Fitness

[judd5]

Does anybody else on this board think that fitness is a major issue at our club?
In both matches that we have played this year, we have started the game very well, and then dropped off, getting worse as the game carries on.
Last year, i think that we lost about 6 games by small margins, and the only close game that we won was that game against Essendon. I know some people will come out and say that we tanked, but if we could have even won half of those close games that we lost last year, then we would have moved quite a few spots up the ladder.
You would think that the club would have made it a priority to get fit over the pre season, but it seems as though it just hasn't happened again from the two games that we have played this season.
What does everybody else think???

 

[Pamam]

we just havent hit the season as hard as the past few.

in past years we were at peak fitness at round 1 and faded by end of the year!!

this year we are going for a different approach, by having a solid fitness base from round 1 but to hit peak mid year or a little earlier, meaning we should be competing a lot more in the 2nd half of the season

its harder to maintain your peak for 22 rounds rather than looking to hit your peak somewhere within the next month!!

 

[judd5]

Every other side seems to be able to maintain a good level of fitness for the whole year. We can't be a finals side by being fit for half of the H&A season, we good enough to make it playing good footy for half a season.

 

[Faz 2000]

I think our biggest issue, aside from being young and inexperienced, is not working hard enough. I'm not sure whether that's fitness-driven or not, but we're not running hard enough to create space or go forward in numbers when we have the ball, nor hard enough to tackle/harass or get back to half back in defence.

 

[Pamam]

Every other side seems to be able to maintain a good level of fitness for the whole year. We can't be a finals side by being fit for half of the H&A season, we good enough to make it playing good footy for half a season.

i beg to differ!!

you will find teams like Bombers, Richmond possibly Saints and maybe even pies start to fade after around round 15.

maybe even the doggies!!

whether its by not running out the game as much or more soft tissue injuries occur or other teams just seem to match them and go beyond there fitness after peaking later!!

 

[judd5]

i beg to differ!!

you will find teams like Bombers, Richmond possibly Saints and maybe even pies start to fade after around round 15.

maybe even the doggies!!

whether its by not running out the game as much or more soft tissue injuries occur or other teams just seem to match them and go beyond there fitness after peaking later!!

Then how does a team like Geelong win 21 of their last 22 games including finals and not drop off at all?
If it is that our team has a poor work rate then that is probably an even bigger issue than us not being fit.

 

[Pamam]

Then how does a team like Geelong win 21 of their last 22 games including finals and not drop off at all?
If it is that our team has a poor work rate then that is probably an even bigger issue than us not being fit.

one benefit the cats have and other teams is a great list of depth and also a low injury rate

when u get to have 2 to 3 solid pre-seasons with no injuries, your fitness base will increase to where even your teams underdone fitness is higher than a peak blues fitness!!

something that the cats have over every team!

plus as u get older, body maturity allows for you to maintain your fitness over the year a lot easier.

Cats have a great mature list and players like Barte, ablett etc etc can be underdone but still have a better base fitness than someone like a Jackson peak fitness.

plus workrate will come as we get fitter over the next month!!

hopefully i have explained that alright!!

 

[RiCHii]

its evident that we have poor fitness. We come out after the half time break and we'v ran out of legs

 

[Kenneth_]

The whole carlton side has shocking fitness but as time goes on this will be one area im sure they will develop in. Our fittest player is probaly is carrazzo as many ppl may of seen he ran something like 16kms against richmond which is a fair bit. We seem to come out every 1st qtr and fire straight away and do good but we rapidly lose our fitness and football smarts to not always attack but to just hold the ball up at times to let our players get there breath back a little bit. We are a very young side and we all have to be patient with the blues.

 

[bluesforever]

Another thread giving it to Carlton... I don't think fitness is the issue, I think it's our skill level that has let us down in the 2 openers. Hopefully without Lucas we should account for Essendon to stop these sort of threads for a little while, every time I jump on BF now there is someone else having a go about something. I just wish everyone could try staying positive for a little bit longer, give them a couple of weeks before jumping all over em'.

 

[BlueYoss]

IMO I think the lack of leadership at Carlton is also affecting our fitness this year.

I'm not sure if anyone saw Kerr and Cox on Footy Classified late last year when they were talking about the gut busting running that the WC mids do -so many of them run so hard. Kerr explained that when he came to the club he would just try to emulate Cousins' work rate and running all pre-season, as did all their mids. This is no doubt why Judd stands out to us for his professionalism in his pre-season and preparation and all that running he was doing coming back from injury.

Unfortunately this pre-season he was coming back from injury and wasn't training with the rest of the group, but I'm excited to think that next year Murph, Gibbs, Kreuze etc. will have a respected role model like Judd to try and keep up with a full Judd pre-season and finally learn what real gut busting running means -will be a very different story to what we have experienced until now with former 'leaders' to whom pre-season was for drinking and partying and the home and away season was for developing match fitness.

 

[HBF]

It should also be worth noting that our 2 main prime movers in the midfield are coming back from serious injuries, and they will take some time to get back to where they want to be. Add to that, Hadley and Hampson have also had surgery from which they are recovering from.

 

[BlueYoss]

It should also be worth noting that our 2 main prime movers in the midfield are coming back from serious injuries, and they will take some time to get back to where they want to be. Add to that, Hadley and Hampson have also had surgery from which they are recovering from.

I don't buy that Stevens is not at full running capacity because he's coming back from injury. I can understand him not being match fit and that may need some time to adjust to AFL footy, to 'blow out the cobwebs', but not that he's lacking running capacity. How many articles did we read last year about all the running he was doing until he was allowed to do lateral movement, and then skills but no contact? All the talk of how his pre-season started a few months earlier than everyone else's and how he will have a great head start on his runnning base by the time the rest of the team starts pre-season training...

 

[bibi01]

induvidually our guys would be as fit as every other team.
BUT
our percieved poor fitness goes hand in hand with our poor skill level.

when you skills are good, you look good, you move the ball quick and in turn the players look quick.

by using the ball efficienetly it means you don't have to do as much 'chasing'
your opponent is chasing you rather than you chasing your opponent and anyone who has players sport knows it is much easier to be chased rather than dong the chasing.

poor fitness means your skills will drop off quicker,
poor skill means you will use up more energy and your fitness looks poor
and the cycle continues on and on.

we need to get our skills right- this is our biggest problem.

 

[as0l0]

we need to get our skills right- this is our biggest problem.

i guess we just have to be patient....

 

[bibi01]

i guess we just have to be patient....

or the players can use some initiative and do something about it.......... as they say practice makes perfect
although we are guns on the playstation and sipping lattee's.

 

[Jimthegreat]

Does anybody else on this board think that fitness is a major issue at our club?
In both matches that we have played this year, we have started the game very well, and then dropped off, getting worse as the game carries on.
Last year, i think that we lost about 6 games by small margins, and the only close game that we won was that game against Essendon. I know some people will come out and say that we tanked, but if we could have even won half of those close games that we lost last year, then we would have moved quite a few spots up the ladder.
You would think that the club would have made it a priority to get fit over the pre season, but it seems as though it just hasn't happened again from the two games that we have played this season.
What does everybody else think???

If you go in with players with interrupted pre-season you won't be up and going like the opposition. Especially when they're your gun players like Judd, Stevens, Fev as well as others. Can't get fit if they can't train. as For last year, we didn't want to finish higher up the ladder. When we were winning late in games we took our guns off, in other words we tanked. and before that, remember who our coach was.

 

[Jimthegreat]

I don't buy that Stevens is not at full running capacity because he's coming back from injury. I can understand him not being match fit and that may need some time to adjust to AFL footy, to 'blow out the cobwebs', but not that he's lacking running capacity. How many articles did we read last year about all the running he was doing until he was allowed to do lateral movement, and then skills but no contact? All the talk of how his pre-season started a few months earlier than everyone else's and how he will have a great head start on his runnning base by the time the rest of the team starts pre-season training...

Remember he lost a few weeks leading up during the NAB pre-season. Doesn't take much to lose your fitness and touch.

 

[BlueYoss]

Remember he lost a few weeks leading up during the NAB pre-season. Doesn't take much to lose your fitness and touch.

I do remember, he missed the NAB Challenge matches vs WC in NT and vs WB at PP, but from memory he also played for the Ants the week prior to round 1, so he only missed 1 game, and I find it very hard to believe that after all those extra months of running, one or even two weeks missed could set him that far behind.

 

[bakerboy]

Does anybody else on this board think that fitness is a major issue at our club?
In both matches that we have played this year, we have started the game very well, and then dropped off, getting worse as the game carries on.
Last year, i think that we lost about 6 games by small margins, and the only close game that we won was that game against Essendon. I know some people will come out and say that we tanked, but if we could have even won half of those close games that we lost last year, then we would have moved quite a few spots up the ladder.
You would think that the club would have made it a priority to get fit over the pre season, but it seems as though it just hasn't happened again from the two games that we have played this season.
What does everybody else think???

It's not fitness it's decision making?
We turn the ball over then we are all out of posistion and it looks like we don't man up.
Teams like Geelong maintain posession and score.
That's why Ratt's game plan looks ordinary and they over use the pill,he is slowly trying to teach the players to control the footy and dictate the terms.

 

[judd5]

It's not fitness it's decision making?
We turn the ball over then we are all out of posistion and it looks like we don't man up.
Teams like Geelong maintain posession and score.
That's why Ratt's game plan looks ordinary and they over use the pill,he is slowly trying to teach the players to control the footy and dictate the terms.

Then why does our decison making get worse as the game goes along?

 

[bakerboy]

Then why does our decison making get worse as the game goes along?

Because if you keep chasing tail all day you run out of puff,we need to get our hands on the footy and control it.
It also breaks your spirit if you keep turning the pill over

 

[Bluebear]

I have heard a number of guys on SEN (AFL players, Sam Mitchel being one) who all say they think it takes about 4-5 pre-seasons to get full "run" in your legs to be able to run out 4 quarters for the whole year.

Looking at our team from the first two rounds, those with 3 seasons or less, or those returning from injury and not at full fitness:
Murphy, Gibbs, Judd (inj), Hadley (inj), Grigg, O'hAilpin (ill), Bower, Hampson, Hartlett (inj), Stevens (inj), Pfeiffer, Edwards, Jamison.

Most are under the 4 years of pre-seasons and many with interrupted pre-seasons.

The ones with injuries will tend to get better, but those younger ones will still tend to fade. We have to be patient. Another couple of years.

In the mean time we still shouldn't be fading in the second and third quarters. That's a mental thing, not fitness.