Gawn should’ve strengthened his knee muscles so when Viney fell across him he’d have been fine.
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■■■■ happens. But you do have some level of control over your own destiny.
We complain about our injury rates compared to the rest of the competition. This is one of the key factors.
You dont know if we did all the right things, your just making up a narrative that we didnt.
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100% correct. I’m an outsider making guesses on incomplete information.
But I still personally have zero confidence that they were managed conservatively enough considering their history.
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He’s used his height to outmark his wing opponents multiple times on the wings and I50 resulting in shots on goal.
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I fear as much as anyone our fitness and conditioning bods out at Tulla don’t help get him right this time. And his training is interrupted. . How long that all takes from here? Well if it’s late this season then I’d be elated is all I say.
My other concern when he did return after his foot injury was that he looked lost. Hesitant, tentative and playing with no confidence at all. He was dropped and quietly withdrew from view so I hope it was just Rutten’s game plan that caused him to lose his natural instinctiveness and confidence and not something he’ll struggle to overcome when he’s back. Confidence is king after all.
But its easy to forget how exciting and different he was back in 2021. And boy we could do with our angular young star to raise the roof again like he did when he first arrived. …
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hot take, he was never as good as many of you thought
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No way Dodo could pass up a physique like that.
none of them ever are.
works both ways though.
We easily get effected by recency bias and forget some of the great ability he showed in his first season. We need to hold onto the visions of what we saw and his capabilities and hope that he can get fit, stronger and get his confidence back. If he can, and they can find the right spot for him, it’s not difficult to imagine the asset he becomes and a weapon at that.
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Only in geology would twenty years be considered “recent”.
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If you want to see a silver lining then think of Zerk. He was a very skinny key position player who looked to be struggling. Now he’s pretty much a lock in defence for us and Port are interested in signing him. Not saying Zerk has the injury history of these two but these fellas are still very young and developing. It’ll be okay.
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Whilst I agree I am far from a S&C coach, I think the idea has some validity given hindsight. After all, that’s the best time to review something and interrogate it.
I don’t think it’s too wild an idea to dedicate a year to a player to get his body into AFL shape, allow him another year to grow and also develop at lower levels.
I don’t think it’s a one size fits all approach and I think it should be up to individual teams to manage it.
Sydney for instance do this more than any other team. It allows the player to work on their weakness. Paul Roos said any junior that comes into the game, doesn’t understand the defensive side of AFL footy. So they need time to be hard wired towards it.
They don’t do it with all players. It depends on where they are as a club. When they are struggling, they develop them at AFL level. When they have the opportunity, they develop at lower levels.
Examples of this are:
- Midfielders - Errol Gulden v Chad Warner, Angus Sheldrick and Matt Roberts. Warner, Roberts and Sheldrick were pretty much AFL ready when drafted, but were sent to lower levels to develop. With them, it was more aerobic capacity than defensive football.
- Talls - Nick Blakey v Logan McDonald, Joel Amartey, Lachlan McAndrew, Hugo Hall-Kahan and Jaiden Magor. They have drafted stick thin individuals too. Blakey played his first season. Did bit parts at AFL level but it’s fair to say his teammates had to pick up the slack for his failings. McDonald had a taste in his rookie year but predominantly was in VFL even though there was a spot for him in the Sydney forward line. I think for him it was more about his ability to run out a full AFL game, than strength. The other four are stick thin talls that are developing at lower levels. McAndrew is actually doing okay at VFL and progressing well. The other two need more time. But developing at VFL level whilst they are still growing does work incredibly effectively.
- Medium sized players - Rowbotton and Stephens v McInerney. Rowbottom smashed VFL for half his rookie season, then given bit part roles in AFL. I can’t recall how Stephens went his rookie year at VFL level, but he followed a similar path to Rowbottom. McInerney however spend multiple years to develop.
Sydney are a great example of getting more things right than wrong at AFL level. I think the way they develop their younger players is better than any other club. And I don’t recall them having crazy injury lists like we have experienced the last decade.
I don’t think it’s a factor of the type of player we draft, it’s more what we do with them when they get to the club. Players need to slowly work up to a higher level season to season rather than pushing them straight into the deep end and trying to push them to go harder.
Another thing that gets lost in it all is how important their eating habits are and also their sleeping patterns. Muscles, body definition actually improves once you rest and recover and in particular when you’re sleeping. Not during the actual time of being in a gymnasium. So it is vital to get a good nights sleep. Something youngsters struggle with when all their mates are out partying until the late hours of the night/morning. It’s not easy being a professional athlete.
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I can. He didn’t play in 2020 due to Covid restrictions, barely played in 2022 due to injury and looks to be out for this year as well.
With serious injuries of this nature, even if he gets on the park, it will take him >12 months to find any resemble of form.
He lost his confidence in the later stages of 2021 and couldn’t find it in early 2022.
If he’s not playing until 2024 and can’t find confidence until 2025 he’s well and truly behind the 8 ball for such a high pick who we’re supposed to be rebuilding a team around. The likes of Merrett are going to be old men in football terms soon.
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I honestly don’t take much notice of a player in their rookie year.
They aren’t being targeted by the opposition and usually get smaller roles within the team as development.
As per normal with any rookie, I’m assuming most people saw him do something great (Mass had the same thing) and imagined if they do that all the time.
Which is where development comes into play. They have to be fit enough to get from contest to contest. That the first thing that must be worked on because without it, he doesn’t get any better. A small would run around 16km in a game of footy as an average. Peak is 18km and a low would be 15km. A tall is around 12km with a peak of 14km and low of 11km. And that is at varying speeds, expecting body contact along the way in the space of 100 minutes of footy. That’s being an elite AFL footballer which is daunting as an 18 year old.
They need to be able to build muscle to take the hits. If they put on too much too quickly (as we saw with Lloyd and Lynch in their days), it affects their mobility.
And somewhere along that path, the opposition is targeting the individual and trying to exploit his weaknesses. Which is where a player will either go into their shell or take on the challenge and overcome the issue.
Put simply…
Players need time to be developed and also need time to face the challenges and be tested.
I usually don’t make grandiose statements like ‘future captain / superstar of the comp’ until they have been targeted by the opposition and the player has met that challenge and beaten it.
All the best players reach this point and meet the challenge.
The total failures are the ones to reach the point, but aren’t mentally strong enough to get through the challenge. Aaron Francis is a perfect example of this. In his first three years, we were blowing a load over the potential for this guy. But he was yet to be challenged.
“B b b b b b bUt He DoEsN’T hAvE a PoSiTiOn. We ShOuLd PlAy hIm As A tHiRd TaLl dEfENdEr LiKe EvErY fAiLeD piCk We HaVe. He’S a BuSt!”
I don’t give a ■■■■. Play him on the wing where he does whatever the hell that^ was. I want to see more of that^
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don’t they sorta do that with NGA and father/son picks ?
wouldn’t the good clubs somewhat already be doing that ? they just kinda do it while the kids are able to keep playing.
I gather there’s more examples than just charlie curnow (but again his issues were his own off field stupidity rather than not being prepared for football with an underdeveloped body for it) but what is the ratio of other clubs talls suffering similar injuries to what this club constantly does ?
see seem to draft beanpoles and then wonder why their bodies can’t handle the rigors and both building a football body and playing with one, let alone playing and building one yet what other clubs have such a difficulty with it, esp with highly rated talls ?
The HPT have been complaining that the training grounds at the hangar are too hard. Given that our injury and fitness challenges have been going on for years despite changing the whole team a few times I’m inclined to think it’s more likely something like that than personnel or list management
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His athleticism ability is perfect for a wing, plus his two sided foot skills, concerned about him actually making it as a wingman though.
Too early in his career to tell, needs to bulk up also
I’m not too sure.
If that’s the case, then VFLW should be experiencing the same at training sessions.
AFL use the Tullamarine training fields for almost 3 hours and twice a week during the season and three time in pre-season.
VFLM and VFLW use it for 2 hours and twice a week during the season and three times in pre-season. Both of these also play a higher intensity match on weekends this year.
You would also have a similar thing happening with the West Melbourne United Soccer Team who train three times per week on that field.
I think it’s a valid theory, but there’s not enough rigour or evidence that shows it is more of a problem than any other training field in the comp let alone comparing it to Windy Hill post the mid-2000ish resurfacing / redraining or what it was like in the 1990s.
If it could be proved, I think the club would rip it up and re-do it straight away. But you wouldn’t do that unless you’re sure that’s the source of the problem.
I watched 2MP do his shoulder and Tstatas do his knee and I didn’t think at all they were situations that would have had a different result than if he was on other fields.
I’m not sure if 2MP’s and Guelfi’s calf problems were because of the surface either.