Only Ridley left from our best side once Shiel returns.
The healthiest out list had been a very long time
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Brutal for Kaine. That’s a mid-late June return.
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Now you’ve done it!
career basically over for mine
Because there are strains of varying degrees and tears of several levels and healing periods
Better than the alternative…
Heppell seems to be MIA
AFL cracks down on clubs’ unclear injury reporting after Geelong’s muddy detailing
By Anna Pavlou
T he AFL will crack down on clubs who do not announce a player’s specific injury return timeline to the public.
The change to the league’s ruling comes after sides like Geelong, Essendon and Richmond came under fire during the 2023 season for not specifying timelines for when players would likely be available for senior selection.
The use of wording like short, medium or long term to describe an injury will no longer be acceptable in 2024.
“It is not permissible to provide general availability windows, ie. short term, medium term, long term,” the AFL confirmed in its 2024 policy.
Geelong landed in hot water last season with a plethora of injuries cryptically detailed via the club’s weekly injury updates, sent to media, club members and published on the website.
Small forward Tyson Stengle suffered a fractured left wrist in round five last year , with Geelong ruling him out for the “medium term”.
In the same game, ruckman Rhys Stanley fractured his eye socket, with his injury also labelled “medium term”.
However, Stengle returned in round 10, while Stanley came back in round 15.
Captain Patrick Dangerfield also missed the same amount of time as Stengle, five weeks, but his hamstring strain was labelled “short term”.
In February, star Cats premiership midfielder Cam Guthrie suffered a quad tendon injury in the opening seconds of their practice clash against Carlton, with the club immediately clearing up speculation of how long he’d be sidelined for.
Geelong followed the new ruling, confirming just days after Guthrie was injured that he would miss up to 10 weeks.
Last season, North Melbourne champion David King blasted Geelong’s perplexing injury listing.
“They want to massage the truth with all sorts of reporting, they don’t want to give up any extra information to opposition clubs, which is ridiculous,” King said on SEN Radio in 2023.
"The Geelong injury list is just ridiculous. The short term, medium term and long term. It’s always been 1-2 weeks, 3-4 weeks and five plus. "
The new AFL ruling comes after the league made a large list of changes in the off season, including the banning of whistling from the bench.
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Probably the first time in a very long time where we have been involved in a story and haven’t been used in the headline as the main culprits.
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but I thought we were the only club in the league doing it
Why is this a thing?
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Which side is like Essendon? I wonder who she is talking about.
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Cracking down in this vague injury reporting is a good thing. Even the reporting of Caddy’s injury as “soreness” couldn’t be any less descriptive. You could equally say Ridley is out for a month with soreness, and it wouldn’t be any more or less accurate.
They have quite specific rules in the NFL about how injuries and practice participation are reported, they say it’s so that all teams have the same information for planning short and long term. It’s generally accepted that the actual reason is for gambling.
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Sad that a lot of decisions are influenced by gambling. I spoke to a keen Melbourne Storm fan and was asking about the Vegas games. Wanted to know if they wanted to grow the game there, possibly look at an expansion side there etc. Stone cold, he said that it’s all to do with gambling. Trying to get Americans to punt on NRL.
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This makes sense, I wonder if the whole thing was bankrolled by betting companies
As in, the entire league?
The games in Vegas
Yeah I know, but also, the whole league.
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