bing181

Some ridiculous comments here. We're losing matches because we're not able to kick a high enough score, or any sort of score for that matter. No firepower up forward, and good backlines are doing us over.

Don't disagree, but with May out, Lever is being asked to play as a KPD - which was never his go. He's never been a great one-one-one, lockdown defender, he needs the freedom to use his ability to read the play to intercept etc. But then this comes back to what's going on further up the ground, where we're not able to prevent quick ball movement into the oppo forward line and especially, quick transition from opposition back line - which used to be one of our great strengths.

Hmm. I'd question that.

Amongst all that, they're battling it out - but injuries knocking us round, both in available players and on game day. But, issue remains the forward line. You're not going to win matches kicking 8 and 9 goals. Not even sure what the answer is, especially with McDonald out for the season (effectively).

Issues in the backline, but we desperately need someone to stand up down forward.

Some discussions to be had here in the post-game thread. If we get home, will be doing well, just so banged up and missing those few key players.

Know it's been said, but missing May. Random cursing.

A lot of the articles on alcohol consumption and brain injury are similar. Actual studies with real data are more nuanced. e.g. "Alcohol Consumption Does not Impede Recovery from Mild to Moderate Traumatic Brain Injury" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27534259/ Even the linked article in the original post says "The takeaway was that alcohol consumption neither hurt nor helped the recovery in concussion patients." Though personally, if I had a concussion not sure I'd be going out and getting smashed. Though also personally, if I was an AFL footballer, not sure I'd be getting smashed during the week in any case, I don't know how they do it. Interesting that Frederick was banned because he'd broken Fremantle's no drinking on a 6 day turnaround rule, which is in place because as Longmuir pointed out, drinking isn't great for recovery.

Presumably it means that Turner is in for Tomlinson, who then becomes emergency in case Petty doesn't get up. Hibberd takes Hunt's place.

In theory, Rivers and Bowie should be our lock-down small defenders.

Agree a bit stuff on Hunt, though not disputing the fact that he's been dropped, especially with Hibberd and Rivers available. But last week was a bit of a perfect storm for him, the backline a bit all over the shop without May there and Salem still off the pace, and he got stuck one on one with Papley and Heeney, two of the best in the business.

No sweat, I probably could have phrased it otherwise.

I don't work in the field of sports science, not sure where you got that info. I'm involved in research (assessing proposals amongst other things), but it's not in sports science.

I do quite a bit of work in the research field, and you learn not to give undue weight to single studies or one-offs. Interesting, and would be more interesting if there were half a dozen -Coach-'s. Not to mention anyone who's actually been involved in these programs.

But it goes way beyond this club, or even AFL football.

Perhaps. But going through a specific load/de-load protocol and all that that entails, is a bit different to "ramping up training", which could be ... well, anything. Burgess spoke of doing heavier than usual training sessions in the weeks off during the finals (to duplicate game-day loads), but that's very different to what's being discussed here.

It's a post on a fan forum from 2 years ago from an armchair pundit who's thrown in some nice graphics to give it more credibility. OK, confirmation bias, go for it, but ... It astonishes (but doesn't surprise) me that all the "evidence" that this is occurring is hearsay.

No Steven, not THAT kind of loading.

Not sure what the possible confusion is. The "targeted periods of loading and unloading across different stages of a season" refers to the pre-season (higher load) and in-season (reduction in overall training load). There were no targeted periods of loading during the season. The second part refers to in-week periodisation, which Burgess and co. covered in the soccer study - harder training earlier in the week to maintain fitness, ease up before matches. BTW, there was a thread last year on this, maybe tack all this onto that rather than across these other discussions. Mods?

I believe you'll find Max was referring to doing full training sessions through the bye in keeping with Burgess' and Goodwin's train hard all year round philosophy. i.e., even in the bye week they had to match game-day loads. All covered in the quite detailed podcast that Burgess did with Peter Bruckner post GF last year, where he drills down into the specifics of it all.

I don't think Petty will go out. He got through the match, and we have the bye coming up. We desperately need stability and system down back. Up forward, no idea, but it's clearly not working and with Tom Mac out, the cupboard is bare. Agree with posters above suggesting Max will play more forward. Robbing Peter to pay Paul as we'd lose his influence (dominance) around the ground, but what can you do?

For those playing along at home re loading: Loading does NOT happen in team sports in-season. And that's for any team sport, not just AFL. For any number of reasons, risk of injuries and risk of losing matches being two of them, the limited duration of the resulting peak being another. As for what happens across the season: "During the in-season phase, the emphasis of training reverts to technical and tactical development and the maintenance of the physical capacities developed during preseason." "Seasonal Training-Load Quantification in Elite English Premier League Soccer Players" James J. Malone, Rocco Di Michele, Ryland Morgans, Darren Burgess, James P. Morton, and Barry Drust But yes, loading does happen in team sports: it's called pre-season. Loading primarily happens in individual sports where it is implemented - the important bit - out of competition. i.e., it's the equivalent of a pre-season leading up to, say, a single event (Olympics, world championships etc.). Often found in athletics and sports like cycling - pro cyclists will go out of effective competition to complete an intense training block, often at altitude. They may still do races, but they're primarily treated as training. There may be any number of reasons for us losing matches, most of which have been touched on here or in the media. Loading isn't one of them. PS If anyone wants to dig deeper, there's actually a study on loads across a season in an AFL club, done with the Bulldogs. What did they find? No in-season loading. Quantification of Training and Competition Load Across a Season in an Elite Australian Football Club. https://vuir.vu.edu.au/29685/3/Ritchie et al 2015 Quantification of AFL across a season.pdf

Have no idea about whether he'll be axed or not, but you're absolutely right on him being isolated one on one. Deliberate tactic, which unfortunately works, and we may see the same this week if he plays.

Yep. Or someone in the club or FD. Or ANY club or FD, not just Melbourne. It could even be one of those hot-shot football commentators, they love having inside goss "An exclusive from our man on the scene: Tom what do you have for us on the reason for Melbourne's two losses ..." And at anytime, could be last season or any season. Go for it.

OK, so you have no evidence. Thanks for clearing that up. At least Binman is honest enough to acknowledge that it's a theory.