Until Saturday, Michael Barlow was the feelgood story of the AFL season. Now he's become the Heartbreak Kid.

Barlow is the knockabout bloke from the Victorian town of Shepparton who tried time and time again to attract the eye of AFL clubs but kept being overlooked. Lesser men might have been deterred, but Barlow was made of stern stuff. He kept telling his mum and dad he thought he could make it and late last season his persistence was finally rewarded when, at the age of 22, he was picked up by Fremantle in the draft.

But that's only half the story. For no sooner had he turned out in Fremantle's green, red and purple guernsey than he began to pick up kicks, lots of them, and began to exert an influence on games that was normally the preserve of only the very best midfielders.

The half-dozen clubs who could have drafted him, and shamefully didn't, were left to wonder how the hell this young man had escaped their attention. It's true he was no-one's idea of a great athletic specimen and he did run ‘'like a wounded duck'', as one club recruiter said, but what did that matter when measured against his natural feel for the game, and oversized share of willpower and determination?

Such was the impact of his debut year in the big time that Barlow was in contention for all the major media awards and, after 13 rounds, was rated by TAB Sportsbet equal second favourite for the Brownlow Medal, with Hawthorn's Luke Hodge, behind Gary Ablett.

And then came the moment on Saturday that, even before it had been replayed ad nauseam, became unbearable to watch. Late in the Dockers' home game against Port Adelaide, at the start of time-on in the final term when the result was beyond doubt and the game had petered out as a contest, Barlow and teammate Rhys Palmer both charged at a loose ball, Palmer went low and the momentum of his body came up against Barlow's leg, planted in the Subiaco turf.

Something had to give and, as Fremantle announced yesterday in a media release, it was Barlow's fibula and tibia bones in his left leg that caved in, both snapped like a pretzel.

Such is Barlow's courage that he tried to get up and walk after the collision, just to run out that bit of soreness he was feeling, but his leg collapsed under him in a grotesque shape.

The incident was reminiscent of Nathan Brown's broken leg when playing for Richmond five years ago. It also had echoes of those badly injured horses which get up after a fall with one broken leg swinging helplessly and uncontrollably in the air.

So Barlow's dream season is over. And Fremantle, bidding for the top four, will have to find someone to try and fill the hole he's left behind. Which, of course, will be almost impossible.

Legs have been broken this badly before. Garry Lyon snapped his at the Western Oval in the late 1980s and recovered to become a very good player. Michael Voss shattered his leg in 1998 but became one of Brisbane's most decorated players. Essendon's Andrew Welsh suffered a similar injury in the 2009 pre-season, when he was caught in such an awkward position that his foot ended up pointing almost behind him, and has done well to work his way back into the Bombers' line-up.

But, and here's the sobering part, others have had broken their legs as badly as Barlow and never come back. The injury has effectively ended their careers. Jason Snell at Geelong and Jamie Lawson at Sydney are two that come to mind.

And while Matt Maguire has made a comeback this year at Brisbane, he's not the player he was at St Kilda before breaking his leg and Nathan Brown never reached the heights he had scaled before his horrific accident.

Anyone who's taken an interest in the heartwarming tale of Michael Barlow this year, and who doesn't mind a smidgin of romance in their sporting stories, will follow his progress closely, hoping he can draw again on that deep well of determination and score one more triumph over adversity.