What's gone wrong

He was clearly playing injured on anzac day

but why do we keep doing that ivan?!! I may be a toddler throwing toys but ffs… why send blokes who are injured out there?? We may have shocking depth… but if you are saying that there is a not a single other player on our list of 44 that could replace an clearly lame and injured forward pocket… then heaven help us.

Either shocking by medical staff or horrific by coaches/selection committee or diabolical from our recruiting/list management team… or all of the above.

There is no good outcome to it that I can see.

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It is possible to play with injury. It depends whether you are able to make an adequate contribution despite the injury and whether the stakes are sufficient to justify the risk.

I’m sure plenty of posters here would put the hands up and say they’ve played despite carrying injuries into games, including myself.

Easton wood played an elimination final with an ankle that was so bad he couldn’t jump but he still made a valuable contribution and obviously the stakes are high.

Obviously the stakes for us aren’t high at the moment and it is also obvious to that tippa is struggling to make a valuable contribution. Maybe you try it for a game but to try for 3 games in 11 days is complete madness. That said ‘valuable contribution’ probably has a different meaning depending on the time of year too. If he’d been missing all day but kicked a clutch goal in the last to win a final you’d say we got our monies worth.

The point is, so early in the season, with the whole side so obviously struggling, why send out guys again and again and again who quiet evidently can’t give 100%.

For mine the answer lies with a coaches box which is desperate for an onfield form reversal and reluctant to give the season away. They’ve shown very poor judgment on multiple fronts and are in self preservation mode.

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yeah yeah… like all AFL players will tell you that they are very very rarely 100%… most carrying a niggle here or there one week to the next etc etc… so I’m ok with ‘trying’ but then the 3 games in 11 days really doesn’t make sense… nor does that fact we have been sending, potentially, multiple guys with major niggles out there and being duly beaten.

Like maybe you can carry minor niggles (scratch/bruise/corky) and maybe even one guy who is struggling… but we have been trying to carrying 3-4 seemingly at times (JD, Walla, TBell and Hurley)… and we are a slowish side to start with… I just think we have been setting them up for failure

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Did the fitness staff flog them too hard in the pre-season?

Last year the focus was on “managing the returning players” - and we had a great run with injuries.

This year, the focus was “have a tilt at the flag” and we have soft tissue injuries galore: Lav, Fanta, JD, Dea, Green, Myers*… Not to mention Tippa, Hurley hobbling around like geriatrics. Wouldn’t surprise me if others are carrying niggles too (Zerret?).

The team is going nowhere fast perhaps, now, those who are carrying an injury can get whatever is needed done and we could start playing some of the youngsters and get game time into them. Whether we get beaten by five goals or ten it doesn’t matter too much. I will be very surprised but delighted if we win another game this year the way we are playing.

Sadly, it could be years before we are anywhere near the best.

I’m not sure, but I believe that is incorrect. I think the definition used is if it effected the player tackled. So if they break free but we’re clearly slowed it would count. I think one where they even had to shove you off, even if not slowed down, might count.

this is something i’ve never understood. i agree that’s what they are doing, but they are doing it with senior and named players, who are letting them down in the first place, backing them in, when out of form, injured or simply both and then the exact same thing happens.

Jd is injured and not only not offering anything, he’s costing us in many ways and is a liability, yet they keep backing him in. us plebs could see by rd 3 he wasn’t right or offering much, yet supposedly our coaches who know all and know better need an extra 4 odd weeks to see what was so plain to see to everyone ?

I still find it absolutely astounding that a player had to drop himself last year due to poor form and him admitting that to himself and the coaches. a player literally had to say you should drop me.

that speaks so loudly to the inept coaching at present.

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Love it. I’d buy one.

I received no reply either - not even an automated response. I wrote a letter to Gill in 2016 and received a one page reply that was personally signed.

I keep hearing about numerous other sides who are having injuries, debuting players who are doing really well. The judgement has been we are better off with players carrying significant injury than taking a chance, by giving a chance. Either the selectors just don’t rate the other players on our list or the younger players are not ready. There are another 20 players on the list. Can you believe that?

What?

We don’t know what to do defensively. Player has ball and we tackle, but aren’t sure if to hold onto to the tackle or let them break it and run away up the field.

Seriously?

If the board got together and devised a plan to TROLL BLITZ TO MAXIMUM LEVELS

That’s a tick

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You may be right - The point I was trying to make is that EFC won the tackle counts in 4 games before Saturday , drew another and lost to the Bulldogs by one - To suggest like some that poor tackling is one of our major ill’s is drawing a long bow.

No, I think he is saying that because we dont kniw what to do defensively, we are not close enough to the opposition to tackle players often enough.

If Ross Lyon gets sacked we should snap him up. Dont care, just do it,

I want to be at that Christmas party!

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This is six degress of separation stuff, but i was told by someone that a friend of theirs was at a cafe and overheard dyson heppell confide to a friend that he is having trouble getting buy in from the group and doesn’t know what to do about it.

Nake of that what you will.

Just ask the coach, he has his fingers in the pie.

I think a lot has to do with coaching, fitness and the mental attitude of the team, but the quality of the players is equally important.

Ask yourself how many genuine stars do we have at the moment. My answer would be one (JD), and he’s injured. Andy McGrath is potentially another.

Our last flag was in 2000. We had Hird, Lucas and Lloyd in their prime, supplemented by Fletcher, Misiti, Mercuri, Bewick and a host of others.

In 1993 we had Hird, Misiti and Mercuri, all young, but supported by Tim Watson, Paul Salmon, Mark Thompson, Mark Harvey …

1984 and 1985 the backbone was Simon Madden, Terry Daniher, Tim Watson, Paul Weston, Salmon (1985 only) …

Our current list is nowhere near that class. We can do far better than we are doing at the moment, but until we get some real class out on the ground we’re not going to win a flag.

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