#16 Josh “Fridge” Begley

There’s different sorts of quick.

It’s that side to side agility and first few steps that matters to inside mids. No co-incidence some of the very good first touch mids through history had stumpy little legs - they accelerate over the first few steps quicker than anyone, but they’re no good over any distance when the taller guys get going. Think of guys like Diesel, Libba, Roger James or Darren Hulme - Tippa is probably the closest to that build in the game today.

FWIW Myers is regularly up the top for running speeds for Essendon. He’s the opposite: terrible agility, good top speed.

I don’t think 100m speed really matters in footy, they’re so rarely going to do a full end-to-end at full sprint. Lots of 80% running, and a lot of very short sprints at 100%

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Myers was on SEN a couple of days ago, and shared a humorous story.

At preseason camp, the players ran some kind of Masterchef contest. Begley asked to be assigned to dessert. He seemed confident.

So he made apple crumble…but he left all the skin on the apples…and “there may have been a few stickers that got through as well”.

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My physio told me an interesting story. A high level Australian basketballer went in for an acl surgery. The surgeon had a student in the room and asked the kid to compare the two knees. When a patient is unconscious, the muscles compensating for the acl relax and the kneecap becomes very mobile compared to when the acl is intact. The student felt the bad knee, moved a lot, felt the good knee, it moved the same amount. They cut open the good knee and found that the “good” acl was gone as well.

The guy had played elite level basketball for 3 years with a busted acl and didn’t realise it.

We have an obsession in Australia of operating on ACLs, whereas overseas it is commonly treated by building up the strength in the surrounding muscles.

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They operated on the other leg after the patient was unconscious and couldn’t give consent?

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2 for 1 deal

Although I do remember a girl I knew claimed that while getting surgery on her jaw, the plastic surgeon just happened to give a free nose job, hmmm likely story…

Yep. Clearly an ethical issue there. But imagine waking up from surgery to be told they only did half the job.

Forgotten man Fridge now looking like the Westinghouse 350litre slimline model. Expect a different looking player when he comes back. On the other hand maybe we will see a bigger version of that other forgotten man Marty Gleeson in 2019 ?

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Saw Fridge in the rooms after the VFL game on Saturday. Looking good, and has been back running for a while now apparently. Will be cherry ripe for pre season.

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A real “obsession” with wanting a stable knee joint. You do realise people actually study this stuff, it’s not just hit and hope??

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Happens all the time.
“We went in to fix X.
Also found Y.”

That will need to be fixed as well - often at a later date.

Depending on what it is, whether it’s linked, what the ramifications are (ie sometimes you need to fix X first before you can look at Y).

Fair enough, not the best language. I do find it interesting that Australia treats ACLs with surgery whereas many countries treat them with physio and excercise. Seems an odd disparity.

Many countries - which countries? Certainly UK and US repair/replace ACLs.

Which sort of patients (how active - they might not replace my ACL, but a footballer or basketballer needs it)?

Tear, full rupture, or full kybosh (ACL + MCL + meniscus)??

It’s not a black and white issue…

What amazed me about that story was the high level of sport the guy was playing, the impact and stresses his knee was under. That he had no idea that knee was stuffed and was able to perform at an elite level without an ACL.

And here’s where I can’t follow down the rabbit hole. As I said, this came from my physio. He’s worked in the AFL industry and with the Olympic team for decades. He seems to know his stuff.

But I’m not a physio. I don’t have the info. I just find it interesting that an experienced professional in this space has serious doubts about how we treat these things.

The knee can be trained to adapt, or do it naturally. Ligament would still probably be better/stronger. DeJuan Blair (US basketballer) had none at all on either leg. Rare, but possible.

So a surgeon would probably leave an athlete’s ACL-less knee alone - if it’s working as is.
But probably would operate on the newly broken one. Which is a bit weird.

If you’re not playing a twisting/turning sport (basketball, netball, soccer, skiing, footy are the typical ones), they’re probably not going to bother. Much physio & exercise.

I wonder if the publicity of ACL reconstructions in sport makes average people more likely to expect the same treatment. If you can get a similar quality of life for less stressful exercises, you’d normally avoid surgery. But if patients have grown to expect surgery, then that would push the treatment in that direction.

Private health industry. Biggest con in Australia.

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Nah, the biggest is that the Liberal party is actually liberal.

AFL Bosses are next.

Then Banks

Maybe then Private Health Insurance

And Begley with be the great improver next year; in the mid-field !!

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Seeing yet another HAP post about how private health is the biggest con in this country is one of my favourite things on Blitz. No, honestly.