News Andrew Russell to step away at season’s end

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THE Carlton Football Club can confirm that after 26 years within the AFL industry, Director of High Performance Andrew Russell will step away from football at the conclusion of the 2024 AFL season.

Following six seasons at the Blues, in which time he led high performance, Russell will conclude his time at the Club, with his current contract set to expire at season’s end.
 
Now that’s it’s been said publicly by a member of the coaching panel, I feel more comfortable sharing my opinions.
Privately I’ve thought that after our stellar run late last year, that the expectations were we’d just rock up and make the GF this year.
Drinking their own bath water comes to mind.
I have some thoughts on some of our leaders, but imo only, from the outside, we could do much better.
I’m wrapt that WALSHY has come back in top form as I believe he sets the example.
Maybe a bit of a public kick up the arse is what’s needed.
 

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No offence but that is drawing a very ling bow. We have historically been lousy with extended injury numbers. Starting one week earlier has no bearing what so ever. Just our terrible injury prone players. Only my opinion but hey im just a footy loving pleb.
I guess my overall question is directed more towards whether there is one contributing factor (round 0) which helps explain our injury crisis this year. I would be surprised if it has “no bearing whatsoever” on our situation. But I completely agree there are likely to be other factors at play too, at least one of which (injury prone players) is a matter you have identified here. I just think round 0 should be thrown into the mix.
 
I guess my overall question is directed more towards whether there is one contributing factor (round 0) which helps explain our injury crisis this year. I would be surprised if it has “no bearing whatsoever” on our situation. But I completely agree there are likely to be other factors at play too, at least one of which (injury prone players) is a matter you have identified here. I just think round 0 should be thrown into the mix.

We overload our players through preseason then watch them break down from rounds 1 - 10. It's an annual tradition not impacted by round zero.
 
I guess my overall question is directed more towards whether there is one contributing factor (round 0) which helps explain our injury crisis this year. I would be surprised if it has “no bearing whatsoever” on our situation. But I completely agree there are likely to be other factors at play too, at least one of which (injury prone players) is a matter you have identified here. I just think round 0 should be thrown into the mix.

It's a valid discussion point, especially when many other sides from round 0 have experienced high number of injuries, some more than us

And certainly more valid in debate than David King viewing one session on 5 months
 
Really interesting if he is including Cerra and Motlop in that. Everyone said Motlop had a huge pre-season.

And Cerra has only displayed hard work at Freo and Blues.

Must be firing a shot at Martin/Cunners.
Was a poor thing to say in public I reckon.
And bad workmen blame their tools. It's an unfair powere advantage where the players can't defend themselves. There may be truth in it, but equally their may be some fault on the side of trainers. Best worked out in-house. I hope Cooky has a word.
 
We overload our players through preseason then watch them break down from rounds 1 - 10. It's an annual tradition not impacted by round zero.
You say the injuries are not impacted by round zero. Just based on what we’ve seen from the other teams involved in round zero, I would be surprised if there is no impact. It just seems a bit more than coincidence that other clubs playing that round have also faced disruptions. I guess it is up to the powerbrokers in their review of what has gone on to determine the extent to which it has impacted on our injury list. Perhaps you are right and there is no impact. But on an anecdotal level, I would be surprised.
 
Was a poor thing to say in public I reckon.
And bad workmen blame their tools. It's an unfair powere advantage where the players can't defend themselves. There may be truth in it, but equally their may be some fault on the side of trainers. Best worked out in-house. I hope Cooky has a word.
absolutely.
 
You say the injuries are not impacted by round zero. Just based on what we’ve seen from the other teams involved in round zero, I would be surprised if there is no impact. It just seems a bit more than coincidence that other clubs playing that round have also faced disruptions. I guess it is up to the powerbrokers in their review of what has gone on to determine the extent to which it has impacted on our injury list. Perhaps you are right and there is no impact. But on an anecdotal level, I would be surprised.
May not have helped but my point was it happens every year.
 
We overload our players through preseason then watch them break down from rounds 1 - 10. It's an annual tradition not impacted by round zero.
There is a little fact being overlooked here.

The playing field has moved on a number of fronts. The AFLPA has “negotiated” greater off season down time. We have a situation that players are largely left to their own devices pre season. Russell and his ilk tailor programs for the players during the off season so they return in good nick.

Some players, including some of ours, read Walsh, overdo the workload, whereas some who we can rightly or wrongly surmise the names under prepare or do a bare minimum.

Then we add the alteration to umpiring interpretation placing even greater strain on players in tackling situations. Then we have the makey uppy AFL moving the goalposts for selected teams with their Round 0, played in the northern states at the end of Summer as well as some of the regular playing surfaces being compromised due to “concert season”. We, and the Tigers had a six day back up on the MCG after “Swifty”. Was the surface compressed or perhaps shifty, I doubt it was pristine. (Who is vying with us for the worst injury impact in the first half of the season?)

Injury prone players add to that equation and we have a perfect storm.

The conditioners are dealing with variations to the traditional pre season, creating many variables. Throw in the round two bye which encouraged our conditioning AND footy staff to try maintaining or building loads to somewhat experimentally keeping loads high pre an extraordinary hiatus. Then, of course, we had players with compromised pre seasons on varied programs trying to catch up. Russell and team seemed determined to err on the side of caution bringing players back slowly. It would nit be easy getting the appropriate conditioning in to a handful of players while the majority of the group were training differently.

Throw in the ludicrous slow start to the VFL season leaving it almost impossible to condition returning players or have our depth and developing types on a par with the senior boys.

The AFL is ludicrously run by a bunch of entitled prats interested only in financial gain and the glory should one of their decisions actually turn out right. Player welfare remains an afterthought despite all of the pressure from historic events.

I doubt Russell or his team with no small influence from the coaching group have made all of the right decisions. There often is not a right or wrong decision, simply INFORMED guesswork influenced by numerous factors, mostly random and many beyond their control.
 


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View attachment 2002665
Jordan Boyd inspecting our new appointment to the high performance department. Said new staff member is very big on developing living tissue over a metal endoskeleton.

Can we get him to go back in time and terminate Russell's Carlton career before this preseason?

It's great that the club is doing something but the horse has bolted and we're talking about appointing a head gate shutter.
 
Seems smart to invest more in rehab/physiotherapy right now. Having players get new injuries in rehab and re-injuring the injury they just rehabbed from suggests we're not very good at repairing these guys.

As with most things, there's usually a lot of factors at play.

Maybe we tried something with pushing too hard in training at the beginning of the season and broke the players. That's on Russell, Voss and Lloyd.

Maybe our medical and rehab people aren't as good as they need to be, or we just don't have enough of them, or both.

Maybe we have too many players who don't do as they're told, and they need more intensive injury management. Some of them might need a physiotherapist living with them.

Whatever, it can't be a bad thing to take a good hard look at both training loads and injury prevention and rehab. The former is Russell's thing, and we're certainly not going to sack him mid season. The latter is our medical staff, and that's definitely something we can hopefully improve almost immediately.
 
So, in summation..
  • If a player gets injured: according to some, it's Russell's fault.
  • Despite repeated efforts to get them to explain their position, little more is offered up than to reference the injury list.
  • Engaging in dialogue with these same people sees you accused of drinking the Kool-Aid or provocation.
  • He's now being held accountable for LM decisions.

At some point there needs to be an openness to see things from anothers perspective, otherwise this thread will continue to go around in circles as people continue to seek to validate their own position on the matter at the expense of any meaningful exchange of thoughts or ideas.

Hopefully you and the others are now open to seeing this from another's perspective Bluejet.
 

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News Andrew Russell to step away at season’s end

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