Player Watch #5: Christian Petracca – Norm Smith Medallist, 4x All-Australian and 2x Best and Fairest (re-commits to Melbourne)

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Think it’s been established he had no issue going back on and it is more around the lack of communication during recovery. He physically chose to go back on himself and AFL has signed off on the protocols the Dees took.

Dees then paid for all his care and gave him 10-12 weeks away from the club to recover, not sure what more they could have done. People are just fishing for issues a bit here.

If you have issues with protocols take it up with the AFL as it would apply to all clubs.

Our club ****s up a lot and does a lot of idiotic shit but you can’t blame the club on his injury.
you can, sometimes as a doctor you have to make the tough decisions on behalf of your patient and be firm, if they ignore you then that's there own prerogative.

I just don't think allowing someone with clinically obvious rib fractures (and who appeared very distressed with pain) back into a heavy contact game is ever all that wise, even if they are an elite athlete. The rib cage is literally their to protect your lungs and upper abdominal organs, even if his spleen wasn't ruptured you're just risking further significant injury the next time they get hit. Thankfully he avoided contact but running around with an elevated heart rate and blood pressure probably doesn't help any potential internal bleeding.

I work in emergency and have spent time working in major trauma centres. My advice for people with rib fractures generally doesn't include playing footy. Maybe that's why I don't work in sports medicine...

fair enough that his grievance seems to be with the communication and support from the club during his recovery though, we definitely ****ed up multiple aspects.
 
you can, sometimes as a doctor you have to make the tough decisions on behalf of your patient and be firm, if they ignore you then that's there own prerogative.

I just don't think allowing someone with clinically obvious rib fractures (and who appeared very distressed with pain) back into a heavy contact game is ever all that wise, even if they are an elite athlete. The rib cage is literally their to protect your lungs and upper abdominal organs, even if his spleen wasn't ruptured you're just risking further significant injury the next time they get hit. Thankfully he avoided contact but running around with an elevated heart rate and blood pressure probably doesn't help any potential internal bleeding.

I work in emergency and have spent time working in major trauma centres. My advice for people with rib fractures generally doesn't include playing footy. Maybe that's why I don't work in sports medicine...

fair enough that his grievance seems to be with the communication and support from the club during his recovery though, we definitely ****ed up multiple aspects.

To be abundantly fair to our medical staff, I recognise that criticising their decision to let him back on with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight is possibly unfair. However, just about everyone who was watching or playing could see he was completely cooked when he went back on.

I don't think that decision alone makes them poor doctors, and god knows it would be tough to make that call in a high pressure situation where the docs are not the only authority, pressure from coaching staff etc.
but they are obviously a product of the environment where playing through injury is encouraged at the club and it's gone to a bit of an extreme. Players do get away with playing through rib fractures and other injuries - May in particular - but this was just one of the worst possible outcomes.


I'll plug a podcast from spotify for those who are interested. It's done by Darren Burgess and Dr Peter Brukner who have a podcast based around sports performance and did an episode on Burgo's time at the dees following the flag. There's a bit of info on the philosophy behind playing and training through minor injuries to build resilience, as well as talk of recruiting the medical and support staff that subscribe to that philosphy. I think we have pushed that to the extreme in the past few seasons since Burgess left. It sounds very much like Dr Zeeshan Arain was turfed for not wanting to be a part of it.

 

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To be abundantly fair to our medical staff, I recognise that criticising their decision to let him back on with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight is possibly unfair. However, just about everyone who was watching or playing could see he was completely cooked when he went back on.

I don't think that decision alone makes them poor doctors, and god knows it would be tough to make that call in a high pressure situation where the docs are not the only authority, pressure from coaching staff etc.
but they are obviously a product of the environment where playing through injury is encouraged at the club and it's gone to a bit of an extreme. Players do get away with playing through rib fractures and other injuries - May in particular - but this was just one of the worst possible outcomes.


I'll plug a podcast from spotify for those who are interested. It's done by Darren Burgess and Dr Peter Brukner who have a podcast based around sports performance and did an episode on Burgo's time at the dees following the flag. There's a bit of info on the philosophy behind playing and training through minor injuries to build resilience, as well as talk of recruiting the medical and support staff that subscribe to that philosphy. I think we have pushed that to the extreme in the past few seasons since Burgess left. It sounds very much like Dr Zeeshan Arain was turfed for not wanting to be a part of it.



I listened to that podcast post-GF win as I'm super interested in sport science. Would thoroughly recommend it as it gives a good insight into our high performance strategy.

Still staggering, looking back, that May played decently in the premiership with a fair hammy tear.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com
 
Dees then paid for all his care
I've seen this mentioned a few times and it's weird.

Of course they paid for his care. He's an employee of the club and he was injured while carrying out his duties.

That's the absolute least they can do.
 
There are some serious leaks going on. But I will say from everything we’ve heard it doesn’t sound like Trac will be going down the medical negligence path. He actually came out and said he had no issues with that. So would be interesting to back track on those comments. Also the information we have been told suggests he is perhaps disgruntled at a lack of communication post injury. The grievance is more around his issues with the ‘culture’.
I would say IMO he certainly won’t sit out. He will come back and play if not traded. It I’m leaning towards him being traded.
 

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GAGF all you Opp supporters willing and wanting him to leave our club, and for us to not be fairly compensated. Many of those imposters wouldn’t want there marquee player to be sold by their club based on some internal club issues needing to be worked out and resolved. Back in your box jerks. Time to go ambulance chasing for another story for your own self-satisfaction and pleasure
 
Sorry for my emphatic thoughts and views about Petracca and our club. We’ve made many mistakes as a club, however, the delight and pile-on from other club supporters over our clubs issues has truly disgusted me!
 

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Player Watch #5: Christian Petracca – Norm Smith Medallist, 4x All-Australian and 2x Best and Fairest (re-commits to Melbourne)

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