Our INJURY MANAGEMENT is CR@P

[Cranky Franky 1,544]

Ross Lyon recently complained that St Kilda managed injuries poorly and that they had to look at the clubs that had the best record in this area ie Sydney & West Coast.

Its about time we did the same. Whelan has NEVER played a full season & is always injured at the business end. Travis is not far behind him & Moloney is in his second wasted season with a groin.

I am worried about Brock & Jared & Col Sylvia going the same way.

Robbo & Neitz have been played when obviously not fit & I am convinced Bartram was rushed back in after his ankle injury & then did a knee.

Now we have Whelan, Brock & Petterd all rushed back in for a big game on a big ground - bet Whelan doesn't last half a game.

Lets go out & poach Sydney's medical staff or at least get our lot trained up to their level.

[occo 2]

Ross Lyon recently complained that St Kilda managed injuries poorly and that they had to look at the clubs that had the best record in this area ie Sydney & West Coast.

Its about time we did the same. Whelan has NEVER played a full season & is always injured at the business end. Travis is not far behind him & Moloney is in his second wasted season with a groin.

I am worried about Brock & Jared & Col Sylvia going the same way.

Robbo & Neitz have been played when obviously not fit & I am convinced Bartram was rushed back in after his ankle injury & then did a knee.

Now we have Whelan, Brock & Petterd all rushed back in for a big game on a big ground - bet Whelan doesn't last half a game.

Lets go out & poach Sydney's medical staff or at least get our lot trained up to their level.

Mate u dont have the full details about it. Noone does. Teams struggle with injury every 5-8 years...stats show that. I think more review is needed before u call them cr**

[drdrake 3,052]

I wouldn't put it down to medical staff more preparation of our players and taking risks on unfit players. Whelan shouldn't of played the round he got injured neither should of Wheatley, Rivers is being rushed in when he has not been right. Silvia and Moloney have OP it is a management issue for them it will get better but will always be an problem. Mclean is a concern seems to be able to only string 5-6 games together but his body may still be adapting to the physical requirement of AFL. These three are young and you expect injuries as their bodies adapt to AFL training.

I'm sure with Bartram that he had the scans and got the OK, he done his knee like Neitz and Robbo, thats just back luck just like Brocks foot and Frawleys fractures you cant do anything about these injuries they just happen.

Bringing players back to early I agree but when the team is under the pump you sometimes play players that shouldn't be played and hope they get through, this year luck wasn't with us I'm sure other years it was.

It will also take some time for the players to adapt to the new training techniques of the Phys Ed Guy, don't forget he was a sprint coach and many of the drills and exercises would be based around power movements just like sprint training. This takes a high toll on your body and takes some time to get adjusted to.

[Bay Riffin 1,426]

so the question is - how do West Cost and Sydney keep their injuries down.

Is it technique, is it bad luck or what?

It is soooo tiring to see our injuries. have we had a week with only 'ins' and no 'outs'. this week is our best but we lost Moloney - again. Be good if our running players can at least play the last half of the year together.

Whelan is hard, I love him but our most injury prone footballer. He has to change his approach to avoid injuries.

[45HG 1,539]

you can't change your approach to stop hamstring injuries. last year was calf as well, nothing to do with the way you play. in fact i always find his running technique to be pretty compact and smooth, so i can't see where a lot of them come from.

but the other side to this is that in the past few years, there have only been a few weeks where people have said 'injury crisis at melbourne' and, having looked at the injury list, you realise it isn't too bad. we've been pretty good with injuries in the past, but mclean breaking a foot can't be helped, robbo landing like a nutter can't be helped, neitz's knee the same (and the debate will continue over whether he should have come back so early, though i maintain our attitude has lifted since his return), jones' ankle (another that has little to do with proper training), bell with concussion another one.

i don't think we have had too many, certainly not crazily out of proportion with other teams, injuries that can be put down to bad management, especially considering the season was on the line when many had to be put in

[Jaded No More 59,109]

Not so sure that West Coast fit this theory.

They've had Fletcher and Cox out this year, and now Embley is out for 6. And if you want to talk about crap managment, how about Ben Cousins spending the year in rehab after years of drug abuse?

We have been fairly lucky with injuries in the past 6 or so years. We've had very few long-term injuries like knee reconstructions, and such.

There are a number of players in our side who are injury prone, like Whelan, but we are hardly alone in this.

To the club's credit, Travis Johnstone has been on the field consistently for the past 3 years, after having many injury problems early on in his career. Bell and Miller have recovered from OP, Junior came back from a knee reconstruction bigger and better, and White no longer has shin problems.

We have managed a lot of our players quite well IMO.

Some players' bodies are weaker and more injury prone. McLean's latest injury was a freak one and completely unrelated to his soft-tissue problems, and this is Rivers' first ever soft tissue problem.

Also, for those who claim Whelan and Wheatley shouldn't have played a few weeks ago, please go back and look at our injury list. We were running out of options and had little choice but to play them.

IMO, we are very cautious with our players. We don't often rush our better players back from injury, and you only have to look at this week's Sandringham team for proof.

[drdrake 3,052]

Jaded your point on Wheatley and Whelan, Whelan lasted 5 minutes and Wheatley was crap, we could of played Buckley, CJ, Newton, or Petterd against Freo, they didn't need to play, and by playing them we less players avaliable to be rotated through the midfield. Once Jones went down we had one fit player on th bench.

West Coast have injuries, they also have the depth to cover it, what was exposed this season is we don't have the depth to cover losing players out of our best 22. Adelaide, West Coast and even St Kilda still win games when they have kep personel out.

[Jaded No More 59,109]

West Coast have injuries, they also have the depth to cover it, what was exposed this season is we don't have the depth to cover losing players out of our best 22. Adelaide, West Coast and even St Kilda still win games when they have kep personel out.

That is a completely different issue, and has nothing to do with injury management. For what it's worth, I agree. Our depth is as shallow as a kiddie pool.

Whelan and Wheatley obviously passed fitness tests and were therefore deemed ready to play. If we had a full list to choose from, they may have been rested and the club wouldn't have bothered with a fitness test.

[Rogue 585]

That is a completely different issue, and has nothing to do with injury management.

Isn't part of injury management managing when players will be allowed to progress to certain milestones (like light work, full training, etc)?

[deanox 8,780]

just a point out of interest, sylvia and moloney have both suffered from OP for 2-3 years now. have players at other clubs had this problem (OP) for this amount of time? has our management of it been effective? they both seem to have had pretty severe cases...