WHILE the miracle comeback of Sydney’s Nick Malceski dominated headlines on the weekend, the Brisbane Lions are also bucking convention when it comes to players returning from knee reconstructions.

In past years, the commonly held belief has been that players take 12 to 18 months to get back to their best after resuming from major knee surgery.

Malceski ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in the pre-season, but underwent a progressive procedure where artificial fibre was intertwined with the damaged ligament, and made his return for the Swans in Sunday's victory over Essendon – three months after the injury occurred.

Western Bulldogs forward Robert Murphy is a more traditional example – having only recently returning to the form he showed prior to tearing his anterior cruciate ligament early in 2006.

At the Lions however, ACL victims Daniel Bradshaw, Joel Macdonald and Anthony Corrie have all returned in fine fettle more or less immediately. Not only that, but Macdonald and Corrie  are in career-best form.

So what’s the secret? Lions strength and conditioning manager Lachlan Penfold isn’t sure there is one, other than pure hard work and rehabilitation exercises that put players in physical situations they will confront on the field.

"It’s really interesting – I think if you look at just Braddy, I don’t think any of us had any idea that he’d come back in this good a form," Penfold said.

"I think it’s mainly a confidence thing and over the 12 months that they were out, all of our guys – Braddy, Paddy Garner, Joel Macdonald and Anthony Corrie – put in an awful lot of work.

"As part of that rehab, you structure what you do around movements that players will be required to do in game situations. I think that really helps them with their confidence when they do get back to playing."

Of course, hard work can only take a player so far without goals, targets and guidance. And the club's rehabilitation programs featured input from a variety of sources - including a somewhat unlikely one for Queensland – the ski slopes.

Recently departed strength and conditioning coach Alex Moore brought a downhill skiing background when he arrived at club ahead of the 2006 season.

Macdonald, Corrie, Garner and Richard Hadley all suffered ACL injuries that year and their respective roads to recovery were partly paved with lessons learned in the snow.

"It’s the kind of process where everyone has different ideas – and they are all good ideas," Penfold said.

"When you put together the rehab programs you take in a lot of information from a lot of different places and then go with what works well.

"Obviously Alex had his background and that was certainly part of what we did. He was able to bring a few balance-related things that he learned through skiing.

"But we did a lot of things. One of them was that we sent Richard Hadley off to the US to see a specialist over there. And that was really beneficial for him."

There is a certain irony in the Lions having significantly honed a process they’d rather not have to use in seasons to come.

That said, the club is much better prepared in the unfortunate event that another player should require a reconstruction.

Penfold also believes the rehab process has some long-term benefits in terms of developing player maturity.

"The guy who people probably haven’t talked about enough is Anthony Corrie – his knee injury was the worst as he did both his cruciate and medial ligaments," Penfold said.

"Three of the four ligaments holding his knee together were gone, so to come back and play as well as he has is really terrific.

"If you look at him and Joel Macdonald, before their injuries they probably weren’t the best at the club in terms of attention to detail.

"That’s not a criticism of either of them. But the rehab process is sometimes a reality check and players realise that if they don’t put in the hard work to get back, it might be all over for them.

For his part, Corrie admits more than 12 months on the sideline helped him discover just how much he wanted an AFL career.

"The biggest thing for me with being out of action was that I was just so hungry to get back and play footy again," Corrie said.

"That’s what kept me going through all the rehab and when things got really hard – the hunger to be out there again, doing what I want to do.

"I realised that I could be only one bad injury away from my whole career being over and I think that helped me grow up a fair bit."

Lions bouncing back
Daniel Bradshaw – pre reconstruction: 181 games, 363 goals (2.0 per game); post reconstruction: eight games, 31 goals (3.9 per game).

Joel Macdonald – pre reconstruction: 32 games, 12.2 possessions per game; post reconstruction: 17 games, 19.3 possessions per game.

Anthony Corrie – pre reconstruction: 31 games, 11.3 possessions per game; post reconstruction: 10 games, 14.3 possessions per game.