Injury Blue Healers Medical Room - 2023

[Coops93]

Sam is a genuine option, but not this week. They will have a forward line with undersized Membrey as the key, with at best Cordy offering the other genuine height. Rely on Owens and Phillipou for height with Wood drifting forward from a wing.

Weiters and Young going nowhere. McGovern or Kemp with mobility and a dash of speed far better option than an extra big boppa for this one.

Newman, Weitering, Young, Cowan, McGovern (if fit), Cincotta, I am playing Kemp as 7th defender, who should match up well on Phillipou or the more dangerous Owens. They probably will retain Plowman with more experience in the structures over three inexperienced at the level (Moo, Cinc, Kempy) our coaching is very conservative.

I do not want to see six defenders plus a repurposed mid, particularly when playing a couple of tyros.

I could see Durdin replacing Young if he's not careful. A few times this year he's shown his lack of physical intent can be a drawback in his play. His intercepting is good but if a forward likes to get there hands on him he folds like a house of cards at times. It was like Walker was playing against a high school kid the other day.

 

[CCurnow3votes]

injury List growing and growing.

at what point does Russell and his team come under scrutiny?

As soon as we can raise our pitchforks

 

[Blue4Life]

injury List growing and growing.

at what point does Russell and his team come under scrutiny?

Not just for injury…isn’t he high performance manager?…any reason our players look slow and unfit?

 

[Recon_29]

injury List growing and growing.

at what point does Russell and his team come under scrutiny?

2 years ago I would have thought.

 

[Coops93]

Not just for injury…isn’t he high performance manager?…any reason our players look slow and unfit?

The players still credit him a lot for being very good.

As for being slow.. who looks slower than they should be? We've just fielded very slow teams so far this season.

 

[Accidental genius]

Those arguing in favor of Russell don’t have legs to stand on….that department definitely needs a close look. Can’t hurt can it?

 

[Blue__Balls]

injury List growing and growing.

at what point does Russell and his team come under scrutiny?

Internally, they probably are. Externally, it doesn't really need much coverage because the reality is we don't know where the fault lies and as such just end up shouting at clouds.

As inconsistent as we've been over the last few years, the consistent factor has been the length of our injury list. There's a component of "well, we keep recruiting injury-prone players", which is fair - I don't know if there's a sports scientist on the planet who could get Cunners and Marchy to play 20+ games in a season - but I do think that the "whole club" ethos that Cook and Sayers have been pushing would aim to have clear dialogue between Russell's team and Austin's team around who should and should not be persisted with.

I'd hope that the following are "on notice":

- Russell - too many injuries, but it seems to be the same names cropping up all the time. He should be instructed to put together a comprehensive review (by, I dunno, July-ish?) of the list from a fitness perspective - who can be relied on, who is worth persisting with, who should be let go, with all the sports science data to back his views up. If he has genuine and somewhat proven S&C plans that can get guys like Gov and Martin consistently fit then that's fine, but if it's trial and error based on hopes and dreams then he should say so.

- Austin - too many injury prone players on the list, full stop. Not entirely his fault, a lot of them are inherited. In conjuction with Russell detailing the fitness prospects of everyone on the list, Austin should be tasked with putting together his own comprehensive review of how we can move on the dead wood ASAP, replacing them with useful or development-worthy players, and how we can transition away from the "worth persisting with" types inside 12-18 months if necessary.

- Voss - gonna chuck him in here, because ultimately he needs to be across all the above to an extent. I'd also suggest that there needs to be some hard conversations internally about how often we keep turning to oft-injured players when there are seemingly durable options in the reserves. Kemp and Dow played 18 games in the VFL last year, Carroll played a dozen (plus 5 in the seniors), Cincotta (only added to the list this year) played 22. Maybe we need to change our selection philosophy a bit, with a view to achieving maximum consistency in the starting 22, rather than selecting the "most talented" players who seem to miss 50-60% of every season.

TLDR:

- Russell: Clean up our S&C and rehab programs, get realistic about player prospects rather than optimistic.
- Austin: Clean out the injury prone players ASAP, ensure that players we recruit have a history of being durable.
- Voss: Review selection policy and start preferencing guys who can actually build continuity (for their own progression, and for team synergy).

We don't necessarily need to start sacking blokes like Russell or Austin over it, but we do need to make sure that our decision-making processes are robust and realistic, and give us the best chance of success. If individuals can't get on board with the changes, then that's the time to start moving people on.

 

[Coops93]

Those suggesting the medical department/Russell need a review, you've obviously not being paying attention as one only happened 5 months ago:

Carlton reviewing medical department following disastrous injury season

With this quote from Sayers:

“I'm led to believe there are a number of other things that've caused the injury challenges over the past 12 months, we've had a look at the high performance area, the medical area (and) we've made some changes in the off-season.

Also, it's worth noting that ~ 12 months earlier Russell survived the big external review that was done.

So 2 times in 12 months he was part of or was specifically reviewed and not been identified as the problem. Not to mention the players talk often in interviews about how much he's helped them. I doubt he's the issue.

 

[Arr0w]

Think Russell and the team has done a solid job with getting ceratain players back, well ahead of supporter expectations

Kennedy a lisfranc injury, Hewett a pre-existing back injury that he had while at the Swans, Durdin a shoulder reconstruction, Walsh and now with Cotts and Boyd not that far away

Then the injury prone, many that have had ongoing issues from their junior years, different clubs, different medical teams. Perhaps the likes of Gov, Martin, Williams, Philp, Marchbank, Cuners should be a list management focus

My focus now, and always has been, is soft tissue injuries to otherwise health bodies

Satisfied with the level of frequency and detail of injury updates, which is also inline with other clubs

Edit: We have either outran or matched, every single opponent this year

 

[Accidental genius]

Those suggesting the medical department/Russell need a review, you've obviously not being paying attention as one only happened 5 months ago:

Carlton reviewing medical department following disastrous injury season

With this quote from Sayers:




Also, it's worth noting that ~ 12 months earlier Russell survived the big external review that was done.

So 2 times in 12 months he was part of or was specifically reviewed and not been identified as the problem. Not to mention the players talk often in interviews about how much he's helped them. I doubt he's the issue.

Well that’s good so where is the problem?

 

[Recon_29]

Those suggesting the medical department/Russell need a review, you've obviously not being paying attention as one only happened 5 months ago:

Carlton reviewing medical department following disastrous injury season

With this quote from Sayers:




Also, it's worth noting that ~ 12 months earlier Russell survived the big external review that was done.

So 2 times in 12 months he was part of or was specifically reviewed and not been identified as the problem. Not to mention the players talk often in interviews about how much he's helped them. I doubt he's the issue.

And yet we haven't improved at all in that area and I like other supporters have mentioned think we look unfit and slow this season (injuries to anyone with pace compounds this) compared to last season.

 

[The Blue Weirdo]

Not just for injury…isn’t he high performance manager?…any reason our players look slow and unfit?

Nobody can make a slow player, fast.
The remedy is to not select too many of them.

 

[BRADLESTICKS]

We are currently tied with west coast for the most soft tissue injuries in the afl ours in particular to our players with speed.

Also the major foot injuries we’ve had compared to other teams over the last 2/3 years is a major concern.

That along with some strange management of back injuries over the last few years to Walsh Cripps McKay and Hewett who’s was issues were pre-existing it’s making vossys role extremely difficult.

I am curious if Russell has survived because he maybe under a long term contract which when he came over was reportedly on massive money and if we were to move him on our soft cap would take a massive hit.

 

[Coops93]

Well that’s good so where is the problem?

Good question, I'm not sure where the problem lies in the end or what the changes were. But the reviews have been done, they aren't being ignored.

One of the changes suggested in the link was Sayers saying that we needed to have certain individuals on modified pre-season programs tailored to them. Seemingly that hasn't worked, however, as most (all?) of the players on a modified program are out injured.

It should also be pointed out that the injured players are those that are always injured, more or less. He hasn't performed soft tissue miracles on the same few, I'm not sure he can be blamed for them.

 

[Coops93]

And yet we haven't improved at all in that area and I like other supporters have mentioned think we look unfit and slow this season (injuries to anyone with pace compounds this) compared to last season.

Depends who is looking slow and unfit. Is it the guys that just are slow that look slow? Because to me that's the case. We do just lack pace and run, not a training issue to me but a list composition one. Also doesn't help that most of our running types are also the extremely injury prone ones.

 

[SkyhorseTamer]

The players still credit him a lot for being very good.

As for being slow.. who looks slower than they should be? We've just fielded very slow teams so far this season.

Cripps had a short 20-30 metre burst once...

 

[SkyhorseTamer]

Then the injury prone, many that have had ongoing issues from their junior years, different clubs, different medical teams. Perhaps the likes of Gov, Martin, Williams, Philp, Marchbank, Cuners should be a list management focus

There's a saying some scouts have in the NFL, much more brutal sport, if you enter the league banged up youll always be banged up. IE if you're injury prone as a junior/college for the Americans, you'll always be injury prone. To me it is quite literally poor scouting and list management as you say many came into the league with soft tissue injury history

 

[Coops93]

Cripps had a short 20-30 metre burst once...

I'm not convinced he's lost that. I think his issue this year is more his role seems to be different than last years. Tracking back and defending is not his strength and he's being exposed whereas last yr he wasn't really asked to do that and could capitalise when going forward.

 

[SkyhorseTamer]

Nobody can make a slow player, fast.
The remedy is to not select too many of them.

This is super hard to google now as he's had so much news overthe years wash away the search results but I did read once Ben Cousins was told he wasn't fast enough as a junior/around then. He hired a sprint trainer and went crazy with training fast twitch and it worked.

Club doesn't have time to do that stuff falls under the wheelhouse of how willing a player is to do everything to improve. I think Crippa did it for a single off season but didn't stick with it by the looks of things.

 

[Arr0w]

This is super hard to google now as he's had so much news overthe years wash away the search results but I did read once Ben Cousins was told he wasn't fast enough as a junior/around then. He hired a sprint trainer and went crazy with training fast twitch and it worked.

Club doesn't have time to do that stuff falls under the wheelhouse of how willing a player is to do everything to improve. I think Crippa did it for a single off season but didn't stick with it by the looks of things.

Harry has done it for the past couple of seasons and he has improved dramatically

 

[CCurnow3votes]

One thing I’d like to know more about is load management.

How much load we build into players and when. Where are we at in the list load timeline - loading up / down or neutral?

Is there any correlation between soft tissue injury and load management?

I’d love to ask Vossy - if he sees a correlation, and if the current outcomes (injuries, aerobic capacity, power) reflect their expected position.

This fundamental strategy would be core to the season plan across the team and for specific fragile players.

It would also be shared across the footy dept, not owned solely by Russell & team.

 

[Coops93]

There's a saying some scouts have in the NFL, much more brutal sport, if you enter the league banged up youll always be banged up. IE if you're injury prone as a junior/college for the Americans, you'll always be injury prone. To me it is quite literally poor scouting and list management as you say many came into the league with soft tissue injury history

I said similar on here a few weeks back.

I wonder if it's an idea used in the AFL at all. I guess it is different when you're talking about 16,17, 18 yr olds vs 21, 22, 23 yr olds. A 17 yr old might just have a growing body that's catching up/developing and will get better with a few off-seasons of growth. An early/mid 20s man doesn't have that excuse, they likely just are injury prone. It does make it tricky to assess the teens though, are you injury prone or just growing? Tough answer.

However, you couldn't make that case with our trading. We've certainly gone after high injury/high reward type players and have been left just with high injuries with little reward.

 

[SkyhorseTamer]

I said similar on here a few weeks back.

I wonder if it's an idea used in the AFL at all. I guess it is different when you're talking about 16,17, 18 yr olds vs 21, 22, 23 yr olds. A 17 yr old might just have a growing body that's catching up/developing and will get better with a few off-seasons of growth. An early/mid 20s man doesn't have that excuse, they likely just are injury prone.

However, you couldn't make that case with our trading. We've certainly gone after high injury/high reward type players and have been left just with high injuries with little reward.

Think you have to look at the type of injury. A 6ft 6 17 year old forward struggling with stress fractures is not injury prone he's just growing and needs his muscle mass to catch up. A 5ft 11 midfielder who's had 4 hamstring strains in 3 seasons is something else...

 

[jj1978]

injury List growing and growing.

at what point does Russell and his team come under scrutiny?

I'd say they were already to some extent and given lee-way... but I think ATM Voss would be pulling his hair out and Cook and Sayers would be reading the tea leaves and hopefully strategising on how to remedy the situation moving forward.

 

[RAPPA]

Any concern with the IKON Park surface? Would imagine it had to have been assessed and cleared as not being a contributory factor.