Johnson suspension a blessing

[DanA]

Watching Johnson all year, as productive as he's been, for me he's not looked 100%.

To me his workrate has been slightly down and he's compensated for his lack of fitness by playing for more more frees and making the most of the opportunities he gets (which is definately less than when he was at his best). I think it might be due to a poor preseason. His surgery and slow recovery meant he didn't get his body right to put in the hard yards like he did in 2007.

A month on the sidelines and only a hand injury to contend with might allow him a mini preseason to get his fitness 100%. A round 18 return should give him enough time to recapture his form and hopefully we have a fit and firing Johnson for the finals series.

 

[TMS]

I'm not sorry to see him with a few weeks off either, for the points you mention. He's kicked us some handy goals in recent weeks, but I don't think a few weeks rest will do him any harm.

It's going to make things difficult against our next three opponents - but we had to find ways to win without him last year too.

 

[thegerman]

I agree that he has been down. He seems to want to do the extraordinary instead of the easy stuff. Taking marks on the chest instead of out front is a primary example of this. The amount of dropped easy marks was very alarming.

I'd like to say that he shouldn't hit back as usually you get a worse penalty, but, there was little else he could do without support from the Umps.

That's something that should be said, the reason why games such as this get lost in the violence or gets out of control is due to the umpires loss of control. All that would have been needed was the off-field ump to come on and award some free kicks and it would have been stopped. Especially if they awarded frees right in front of goal.

 

[isen river]

Watching Johnson all year, as productive as he's been, for me he's not looked 100%.

To me his workrate has been slightly down and he's compensated for his lack of fitness by playing for more more frees and making the most of the opportunities he gets (which is definately less than when he was at his best). I think it might be due to a poor preseason. His surgery and slow recovery meant he didn't get his body right to put in the hard yards like he did in 2007.

A month on the sidelines and only a hand injury to contend with might allow him a mini preseason to get his fitness 100%. A round 18 return should give him enough time to recapture his form and hopefully we have a fit and firing Johnson for the finals series.

Yeah if your going to get an injury a hand one is probably the best case scenario. He should benefit a lot from this.

 

[Archangel]

I'm not sorry to see him with a few weeks off either, for the points you mention. He's kicked us some handy goals in recent weeks, but I don't think a few weeks rest will do him any harm.

It's going to make things difficult against our next three opponents - but we had to find ways to win without him last year too.

Haven't we got;

- Kangaroos(h)
- Hawthorn(a)
- Adelaide(a)

a). We'll thump North
b). Scarlet will handle Buddy; game over!
c). Adelaide please

We'll be fine

 

[maryjames]

Yep its the break he needed. No pun intended.

 

[TMS]

Haven't we got;

- Kangaroos(h)
- Hawthorn(a)
- Adelaide(a)

a). We'll thump North
b). Scarlet will handle Buddy; game over!
c). Adelaide please

We'll be fine

Oh, yeah - must have misread the fixture. Hawthorn is the big worry though.

 

[Pure_Ownage]

I think it is a bit of a blessing in disguise so long as we can still win the next 3 games, which will be tough (especially the hawks game). Like Varcoe and his thumb injury, he won't lose conditioning and the break now will ensure he's fresh for the run to the finals.

 

[Beth]

Does anyone know if the club is following the same training load as last year? From memory didn't we go into a heavy training period about now which made everyone look a little sluggish and out of it for a few weeks. I'm hoping for another Bart "Cummingsesque" run this year!