2023 Season Preview

[DeeZone 8,193]

All my bases are well and truly covered above.✅✅

[D4Life 2,307]

On 12/30/2022 at 9:55 PM, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

 

Found an article that outlines Burgo's philosophy:

Fitness guru reveals secret to Dees' incredible injury-free run:

https://www.afl.com.au/news/686425/fitness-guru-reveals-secret-to-dees-incredible-injury-free-run

 

Some key statements below:

"There's two ways to go about injury prevention, I think. 

"If someone has niggles you give them a rest so they complete as many sessions as possible, cut the sessions short if someone's a bit sore, or you can build them up and push them through those periods where they're a little sore, a little bit tender and a little bit fatigued … to provide them with that robustness to get through."

Burgess said he used to subscribe to the former theory before evolving to the latter in recent years.

After an improved 2020, Melbourne won the 2021 premiership partly off the back of player availability, and the work of Burgess and his team.

Nine men played in all 25 games, another four missed just one, and 16 played 20 games or more.

"Providing that physical resilience was about turning up, day after day, with training intensity at a super high level," he said.

"It's really tempting for medical, performance people to say 'we train from November to March and then we play games. And in January when it's a bit hot and someone rolled their ankle slightly, it's tempting to say just have this session off, it's just January, it doesn't matter if you miss one session'. But it does.

 

Somehow this worked for us in 2021, with players no doubt carrying some injuries through the middle parts of the season, but in 2022, if Selwyn Griffith applied the same philosophy, we are supposing that it wasn't as effective, because the players weren't in as good a condition headding into finals.  Maybe there's also some nuance that we didn't quite get right in 2022.

I'm also actually woundering if injuries in 2022 were really as significant as is being made out?  We weren't that far off Sydney and Brisbane in the finals we played them.  Brisbane we'd smashed comprehensively just a few weeks earlier on their home deck.  I'm woundering if it's more down to being outplayed on the night in 2022?  To some extent I also recall Sydney being helped back into the game by some fairly dubious, momentum shifting umpiring.  We beat Sydney and then we'd have had a weeks rest for the whole side before the prelim like we did in 2021.

Whatever the reason, injuries or fitness, or a combination of the two, we stopped to a walk in the 2nd half of every game we lost after our 10-0 start.

Fully fit or maybe just 20% better, who knows how we would have performed in the finals!

Edited December 31, 2022 by D4Life
Clarification

[Ollie fan 2,399]

1 hour ago, D4Life said:

Whatever the reason, injuries or fitness, or a combination of the two, we stopped to a walk in the 2nd half of every game we lost after our 10-0 start.

Fully fit or maybe just 20% better, who knows how we would have performed in the finals!

In the last five minutes of the Brisbane match, we were anything but at a walk. 

[loges 6,384]

21 minutes ago, Ollie fan said:

In the last five minutes of the Brisbane match, we were anything but at a walk. 

Last gasp effort 

[Ollie fan 2,399]

I think if you watch the match again, you will see that we were going pretty hard through the second half, not at our best, but by no means stopped to a walk. 

[monoccular 16,697]

On 12/30/2022 at 8:42 PM, george_on_the_outer said:

Don’t forget TMac& BBB…..And Pickett, JJ and Jackson were carrying knee injuries into the finals. That’s 11 players below their best. Small wonder we fell away in the second half of games at the end of the season.

So let’s hope that the guys in charge learn from 2022 and at least tweak some changes to their injury management in 2023.  
 

[Wodjathefirst 2,459]

On 12/30/2022 at 11:04 AM, dl4e said:

Quite agree. In fact my hatred for Geelong and the filth is pathalogical.

I must have some real problems then. The filth is undoubtedly my number one team that I despise (particularly from a supporter base perspective). I find it hard to seperate Carlscum and Essendrug as the next on the list, very interchangeable . Too many teams in my third tier hate list so I’ll leave it at that.

I know it a very traditional ‘hate’ list but I’ve been around for a while and feel very comfortable with my take on this, my views have not really changed all that much over the decades. 

[Deebauched 1,219]

I dont have a problem with those big clubs.

Its Geelong and Hawthorn i loathe.

Mathews illegally smashed more of our players than i can count but never got reported.

Hawthorn killed us time and time again. Geelong are the most entitled priveleged club in the AFL . The media adhore them.  

Mathews should have been ' bashed' in the carpark at Princess  Park after what he did to Peter Giles . Absolute coward Mathews. Giles never saw it coming.

Edited January 3, 2023 by Deebauched

[Slartibartfast 16,134]

8 minutes ago, Deebauched said:

Mathews should have been bashed in the carpark at Princess  Park after what he did to Peter Giles . Absolute coward Mathews. Giles never saw it coming.

I think it was Steven Smith at PP and Peter Giles at the G, or am I mixed up?

He also ended Neil McMullin's career.

Edited January 3, 2023 by Slartibartfast

[Deebauched 1,219]

Mathews hit alot of our players but i think it was PP not the MCG.

He also ruined  SA Norsworthy's MFC career. Mangled him  at PP as well from memory.6

Edited January 3, 2023 by Deebauched

[demosaw 903]

1 hour ago, Deebauched said:

Mathews hit alot of our players but i think it was PP not the MCG.

He also ruined  SA Norsworthy's MFC career. Mangled him  at PP as well from memory.6

Yes was PP was in the crowd disgusted. Basically assault.

[Deemania since 56 6,347]

20 minutes ago, demosaw said:

Yes was PP was in the crowd disgusted. Basically assault.

Matthews was a violence adherent onfield, yet still, he remains in my memories as one of the top 5 players to grace the game, for a variety of 'other reasons', of course. He seldom stood toe-to-toe with his onfield adversaries, selectively going the bash with an unexpecting physical lesser. Assault is the accurate term - I just wish he'd run into Biffin once or twice, or the intolerant-of-that-type-of-behaviour in Rodney the Grinter. 

[Redleg 38,622]

2 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

I think it was Steven Smith at PP and Peter Giles at the G, or am I mixed up?

He also ended Neil McMullin's career.

100% correct. I was at both games.

[Deebauched 1,219]

4 hours ago, Slartibartfast said:

I think it was Steven Smith at PP and Peter Giles at the G, or am I mixed up?

He also ended Neil McMullin's career.

It was the MCG not PP.

My bad!

It was a long time ago.

Mathews got what was  coming to him at PP when he clocked Bruns of Geelong. I was there with my Hawks brother.

Terry Wallace wasnt playing that day and jumped the fence. It almost turned into a riot. Hawthorn backs started it all not Jacko.

[monoccular 16,697]

3 hours ago, Deemania since 56 said:

Matthews was a violence adherent onfield, yet still, he remains in my memories as one of the top 5 players to grace the game, for a variety of 'other reasons', of course. He seldom stood toe-to-toe with his onfield adversaries, selectively going the bash with an unexpecting physical lesser. Assault is the accurate term - I just wish he'd run into Biffin once or twice, or the intolerant-of-that-type-of-behaviour in Rodney the Grinter. 

In these days of the MRP and video reports Matthews would have had a very short career - add Dyer, Whitten, in particular

Edited January 3, 2023 by monoccular

[Deemania since 56 6,347]

13 hours ago, monoccular said:

In these days of the MRP and video reports Matthews would have had a very short career - add Dyer, Whitten, in particular

Spot on! All we really need now is some of that alleged video reporting to protect Gawn with the indented skull and back of the neck, Clarrie with total bodily evidence of physical abuse during and behind play, and a medical appointment or two for Fritta to rid him of elbow marks to the jaw, temples and lower back.