What's one more week for elite athletes?
I'd say we would benefit far more from continuity that we would from 2-3 rested players. Consider the fact that Crowley still tags when we play GWS, Melb etc. as case in point.
Agree - I wrote the same thing in the gameday thread after biting my tongue for a half.
My train of thought ( humble opinion, not professing to actually know ) was that whether a physical advantage gain of resting a week, keeping in mind an elite fitness base is present may not outweight the mental disadvantage of suffering this type of loss.
Obviously, the club will do everything to manage the mental state of the players but yeh, I wondered why there seems to be a thought process behind 'an advantage' in playing one less game.
I'm sure all teams that reach and play in a prelim wouldn't have an issue with playing again the following week - and similarly, we don't see the quality of footy drop off through the finals series ( opposite if anything ) .
I'm sure the fitness staff would have input one this one but mental effects are far harder to measure. Just look at saints today - they went in knowing they would throw everything at it to honour their mates and they had decided we were a second rate team due to knowledge of our changes in advance so in their mindset was that such a positive mental state that the outcome to them was almost decided...if the game was actually tighter it would have been a obvious in their risk taking and playing style. particularly if you compared saints this week versus them over the past few weeks when they were mentally shot.
I know we'll mentally "get back up" next week but why have to bother with the effort of "getting back up" if the physical detriment was shown to be minimal by playing one extra game ??