http://www.afl.com.au/Season2007/News/News...px?newsId=43280

Interesting article on which teams have suffered the most through injuries this year

The Unavailability ladder they have in that article [below], obviously is all about quantity, not quality.

Unavailability ladder after seven rounds:

1 – Port Adelaide – (27 absences)

2 – Carlton (38)

3 – Kangaroos (39)

Equal 4 – Sydney (43)

Equal 4 – Western Bulldogs (43)

6 – Geelong (50)

7 – Fremantle (52)

8 – West Coast (54)

9 – Essendon (59)

Equal 10 – Collingwood (61)

Equal 10 – Melbourne (61)

12 – St Kilda (62)

13 – Richmond (64)

14 – Hawthorn (66)

15 – Brisbane Lions (81)

16 – Adelaide (90)

St Kilda is the club that interests me. Not only do they have lots of injuries, but injuries to key players. Hughton, Hayes, Maguire, Hamil, Raph Clarke, Thompson, Sam Fisher, Ball, Gardiner and now Goddard have all missed games so far this season, yet they keep producing good performances.

  Ash 30 said:

St Kilda is the club that interests me. Not only do they have lots of injuries, but injuries to key players. Hughton, Hayes, Maguire, Hamil, Raph Clarke, Thompson, Sam Fisher, Ball, Gardiner and now Goddard have all missed games so far this season, yet they keep producing good performances.

I am curious about why this happens as well Ash (interesting question).......

Is that because of the quality of their depth? Therefore the players that they have left on the park are pretty damn good.

Or does it have more to do with the way the coaching is handling the game plans to cover the injuries they have? And they do have practice at this.

Or is it a combination of the two? Or is it something else entirely?

Enquiring minds !!!

  Ash 30 said:

obviously is all about quantity, not quality.

Our season has been ruined by injuries to our top players.

Here was my MFC top 5 at the start of the year:

Bruce 7/7

McLean 1/7

Neitz 4/7

Johnstone 6/7

Rivers 3/7

Total 21/35

Compare that with the top 5 at Adelaide:

McLeod 7/7

Goodwin 7/7

Rutten 7/7

Edwards 7/7

Riccuito 0/7

Total 28/35

There's a huge difference.

Brisbane and especially Adelaide are the ones that impress me, just for sheer weight of numbers...

Personally I don't entirely agree that our injuries are an excuse... but...

I am comfortable with what the media has said regarding the reasons for our failure, even if only because it gets them off our back, and gives the few fans we have a break at the office. I do agree that our season was irreperably harmed by the injuries we copped, HOWEVER...

I can't see why all these other clubs were able to remain competitive... in some cases more than competitive, and we weren't able to get within 8 goals of some of them in games that were played at our home turf. The problems, as we all know, run deeper than our injury list.

What bothers me the most, is the clear lack of readiness the list was at, at the start of the year.

The skill level has been below par and only now, 7 weeks in, it's starting to resemble my start of year expectation.

I've been very impressed with the Roos, and it shows that if your foot skills are sharp, and your players understand the game plan, even with injuries or key forwards missing, you can be competitive and win.

Rather than taking on the challenge and stepping up, too many of our list bowed their head under the 'injury cloud' and didn't play their part of professional footy.

yeah i agree, but in relation to the roos, haven't they been training since like first week of october? they'll fall away

  old55 said:

There's a huge difference.

Agreed. And I think that's where Melbourne and St Kilda have been hardest hit, to their key players.

If we assume St Kildas top 5 are : Riewoldt, Hayes, Ball, Hudghton & Dal Santo.

Riewoldt 5/7

Hayes 5/7

Ball 5/7

Hudghton 1/7

Dal Santo 7/7

Total 23/35

You could add Maguire at 1/7 and Hamil at 0/7.

another key thing about adelaide is that even though their top players are out, they have played virtually the same team all season. we have been very interupted, putting a completely different combination of players onto the park every week. it is hard to get rhythm and team work happening when your players arent used to playing together...

  deanox said:

another key thing about adelaide is that even though their top players are out, they have played virtually the same team all season. we have been very interupted, putting a completely different combination of players onto the park every week. it is hard to get rhythm and team work happening when your players arent used to playing together...

mentally adelaide r just better. They are well drilled while we're still stuck on potential.

What about last year when we had a full team, go to adelaide and got spanked by an undermanned outfit.

We just lack that hard edged/toughness that ND has been trying to instill for years. The msg ain't getting thru.

  Ash 30 said:

Agreed. And I think that's where Melbourne and St Kilda have been hardest hit, to their key players.

If we assume St Kildas top 5 are : Riewoldt, Hayes, Ball, Hudghton & Dal Santo.

Riewoldt 5/7

Hayes 5/7

Ball 5/7

Hudghton 1/7

Dal Santo 7/7

Total 23/35

You could add Maguire at 1/7 and Hamil at 0/7.

Agreed, The fifth player has to be a key back and with both Hudghton and Maguire out they have been hit hard. I must admit a growing affection for the Saints, I was openly barracking for them against the Swans and very disappointed when Goddard got injured - could not believe something so innocuous could be an ACL.

The other thing about Adelaide is that there four wins have been against sides positioned 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th on the ladder and in the next 3 weeks they play 14th (Carlton), 15th (us) and 16th (Richmond)

  Ash 30 said:

is all about quantity, not quality.

That's exactly right. Is anyone surprised that Melbiurne are yet to win a game without Neitz, Robertson, McLean, Rivers, Bartram and Pickett for extended periods of time?

I for one am not!

  old55 said:

Our season has been ruined by injuries to our top players.

Here was my MFC top 5 at the start of the year:

Bruce 7/7

McLean 1/7

Neitz 4/7

Johnstone 6/7

Rivers 3/7

Total 21/35

Compare that with the top 5 at Adelaide:

McLeod 7/7

Goodwin 7/7

Rutten 7/7

Edwards 7/7

Riccuito 0/7

Total 28/35

There's a huge difference.

Plus Robbo and Whelan would be in our top 10 IMO and they have missed plenty too.

Exactly. It has really been annoying me when people have been saying injuries are not an excuse and pointing to Adelaide and Brisbane. Not only for a couple of games were we missing 8-11 of our best 22, but they were the best of the best. We were missing who I consider to be our best 2 forwards, Neitz and Robbo, our best 2 midfielders, McLean and Johnstone, and our best 2 defenders, Whelan and Rivers. NO TEAM can be expected to win without that QUALITY. However, we should have been a closer IMO and I think the reason was that ND, unbelievably, didn't adapt the gameplan because he didn't want us to play an 'ugly' style - simply terrible coaching. Who cares how ugly it is - I wanted us to be competitive!

And in the last 2 weeks we have been doing what Adelaide, St K and Brisbane have been doing. We were still missing 6 or 7 (last week Rivers, Robbo, McLean, Whelan, Petterd and Bartram, and Neitz/Moloney/Pickett struggling after coming back from injury) of our best 22 for those games but we had that extra bit of quality that made the difference.

Doesnt say how many players have played ALL games. We've had only 5 players or so play every game this year. Easily the least amount of any team, even Adelaide. That upsets structure, and doesn't give the team a chance to play with each other properly and know what works etc.