Roast Our medical team / Injury prevention and conditioning staff

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Long Live the King

Premiership Player
Feb 24, 2009
3,351
3,129
AFL Club
North Melbourne
So the cleanout suggests either the injury stats are damning / fitness levels too low / fresh set of eyes wants a fresh start / fresh set of eyes didn't like what it saw/ All of the above.
 
Jun 9, 2001
37,651
145,100
Fogarty Street
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North Melbourne
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Players were funding it themselves. It was an opportunity for them to go watch some American sports while they were up there too. God knows why you'd want to watch them but it seems like a lot of young males go through a phase of thinking it's awesome.

Lol re the bolded.

As much as I don't gel with a lot of the Scott era, I think the Utah trip when it was done in full (not dribs and drabs of the list) actually worked well.

Getting a large group of players over together in that environment would be huge for helping develop the team dynamic. The setting being so different (snow and mountains) would be a nice mental variation in which to load up lots of conditioning too.

And Scott's premise of "teaching them a professional athletic lifestyle" in theory wasn't a bad aim. I think they began Utah circa 2010 and there was a period of 3-4 following that showed incremental improvement.

By 2014+ it seemed to slip back to an opt-in setup and maybe overall looser strandards. There's only a rough correlation between the Utah trips and improvement in the next couple of seasons but I think the structure, travel and focused training probably helped gavalnise the group.
 

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Kangaroos techno

Premiership Player
Feb 4, 2021
3,346
10,255
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Lol re the bolded.

As much as I don't gel with a lot of the Scott era, I think the Utah trip when it was done in full (not dribs and drabs of the list) actually worked well.

Getting a large group of players over together in that environment would be huge for helping develop the team dynamic. The setting being so different (snow and mountains) would be a nice mental variation in which to load up lots of conditioning too.

And Scott's premise of "teaching them a professional athletic lifestyle" in theory wasn't a bad aim. I think they began Utah circa 2010 and there was a period of 3-4 following that showed incremental improvement.

By 2014+ it seemed to slip back to an opt-in setup and maybe overall looser strandards. There's only a rough correlation between the Utah trips and improvement in the next couple of seasons but I think the structure, travel and focused training probably helped gavalnise the group.
Couldn't agree more.
 

The Lone Latic

Glutton for Punishment
Oct 8, 2011
1,351
2,665
Watching the Latics fail repeatedly
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North Melbourne
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I might be remembering it wrongly but whenever they put out pre season reports it always seemed like any new recruits we brought in from other clubs seemed to top or be near the top of the charts? For some weird reason Kasey Green popped into my head when the conversation turned to Utah as I thought it was reported that he was one of the best performers there (I could be completely remembering this incorrectly though)
 
Oct 16, 2004
11,083
39,453
The Gasometer
AFL Club
North Melbourne
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Kangaroos
I might be remembering it wrongly but whenever they put out pre season reports it always seemed like any new recruits we brought in from other clubs seemed to top or be near the top of the charts? For some weird reason Kasey Green popped into my head when the conversation turned to Utah as I thought it was reported that he was one of the best performers there (I could be completely remembering this incorrectly though)

Did Laidley take them to Utah? Kasey Green had come and gone well before Scotts.
 

Shinboner1

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 13, 2020
8,899
16,813
AFL Club
North Melbourne
I might be remembering it wrongly but whenever they put out pre season reports it always seemed like any new recruits we brought in from other clubs seemed to top or be near the top of the charts? For some weird reason Kasey Green popped into my head when the conversation turned to Utah as I thought it was reported that he was one of the best performers there (I could be completely remembering this incorrectly though)
Was always a shock when the best performing player was one that we brought in from another club vs our boys.
Even the intensity and fitness comparing other clubs to ours pre season training videos looked way off too.
Commented last year how our guys looked like 6yr olds running around the park.
 
Jun 9, 2001
37,651
145,100
Fogarty Street
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
St Johnstone
I might be remembering it wrongly but whenever they put out pre season reports it always seemed like any new recruits we brought in from other clubs seemed to top or be near the top of the charts? For some weird reason Kasey Green popped into my head when the conversation turned to Utah as I thought it was reported that he was one of the best performers there (I could be completely remembering this incorrectly though)

Did Laidley take them to Utah? Kasey Green had come and gone well before Scotts.

Yeh Kasey Green come and gone even before Laidley finished up.

Can recall NDS and Nahas attending Utah. Think it had dissipated into the opt-in model by the time Higgins and Waite joined.
 

The Lone Latic

Glutton for Punishment
Oct 8, 2011
1,351
2,665
Watching the Latics fail repeatedly
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Other Teams
Wigan Athletic
Was always a shock when the best performing player was one that we brought in from another club vs our boys.
Even the intensity and fitness comparing other clubs to ours pre season training videos looked way off too.
Commented last year how our guys looked like 6yr olds running around the park.
I went down to watch pre season training one time last summer before covid and from memory, I thought my dog was running with more intensity than the boys who were doing laps and run thoughs. Things did pick up a bit more with match simulation/ball in hand stuff.

Maybe we just don't have any gym rats in the team? Or maybe the strength and conditioning staff thought everyone was like Majak who packed on a ton of muscle without much training (I seem to remember him having a reduced load because he put on the muscle quick and had the issue of getting too big)
 
Lol re the bolded.

As much as I don't gel with a lot of the Scott era, I think the Utah trip when it was done in full (not dribs and drabs of the list) actually worked well.

Getting a large group of players over together in that environment would be huge for helping develop the team dynamic. The setting being so different (snow and mountains) would be a nice mental variation in which to load up lots of conditioning too.

And Scott's premise of "teaching them a professional athletic lifestyle" in theory wasn't a bad aim. I think they began Utah circa 2010 and there was a period of 3-4 following that showed incremental improvement.

By 2014+ it seemed to slip back to an opt-in setup and maybe overall looser strandards. There's only a rough correlation between the Utah trips and improvement in the next couple of seasons but I think the structure, travel and focused training probably helped gavalnise the group.

You could do the same thing in Australia, take everyone to North Queensland and slog in the humidity, training in elevation didn't provide any lasting effects, it was the camp itself that was beneficial.

Maybe we would win a game in QLD if we did that and got used to the humidity. :stern look
 

Kangaroos techno

Premiership Player
Feb 4, 2021
3,346
10,255
AFL Club
North Melbourne
You could do the same thing in Australia, take everyone to North Queensland and slog in the humidity, training in elevation didn't provide any lasting effects, it was the camp itself that was beneficial.

Maybe we would win a game in QLD if we did that and got used to the humidity. :stern look
You could but part of it was allowing them to have a day or two watching basketball/American football. Got to feed the American fetish. Not many world class training facilities up in North Queensland either.

Anyway, the elevation stuff has been done to death. As mentioned before the benefit of hindsight makes it easier to s**t on the effects but there were other benefits as mentioned by KC.

If you want to get technical the benefits of acclimatisation would start to drop off after a week and be back to baseline after ~a month so you'd be back at square one anyway. :stern look:
 
You could but part of it was allowing them to have a day or two watching basketball/American football. Got to feed the American fetish. Not many world class training facilities up in North Queensland either.

Anyway, the elevation stuff has been done to death. As mentioned before the benefit of hindsight makes it easier to sh*t on the effects but there were other benefits as mentioned by KC.

If you want to get technical the benefits of acclimatisation would start to drop off after a week and be back to baseline after ~a month so you'd be back at square one anyway. :stern look:

Well, it was sold on the basis that it would provide a benefit, not a junket for them to go watch american sports. It ate into the time we could have worked on fitness or god forbid skills.
 

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Kangaroos techno

Premiership Player
Feb 4, 2021
3,346
10,255
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Well, it was sold on the basis that it would provide a benefit, not a junket for them to go watch american sports. It ate into the time we could have worked on fitness or god forbid skills.
Initially it was. And at that time altitude training was all the rage. Other AFL clubs set up temporary buildings to simulate the conditions during cardio training. Again...the benefit of hindsight.

It was during a time the players bought into the idea of starting their pre-season early. Let's not omit the hiking footage and all the indoor ball work that was posted year after year just to help your argument. They worked hard while they were there but they were allowed a bit of free time. Some of them stayed back a few days when it was finished to have a few days off before the real stuff started.

For all we know if we offered up something else the players could have said "suck a lemon, we'll see you when we are supposed to start training"
 
Well, it was sold on the basis that it would provide a benefit, not a junket for them to go watch american sports. It ate into the time we could have worked on fitness or god forbid skills.
I was never a fan of Utah but I'm pretty sure they took football over with them.
 

Shinboner1

Norm Smith Medallist
Aug 13, 2020
8,899
16,813
AFL Club
North Melbourne
I went down to watch pre season training one time last summer before covid and from memory, I thought my dog was running with more intensity than the boys who were doing laps and run thoughs. Things did pick up a bit more with match simulation/ball in hand stuff.

Maybe we just don't have any gym rats in the team? Or maybe the strength and conditioning staff thought everyone was like Majak who packed on a ton of muscle without much training (I seem to remember him having a reduced load because he put on the muscle quick and had the issue of getting too big)
Our SC team just wern't upto scratch.
Came from an era where just enough was good enough.
Our inability to easily run out 4 quarters would have thrown up huge red flags for noble and he would have seen it from day 1.
 

Eggs11

All Australian
Jul 18, 2021
872
3,458
AFL Club
North Melbourne
So, having sacked the entire strength and conditioning department, how the hell is the NMFC going to recruit appropriately skilled people into all these rolls before the start of preseason?
 
So, having sacked the entire strength and conditioning department, how the hell is the NMFC going to recruit appropriately skilled people into all these rolls before the start of preseason?
My guess is we’ll hire a recruitment agency, and then through a combination of public advertisements and head hunting we’ll be given a short list of candidate. We’ll then interview these candies and select the ones we think most eligible. We’ll then offer them a job starting prior to preseason.

But like I said, that’s just a guess.
 
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Im also guessing Whitey and the Doc will have some input on some recommendations.
These men have experience, one at Collingwood who have long led the league in conditioning and the Doc hails from an era where elite performance was the benchmark. Coupled in with the current hierarchy being involved in interstate clubs who had exemplary standards - I think were in good hands here to get this right.
 
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My guess is we’ll hire a recruitment agency, and then through a combination of public advertisements and head hunting we’ll be given a short list of candidate. We’ll then interview these candies and select the ones we think most eligible. We’ll then offer them a job starting prior to preseason.

But like I said, that’s just a guess.
I was thinking that we could just leave the roles vacant and save on soft cap spending. If we do this, our results in this area literally couldn't be worse than they have been for the past four years.
 

Muscles Thommo

All Australian
Dec 4, 2006
958
426
Chasing scum, L%ton fans
AFL Club
North Melbourne
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My guess is we’ll hire a recruitment agency, and then through a combination of public advertisements and head hunting we’ll be given a short list of candidate. We’ll then interview these candies and select the ones we think most eligible. We’ll then offer them a job starting prior to preseason.

But like I said, that’s just a guess.
There's a consultant role right there, if you want it.... with high level thinking like that
 

Eggs11

All Australian
Jul 18, 2021
872
3,458
AFL Club
North Melbourne
My guess is we’ll hire a recruitment agency, and then through a combination of public advertisements and head hunting we’ll be given a short list of candidate. We’ll then interview these candies and select the ones we think most eligible. We’ll then offer them a job starting prior to preseason.

But like I said, that’s just a guess.

if only it was that easy. Im guessing there aren’t a whole lot of elite people in the field looking for a new job.
 

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