DeeSpencer

Todays game brought to you by the North Australian Aboriginal Family Violence Legal Service. Yes seriously. Beautiful big oval. Not helping the single camera set up though. Wonaeamirri's out there. Looking quite rotund.

"Looking to see the latest and greatest in remote NT footballers" = Looking to see great talent who's radically different cultural values will likely mean they don't have a hope in hell of making the AFL. No thanks. But nice attempt. Not sure why we can't get some kind of footy on this weekend (even channel 7 or fox picking a couple of random practice matches would've done me). Oh well, it will make tomorrow's match even better.

He leads well in space but I don't like him as a contested mark. Plus at the moment he's looking at being the second ruck as well. Howe should play deep and be the main inside 50 target, just hope he's improved his body work. Fitzy a nice decoy. Pedersen has to be the one to take some marks leading up the ground as a target from half back. Hope his own hammy issues are resolved.

When people say Pedo runs hard do they mean he covers a lot of distance with a high work rate or do they mean it's hard for him to run. Could argue it's the latter.

So it can be traumatic not overuse? That would certainly be a good sign. Correct me if I'm wrong but if it's traumatic as soon as he's settled they can probably get him back to heavier training compared to be more cautious. Still think 3 weeks is very unlikely but within a month would be great.

The bones themselves on MRI can show signs of stress without a fracture. In a sense we could've got in early. A stress fracture would require a longer period of rehab. Just a stress reaction may mean as soon as the pain is gone things are much better and then it's a matter of how quickly they get him back to fitness and how much core strengthening they want to do. From my limited knowledge I don't expect him to be doing much training for at least 3 weeks and from there I think he'd need close to 3 more until he can play.

http://www.physioroom.com/injuries/back/lower_back_stress_fracture_full.php http://journals.lww.com/ajpmr/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2007&issue=11000&article=00012&type=Fulltext I'd say at least 4 weeks off the track and out of the gym, lots of time in the pool. After that it would probably take 3 or 4 weeks for him to be fit to play. It's 2 week until round 1. If we can have him back safely and healthy by round 6 it will be a great result.

Come to think of it would gifting Strauss and Blease the first 5 games of the season hurt us that much? The upside of a skilled player from half back and fast game breaker at half forward is huge. The down side is the difference between Strauss and Clisby/Terlich in terms of defending/hardness/ability to rack up the ball and that really can't be too much. And the difference between Blease and Bail/Byrnes etc at half forward is pretty negligible. I look at Geelong last year where Caddy looked awful for most of the first half of the season as he struggled to adapt to regular AFL and the team. But the second half of the year he looked a great pick up. I think we need to give guys a long chance at it even if we are tearing our hair out at selection each week.

Something like that. Might actually have to ask the VFL not AFL. Seems a bit unfair when Richmond had a practice match of their VFL team. Also I'd like to congratulate the club/AFL/Casey Fields for the game being free entry according to the club website. And so it should be.

Get just one of Dawes, Hogan or Clark back and surely we can go with Fitzy and Howe and spare us from Pedersen. Even if Gawn gets fit and plays 2nd ruck/forward then Fitzy might be the CHF. I'm hoping like crazy it's a new and vastly improved Pedersen this year. Or he can keep drawing soft ruck free kicks and bombing goals from outside 50.

You're giving him too much credit. Barrett wouldn't know the difference between a stress fracture and a normal fracture.

Footage of the injury

I don't know how AFL clubs work and presume they get a lot of priority access and things but it's not unreasonable to think: - Hogan pulls up not too sore after the game - Gets a bit sore Monday. Doc and Physio think it's just a knock in the back and will settle. - Things aren't better on Thursday so they send him in for a scan but still name him not expecting much. Scan results get back later in the day (and leaked to Barrett). - Specialist appointment booked in either late Thursday or Friday and only then can the club really comment with any surety. I'd rather work out how it's leaked to Barrett. Could be as simple as Hogan telling a friend who spreads it to media or could be someone in the clubs a bit leaky.

So Saty chatted to Hogan after training and he was actually getting a massage from Mark Neeld and Chris Connolly because they are great blokes when Cam Schwab walked in and tripped over Liam Jurrah who was just siting down after doing some training for his comeback to AFL. Schwab trying to get his balance dropped the projector he was carrying to film whiteboard wednesday that landed on Hogan's back and caused him some pain. Dr Bates is going to arrange for Steve Dank to supply some AOD cream and he should be right for round 1. It's all in the past and no one is to blame so we should move on.

Settle down people this is players body we are talking about. He has to get a scan and in to see a specialist before a proper prognosis is made. Even then some times you can't make any comment until a repeat appointment or scan once inflammation has settled. The media can just report whatever they like about 'some kind of stress fracture' and 'some swelling'. The club has to think of the player not just fans. Also they can't create mass hysteria every time a player has some soreness. Geelong have been a completely closed shop under Neil Balme and it hasn't stopped them winning games.

At this rate I'm thinking Max King and Lynden Dunn.

Either: A. Team was named before the scan and he only had a bit of soreness and they thought he'd be right OR B. Name him anyway to boost the crowd

Trying to remember who's hospital kick in to the forward line resulted in Hogan getting nailed in the back. Would be a strange irony if Hogan got smashed in the back by Lonergan who once lost a kidney from a Brad Miller knee in the flank.

Think you mean Nathan Jones who had a fractured back from a heavy hit didn't he? Round 22 maybe 2011? Sometime like that. I'll stay positive about long term problems due to lack of information. But short term it's a real let down.

They don't invent injuries. If he's getting scans on his back it probably means he's at least not playing Saturday and every chance to miss round 1. We just hope it's not too long.

[censored] Reported on footy show a knee to the back caused a stress fracture and some inflammation in his back. Will miss at least a month (and we should be conservative and take a long time). Bad for the young guy and very bad for the team given Dawes and Clark are also injured.

The good was he found the ball. The bad was he turned it over a lot with fumbles and bad decisions. Wasn't as good as Bail or JKH in round 1 of NAB challenge. Was on par with Blease's efforts. Clean up all the simple errors and it would've been a good game. He knows how to run to get in space to get the ball, that much was evident last year. But without the quality skilled players around him he's a bit lost in what to do with it.

Different players though. You can't have a backline full of either. Ideally you have guys who can defend and use the ball well and attack like a bunch of the Hawthorn guys. But without that you need a balance and to put them in the right spots to perform. Georgiou might knock Strauss out of the best 6 defenders but I don't think they are exactly competing. Most important thing with Strauss, Terlich, Clisby and same with all the forwards is they are knocking down the door in the VFL. Especially if we are at least competitive in the AFL we can get some proper order in selection instead of just shuffling in random names at random times.

Not sure he's the smartest player and might be taking a while to adapt to the game plan. Plus Michie, Tyson, Vince, Cross were always going to be picked first as you don't bring a guy over and not give him game time. Same for Trengove and Watts. It's McKenzie and Matt Jones who have been preferred to Evans and that's ok they aren't the worst players. I'm willing to give him a few VFL games and see where he is at then.

I'd take inconsistent but his best being good with Blease. I don't mind a few games of not many touches and only the odd good play if he back its up with 20+ touches a few goals and a few blistering runs.