Day one of pre-season can be hellish for young footballers, especially those based in Queensland.

But for Noah Answerth, November 29 can’t come around quick enough.

The 21-year-old will be there when the 1^st to 4^th year players return, the first time he has joined full training in over a year.

Answerth was a revelation in his first year in Brisbane. He’d suffered a broken back as a junior and missed his draft year, however he nominated again the following season and the Lions took a punt.  Arriving via pick 55 in the 2018 national draft, he quickly proved it was astute drafting by the Club’s talent scouts as he played 19 games including two finals as the Lions stormed to their first September campaign in a decade.

However, 2020 he ran into some hurdles.

He played in Rd 1 before the competition went on hold. Then he was suspended in a scratch match in the lead-up to the competition’s return. The sentence could not be served until the AFL season resumed and in that period he picked up a groin complaint which further delayed his start until Rd 9.

Once he was in the side he began to reclaim the form that had seen him earn a Rising Star nomination in his debut season.

However, with the congested playing schedule as the league sought desperately to complete the competition, his troublesome groin began to complain.

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The Lions played the Pies in Rd 14 on Friday September 4, the Suns on Wednesday the 9^th and then the Swans in wet conditions in Cairns on Saturday the 12^th.

By the trip home it was obvious he needed a spell, what he didn’t know at the time was he wouldn’t play again that season nor at all in 2021.

“It was a footy frenzy, we were playing a game every three days,’’ he said.

“I think I had Izak Rankine into Tom Papley who is a pretty high-speed running type of player and I guess it started with pubic overload which is the reason why my groin ended up happening like they did and why I ended up having so much time out.

“I thought I’d be out for two weeks and I was really prepared to have a crack and get back for the finals, I thought I was going to play a final so I was training all the way up to that prelim, even to the point where I was almost getting carried off the track.

“I was meant to hit targets and couldn’t do it, it was heartbreaking.’’

At the end of that season performance coach Josh Low joined the Club and together they mapped out a plan that would set Answerth on the path to recovery.

In addition to rehabbing the injury, Low also set a program that would improving Answerth’s mobility and also encouraged him to put more effort into his life away from the club.

He started to practice Pilates and put hours into the Building and Construction Diploma he is studying at TAFE.

“I was very lucky with Josh, it was his first year and he was massive for me from a mental side of things,’’ he said.

“With my groins going back and forth like they were, we focused on things outside of footy like my diploma

“I did fair bit of that.

“But also how I could recover, eat well, sleep well, things like mobility because a lot of my problems came from back and how tight I was, so teaching myself ways to become more mobile.

“I had a lot of time, but I also used it pretty well which helped my mental side.’’

It was decided minor surgery would help his recovery, but once again Answerth was the victim of some bad timing as he developed appendicitis.

“I was meant to only have one surgery, I got my groins done on a Tuesday and then on Friday I went back for appendix surgery,’’ he said.

“When I finally got out on Sunday,I spent 16 days on the couch after that because I couldn’t move, it was brutal I coudn’t get up without a hand and walking around was tough for a long time.’’

However, that became the turning point. He has built up his running load over the off-season to the point where he is ready to join the group when pre-season kicks off.  

“It (the surgery) was very unknown if it was going to help, and I think it has which is good,’’ he said.

“But also the program that Josh created, I think the approach we have taken, its been very slow but I’m back at a point where I can run with the group but also full train in the pre-season and hopefully play some practice games which is exciting.

“I’m hoping 2022 will be a better year than 2021.

“The 2019 year that I had, coming in as a first year was pretty surreal and I guess I got pretty lucky then.

“And all the work I have done now is hopefully going to get me back to that point and hopefully I don’t look back from there.

“It will be a big thing to get out there and throw the jumper back on with all the boys again, I will take a lot of pride in that.’’