News Harley Bennell - Ends at Freo in 2019

fnerd

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I have absolutely no regrets or complaints over both the draft picks we gave up for Harley, nor how long he was on our list.

Was 100% worth the risk, we traded for him while we were at the top end of the ladder. The picks were trash anyway. Anyone who disagrees is a hindsight hero.

Bloody gutted it didn't work out. I would've loved nothing more for him than shutting up the naysayers. Freak talent.

All the best, HB ❤
This 100%, especially the bolded
 

fnerd

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Can’t see it happening but agree it wouldn’t be the best look for our S+C team for him to go to another club and then coming good.

Tough to judge from the outside , granted ,with our s and c team but while our players fitness levels have always been pretty good I do think they haven’t exactly been great at certain times/players in regards to injury management.

Harley included-tho as I said before think ultimately it would’ve been still a lost cause which considering his unbelievable talent plus awesome work ethic makes it all pretty sad story
 

G Mus

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This quote?

“Hopefully, someone out there has got a solution, or a club, or a guru out there can get him right because he's a pretty special talent, because it's devastating he's lost to the game, to be honest."


Doesn’t sound critical at all, I think you’re reading what you want to read from it
 

Cesoir

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Feb, 2016. Leaving the beach after a glorious 36 degree day.

ABC Radio.

'We believe Bennell's done a slight calf. Just a 21 day injury before we see what this talent can do on the back of Fremantle's 2015 finals campaign'.

Me: *smiling* 'Everything's coming up Freo!'
Yes, I was on the beach too, thought "YES! What could possibly go wrong now?"

703038
 

Marty Whitelaw

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Feb, 2016. Leaving the beach after a glorious 36 degree day.

ABC Radio.

'We believe Bennell's done a slight calf. Just a 21 day injury before we see what this talent can do on the back of Fremantle's 2015 finals campaign'.

Me: *smiling* 'Everything's coming up Freo!'

4 magical seasons of glory since then!
 

arsesmart

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It isn't just the S&C team who had a go at trying to sort out Harley's calves. They've sent him to a supposed world-class specialist in those sort of injuries in Germany and had him trying dance programs etc. So if the conclusion you draw is that it's a veiled criticism of the S&C staff then you'd logcially be thinking that extends to the internationally renowned specialist and dance physio.
 
Sep 8, 2012
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Last year Giants said Tom Scully was cooked and sold him for a packet of corn chips.

He ended up playing in round six for hawthorn and every game since.

I think it's 100% the S&C failures that lead to these things
I know this is a long shot but IF he was to get rookied/picked up by someone else and plays again it might be the only way we would ever change our S&C staff

On SM-N960F using BigFooty.com mobile app
 
Sep 20, 2014
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So if the conclusion you draw is that it's a veiled criticism of the S&C staff then you'd logcially be thinking that extends to the internationally renowned specialist and dance physio.

So you actually think the German doctor and the ballet instructor who know nothing about our game and work environment, who were only temporarily with Harley, were given the same responsibility as the Fremantle S&C to assign a work-load management / post rehab plan for Harley after their initial treatment on him? I wouldn't be bundling them up all into the same boat.

There's a trend that's been going on in the last few years that if you get injured somewhere once, you'll eventually injure yourself somewhere else again.

Logue, Giro, Darcy, Hill Brothers, Walters, Blakely and Taberner off the top of my head.

Our S&C is garbage and your post is terrible damage control for those goons.
 
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G Mus

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So you actually think the German doctor and the ballet instructor who know nothing about our game and work environment, who were only temporarily with Harley, were given the same responsibility as the Fremantle S&C to assign a work-load management and rehabilitation plan for Harley after their initial treatment on him? I wouldn't be bundling them up all into the same boat.

There's a trend that's been going on in the last few years that if you get injured somewhere once, you'll eventually injure yourself somewhere else again.

Logue, Giro, Darcy, Hill Brothers, Walters, Blakely and Taberner off the top of my head.

Our S&C is garbage and your post is terrible damage control for those goons.
They were Hail Mary approaches, when best practice continually failed

There’s no issue with our S&C team it’s just confirmation bias of supporters who have the same issues at nearly every club depending on how their luck is and relative was with injury prone players

The only real mistake IMO we did with Bennell was try that quack German that Guardiola gave the ass for injecting honey and other weird s**t into his players but I understand why they tried it

Really what we should have done is kept him overseas and doped him coupled with a fitness program

We tried a lot of approaches, being conservative, blowing him up, bulking him, slimming him, having him not sprint and play deep forward, as well as the alternative rehab elements

I don’t know what a different S&C team could have done differently

People argue he played more for GC yes, but that’s the nature of repeat soft tissue injury, your risk increases each time
 
Sep 20, 2014
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They were Hail Mary approaches, when best practice continually failed

Yes I am aware of and understand that, although to assume these people had the same level of understanding on the personnel and responsibility as our S&C is absurd. These outside professionals were sought out for advice and temporary treatment - the rest of the process during each of these approaches were our solely our S&Cs' responsibility. That was my point. They don't warrant criticism.

I agree with what you say about Harley specifically. Generally among our list I don't think it's "confirmation bias" and I think if you look at the last 18-24 month block in isolation then it alludes to there definitely being an issue in some of the S&Cs' practices. I have recognized before that this year things have seemed to improve - but that doesn't make up for the things over the last couple of years.
 

G Mus

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If we’d given him 1 year then yes. In 4 years not being able to get him on the park, if anyone can get him to AFL for 10+ games in a season. Our whole S+C should be sacked.
They wouldn’t be doing anything that hasn’t been tried though, there’s pretty much no legal stone left unturned
 

Marty Whitelaw

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I wonder if there was anything Gold Coast did or didn’t do that contributed to the state of his calf (I.e. pushing him to play when he wasn’t right or too greater training loads in his formative years). More likely just a problem he was born with that for worse as he got older I guess.

Regardless, a real shame as he really could have been a superstar.

Hopefully he gets some help from the club and AFLPA to make a plan for the next stage of his life, particularly with a young one on the way.
 
Sep 24, 2010
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I wonder if there was anything Gold Coast did or didn’t do that contributed to the state of his calf (I.e. pushing him to play when he wasn’t right or too greater training loads in his formative years). More likely just a problem he was born with that for worse as he got older I guess.

Regardless, a real shame as he really could have been a superstar.

Hopefully he gets some help from the club and AFLPA to make a plan for the next stage of his life, particularly with a young one on the way.

More likely the nose candy and alcohol did the damage whilst recovering from injuries at GC.
 

Square Peg

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It's a sad day for football, no one can accuse him of not going above and beyond to get back to playing, the guy must have incredible resilience and mental strength to have persevered for that long.
For our club specifically it seems like another kick in the balls rather than sadness. Mourning not seeing him play in purple is like me mourning that I never slept with Winona Ryder, I imagine it would have been great but how can I know for sure?
 

arsesmart

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So you actually think the German doctor and the ballet instructor who know nothing about our game and work environment, who were only temporarily with Harley, were given the same responsibility as the Fremantle S&C to assign a work-load management / post rehab plan for Harley after their initial treatment on him? I wouldn't be bundling them up all into the same boat.

There's a trend that's been going on in the last few years that if you get injured somewhere once, you'll eventually injure yourself somewhere else again.

Logue, Giro, Darcy, Hill Brothers, Walters, Blakely and Taberner off the top of my head.

Our S&C is garbage and your post is terrible damage control for those goons.
Damage control? Again with that term? I'm not part of the club, why do I care about damage control?

It's called logic. The stuff you're trying to overlay on to what I said lacks it. Nothing I wrote suggested equal responsibility, the point was simply that there were multiple professionals and methods involved.

I perfectly understand that when people feel anger or loss there's a strong desire to pin it on someone, but blame is largely useless in accurately and precisely fixing stuff. The more strongly we feel it the harder it is to accept there wasn't a controllable way to prevent whatever it is that we got angry about or lead to the loss. I have no idea whether there was anything the S&C could have done differently to manage that better. The Hawks S&C department still hasn't managed to get Birchell out on the park after a couple of years, sometimes it's just beyond even the best of them.

For me I wouldn't use a single case where I know very limited detail and only from a fair distance as any conclusive proof about something as complex as injury management. As I've said before, the multiple long termers who haven't got back, probably indicates that they're not the elite in terms of the industry. Mind you I also say that in the absence of specific details and data.

But I do think the club could be much more active in aiming to have the highest performing S&C team in the AFL, either through a totally new team or bringing complementary expertise into elements of the current one.
 
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