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.
 
Exactly - that was my point. Easier to keep players on the park whereas I reckon it an be pushing you what up hill trying to bring our guys up week after week.
Also different group of players, we are 10 years removed from those Hawks sides, just because you were the best for a group of players at a certain time, doesn't mean you will be for another one a decade later.
 
I watched a bit of the Storm game on Thursdays night and despite winning, they had a shocking second half, full of errors, Bellamy was super angry, so it was interesting when i went past their ground today and they were all out there training and it made me wonder if this type of thing still happens in AFL?

Have a bad game and the coach brings you in to run laps or do skills or whatever, would Bellamy have overruled the fitness staff.’

Just found it interesting
 
What I found intriguing was the timing of both Cera and Cotters both out re-injured, was Russell the leading force in bringing them both back without a run in the MacGoo's??

Love a good conspiracy theory!!

conspiracy theory mood GIF
 

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Interesting Weddle openly saying Carlton work rate falls away in 4th quarters. Not sure if that is statistically correct but it is a worry if we're actually known for that amongst the competition.
 


Interesting Weddle openly saying Carlton work rate falls away in 4th quarters. Not sure if that is statistically correct but it is a worry if we're actually known for that amongst the competition.

It’s bullshit.
Happened once against Port when we off a 5 day break missing H, TDK and Acres
 
We have to bite the bullet and cut injury prone players. Simple. Marchbank, Cuningham and Martin just can't hold up, are out of contract and need to be moved on.

I'm not a high performance expert, don't know the ins and outs of our high performance program and don't understand human physiology enough to make an educated comment on the best approach to produce elite, durable athletes.

I'd imagine conditioning for AFL players is really hard to achieve given the demands of the game, the combination of distance running with explosive speed, added to the physicality of the game. They have to be complete athletes with strength, ability and explosiveness.

Hopefully we can get the right person, matched with the right list to get a better outcome because you simply cannot compete for a premiership with an injury list of 10+ week in, week out, coupled with a handful of players missing large chunks of preseason.
 
Why cant the club call a spade a spade.

The "retirement" narrative is nonsense...

Who are they kidding? Wheres the performance culture narrative... meet your KPIs or your out!

They dont need to go out with "Russell sacked", but they can call it what it is.

Why soften the language?

Whilst on this, if anyone believes the hard training block was Russell gone rogue, you have got to be kidding. It would have been an endorsed strategy that included Voss, Lloyd and probably Cook.

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Russell’s job is to have the guys fit and firing at their best.
He and the coaching team would analyse the draw and align peak fitness levels according to day breaks, etc.
Voss and others would be aware of the plan but ultimately the group fitness of each player is one Russell.
The problem from what I can see, he got the individualised and the group levels totally wrong. At a level IMO which is unacceptable. That’s on Russell and the high performance team.
 
Why cant the club call a spade a spade.

The "retirement" narrative is nonsense...

Who are they kidding? Wheres the performance culture narrative... meet your KPIs or your out!

They dont need to go out with "Russell sacked", but they can call it what it is.

Why soften the language?

Whilst on this, if anyone believes the hard training block was Russell gone rogue, you have got to be kidding. It would have been an endorsed strategy that included Voss, Lloyd and probably Cook.

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Russell’s program. Voss and Lloyd would’ve ticked off on it & helped implement it.

They all have to be united on this stuff.
 

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We have to bite the bullet and cut injury prone players. Simple. Marchbank, Cuningham and Martin just can't hold up, are out of contract and need to be moved on.

I'm not a high performance expert, don't know the ins and outs of our high performance program and don't understand human physiology enough to make an educated comment on the best approach to produce elite, durable athletes.

I'd imagine conditioning for AFL players is really hard to achieve given the demands of the game, the combination of distance running with explosive speed, added to the physicality of the game. They have to be complete athletes with strength, ability and explosiveness.

Hopefully we can get the right person, matched with the right list to get a better outcome because you simply cannot compete for a premiership with an injury list of 10+ week in, week out, coupled with a handful of players missing large chunks of preseason.

There’s a lot more injury prone players than those three mentioned, they are contracted though, with a few of them just re-signed.
 
There’s a lot more injury prone players than those three mentioned, they are contracted though, with a few of them just re-signed.
Agreed and it's a problem. We can only start with the uncontracted players now and assess the others in the next 1 - 2 years. They are fortunate to have contracts but need to show not only their bodies can hold up but they can play consistent footy.

This list of players would include Durdin, Cerra (longer contract), Williams and Fantasia (gone at the end of next year).
 

Unfortunately the program had too much emphasis on the "hope" component.
Russell made these comments while he was an employee of the Hawthorn Football Club. It worked out pretty well for the Hawks. It’s terribly misleading to put him up there in his Carlton gear and attribute it as comments about Carlton but that’s the internet. I put up the podcast in the Carlton in the media thread where these comments were in response to the topic of ‘throwing science out the window’. The context is a little more complex than this post on Instagram.
 
Russell made these comments while he was an employee of the Hawthorn Football Club. It worked out pretty well for the Hawks. It’s terribly misleading to put him up there in his Carlton gear and attribute it as comments about Carlton but that’s the internet. I put up the podcast in the Carlton in the media thread where these comments were in response to the topic of ‘throwing science out the window’. The context is a little more complex than this post on Instagram.
Agreed, its more complex, but it does speak to ethos, and feels like we didnt have the cattle to match his approach to high performance.
 
Agreed, its more complex, but it does speak to ethos, and feels like we didnt have the cattle to match his approach to high performance.
In the aftermath of the Hawthorn debacle I sought out some material on Russell. I hadn’t scratched the surface other than to recognise his face and have a limited understanding of what he does at Carlton and did in his employment at other clubs.

I’ve searched hard for the Sen interview that people keep referring to but haven’t been able to locate it. What I did find was a podcast on Dyl and friends from February 2024 which staggered me. The man is super intelligent and his level of thinking surpasses mere mortals like me. The common thread of him running players into the ground is a furphy. It makes no sense with all the information at hand that anyone would read it and then think we need to run these players into the ground.

This man is a sports scientist and a deep thinker. Perhaps you’re right. Some fragile players at the wrong time.
 
In the aftermath of the Hawthorn debacle I sought out some material on Russell. I hadn’t scratched the surface other than to recognise his face and have a limited understanding of what he does at Carlton and did in his employment at other clubs.

I’ve searched hard for the Sen interview that people keep referring to but haven’t been able to locate it. What I did find was a podcast on Dyl and friends from February 2024 which staggered me. The man is super intelligent and his level of thinking surpasses mere mortals like me. The common thread of him running players into the ground is a furphy. It makes no sense with all the information at hand that anyone would read it and then think we need to run these players into the ground.

This man is a sports scientist and a deep thinker. Perhaps you’re right. Some fragile players at the wrong time.

He's awesome to listen to, I can see why players love him.

Something's gone wrong though. I think he's just so driven and backs himself that ended up biting off more than he can chew - eg backing himself to get injury prone players right, heavy load through to Round 0 etc. Bit of a victim of his own ambition.
 

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News Andrew Russell to step away at season’s end

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