AFL's Injury Crisis: Can We Explain It?

[Rusty Brookes]

well, the AFL season starts at March 6th, doesn't it?

wonder how off-season training is in the 1960s and 1970s compares to the 2020s?

I don't think there was such a thing. I've got the 1971 tribute to the Hawthorn premiership produced by the Hawks museum and there's a cartoon in there showing a Hawthorn player being fitted into a straight jacket and put into a white van with the caption "Doing footy training in summer, sir.". Kennedy was considered a nut job for making his players during the off-season (often early in the morning so they could go to work). When we won the flag after running down St Kilda in the rain who were 20 points up at three quarter time, suddenly pre-season training was a thing.

I doubt there was any science to it other than fitter is better.

 

[Glenhope]

Where are the latest club injury lists? AFL site still talking about the GF teams.

 

[Ralll]

I'm a Physio, and I've noticed the narrative emerge over the last week or so of an injury "crisis" with several public players going down. (My apologies if there's already a thread on this but I couldn't see one.)

Treloar's out again. Phillipou and Marshall have developed stress fractures. Cumming, Daniel, Wardlaw, Walsh, Ridley etc with hamstrings. Guys like Darcy, Lewis and Gibcus looking overseas for added help with their respective knee injuries. The list seemingly goes on. No new ACL's yet thankfully, though there are plenty of guys on the tail end of their rehab.

I'm also hearing a lot of theories as to why: is pre-season too long? Is it too short with the season starting earlier and earlier? Are players training too hard, or having too much time off (Kane Cornes)? Is it the training surfaces or just all a weird dose of bad luck? Can we even do anything about them or are they just a part of professional football?

Seeing this discussion piqued my interest as someone passionate about uncovering the root cause of pain and injury.

I thought I might be able to share some interesting insights that may be able to help people better understand and digest their team's injury fortunes but perhaps also their own aches and pains.


Essentially, we need to take a step back and shift our perspective to really get to the bottom of why we get injured. It's also important to note that pain and injury is pretty complicated at times, but we can still simplify things a lot.

Currently, I think the public narrative is that what you were doing at the time of injury was the cause of that injury. Phillipou has been running a tonne this pre-season and developed a thigh bone stress fracture - makes sense. Perhaps George Wardlaw was sprinting at training and tore his hammy - sprinting makes. Nick Daicos has overused his Plantar Fascia so it became sore - again, makes sense. And so on.

But for me clinically, the best way to look at the onset of most non-traumatic pain and injury is this:

- It's the last straw, not the start of something new.

When you ping a hamstring, something like sprinting isn't specific enough to explain why your hamstring tore nor why you injured yourself on the one side and not the other. Especially because running and sprinting are normal.

But what these moments do, is that something like sprinting at high speeds and under fatigue is fantastic at exposing hidden underlying dysfunction you didn't realise was already there. Was Wardlaw's back subtly stiffer and tighter on that one side? Was one glute weaker than it should have been? Was there more neural tension going down the back of that leg but who cares because it wasn't painful?

Phillipou's femur didn't develop a stress fracture because he's killing it this pre-season. It happened because that part of his body stopped tolerating something about the way he was loading it up.

Nick Daicos is allowed to work hard and load up his Plantar Fascia - it's how we adapt and improve. But if his back is stiff, his hip flexors tight, or his ankle joint is stiffer than it should be all on that side, does it change the way he loads his entire leg and his PF was the structure that failed?

It's hard to know unless you assess each player individually, but these are the kinds of "abnormalities" that often get exposed by normal things.

One really interesting part of this conversation for me is most of these "abnormalities" are accrued during a person's non-athletic moments - slouching on a couch watching TV, playing PlayStation with your mates, sitting bored in a team meeting, wearing heeled shoes or thongs etc. We develop these things and then take them into our most dynamic pursuits, and in the right circumstances - genuine fatigue, awkward movements, high-intensity efforts etc, we're left vulnerable.

It may be no coincidence that the proportion of a player's work week may involve more downtime over the off-season and pre-season when compared to the routine of the premiership season.

Similarly, when we move beyond the "non-traumatic" accidents and into the more brutal hits and tackles and blunt force traumas, it's still important to respect that there's a level of force that may injure even the most healthy of tissue. But, the more optimal someone is functioning mechanically, the greater our chances of bending and not breaking. It's still important.

But the point I'd like to raise for discussion is that whenever we see an AFL player (or anyone for that matter) become injured, we need to take a step back and consider what they took into that moment - but perhaps didn't realise. It may not be visible to the naked eye, but should reveal itself with the right perspective.

If this is interesting to people, please feel free to throw a name out and I'll lean on my experience as a Physio over the last 20 years to talk generally about what I'd expect their hidden dysfunction to be and how it may have got there.

- Cheers

Also, if anyone is interested, I've gone deeper in the blog post below.

The AFL's Pre-Season Injury Crisis: Are We Missing the Bigger Picture?

The Australian Football League (AFL) is no stranger to injuries, but the number sustained so far this pre-season has many fans and analysts scratching their heads. Whether it be Kangaroo young gun George Wardlaw's high-grade hamstring tear, the trio of long-term injuries to important Saints, Nic...

www.yourwellnessnerd.com

Interesting, so in many cases, if the injury didn't happen at that particular moment, it was only a matter of time because the underlying problem was there and hadn't/couldn't be identified.

Richmond's injury crisis last season was being meme-blamed on the former strength and conditioning guy, but I take it from what you say, it was more likely the Physios missing the severity of the underlying problems (no offence to Physio's, they are restricted by scientific progression/technology/player communication/club needs/risk management etc.)

 

[sven_inc]

Interesting, so in many cases, if the injury didn't happen at that particular moment, it was only a matter of time because the underlying problem was there and hadn't/couldn't be identified.

Richmond's injury crisis last season was being meme-blamed on the former strength and conditioning guy, but I take it from what you say, it was more likely the Physios missing the severity of the underlying problems (no offence to Physio's, they are restricted by scientific progression/technology/player communication/club needs/risk management etc.)

You’re on the right track for sure. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s only a matter of time as so much goes into the algorithm that spits out an injury. But in a way, we are often just witnessing events/circumstances that challenge tissue in a way they can’t handle - but realistically should.

I wish I could be more specific with each of the Richmond guys but I don’t have any first-hand insights, just what you can see through social media, watching games, pre-season snapshots etc.

As an aside, I recently saved this image from the Brisbane preseason thread (apologies I can’t remember whose photo it was to credit them).

This looks like part of the rehab group with Coleman and Doedee who I know are coming back from ACL issues. And this may not stand out to most people, but take a look at their shoes.

All of them have really thick heels on the back, which is a recipe for developing ankle stiffness if these runners are shoes they wear often enough throughout the week. The size of the heel is the exact amount of ankle range you aren’t using, so it’s easy to lose over time - covertly behind the scenes.

From what I see clinically, ankle restrictions are often one of the root issues for so much leg dysfunction from Plantar Fasciitis, Achilles pain, shin splints, calf tears, mensical injuries, and certainly something like an ACL injury…

And in an industry that is predominantly pain and weakness-focused, we can easily overlook a boring lack of mobility.

Obviously it’s dangerous to assume too much from a single still image, but this one speaks to things that I find really relevant when trying to figure out why injuries occur.

If that makes sense?

 

[sven_inc]

Where are the latest club injury lists? AFL site still talking about the GF teams.

There’s this one from the Herald Sun if you’re that way inclined!

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/afl-hurt-locker-every-clubs-injury-list-heading-into-2025-season/news-story/0e12a50233bac533ae84aa79c9b38600

 

[G String]

One really interesting part of this conversation for me is most of these "abnormalities" are accrued during a person's non-athletic moments - slouching on a couch watching TV, playing PlayStation with your mates, sitting bored in a team meeting, wearing heeled shoes or thongs etc. We develop these things and then take them into our most dynamic pursuits, and in the right circumstances - genuine fatigue, awkward movements, high-intensity efforts etc, we're left vulnerable.

This has been my amatuer physio theory for the past couple of years. Junior athletes go from 0 to 100 ie its either full training or sitting around playing on the phone/xbox etc. I've been involved in high perf. junior sport for the last 5 years with my son and I see a lot of this and I've def seen a lot more injuries at this time of year compared to days past - especially soft tissue and stress injuries (like shin splints). Back in the day as a junior athlete - time off used to involve being active ie surfing, riding, skateboarding, walking around (with your head up!) etc - of course there was some siting around watching TV but no where near the same amount as todays kids.

Then there the new posture that younger gen is getting by walking or sitting around with their head down looking at devices - must have some influence.

 

[threesixpio]

I'm a Physio, and I've noticed the narrative emerge over the last week or so of an injury "crisis" with several public players going down. (My apologies if there's already a thread on this but I couldn't see one.)

Treloar's out again. Phillipou and Marshall have developed stress fractures. Cumming, Daniel, Wardlaw, Walsh, Ridley etc with hamstrings. Guys like Darcy, Lewis and Gibcus looking overseas for added help with their respective knee injuries. The list seemingly goes on. No new ACL's yet thankfully, though there are plenty of guys on the tail end of their rehab.

I'm also hearing a lot of theories as to why: is pre-season too long? Is it too short with the season starting earlier and earlier? Are players training too hard, or having too much time off (Kane Cornes)? Is it the training surfaces or just all a weird dose of bad luck? Can we even do anything about them or are they just a part of professional football?

Seeing this discussion piqued my interest as someone passionate about uncovering the root cause of pain and injury.

I thought I might be able to share some interesting insights that may be able to help people better understand and digest their team's injury fortunes but perhaps also their own aches and pains.


Essentially, we need to take a step back and shift our perspective to really get to the bottom of why we get injured. It's also important to note that pain and injury is pretty complicated at times, but we can still simplify things a lot.

Currently, I think the public narrative is that what you were doing at the time of injury was the cause of that injury. Phillipou has been running a tonne this pre-season and developed a thigh bone stress fracture - makes sense. Perhaps George Wardlaw was sprinting at training and tore his hammy - sprinting makes. Nick Daicos has overused his Plantar Fascia so it became sore - again, makes sense. And so on.

But for me clinically, the best way to look at the onset of most non-traumatic pain and injury is this:

- It's the last straw, not the start of something new.

When you ping a hamstring, something like sprinting isn't specific enough to explain why your hamstring tore nor why you injured yourself on the one side and not the other. Especially because running and sprinting are normal.

But what these moments do, is that something like sprinting at high speeds and under fatigue is fantastic at exposing hidden underlying dysfunction you didn't realise was already there. Was Wardlaw's back subtly stiffer and tighter on that one side? Was one glute weaker than it should have been? Was there more neural tension going down the back of that leg but who cares because it wasn't painful?

Phillipou's femur didn't develop a stress fracture because he's killing it this pre-season. It happened because that part of his body stopped tolerating something about the way he was loading it up.

Nick Daicos is allowed to work hard and load up his Plantar Fascia - it's how we adapt and improve. But if his back is stiff, his hip flexors tight, or his ankle joint is stiffer than it should be all on that side, does it change the way he loads his entire leg and his PF was the structure that failed?

It's hard to know unless you assess each player individually, but these are the kinds of "abnormalities" that often get exposed by normal things.

One really interesting part of this conversation for me is most of these "abnormalities" are accrued during a person's non-athletic moments - slouching on a couch watching TV, playing PlayStation with your mates, sitting bored in a team meeting, wearing heeled shoes or thongs etc. We develop these things and then take them into our most dynamic pursuits, and in the right circumstances - genuine fatigue, awkward movements, high-intensity efforts etc, we're left vulnerable.

It may be no coincidence that the proportion of a player's work week may involve more downtime over the off-season and pre-season when compared to the routine of the premiership season.

Similarly, when we move beyond the "non-traumatic" accidents and into the more brutal hits and tackles and blunt force traumas, it's still important to respect that there's a level of force that may injure even the most healthy of tissue. But, the more optimal someone is functioning mechanically, the greater our chances of bending and not breaking. It's still important.

But the point I'd like to raise for discussion is that whenever we see an AFL player (or anyone for that matter) become injured, we need to take a step back and consider what they took into that moment - but perhaps didn't realise. It may not be visible to the naked eye, but should reveal itself with the right perspective.

If this is interesting to people, please feel free to throw a name out and I'll lean on my experience as a Physio over the last 20 years to talk generally about what I'd expect their hidden dysfunction to be and how it may have got there.

- Cheers

Also, if anyone is interested, I've gone deeper in the blog post below.

The AFL's Pre-Season Injury Crisis: Are We Missing the Bigger Picture?

The Australian Football League (AFL) is no stranger to injuries, but the number sustained so far this pre-season has many fans and analysts scratching their heads. Whether it be Kangaroo young gun George Wardlaw's high-grade hamstring tear, the trio of long-term injuries to important Saints, Nic...

www.yourwellnessnerd.com

sven_inc is too smart for Bigfooty. Puts us all to shame.

 

[Jim Prideaux]

Great read sven_inc. I suppose a few things that would need to answered form my point of view are;

1. Are there actually more injuries than usual for this time of year?

2. Are clubs more cautious do to the high intensity nature of the modern game - was something they just called a niggle previously now taken more seriously (obviously doesn’t apply to certain injuries)

3. It was a very close season last year, with the 8 very much up in the air until the end. Could some of these be attributed to players who may have otherwise been rested/sent for surgery

4. Have training methods changed dramatically to get that extra 1%, and could that cause some poor methods to creep in?

 

[Ralll]

As an aside, I recently saved this image from the Brisbane preseason thread (apologies I can’t remember whose photo it was to credit them).

This looks like part of the rehab group with Coleman and Doedee who I know are coming back from ACL issues. And this may not stand out to most people, but take a look at their shoes.

All of them have really thick heels on the back, which is a recipe for developing ankle stiffness if these runners are shoes they wear often enough throughout the week. The size of the heel is the exact amount of ankle range you aren’t using, so it’s easy to lose over time - covertly behind the scenes.

From what I see clinically, ankle restrictions are often one of the root issues for so much leg dysfunction from Plantar Fasciitis, Achilles pain, shin splints, calf tears, mensical injuries, and certainly something like an ACL injury…

And in an industry that is predominantly pain and weakness-focused, we can easily overlook a boring lack of mobility.

Obviously it’s dangerous to assume too much from a single still image, but this one speaks to things that I find really relevant when trying to figure out why injuries occur.

If that makes sense?

Why is this not being addressed by the club physios?

 

[sven_inc]

Here’s another example:



Toby Conway has just been ruled out for a bit with a disc injury sustained from a coughing fit - as per Steven King from the Cats.

It makes sense - heaps of people hurt themselves coughing and sneezing, it was obviously what he was doing at the time, so it’s easy to leave it at that.

But consider this:

• Coughing and sneezing is normal
• Discs aren’t fragile - especially those of an AFL footballer whose job is to get stronger and fitter everyday, under the strict guidance of good S&C coaches.

So again, the normal thing (coughing fit) is more likely just exposing something that was vulnerable already.

If someone came to me in the clinic with back pain from a coughing fit, I’d probably expect some variation of the following:

• Their sitting posture sucks. There’s every chance they slouch and hinge through that injured level routinely throughout the day at work, at school, gaming, travelling etc.
• If they’re tall (like Conway), it’s not a tall persons world. There’s every chance they’re forced to slump or slouch more than the average person which can play into the first point even more.
• If they don’t sit much (rare), then the next likely situation could be sustained bent over shapes - working as a chef or at a checkout, etc. once again they’re likely to unknowingly hinge through that exact same now-injured disc, and maybe have done so for however long without realising.

At the end of the day, putting the blame on the coughing fit lacks the necessary perspective to understand what really set it up to fail, and decreases the chances well actually solve it forever.

Hope that makes sense

 

[sven_inc]

This has been my amatuer physio theory for the past couple of years. Junior athletes go from 0 to 100 ie its either full training or sitting around playing on the phone/xbox etc. I've been involved in high perf. junior sport for the last 5 years with my son and I see a lot of this and I've def seen a lot more injuries at this time of year compared to days past - especially soft tissue and stress injuries (like shin splints). Back in the day as a junior athlete - time off used to involve being active ie surfing, riding, skateboarding, walking around (with your head up!) etc - of course there was some siting around watching TV but no where near the same amount as todays kids.

Then there the new posture that younger gen is getting by walking or sitting around with their head down looking at devices - must have some influence.

You’re speaking my language mate!

 

[sven_inc]

sven_inc is too smart for Bigfooty. Puts us all to shame.

Definitely not too smart, just a huge nerd about this kind of thing with my patients.

 

[sven_inc]

Why is this not being addressed by the club physios?

I’m not sure. I want to stop short of saying it isn’t because I respect how good they are, how challenging the job is, and how complicated pain and injuries tend to be. I’m not on the inside so I can’t really speak to their protocols and focuses, just what mine are.

I’d love to work with a club to figure out what they might be missing (and vice versa), as most of the answers I think we are looking for aren’t overly complicated. They just need a certain perspective to see clearly.

 

[Ralll]

I'm a Physio, and I've noticed the narrative emerge over the last week or so of an injury "crisis" with several public players going down. (My apologies if there's already a thread on this but I couldn't see one.)

Treloar's out again. Phillipou and Marshall have developed stress fractures. Cumming, Daniel, Wardlaw, Walsh, Ridley etc with hamstrings. Guys like Darcy, Lewis and Gibcus looking overseas for added help with their respective knee injuries. The list seemingly goes on. No new ACL's yet thankfully, though there are plenty of guys on the tail end of their rehab.

I'm also hearing a lot of theories as to why: is pre-season too long? Is it too short with the season starting earlier and earlier? Are players training too hard, or having too much time off (Kane Cornes)? Is it the training surfaces or just all a weird dose of bad luck? Can we even do anything about them or are they just a part of professional football?

Seeing this discussion piqued my interest as someone passionate about uncovering the root cause of pain and injury.

I thought I might be able to share some interesting insights that may be able to help people better understand and digest their team's injury fortunes but perhaps also their own aches and pains.


Essentially, we need to take a step back and shift our perspective to really get to the bottom of why we get injured. It's also important to note that pain and injury is pretty complicated at times, but we can still simplify things a lot.

Currently, I think the public narrative is that what you were doing at the time of injury was the cause of that injury. Phillipou has been running a tonne this pre-season and developed a thigh bone stress fracture - makes sense. Perhaps George Wardlaw was sprinting at training and tore his hammy - sprinting makes. Nick Daicos has overused his Plantar Fascia so it became sore - again, makes sense. And so on.

But for me clinically, the best way to look at the onset of most non-traumatic pain and injury is this:

- It's the last straw, not the start of something new.

When you ping a hamstring, something like sprinting isn't specific enough to explain why your hamstring tore nor why you injured yourself on the one side and not the other. Especially because running and sprinting are normal.

But what these moments do, is that something like sprinting at high speeds and under fatigue is fantastic at exposing hidden underlying dysfunction you didn't realise was already there. Was Wardlaw's back subtly stiffer and tighter on that one side? Was one glute weaker than it should have been? Was there more neural tension going down the back of that leg but who cares because it wasn't painful?

Phillipou's femur didn't develop a stress fracture because he's killing it this pre-season. It happened because that part of his body stopped tolerating something about the way he was loading it up.

Nick Daicos is allowed to work hard and load up his Plantar Fascia - it's how we adapt and improve. But if his back is stiff, his hip flexors tight, or his ankle joint is stiffer than it should be all on that side, does it change the way he loads his entire leg and his PF was the structure that failed?

It's hard to know unless you assess each player individually, but these are the kinds of "abnormalities" that often get exposed by normal things.

One really interesting part of this conversation for me is most of these "abnormalities" are accrued during a person's non-athletic moments - slouching on a couch watching TV, playing PlayStation with your mates, sitting bored in a team meeting, wearing heeled shoes or thongs etc. We develop these things and then take them into our most dynamic pursuits, and in the right circumstances - genuine fatigue, awkward movements, high-intensity efforts etc, we're left vulnerable.

It may be no coincidence that the proportion of a player's work week may involve more downtime over the off-season and pre-season when compared to the routine of the premiership season.

Similarly, when we move beyond the "non-traumatic" accidents and into the more brutal hits and tackles and blunt force traumas, it's still important to respect that there's a level of force that may injure even the most healthy of tissue. But, the more optimal someone is functioning mechanically, the greater our chances of bending and not breaking. It's still important.

But the point I'd like to raise for discussion is that whenever we see an AFL player (or anyone for that matter) become injured, we need to take a step back and consider what they took into that moment - but perhaps didn't realise. It may not be visible to the naked eye, but should reveal itself with the right perspective.

If this is interesting to people, please feel free to throw a name out and I'll lean on my experience as a Physio over the last 20 years to talk generally about what I'd expect their hidden dysfunction to be and how it may have got there.

- Cheers

Also, if anyone is interested, I've gone deeper in the blog post below.

The AFL's Pre-Season Injury Crisis: Are We Missing the Bigger Picture?

The Australian Football League (AFL) is no stranger to injuries, but the number sustained so far this pre-season has many fans and analysts scratching their heads. Whether it be Kangaroo young gun George Wardlaw's high-grade hamstring tear, the trio of long-term injuries to important Saints, Nic...

www.yourwellnessnerd.com

A particularly interesting pre-season drill for the players . . . they are running with their hands on hips.

“The reality is that if you watch our guys play, they’re not using their arm swing much when they’re running, they’re calling for the ball,”.

“So, (it’s about) getting them strong, hips down and running well there.

“Let’s do that and make sure they can operate their upper body separate to their lower body.”

A good innovative idea, or putting stress on all the wrong parts without the arm swing?

 

[sven_inc]

A particularly interesting pre-season drill for the players . . . they are running with their hands on hips.

“The reality is that if you watch our guys play, they’re not using their arm swing much when they’re running, they’re calling for the ball,”.

“So, (it’s about) getting them strong, hips down and running well there.

“Let’s do that and make sure they can operate their upper body separate to their lower body.”

A good innovative idea, or putting stress on all the wrong parts without the arm swing?

A good innovative idea for me.

If someone hurts themselves because they can't run with their hands on their hips they probably have bigger issues going on.

I listened to his interview on the Talking Tigers Pod and he sounds like he's doing a great job with them.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Footy used to be a genuine winter sport. For the first 50-60 years of the league the season began in the last week of April. When the league expanded to 22 games it started on the weekend that transitioned March/April and as late as 2015 the season's first match was Thursday April 2.

Basically, for the entire transition from 'bunch of plumbers and dentists playing footy on the weekend' to 'fully professional elite athletic competition', there was a standard model for pre-season training which boiled down to 'rest up and don't get fat' before Christmas, then a full 3 month run in the new year.

Then in a very short window the AFL added a pre-finals bye, and brought the start date FORWARD. Then it added a 'gather round' and brought the start date FORWARD. Then it added an opening round and brought the start date FORWARD. Last year, we played our first real match in Brisbane on 5th March - that's a full month earlier than just a decade before.

March, in Melbourne, is objectively summer. It's part of a 4-month run where the average high temperature is 24+. In April the temperature drops to 21, and by May it is 17. Even the local Aboriginal people, who observed 6 seasons, grouped it as one of their 3 summer seasons late Feb-March was 'Eel Season', hot and dry and the time when eels migrate down the now dry rivers), then observed 'Wombat Season', which was the winter and ran April-August (hmmm... basically the old footy season).

It means two things:

• pre-season training routines ingrained in players and officials across 2-3 generations of footy are no longer appropriate. There's a full month less - less recovery AND less time to train and get ready for the year
• the first month of the season now takes place in Summer. Hotter weather = harder grounds, more fatigue and more dehydration

It's a bad combination. There's no doubt that footy injuries are tied to fatigue and overexertion and that the combination of 'just finished a heavy building load' and 'playing matches at full intensity' is particularly bad for this.

It's interesting to me that last year's premiers, Brisbane, stated the year atrociously (0-3 and then 2-5, with 3 losses at home) and seem to have just used the first month as an extended preseason. I think this is the model we should be copying (particularly if we have Richmond = a guaranteed round 1 win. Just use that as a practice match, punt the next couple, and start the real season at 1-3 or 2-2).

There's absolutely no reason IMO for the AFL to be playing in March, at all. Pushing the finals back into October would be much better IMO, with the GF at the end of October. That might impact on First Class cricket... but cricket is also ripe to negotiate for new season start and end dates (their current Sheffield Shield system of 'playing October-November, taking a break for Big Bash in December-January, then returning for Feb and March' is just stupid. And, hate to say it, Sheffield Shield cricket doesn't need the MCG....

Footy used to be a genuine winter sport. For the first 50-60 years of the league the season began in the last week of April. When the league expanded to 22 games it started on the weekend that transitioned March/April and as late as 2015 the season's first match was Thursday April 2.

Basically, for the entire transition from 'bunch of plumbers and dentists playing footy on the weekend' to 'fully professional elite athletic competition', there was a standard model for pre-season training which boiled down to 'rest up and don't get fat' before Christmas, then a full 3 month run in the new year.

Then in a very short window the AFL added a pre-finals bye, and brought the start date FORWARD. Then it added a 'gather round' and brought the start date FORWARD. Then it added an opening round and brought the start date FORWARD. Last year, we played our first real match in Brisbane on 5th March - that's a full month earlier than just a decade before.

March, in Melbourne, is objectively summer. It's part of a 4-month run where the average high temperature is 24+. In April the temperature drops to 21, and by May it is 17. Even the local Aboriginal people, who observed 6 seasons, grouped it as one of their 3 summer seasons late Feb-March was 'Eel Season', hot and dry and the time when eels migrate down the now dry rivers), then observed 'Wombat Season', which was the winter and ran April-August (hmmm... basically the old footy season).

It means two things:

• pre-season training routines ingrained in players and officials across 2-3 generations of footy are no longer appropriate. There's a full month less - less recovery AND less time to train and get ready for the year
• the first month of the season now takes place in Summer. Hotter weather = harder grounds, more fatigue and more dehydration

It's a bad combination. There's no doubt that footy injuries are tied to fatigue and overexertion and that the combination of 'just finished a heavy building load' and 'playing matches at full intensity' is particularly bad for this.

It's interesting to me that last year's premiers, Brisbane, stated the year atrociously (0-3 and then 2-5, with 3 losses at home) and seem to have just used the first month as an extended preseason. I think this is the model we should be copying (particularly if we have Richmond = a guaranteed round 1 win. Just use that as a practice match, punt the next couple, and start the real season at 1-3 or 2-2).

There's absolutely no reason IMO for the AFL to be playing in March, at all. Pushing the finals back into October would be much better IMO, with the GF at the end of October. That might impact on First Class cricket... but cricket is also ripe to negotiate for new season start and end dates (their current Sheffield Shield system of 'playing October-November, taking a break for Big Bash in December-January, then returning for Feb and March' is just stupid. And, hate to say it, Sheffield Shield cricket doesn't need the MCG....

I made a thread on this absolute madness.

Roast - We've got the season wrong and it needs to change now

Interesting day at the MCG today. 74k baked in the sun in 29deg weather. If you're unfortunate enough to be on the southern side of the ground, it's certainly not comfortable in direct sunlight. In fact, it's downright unhealthy given what medical science now knows. Out on the field, the last...

www.bigfooty.com

March is 4-6deg warmer across the board than October.

The AFL has expanded into March (and now into Feb) when it should be playing in October.

The first cricket that requires major stadiums is the test series and that doesn’t start until the end of November.

It’s craziness.

And it goes to all levels. Cricket / footy ground shares across the country are Apr - Sep (footy) and Oct - Mar (cricket).

They should also be pushed back a month. Last year there were practice matches taking place all across the country in 39deg weather in March. Madness.

It makes no sense. Unless somebody just hasn’t noticed it, which makes no sense, you’d think it’s the influence of the racing industry (which has very very long tentacles) who do not want to share October with footy finals.

 

[sven_inc]

I made a thread on this absolute madness.

Roast - We've got the season wrong and it needs to change now

Interesting day at the MCG today. 74k baked in the sun in 29deg weather. If you're unfortunate enough to be on the southern side of the ground, it's certainly not comfortable in direct sunlight. In fact, it's downright unhealthy given what medical science now knows. Out on the field, the last...

www.bigfooty.com

March is 4-6deg warmer across the board than October.

The AFL has expanded into March (and now into Feb) when it should be playing in October.

The first cricket that requires major stadiums is the test series and that doesn’t start until the end of November.

It’s craziness.

And it goes to all levels. Cricket / footy ground shares across the country are Apr - Sep (footy) and Oct - Mar (cricket).

They should also be pushed back a month. Last year there were practice matches taking place all across the country in 39deg weather in March. Madness.

It makes no sense. Unless somebody just hasn’t noticed it, which makes no sense, you’d think it’s the influence of the racing industry (which has very very long tentacles) who do not want to share October with footy finals.

I think that’s a perfectly valid argument, but at the end of the day the heat should just make the players mentally and physically more fatigued.

It’s not necessarily a specific enough external factor to define why a player’s right calf tears and not their left, or why it was their calf in the first place.

The heat should always be factored into recovery and the like, but it’s just another normal (albeit extreme) thing that may expose what an athlete took into those circumstances.

 

[sven_inc]

So I see that Tom Green has unfortunately been hit with a calf tear and is out for the next 4-6 weeks.



Again, it's hard to know what the exact mechanism was - although most likely some form of running/sprinting etc. It's also hard to know what the underlying root cause of his specific calf tear was as an outsider.

However, as someone who has performed a deep dive on many calf tears over the years, my experiences have highlighted two main issues that typically set a calf up to fail:

1. Ankle joint stiffness
2. Lower back dysfunction

Both of these fundamentally change the way we load the calf, and if exposed to enough repetition, load, fatigue, intensity etc, it can fail.

Interestingly, Tom suffered a nasty ankle injury about 6 months ago:



I'm not sure which calf he has torn this time around and whether it's on the same side as the ankle he injured last year (it may not be), but any leftover ankle joint stiffness from an injury like this would be high on my list of potential suspects. Previous ankle sprains, history of heeled shoes, thongs etc would also be up there as suspects.

Coincidentally, I just happened to watch a recent episode of Tom's podcast. And while watching, I couldn't help but notice how poor Tom's sitting posture is (below). This isn't to say that he sits this poorly all the time, but if this is a true reflection of how slouched he allows himself to be, then this would again be high on my list of issues to explore as a cause of underlying back dysfunction.



The more often he sits and slouches through specific parts of his back, the more likely these areas are to become stiff, tight, overloaded, and dysfunctional. If these same levels influence the neural tissue that runs through his calf, or prompt the calf itself to tighten/weaken, then again - these are the kinds of things that I find clinically set a calf up to fail when it does.

As always, none of this is to suggest anyone at GWS is doing a bad job, nor a slight on Tom at all. But these are just high-profile examples of what I find to be true clinically.

 

[sven_inc]

Well a lot seems to have changed in the two weeks since I updated this thread!

Bont (calf), Butters (knee), Jagga Smith (ACL), Pittonet (calf), Weller (hammy), Stringer (hammy), Smillie (hammy), Owens (shoulder), Lombard (shoulder), Mills (plantar fasciitis), Gulden (ankle), Richards (calf) etc are just some of the more prominent names to suffer injuries.

Seems like a few more calves than usual at this time of the year!

 

[sven_inc]

Since Sunday, Nick Daicos' cramping in his left calf and upper thigh has garnered considerable coverage.

He received extensive treatment for these areas, including pickle juice, but he couldn't get going in the second half.

Clinically, what interests me about cramps is that although they are not technically injuries, they still express the same concepts we've already discussed.

Hydration, electrolyte imbalances, lack of conditioning, etc, are often blamed as the cause. Yet each of these is not specific enough to explain why one calf muscle cramped and not the other. If Nick was low on electrolytes, then his whole body is low on electrolytes, not just his left calf.

He's also widely regarded as one of the fittest players at Collingwood, even though his pre-season may be a little limited from his plantar fascia issue early days. Again, why was it his left calf and not both. Even if it was both, why was it his calves and not his hammies or quads, or the little muscles that make up the foot?

For me clinically, cramping is an expression of lower back dysfunction at the level that supplies the cramped muscle in question. Hydration, electrolytes, fitness, etc, just expose that dysfunction.

Similarly, we also see cramping at an all-time high earlier in the preseason rather than later in the season. Again, for me, I see this as a consequence of the off-season. Sitting travelling, less routine around training and more downtime for potential sitting - likely in a less than ideal posture.

From what I see clinically, it would make more sense that Daicos' sitting load - both how he does it and how often he does it leading up to the away game in Sydney - including travel, sitting in team meetings, etc, likely had more to do with why his legs cramped. Again, it's easy to sound like a know-it-all with these kinds of posts, especially considering there's no inside info here, but this same potential back dysfunction may have also contributed to the onset of his Plantar Fasciitis from earlier this pre-season.

If we keep landing on conditioning and electrolytes and heat as the cause of things like cramps, then, based on my experience, we'll never get any closer to solving them completely.

 

[Ralll]

sven_inc​

Are there any circumstances where multiple injuries within a team have been attributed to their fitness regime? ie. the specific fitness drills, lack of conditioning or too much conditioning etc?

 

[strand_victor]

Geelong have no Injuries they must be doing something Different to Everyone Else.

 

[maskmcgee]

I fell like this happens every year or two, a preseason 'injury crisis' that's actually just normal.

 

[sven_inc]

sven_inc​

Are there any circumstances where multiple injuries within a team have been attributed to their fitness regime? ie. the specific fitness drills, lack of conditioning or too much conditioning etc?

Unfortunately, it’s not really a question I can answer as an outside observer.

I’m sure there would be some that are blamed on a training or ground surface for example, but as mentioned we need to work a bit more broadly to understand what specific fitness drills, conditioning and surfaces are actually exposing underneath.

And, more importantly, what’s caused those hidden underlying issues.

 

[sven_inc]

Geelong have no Injuries they must be doing something Different to Everyone Else.

They must be ticking some boxes better than other teams by the sounds of it. One interesting question is to ask whether they are nailing these hidden underlying mechanical dysfunctions better than other teams, or the way they train/play is better at respecting and not exposing them.

Hopefully it’s the former!