Injury 2022 Injury Updates Thread

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Lets not forget that our small forward brigade was decimated last season. Butters, Fantasia, Rozee, Gray, Farrell.

I'm not a particular fan of the 'Dixon as a target 90% of the time so he marks it or brings it to ground' gameplan. But it was made less effective last season due to injuries to those at the fall of the ball.

We do need to be more versatile going forward though. If Dixon is playing, we need to spot up those forward whose defenders have peeled off to Dixon. And those forward need to get dangerous. Without Dixon we are going to need to create more space for our forwards to spread. Georgiades becomes our primary contested marking forward and even he prefers space to run and jump. Georgiades will be stronger and more experienced in his second season and there will still be tall forwards even without Dixon to spread the load so I am super excited to see what his second full season will bring. Finlayson is a leading forward and an opportunist, not a contested marking specialist and I would be surprised if it becomes a big part of his game. It will be interesting to see what the coaches come up with and how the players adapt. The only way a forward gameplan like last year might work without Dixon is if Hayes shows some ability to play a Dixon-like role bringing the ball to ground in contested marking situations.

Dixon as a decoy is a tactic that should have been better exploited over the last two seasons. We should always be looking to spot up forwards who might be free away from Dixon. However his stats speak for themselves. Players kick to him for a reason. He takes more contested marks than anyone against more opposition. He doesn't get outmarked even in packs and his second efforts as the ball comes to ground are very good. Using him as a pure decoy as a strategy is wasting the talents of one of the most feared, aggressive and effective forwards in the competition for the last couple of seasons. If there can be criticisms of him it would be that he drops easy marks he should, and misjudges the flight of the ball on occasion and he has patches where he doesn't kick straight.

We will know better in the near future the exact nature of his injury and how quickly he can be expected to recover from it.

As for Fantasia, I was hesitant about trading him because of his soft tissue inhuries and that is playing out exactly as I have feared. Its a pity because when fully fit he is the perfect addition to our small forward brigade and frees up Rozee and Butters to develop in the midfield. However I will be happy if we get fifteen games out of him this season as well.
 
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So your No1 forward, and therefore your targetted forward, who leads your goalkicking on numerous occasions is an AA in a team that has been top 4 for the last 2 years would be better if used as a decoy?
What Premiership Team bases their success on a decoy No1 forward? certainly not Richmond, they like us play a targetted big man in Lynch with a 2nd fiddle in Reiwoldt and numerous small crumbers.
I too are actually looking forward to seeing what different personnel in the forward line looks like in a match, but using Charlie Dixon as a decoy is not your answer.

WE ARE NOT A PREMIERSHIP TEAM.

And these tactics are a big part of the reason!
 
WE ARE NOT A PREMIERSHIP TEAM.

And these tactics are a big part of the reason!

I think what hurts the most here is we SHOULD be a premiership team. Potentially multiple times over.
 

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WE ARE NOT A PREMIERSHIP TEAM.

And these tactics are a big part of the reason!
That is a cop out.
Richmond use the same tactics and they obviously are.
Answer what I asked.
Who uses a decoy forward?
I tend to agree with Powerage and that we may target Dixon too often but to put our lack of a Premiership down to one particular tactic is folly.
 
I’d have him leading as a decoy rather than as a target.
That’s pretty much most peoples take is it not?

The current strategy of Dixon not leading and being our primary target is a problem, but I don't think that we need to change both things to fix it.

The ideal is Dixon leading, and us spreading the ball around. If defenders still double team Dixon, that makes life easier for Georgiades/Marshall/Finlayson/Hayes. If one of them gets on the end of a few, they get more attention, which frees up Dixon more.
 
Lets not forget that our small forward brigade was decimated last season. Butters, Fantasia, Rozee, Gray, Farrell.



As for Fantasia, I was hesitant about trading him because of his soft tissue inhuries and that is playing out exactly as I have feared. Its a pity because when fully fit he is the perfect addition to our small forward brigade and frees up Rozee and Butters to develop in the midfield. However I will be happy if we get fifteen games out of him this season as well.
agree our small forwards were decimated by injury last season

But it will be no stronger this year.

Gray is just older, Fantasia injured again, Farrell out with an acl, and butters and rozee have to be predominantly midfielders for us to have any chance.
Agree Fantasia is very important and needed, I just don’t see any chance of him being reliable injury wise. He also showed he was a downhill skier last year. He will be great in games were we are on top… and invisible the rest of the time.
 
That is a cop out.
Richmond use the same tactics and they obviously are.
Answer what I asked.
Who uses a decoy forward?
I tend to agree with Powerage and that we may target Dixon too often but to put our lack of a Premiership down to one particular tactic is folly.
It's the way we target him that is the problem.

He is often static, with two defenders hanging off him, with the ball coming down on his head. Crazy. Have a look at how different Hawkins is used. He is still their main target, but there are distinct tactics, clever leading patterns, along with the odd brute-strength used.

Three wasted years of having one of the top power forwards in our side!
 
That is a cop out.
Richmond use the same tactics and they obviously are.
Answer what I asked.
Who uses a decoy forward?
I tend to agree with Powerage and that we may target Dixon too often but to put our lack of a Premiership down to one particular tactic is folly.
It's not a long bow at all to suggest that we might have won a flag in the last decade if we had a competent strategy for kicking goals.
 
agree our small forwards were decimated by injury last season

But it will be no stronger this year.

Gray is just older, Fantasia injured again, Farrell out with an acl, and butters and rozee have to be predominantly midfielders for us to have any chance.
Agree Fantasia is very important and needed, I just don’t see any chance of him being reliable injury wise. He also showed he was a downhill skier last year. He will be great in games were we are on top… and invisible the rest of the time.

Sadly I think you just described 30 to 50% of our team, when it gets tough so many go missing.
 
agree our small forwards were decimated by injury last season

But it will be no stronger this year.

Gray is just older, Fantasia injured again, Farrell out with an acl, and butters and rozee have to be predominantly midfielders for us to have any chance.
Agree Fantasia is very important and needed, I just don’t see any chance of him being reliable injury wise. He also showed he was a downhill skier last year. He will be great in games were we are on top… and invisible the rest of the time.
Mostly agree except I doubt Rozee and Butters will play in the midfield at the same time. One will always be playing forward.

We will likely be playing three or four talls again. Hopefully Williams has had a big preseason and may get some games this year so we can see whether his talents translate at the AFL level and I would like to see the mostly likely of our plethora of flankers given a go as a small forward.

I'm not a big wrap for Fantasia at this stage. Its almost a distraction having him around when we possibly should be looking at developing someone else for his position. That's unless he can ever get himself right.
 
Mostly agree except I doubt Rozee and Butters will play in the midfield at the same time. One will always be playing forward.

We will likely be playing three or four talls again. Hopefully Williams has had a big preseason and may get some games this year so we can see whether his talents translate at the AFL level and I would like to see the mostly likely of our plethora of flankers given a go as a small forward.

I'm not a big wrap for Fantasia at this stage. Its almost a distraction having him around when we possibly should be looking at developing someone else for his position. That's unless he can ever get himself right.
But even when up forward I expect rozee and butters to be more half forward up the ground rather than playing deep.

I don’t think we’ve got a small that we would play deep really.

We will be relying on the usual lock it in until everyone gets down there plan.

Yeah the development of a goal kicking small / medium who can actually play the role should be a priority, but I don’t think we’ve got many options on the list, and it’s not hinkleys style either.
 
But even when up forward I expect rozee and butters to be more half forward up the ground rather than playing deep.

I don’t think we’ve got a small that we would play deep really.

We will be relying on the usual lock it in until everyone gets down there plan.

Yeah the development of a goal kicking small / medium who can actually play the role should be a priority, but I don’t think we’ve got many options on the list, and it’s not hinkleys style either.

Dylan Williams probably isn’t ready to play deep really, but he might be able to play really deep
 
Dylan Williams probably isn’t ready to play deep really, but he might be able to play really deep

What if he plays really, really deep? Like Mariana trench deep.
 

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Mostly agree except I doubt Rozee and Butters will play in the midfield at the same time. One will always be playing forward.

We will likely be playing three or four talls again. Hopefully Williams has had a big preseason and may get some games this year so we can see whether his talents translate at the AFL level and I would like to see the mostly likely of our plethora of flankers given a go as a small forward.

I'm not a big wrap for Fantasia at this stage. Its almost a distraction having him around when we possibly should be looking at developing someone else for his position. That's unless he can ever get himself right.
A fit Fantasia is our most dangerous small forward. Just need to keep the porcelain man on the park.

28 goals in 15 games, puts him on track for 40+ if he stayed on the park.
 
Sadly I think you just described 30 to 50% of our team, when it gets tough so many go missing.
Need more non negotiable team rules that are enforced .
that toughens the players up if they’re dropped for soft efforts etc.
New generation I know but some things still apply if you want to reach the top
 
From the archives of the whiz-bang Murdoch Times paywall busting machine:


Port Adelaide AFL news: Charlie Dixon and Orazio Fantasia injury updates, training latest​

Port Adelaide is hopeful key forward Charlie Dixon won’t need surgery in a huge boost for the Power.

But livewire Orazio Fantasia is likely to go under the knife, but South Australia’s restrictions on elective surgery could delay his recovery.

The Power were waiting on the swelling to go down in Dixon’s foot before a call would be made on whether he needs surgery.

The Power won’t know completely until potentially Wednesday but there is optimism that Dixon won’t need to go under the knife after an improvement in his ankle.

Fantasia has been having ongoing issues with his right knee after having surgery on his left in the off-season.

It is looking likely that he will need surgery but he can’t at the moment because of South Australia’s restrictions on elective surgery because of the state’s Covid situation.

The two Power stars were onlookers at training on Monday after players returned from a four-day break.

They were joined by new recruit Trent Dumont, who is off legs after a knee knock last week and draftee Hugh Jackson who had hip surgery last year.

Willem Drew suffered a cork last week but isn’t far from a return to full training.

 
What's the definition of elective surgery - if you need it to earn your living is that elective, or is any surgery that isn't life saving considered elective?
basically the latter.
 
Elective surgery essentially covers everything that can be managed through a waiting list. The categories are based on specialist assessment as to how long patients can reasonably be on that list - 30 days (category 1), 90 days (category 2) or 365 days (category 3).

Not sure what SA's rules currently are but in the ACT currently only one of the two public hospitals has suspended category 2 and 3 surgery.

I was just wondering if SA had suspended elective surgery, if it were possible to have it instead interstate.
 
I was just wondering if SA had suspended elective surgery, if it were possible to have it instead interstate.
There is probably some rule against it in each state, given state governments fund public hospitals more than 50% and they would want to stop this happening in any large numbers. There would be some exemption re border communities.
 
A fit Fantasia is our most dangerous small forward. Just need to keep the porcelain man on the park.

28 goals in 15 games, puts him on track for 40+ if he stayed on the park.
He is probably our most dangerous small forward who can play deep and if he stayed fit he would hopefully gain more match fitness and consistency. I just don't hold out much hope that this is going to happen in the near future.

Unfortunately it seems to be a never ending cycle with Orazio. He has an issue with one knee. Gets surgery. Now the other knee is ****ed and he needs elective surgery. He eventually gets that knee fixed damn sure he will end up with erectile dysfunction.

Still, Robbie had injuries in his early years. So maybe he will yet get his body right.
 
No restrictions on elective surgery in some ACT hospitals. Could Fantasia have surgery here?

With Fanta's luck he would trip over his suitcase and break his collarbone.
 

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