My Ottens Theory

[dadonis]

mate if that's true why wouldn't they have stuck with west? he shows more than ole mummy...

disagree, i reckon mummy's showing more than both the other back up ruckmen already, and it's only his first season, not even vfl time yet.

ottens is injured, and not passing medical, week in, week out. this isn't a coaching ploy - bomber's desperate to get him back every week, and otto's desperate to play, but he's stilling pulling up sore every week.

there's no way the club would flirt with our match winning form by holding him back for even a single game unless they really need to. it's clear our biggest weakness right now is ruck/clearances, caused entirely by ottos absence, and we'd be crazy to let that continue. wouldn't take much for our form to drop even 10% and give other teams the sniff they need to start closing the door on us

 

[TheCattery2007]

My theory is that he is about 85-90% match fit, playable if it were a cut throat game or a final. But due to him missing so much pre-season and fitness they are going to wait till his back at 100% (or near enough) allowing them to pump a good 9-10 games in West or Mumford, as well as letting Blake take the number one ruck job for the same amounts of games. Invaluable experence for Blake and a chance to see if West and Mumford can handle it at the top level.

Yep, I agree. In the early rounds the club probably thought why risk him if he's only 70% right. I can't help but wonder if we'd lost 3 or 4 games early on in the season he'd probably have played by now. It's been good to test Blake in the number one ruck possy, can only help his development. But I think Bomber is now worried that time is running out to get Otto completely right for the end of the season given he has missed some many games. I think he'll only play when he's 95-100% given the injury keeps flaring up after training.

 

[biggalz23]

definitely back next week....certain starter.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl/story/0,26576,23738785-19742,00.html

 

[Chops_a_must]

So did he on tv, so not a totally individual thought there.

I disagree. He obviously was in a bit of pain when he was taken off in the pre-season, therefore it was a bad injury. Plantar faciitis is not a fast healing injury.

Secondly, surgery is often not the best way of solving the issue. Generally the facia needs to be separated from the bone to stop feeling any pain. However that then weakens the arch of the foot which can have other consequences.

So I doubt they are keeping him out for any other reason than the injury is not fully healed.

I work in a podiatry, not as a podiatrist mind you, and we see this all the time.

Depending on the severity, you can be looking at a 3 month plus rehab. The danger is, and it seems to be what happened here, is that the scar tissue continues to re-tear. Because there is no way to really keep off your feet, it can do this over and over again. You can't even really do upper body work without engaging muscles that aggravate the problem.

There are no real surgery options either. Depending on where it is, it can also lead to bones in the foot seizing, and giving little articulation. In the past doctors would go in and fuse, but that's a big no no. There can be follow on problems from the more severe cases. Wouldn't surprise me if he tears a calf or something similar, if the arch integrity is no longer there.

Sprinters absolutely dread this injury, because it can put you out for up to a year, if it doesn't settle. Currently I have a bit of a problem with a plantar fascia tear, and it is going to ruin my season pretty much.

My thoughts would be that he plays about half the remaining games, probably with injections, but he is likely to have a very late start to the next pre-season if they go down that route.

Cheers.

 

[daics cousin]

i reckon he is not 100% and they dont know if he will ever be this year. They will just take a risk in a game situation and see how he goes. He most probably will play this week and re-assess if he needs more time away next week after recovery.[/quote

You could be qiute right Blue oyster.
There was an article in the paper today about how Thompson had a huge argument with the medicos.He wants Ottens to play but the medicos are stern about resting him for a few more weeks,to make sure he is right.
Unfortunately Ottens has got a history of re-ocurring injuries,so it makes sense that the geelong medicos are tredding very carefully about bringing him back under done.
If that happened he could get seriously injured and that would be it for him for the year,then the cats final campaign would be hugely disavantaged,without your main ruckman.
Unfortunately i know how that feels we were without fraser last year during the finals.It cost us big time.

 

[Brasil2007]

Neil Balme said (I think it was last week) "We'll play him when we're ready to play him". What I read into that is that if we were going to be seriously challenged in the midfield or we started losing games they could bring him in whenever they wanted.

He takes a bit to get going, 3 games or so.