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Traded #25: Jake Stringer - 📦 Traded to GWS for Pick #53 - 16/10

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Whilst many of our players have had interrupted pre-seasons it sounds like Stringer is as fit as he's ever been in his time here

www.foxsports.com.au

AFL 2020: Jake Stringer Essendon, best pre-season ever, Bombers injuries

In the midst of his club’s wretched summer injury run, Essendon gun Jake Stringer says he’s never been in better shape after experiencing one of his best and smoothest pre-seasons of his AFL career.
www.foxsports.com.au

In the midst of his club’s wretched summer injury run, Essendon gun Jake Stringer says he’s never been in better shape after experiencing one of his best and smoothest pre-seasons of his AFL career.

A host of key Bombers have, at different stages over the past few months, battled a range of injuries or suffered setbacks, including Joe Daniher (groin), Cale Hooker (hip), Dylan Shiel (knee) David Zaharakis (knee), Dyson Heppell (foot), Michael Hurley (shoulder) and Orazio Fantasia (hip).

However Stringer, who battled foot, knee and hamstring issues to play 19 of a possible 23 games in 2019, has not just been a constant presence on the track, but also one of Essendon’s best trainers.

In his eighth AFL pre-season, Stringer recently ran a personal best in the 2km time trial, slashing a whopping 20 seconds off his previous top time.

Asked on SEN Breakfast how he was going physically, Stringer cheekily said: “I’m borderline flying at the minute … nah I’m going well.”

The 25-year-old said it’d been “one of the hardest pre-seasons I’ve ever done”. He hailed the influence of the Bombers’ new head of strength and conditioning Sean Murphy, who’s come across from Hawthorn and “really tested us physically and mentally”.

“Not being injured is a massive part and I don't think I've missed a session the whole pre-season, which is all you can ask for when you go into a pre-season is complete as many sessions as you can. I’d be probably in the top one or two at the club that hasn’t missed,” Stringer told SEN on Friday morning.

Asked if it’d been one of his smoothest AFL pre-seasons yet, Stringer declared: “Yeah, by far.

“Last year was pretty good, but this year’s been taken to a new level with Sean Murphy coming across. He's really pushed the boundaries with me.

“It's been a hard slog and, don't worry, I'm looking forward to playing and getting out of this pre-season phase.”

Even though Stringer is “flying”, he said seven or eight teammates are still not in full training, but the “majority of them were running”.

“Not everything's gone to plan, obviously. There's been a few blokes that are still not quite into full training, but that's part of football and part of the pre-season. You’ve just got to deal with whatever comes,” Stringer said.

He later added: “We’re in a great position to able to springboard into the season and hopefully get a few more of these top echelon blokes back.”

The first-round draft pick kicked 98.55 for the Bulldogs in 2015 and 2016 before being traded ahead of the 2018 season to the Bombers, where he’s spent recent summers training with the on-ballers.

Stringer said the plan was still for him to play a mixture of midfield and forward minutes this season, but added he’d been training primarily with the attacking group this pre-season and “honing in on my craft as a forward”.

Stringer said Essendon’s succession plan, which will see senior coach John Worsfold gradually hand the reins to assistant Ben Rutten throughout 2020, was working well. He said Worsfold was at the club everyday and engaged with the players, but Rutten took charge of all tactical discussions and meetings.

“The work that John and Ben have done together has been absolutely outstanding and literally the smoothest transition that you could possibly ever see. It's a credit to both of them how well it's actually gone,” Stringer said.

“I couldn’t be happier with where the club is at the minute.”

Stringer said there’d be a noticeable but not dramatic change to the club’s game plan this season.

“It’ll definitely be a lot more consistent,” Stringer said.

“From a whole learning (process) and even in training, you’re seeing it more and more every time we’re doing bits of match ‘sim’. I think it’ll be very noticeable when people come to watch us.”
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I was hoping for a sign that we were going to pick players ready for the contest

Stringer looked very flat on his feet
2 plays i saw him contribute in.

Rest of the night was in and out

Will never know but id think a youngster banging the door down in voss would have given us more.

Midfield didnt have a great night though. So partially thinking i give him a pass and see what happens next week
 
Is Stringer a good fit for where we are at the moment? For his age and experience he doesn't seem to add any leadership, and he's inconsistent, which is not entirely his fault considering the delivery into the forward line.

He'd probably be better suited to a team in the top eight wanting some X factor.
 

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citizen-erased said:
I was hoping for a sign that we were going to pick players ready for the contest

Stringer looked very flat on his feet
2 plays i saw him contribute in.

Rest of the night was in and out

Will never know but id think a youngster banging the door down in voss would have given us more.

Midfield didnt have a great night though. So partially thinking i give him a pass and see what happens next week
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Stinger could play 6 weeks in the vfl and still come in looking average first up. He takes 2-3 weeks, and he was playing on wilkie tonight who is an absolute gun.
 
'I looked up and I couldn't see anyone so I just thought, I'll kick a torp' - Jake Stringer
 
Paywalled but Stringer discusses battling with the aftermath of a serious concussion at the end of last season and the impact on his preseason

“People can say what they want, but you’ve got to put your health first and I had to do that for that period and I’m just grateful to be able to run out and put on the red and black and do this club proud.

“The first part (of the pre-season), I was battling a concussion from the last game of the year where I got kneed from Marlion Pickett.

“I couldn’t do much running at all and it was a very slow build-up. Then it wasn’t until December that I started to actually feel back to normal, so it was a fairly long 16 weeks going through that.
 
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So could not do any running before December due to concussion issue and headaches. Did a lot of boxing with a professional boxer but he got headaches a lot of time when he went to run. There is always more to the story. He had done everything the club asked him to do. You could say that maybe a little more detail about his situation at the end of last season from the club could have stopped the pile on a bit.
 
ant555 said:
So could not do any running before December due to concussion issue and headaches. Did a lot of boxing with a professional boxer but he got headaches a lot of time when he went to run. There is always more to the story. He had done everything the club asked him to do. You could say that maybe a little more detail about his situation at the end of last season from the club could have stopped the pile on a bit.
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Couldn't agree more. Every now and again some transparency would be nice.
 

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ant555 said:
So could not do any running before December due to concussion issue and headaches. Did a lot of boxing with a professional boxer but he got headaches a lot of time when he went to run. There is always more to the story. He had done everything the club asked him to do. You could say that maybe a little more detail about his situation at the end of last season from the club could have stopped the pile on a bit.
Click to expand...

I do wonder if there isn't a bit of pressure on clubs from HQ to keep player issues related to concussion out of the headlines. A story like that gets released over the offseason & it's everywhere.
 
rumply said:
I do wonder if there isn't a bit of pressure on clubs from HQ to keep player issues related to concussion out of the headlines. A story like that gets released over the offseason & it's everywhere.
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Agree. Do not need to give a lot of detail . They could have said he had an issue that prevented him from doing the work load before December.:)
 
It’s also the players personal health information which is protected by law. For all that footy clubs leak like sieves at times, there’s a hell of a lot that they keep under wraps with a fair amount of success.
 
rumply said:
I do wonder if there isn't a bit of pressure on clubs from HQ to keep player issues related to concussion out of the headlines. A story like that gets released over the offseason & it's everywhere.
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At the very least kept out of the news for played welfare reasons. I can only imagine suffering side effects like that would be difficult enough to manage from a mental health perspective
 

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yodellinhank said:
If he'd spent more time before the head knock not being fat and lazy...
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Should have been doing extra work in preparation for being kneed in the head .;)
 
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Traded #25: Jake Stringer - 📦 Traded to GWS for Pick #53 - 16/10

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