Understanding where we are at

Players lacking match fitness;

M’clean

Bruce

Wheatley

Neitz

Moloney

Junior

Petterd

Davey

Players missing from best side;

Rivers

Bartram

Dunn

Whelan

Bate

Silvia

That’s a total of 14 players.

In regards to the underdone players, I’m not sure why people expect them to perform as soon as they are dropped into the side. Yes they are physically fit, but they haven’t reached match fitness yet and probably won’t for a few weeks yet. Compare that to hawthorn, and ask how many of their players were underdone……..yes they were missing some, but not many that took the field were underdone. DB had no choice, we had too many players lacking match fitness so he had to play some. he could have played Rivers, Dunn and Bartram also, and the side would have looked better on paper but would have had less run in the legs. We had a massive injury list last year and we are still seeing the effects.

The good news……. The players who didn’t play are looking good, remaining injury free, and should be available this week. The guys who did play who lacked match fitness will only improve.

Make no mistake about where we are at, it will be a good 3-4 close to injury-free weeks before we start to see some quality performance. In the meantime brace yourself, and cut the players just a little slack.