WHILE the Bathurst Lady Bushrangers will finally get a chance to start their 2020 AFL Central West season this Saturday, there is one member of the squad who has a little longer to wait.
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Seventeen-year-old Elly Rudd, a graduate from the Bushrangers' 2019 youth girls outfit, will have to settle for being a spectator instead of a participant in the opening rounds.
She has been sidelined after badly dislocating a finger on her left hand during a training game last weekend.
"I was just smothering someone's kick in the training game on the weekend. I'm not 100 percent sure [what did it], I think it was the ball, I do remember touching the ball," Rudd said.
"I was thinking 'Yes, I touched the ball, it's not a mark' then I looked down and was like 'Oh that's a bone'.
"I saw it but I didn't feel the pain until I got in the car and we were driving to the hospital. I think I was just full of adrenaline - but yeah it was a lot of shock seeing the bone."
Rudd had surgery on Monday in Orange and is unsure how long she will be out for. Her initial prognosis was a three-week recovery before she was then told after the recovery from having bone penetrating skin could be between six and eight weeks.
Not surprisingly, the talented teenager hopes her recovery is quick enough to allow her to participate in the 11-week competition.
The taste she got of senior football just from training with the Lady Bushrangers has made her hungry to debut at that level.
"I am hoping if I just rest it, it should be good to go in four weeks and I get to play some of the season. It was my left-hand, but luckily I'm right-handed," she said.
"I loved training with them leading up to it because it just pushed me that bit further being with everyone who was up at that level. I was making training as much as I could.
"It's going to be sad to watch, but I'll be there cheering everyone on, I guess I'm excited to just watch a game."
Lady Bushrangers coach Brian Matheson is also hoping Rudd goes from spectator to player before the shortened 2020 season concludes given the potential he sees in her.
She played in the midfield for the youth girls side, but was being looked as an option on the wing for the Lady Bushrangers.
"Everyone was really impressed with her attitude and how she trained, she was going to be a real key for us," he said.
"She played youth girls last year and played quite well, but this year she's really been shining. So hopefully she'll be fine to play at the end of the season.
"She's one of our really good young talents, so things are looking good for the future."
While it is now a matter of waiting for Rudd to show off that natural talent, she has already proved her toughness.
"The first thing she said after dislocating her finger was 'Can I still play this weekend? Tell me I can play this weekend?'," Matheson said.
"She just wasn't worried about the finger, she would have strapped it up and got out there if she could."