Courageous Richmond small defender, Steven Morris, has spoken of the immense frustration he felt dealing with a severe shoulder problem that plagued him throughout 2014.

Morris damaged his right shoulder in a match during the pre-season series, but bravely pushed through the entire season, playing 21 games and finishing 10^th in the Tigers’ Best and Fairest award.

“I spoke to the surgeon straight after that and, pretty much from early in the season, it was either miss the whole season, or just chance your arm and see how far we could get,” Morris told Tiger great Matthew Richardson in an exclusive ‘Roar Vision’ post-season interview.

“I wasn’t keen to miss the whole season . . . it was pretty much a matter of whether I was playing well enough to warrant selection.

“That was in the coaches hands, so I kept on playing . . .

 “It was really difficult.  I’d have to say it’s probably been my most difficult year of footy yet,” Morris said.

“I didn’t enjoy the way I was playing.  I think I can be much better than what I was this year . . . I can certainly improve next year.

“It was just really frustrating the fact I actually did it in the NAB Cup and wasn’t able to play anywhere near to the level that I want to play at.

“I wasn’t able to train as much as I would have liked.  Frustrating is the only word to really use.

“But the second half of the year, with us going so well, it breathed a little bit of life into us . . . it was good to finish on a positive note – throwing the final out of there, obviously.

“It would have been nice to play a bit better in the final, but at least it gives us some momentum going into next year, definitely.”

Morris revealed that right throughout Richmond’s winning streak in the second half of the season, he was only one loss away from going under the knife to repair his shoulder . . .

“I think about eight weeks from the end of the season it was a matter of well, if we lost this week, we’d tentatively booked in the Monday after the game,” he said.

“It’s interesting how it worked out.  I was sort of getting myself ready for surgery eight weeks in-a-row.  It was quite bizarre.

“But we’ve got it fixed now, and looking forward to being able to train fully and prepare for a big season next year.

“I saw ‘Reg’ (Club doctor Greg Hickey) today, the ‘physio’ today, and really, really happy with how it’s coming along.  It’s ahead of schedule in terms of movement.

“I’ll definitely be running by the start of the pre-season, which the fitness blokes will be happy about.

“Being a player, you’re always rapt being able to do all the running and not any contested work.  But I’m looking forward to it.

“It should set me up for a good crack at next season.”