An open letter to Rory Thompson

Dear Rory, I have been a big fan of yours from the very beginning, including your junior days when you chose to become part of the Suns’ start-up into an AFL team right up to your present journey back from multiple injury setbacks.

You are essentially a Gold Coast father-son, with your father Brett having achieved dual premierships at Southport and Hall of Fame status, and now you have become one of only a handful of players to have managed over 100 games with the Suns.

In one of your last games of AFL footy, you kept a rampant Lance Franklin to zero goals in a historic club victory in a vastly undermatched side against a team that went on to play finals that season.

You have played 103 AFL games through eight active seasons, yet since Round 19, 2018 have not been able to return to AFL footy.

Your record of winning 29.61 per cent of games played may seem underwhelming, but only Gary Ablett has a better personal record over the distance for the Suns over a similar number of games, while the number of games the club won without you in that time diminished greatly due to your absence alone.

So what does your return mean in real terms? Nobody has ever done what you are aiming to do in AFL history. Full stop.

In fact, your teammate Nick Holman is one of the successful players to come back from a lengthy absence to return to an AFL side. Nathan Freeman may yet do so, but if you do it then that is a sublime achievement, especially at your age.

You have torn both ACLs, doing your right knee in the 2019 pre-season and your left knee as you came back in the latter part of the 2020 season. Despite hopes you’d return in 2021, the cancellation of the VFL season due to COVID pushed back any possibility of a comeback.

(Photo by Albert Perez/AFL Photos/via Getty Images)

Now in 2022, you hope to come back at age 31 to play elite football for the Suns once more.

History is against you and few give you any chance of success, yet the insiders at the club are buoyant about your prospects and you have demonstrated your commitment to making such a comeback.

Perhaps the greatest backhanded compliment you could ever have received came from the great Jonathan Brown, who said you could be “good Rory or bad Rory”, which from him should be taken as high praise as it indicates that one of the best to have played the game rates you as elite and he isn’t the only one.

Where do you fit in the current Suns line-up? It is uncharted territory, with incumbent tall backs having occupied your spot in your absence to comparative distinction, yet a three-tall back line would seem to be the optimal set-up with a third intercept defender being a luxury the club has rarely enjoyed.

What is the worst-case scenario? You don’t play and it is career done. The pre-season approaches and the VFL begins in late March, so you have plenty of opportunities to show your fitness in the next month and indicate your readiness to return the the elite level.

However, the numbers behind the numbers show you are elite at one percenters and have defended admirably against the very best forwards of the past decade. As a lockdown defender, there are few better at spoiling marks, intercepting and repelling opposition attacks.

As an unabashed fan, I am hopeful that you can succeed in returning to the heights you previously scaled, sharing in the Suns’ climb up the ladder that you have been a part of from the very start.

I am confident that “good Rory” has a future at the top level and can be a part of the on-field success of the continually improving Suns.