Cody Weightman | Western Bulldogs forward spark! (10.06.26)
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What emotions did Cody Weightman experience during his return to footy?
On Friday night, we all rode with Bulldog Cody Waitman as he made his return to footy after 637 days and any number of surgeries in what will prove one of the feel-good stories of the year. And I'm thrilled to say he's on his way to training to tune up for tomorrow night and he's with us now. Cody, welcome to the program and welcome back to footy.
G'day, Jack. Thanks for having me. Yeah, it was an exciting week and nice to be here. back into, um, some normality with footy and, and heading to training and back into the, the week to week. How'd you pull up from it? Yeah, pulled out well, mate. Um, sort of, I guess after any game I've played in 80 odd now, you always got a bit of sore, but nothing unusual. So yeah, pretty, pretty happy. And, um, yeah, pretty feeling good. Did you enjoy it? Yeah, I did. I enjoyed it a lot.
How did Cody prepare mentally for his comeback after numerous surgeries?
Um, it did, it did feel different this time, which was cool. I think, um, probably a little bit more of a different lens on it. I've always, I think, been grateful to play footy and it was always just my dream as a kid. So I've always known that. I was very lucky to be doing that. But this time it did feel a bit different and we got pretty lucky as well. It was a perfect night on the G. It was a close game against the Hawks who have had our number over recent years. Yeah, it was a really cool night to be a part of.
Did you have any anxieties, any trepidation heading in for all the work that had been done to actually get back out there?
Oh, I think naturally there's always a bit of that. Personally, I know a lot of the boys in the league are the same. You always get a bit anxious and nervous pre-game, which is normal. But I actually found I was probably less this time, if anything, which kind of confused me a little bit early. But I think in a way I was sort of, I felt very much like I couldn't lose this time.
What was Cody's perspective on the game after being away for 637 days?
I didn't have much pressure on myself to perform because I I sort of knew that the managed minutes and the lead-ups for getting back to this game was fairly solid for me. So just to be there, I felt like I'd already sort of won a little bit. And I was sort of just happy to be there in a way. And I think from now on, I could start building. But in terms of the anxieties and stuff, I mean, it wouldn't be unusual to have had any, but I was actually probably the opposite, weirdly.
Did you have a moment in the game where you felt like, all right, I'm back in the flow now?
A few moments, I suppose, where, I mean, getting the hands on the ball earlier was nice just to settle. But yeah, I think like there's a couple of times and just going through my edits during the week where I felt like I was sort of doing stuff that I guess I used to. And it was always a bit of an experiment the first game back, not knowing exactly what that looks like, but even just watching myself, I guess, behind the goals and stuff, I I feel like there was a little bit of autopilot in some of my game which sort of tapped into what I used to do and I suppose I was kind of just curious to see how much of that I would have lost and how much of that would still be there. I think I was more pleasantly surprised with how normal my game looked and felt a little bit higher up the ground.
And actually, it looked a bit different. But no, I was overall pretty happy in it, yeah.
Did your plan have to change at all?
Did Cody experience any anxieties before returning to the field?
So there was a concussion in the first quarter, so you're a man down on the bench. There was a blood rule from time to time. Did the managed minutes pan out, or did you play a little bit more than might have been forecast?
No, I think we're pretty happy with how it all went. Obviously, Ronnie McNeil went down pretty early and I was actually in his rotation. So I was interested to see how that planned out. But they had a pretty good plan for me going in and I'd done a lot of loading prior in my training. So we knew sort of the window that I was going to be fine to be within and, yeah, sort of fell within that, I'm pretty sure. So, no, I was pretty happy with how... how it all went that way and then Tim obviously being able to come back on helped and I think a big part of the decision with Bevo was knowing that we had the extra interchange player this year and not necessarily any more interchanges so there's a bit of a sub kind of in the game anyway for a lot of teams at the moment where you've kind of got more players than you need with the limited interchange so I guess that was kind of me and might be me for a little bit but
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What emotions did Cody Weightman experience during his return to footy?
0:00–0:50
2
How did Cody prepare mentally for his comeback after numerous surgeries?
0:50–1:45
3
What was Cody's perspective on the game after being away for 637 days?
1:45–3:16
4
Did Cody experience any anxieties before returning to the field?
3:16–5:00
5
What moments during the game made Cody feel back in the flow?
5:00–6:39
6
How did Cody's game plan adapt during the match?
6:39–8:22
7
What role does art play in Cody's life beyond football?
8:22–10:10
8
How does Cody view his journey and future in both football and art?
10:10–14:02
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Whateley
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