Injuries are always in the footy news and everyone is loathe to raise them when the team loses. However, it’s part and parcel of the game.

Melbourne star Jake Lever opens up on 2022 finals injury, and the rise of Jacob van Rooyen and Kade Chandler

“The extent to which Melbourne’s premiership defence last season was compromised by injury keeps coming to light.

“That superstar Christian Petracca played the semi-final loss to the Brisbane Lions with a hairline fracture in his right fibula was already known. So, too, was Max Gawn’s hip ailment, one that almost saw him miss that game. And Clayton Oliver had been carrying a thumb injury through the back end of the season.”

Lever reveals that he played in the finals with a stress fracture in his foot.

And this is why it’s so important that we don’t rush players back and that we rotate players more heavily especially leading into finals. 
We ran on air in the first half of the season then we were running in cement. 

Paywall.

How do some of our players feel about this stuff?

Like how does Tomlinson feel having missed out on finals whilst Lever played with a stress fracture? 

3 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

How do some of our players feel about this stuff?

Like how does Tomlinson feel having missed out on finals whilst Lever played with a stress fracture? 

Tommo would be bloody annoyed but that’s footy. May played with a hammy tear in the GF, these tough calls need to be made. although i think we learned a lot from 2022 on how to manage players/injuries. i reckon we got caught up in the week to week - have to win- go back to back, without seeing the bigger picture 

24 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Paywall.

Can’t do much about that but keep an eye out for something like this to eventually appear in the Herald Sun because the site belongs to Murdoch.

Essentially, Lever talks about how he was constrained by the injury and how others were pretty well banged up. Nothing much else is new.

The article mentions JvR’s debut and Chandler’s improvement but not Judd McVee who I would put in the same category. 

22 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Paywall.

The article turned up in today’s Herald Sun at p46.

22 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

How do some of our players feel about this stuff?

Like how does Tomlinson feel having missed out on finals whilst Lever played with a stress fracture? 

We rolled the dice with May in ‘21 and it worked, we tried to roll the dice with a far worse hand last year and it backfired spectacularly 

This backs up that I heard ALL our stars were under clouds or varying extents in the back half of last year. That’s goes a long way to explain the drop off from the group in games and in the season itself.

I will never fully understand why we literally limped into the finals in 2022 and didn’t ‘use’ that 10 game winning streak to get rests for players and blood players. But we move on.

Never again tho.

6 hours ago, BW511 said:

We rolled the dice with May in ‘21 and it worked, we tried to roll the dice with a far worse hand last year and it backfired spectacularly 

Maybe. Maybe not.

Would have tomo really added much more than an injured Lever? 

Who else could have realistically come into the team? Maybe disco, but same question applies.

The big one was jvr. By all accounts he was very close to replacing maxy.

But again, he would have made little difference.

Talk is of up to 11 players carrying things into the finals. 

Realistically Bedford, Chandler, tomo and jvr, were really the only possible ins.

Even if all came in that would not have been enough to move the dial. We were toast.

In weighing up whether it was the right call not to make changes, the outcome of selecting them needs to be assessed in totality.

Let's say we did bring say jvr and kade in. What impact would being smashed in a final have made to their development - particularly JVRs?

He had a brilliant debut on Sunday. What a perfect way to commence a career- at the g, dees crowd. a big performance and a big win.

Everyone sees a player who is ready. Not a youg'un who bounces in and out of the side like ugle Hagen, Philthorpe, Amarti, Logan McDonald, the Tex Walker wannabe at the crows, Darcy etc etc. And mote importantly JVR knows he belongs and is ready.

Same story for Kade. Huge summer, impressive preseason, rewarded with a round one senior berth and looks to be a lock. Maybe that doesn't happen if he plays last year because he has a poor one and wonders if he is up to it.

Deckchairs on the titanic last year.

 

Edited April 4, 20233 yr by binman

23 hours ago, Whispering_Jack said:

Can’t do much about that but keep an eye out for something like this to eventually appear in the Herald Sun because the site belongs to Murdoch.

Essentially, Lever talks about how he was constrained by the injury and how others were pretty well banged up. Nothing much else is new.

The article mentions JvR’s debut and Chandler’s improvement but not Judd McVee who I would put in the same category. 

This man has had one of the most impressive starts to a career that I can recall. He is so composed under pressure, and his kicking is superb. He won't get any media attention because he's just doing team things. In terms of effectiveness, he is already not far behind Hayden Young. He's game has been fast-tracked by having some some brilliant mentors next to him.

Lever has just turned 27. Has been around forever and speaks like he's 32yo

Lever being fully fit has been one of the biggest boons to our team this year. Looking back at 2022 he really only had one or two games (Brisbane at the G mid year) where he was at his best. These first three games he’s been back to his AA best and despite the backline being somewhat shuffled at the start of this year with some new young uns and the absence of May has been incredible.

Edited April 3, 20233 yr by deejammin'

On 4/3/2023 at 8:56 AM, titan_uranus said:

How do some of our players feel about this stuff?

Like how does Tomlinson feel having missed out on finals whilst Lever played with a stress fracture? 

Have it on good authority Tomlinson's knee wasn't close to being 100% last season either. Should come as no surprise he's back to his early 2021 form this year after having further time to rehab over the offseason. 

Just a point on JVR . Interested to notice the three goals he kicked, The trajectory from the first to the third increased as he gained more confidence. Watching on TV the closest was the first and the third was the furthest out i think.

3 hours ago, binman said:

Maybe. Maybe not.

Would have tomo really added much more than an injured Lever? 

Who else could have realistically come into the team? Maybe disco ' but same question applies.

The big one was jvr. By all accounts he was very close to replacing maxy.

But again, he would have made little difference.

Talk is of up to 11 players carrying things into the finals. 

Realistically bringing in say Bedford, Chandler, tomo and jvr, who were really the only possible ins.

Even if all came in that would not have been enough to move the dial. We were toast.

In weighing up whether it was the right call not to make changes, the outcome of selecting them needs to be assessed in totality.

Lets say we did bring say jvr and kade in. What impact would being smashed in a final made to their development - particularly jvr?

He had a brilliant debut on Sunday.

What a perfect way to commence a career- at the g, dees crowd  a big performance and a big win.

Everyone sees a player who us ready. Not a youg'un who bounces in and out of the side like ugle Hagen, philthorpe, Amartya, Logan McDonald, the Tex Walker wannabe at the crows, Darcy etc etc.

Same story for Kade. Huge summer, impressive preseason, rewarded with a round one senior berth and looks to be a lock. Maybe that doesn't happen if he plays last year because he has a poor one and wonders if he is up to it.

Deckchairs on the titanic last year.

 

Agree, Binman.

Lever was almost a liability late last year but it wasn’t changing the result

4 hours ago, rpfc said:

This backs up that I heard ALL our stars were under clouds or varying extents in the back half of last year. That’s goes a long way to explain the drop off from the group in games and in the season itself.

I will never fully understand why we literally limped into the finals in 2022 and didn’t ‘use’ that 10 game winning streak to get rests for players and blood players. But we move on.

Never again tho.

The round 9 game V's West Coast puzzled me the most.

They had 11 of their best 25 players out, and yet we took a full strength side over to Perth rather than rest 3-5 players in what was a 98% guaranteed win.

Hopefully some great lessons were learnt last year, and we've got sufficient depth to rest players on a regular basis during the season.

7 hours ago, binman said:

Maybe. Maybe not.

Would have tomo really added much more than an injured Lever? 

Who else could have realistically come into the team? Maybe disco, but same question applies.

The big one was jvr. By all accounts he was very close to replacing maxy.

But again, he would have made little difference.

Talk is of up to 11 players carrying things into the finals. 

Realistically Bedford, Chandler, tomo and jvr, were really the only possible ins.

Even if all came in that would not have been enough to move the dial. We were toast.

In weighing up whether it was the right call not to make changes, the outcome of selecting them needs to be assessed in totality.

Let's say we did bring say jvr and kade in. What impact would being smashed in a final have made to their development - particularly JVRs?

He had a brilliant debut on Sunday. What a perfect way to commence a career- at the g, dees crowd. a big performance and a big win.

Everyone sees a player who is ready. Not a youg'un who bounces in and out of the side like ugle Hagen, Philthorpe, Amarti, Logan McDonald, the Tex Walker wannabe at the crows, Darcy etc etc. And mote importantly JVR knows he belongs and is ready.

Same story for Kade. Huge summer, impressive preseason, rewarded with a round one senior berth and looks to be a lock. Maybe that doesn't happen if he plays last year because he has a poor one and wonders if he is up to it.

Deckchairs on the titanic last year.

 

Just goes to show you can train them, coach them, rest them but a lot depends on the planets aligning to win a flag. However having the depth we have now we seem to be able to cover some significant players including Maxie.

7 hours ago, BW511 said:

We rolled the dice with May in ‘21 and it worked, we tried to roll the dice with a far worse hand last year and it backfired spectacularly 

Are they the same thing though? May was for one game while most of the others were running on fumes weeks out from the finals. 

Either way it puts you behind the 8 ball.