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Player Watch Jeremy Howe

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Unfortunately his body is failing him. Time to hang up the boots.

Maybe the best we can hope for is being sub in the GF if we make it.
Why on earth would he retire now when he still has a chance to play in a big final?
 

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It’s two groin injuries in a short time span. If this happened in the middle of the year, he would be looking at atleast 6 weeks of recovery time to make sure there is no future risk of reinjuring it.

It is huge risk playing him in any game in the finals.
 
It’s two groin injuries in a short time span. If this happened in the middle of the year, he would be looking at atleast 6 weeks of recovery time to make sure there is no future risk of reinjuring it.

It is huge risk playing him in any game in the finals.
Sure, but what’s the risk of NOT playing him?
 
He ain't playing again this year. We just have to accept it.
Why, when his timeline suggests he could play in a prelim? I mean, Nick missed Melbourne QF in 2023 and we didn’t write him off… seemed an asset on GF day!
 

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We won’t have to worry about a player not making it to the 3rd quarter and playing a man down in defense.
That’s been discussed already. I’m talking about the opportunity cost of not playing him.
 
We don't have to accept it at all. If we get through, he's in our best 22 and you risk playing him as he's still a vital cog in our backline.
But you don’t run that risk in finals. Especially when it is a player who has had back to back groin injuries in the two full games he has started.

There are always hard luck injury stories in the finals every year because teams will not play a player if there is a chance they are going to get injured again .

It not like howe had a groin early in the season and then another one towards the end, which in itself would be problematic but you could be reasonably confident that he will respond to the rehab.

Given he had two consecutive groin injuries, there is no guarantee the rehab will be effective given the short time frame.
 
That’s been discussed already. I’m talking about the opportunity cost of not playing him.
our entire game doesn’t hinge on his presence, the coaching staff can modify the system and build a game winning plan that revolves around the players we do have.

We were within a goal of beating gc,freo and Adelaide. So it can be done without howe.
 

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our entire game doesn’t hinge on his presence, the coaching staff can modify the system and build a game winning plan that revolves around the players we do have.

We were within a goal of beating gc,freo and Adelaide. So it can be done without howe.
Sweet, I look forward to being within a goal of winning a finals match too.
 
Finishing top 4 at least gives us a 2nd opportunity to make a Prelim should we not take the first.

Like our season Howe still has a pulse and a chance of returning in what would be 4 weeks time.
 
Howe's injuries highlight just how dependent we are on him and Darcy Moore, too.

Murphy's been gone for two years and we haven't prioritised recruitment of an A-grade (or even B-grade) replacement, which may now prove very costly. The idea that Reef McInnes, who had failed as a midfielder and failed as a forward, would magically be the answer was a pipe-dream. I'm a fan of both Schultz and Houston but gee, we needed a top-tier key defender more than either of them.

Look at the Hawks by comparison. They identified a similar deficiency and went out and recruited Battle and Barras. Bang, bang, problem solved.

Our pursuit of Silvagni shows that our list managers have now woken up but it's at least one season too late.
 
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Player Watch Jeremy Howe

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