summer.
 
The inaugural SUN speaks with an air of appreciation in his voice when he reminisces on previous pre-seasons spent indoors and under the watchful eye of club medical staff.
 
“It’s a massive positive (being fully fit at this time of year). The last couple of years around this time I’ve still been in rehab, just grinding out the sessions in the altitude room or in the gym, but this year I’m actually out there training with the boys and contesting,” Smith said.
 
The SUNS ruck department boasts some of the most exciting young talents in the competition. The problem in recent years has been keeping these prospects on the park for an extended period of time. Along with Smith, Tom Nicholls and Daniel Gorringe have been plagued by injuries throughout the early stages of their careers.
 
Heading into the 2015 campaign, a clean bill of health in the tall timber division sees a healthy competition for spots heading into the season opener against Melbourne on April 4. Smith identified the importance of building a fervent ruck partnership with Nicholls and the other ruckmen at Metricon Stadium so that opposition bigs would fear coming up against them.
 
“The more guys out there contesting for that ruck spot the harder you go. The more competition there is which makes it healthy,” Smith said.
 
“Over the last few years, we (Smith and Nicholls) haven’t been able to get out there at the same time. I think we’ve only played one game together over the last four years.
 
“I’m really looking forward to getting out there with one of the boys and just building that ruck relationship and building that formidable (pairing) so they don’t want to come up against us.”