Webber

Most experienced and credentialed sports med physician in Melbourne. I would suggest he’ll work in an overseer/consultative role. To address any confusion, fitness and conditioning ‘gurus’ like Burgess and Misson are only that. They are not trained to, or expected to assess or diagnose pathology, and ONLY manage players with injuries as relates to their return to match fitness. In this they will be advised by medical staff as to what players can and can’t do. When they are the mouthpiece, as Misson was week to week, on where players are at with rehab, it’s easy to assume they are more medically involved I guess. They do not make any of the injury based decisions.

So much ignorant presumption going on here, and so little analysis. For those of you who are talking common sense, it’s almost pointless to argue logic against those whose agenda is set. The whole notion of poor medical management and poor conditioning should logically be scrutinised with respect to WHY players are unavailable. As an example, of the 14 players listed on this week’s injury list (by the club), all but 4 are unavailable due to traumatic orthopaedic incidents, like Tom McDonald’s knee. These have NOTHING to do with medical management. We have had a competition high incidence of these injuries. It happens sometimes, and is unlucky. Collingwood on the other hand currently is nursing 6 hamstring injuries. That COULD be coincidence, but questions about their methods and management are obviously justified. Our injury list is, and has been all season a hotchpotch of random stuff. Bad luck is the biggest factor. A less than ideal preseason prep plays a part obviously.

For all those going off about Neville Jetta’s supposed mismanagement, unless you’ve been part of the medical/rehab/fitness process first hand, you simply have no justification for such a presumption. As much as you might hope otherwise, timing the return to playing is NOT an exact science. There is ALWAYS a grey area that engulfs ‘maybe too soon, cherry ripe, and could have come back earlier’. And don’t forget there is pressure from everywhere to avoid the latter. From player, coach, management, supporters, media. And it will NEVER be perfect. If you think opinions based on hindsight grant certainty, you’re an idiot.

It’s an unpopular truth binman, because as supporters, emotion understandably gets the better of our logical minds. No less than anybody, I was yelling at the TV and bleeding at how they kept coughing the ball up...time after time after time. FAAAARRRRKING unbearable it was! At the heart of that truth though, and what makes it so hard to accept, is that the relationship between list availability and ladder position ultimately reduces the game to frank banalities. We support our club because we imagine it can have better people who coach better, play harder, and have more passion, skill and LOVE for the club and their mates than the other clubs. Along with ‘culture’ and ‘brand’, to use those horribly overworked, nigh on meaningless words. THIS will make them successful. Well, no it won’t, and not just because it’s full of fluffy intangibles. It’s just impossible for many to accept that success year on year IS MOST ACCURATELY determined by the numbingly boring statistic of week to week list availability. Good players, average players, so called ‘list cloggers’, doesn’t matter. Less cattle means lower on the ladder. Just is.

Wow. You guys just don’t get it. Read carefully.....total games unavailable from the WHOLE list have a near to linear relationship to ladder position across a season. It’s NOT my opinion, it’s a stat, a fact, not a theory.

And you obviously aren’t interested in statistical fact, which is precisely what I was presenting. Yes, we’re playing badly, and it’s f***ing horrible to watch, but your juvenile response does nothing to rebut that our performance reflect the facts as they are.

So the fact that we have had the most players unavailable week to week of any club this season, and up to round 12 (it could be still) of any club in the AFL EVER means nothing to you over-reactive clowns? The single most reliable stat to predict a club’s ladder position is players unavailable week to week, thus through a season. Not speculation or supposition....this is fact. Nobody wants to talk about it because it takes the art discussion out of the game. We are where we are because week to week we have been playing with a decimated list. Brisbane are 2nd for the opposite reason.

Read it again and consider the relative injury impact on both teams. I couldn’t give a flying fig about ladder position. We were the better team of the two on the day. Entitlement is thinking its deserved before the game’s been played. Stick to your irrational anger though, I’m sure it works wonders.

Garbage. We absolutely deserved it because we were the better team and were limped home in the last quarter through grit. Weak assessment.

Gutsy effort considering the lack of rotations. If Carlton were any good, they would have iced the game in the first 15 minutes of the last. It means nothing of course in the sense of the season (apart from more injury woe), but that IS the win of the season.

In the spirit of the Coodabeens, I’m calling it ‘WBS’ - Whipping Boy Syndrome. Oscar is just the latest in a loooong line.

To state the obvious, this is an unpopular opinion on here, but I think Oscar is a more naturally talented ball player than his brother. He’s also subject to the same slumps of confidence, and we’ve seen what that’s done to Tom this season. People forget very quickly that for most of last year, he was one of the first ten players picked each week, based on form, and we played in a prelim. Finals-experienced 23 year olds having form slumps don’t just get tossed aside. Yes, he could be bigger and stronger, but that can be worked on. I don’t doubt he will be groomed as a key forward over the next couple of years. Thankfully the club has a more logical perspective than Demonland, exceptions granted.

This team has lost any and all credibility it earned last year, and not one thing gives me any confidence they’ve got any idea how to come back in any meaningful way. I fear it’s gonna get very ugly on the biggest night of this club’s year, and if we’re not considered an embarrassment already, tonight will nail home our shame good and proper.

And that’s not an oversimplification at all.

Threat and weakness = fragility of confidence. strength and opportunity = return and stability of confidence. Our perceived lack of intent, contested dominance, lack of speed and skill errors all come from this. An off-season is a looooong time in footy.

Wow. We’re not even vaguely competitive.

Easiest team in the AFL to score against. It’s wet FFS! Why are we letting them get so much easy ball?

How did we so quickly from last year to this. We are currently bottom 4, and I suspect the dumbest, least competitive team on current form. It’s f***ing agony to watch. We are just third rate rubbish.

Odd response. Compound dislocations happen. And why would Goodwin lie?

What’s going on with Oscar Baker?

Joel Smith has been our most productive forward of the 3 games. And getting better. He did some great things today, and is the sole ‘find’ of the preseason. Otherwise we have too many lacking form or injured. For the JKH knockers, he was in our best both last week and v Collingwood. On that form he would have played round 1. We are in trouble defensively (both Tigers and Lions scored 100+ against us) and are going to be very underwhelming early season.

Dismiss it if you will, and many will, but the negative of those 2 games can’t be anything but a huge worry. We are defensively horrible. Up front, on the ball, down back. Poor defensive cover for the loose ball. Giving to players under pressure and not backing them up. Too much unacvountable football.

Not even a contest now. Unwatchable

Some good footy. The relentless pressure to get the ball moving our way from a contest or breakdown was the highlight - ethos footy. Standout players for me: Gawn, Brayshaw, Kennedy-Harris, Vandenberg. Good to see back, or new: Hunt, Preuss, Hore, Stretch, T.Smith. No bad performers for a first hit out.

Dunno what’s going on here, but if it’s patellar tendinopathy, any surgery would be to debride (remove and freshen up) the affected bit via arthroscopy. Don’t know why they’re talking about cortisone, it’s not used in tendons now. I suspect it’s something completely other than what’s been confusingly reported, but if they say JLT’s on for him, I believe them. ???