Strength of squads

[masai]

I was just having a chat with my Roo loving workmate and he was saying that Essendon are being given alot of credit for playing with an extensive injury list and making no excuses to the media for their performances due to these injuries.

It made us think as to how all the teams are going at this time of year in relation to the injury list. How many fit players did we have available for the Richmond game ?, how many would have been available if we were in the finals ?.

Just the feeling in my gut is that alot of teams are down to not much more than 22 fit players at the moment.

 

[slugger]

It's more available players than fit players. Most players would have niggles, but not enough to keep them out.

Essendon was at 24 players last Friday. We could lose Watson, Welsh and McVeigh, and get back Reimers and Atkinson for this week's game, but if counting fit, then leave out Slattery as well.

I've put forward the notion that the salary cap should be the determiner, and you can have whatever mix of players (with restraints on minimum of 44) you want. Up to 48 or so players if you want - if you have an inexperienced list like Essendon, WCE or Melbourne.

 

[dominguez]

The lists should have 4 or 5 more players. Mark Johnson and Bradley would have been very handy for Essendon this year, clubs wouldn't have the same obsession with youth if they had those extra 4/5 spots to fill.

 

[chook2734]

I was just having a chat with my Roo loving workmate and he was saying that Essendon are being given alot of credit for playing with an extensive injury list and making no excuses to the media for their performances due to these injuries.

It made us think as to how all the teams are going at this time of year in relation to the injury list. How many fit players did we have available for the Richmond game ?, how many would have been available if we were in the finals ?.

Just the feeling in my gut is that alot of teams are down to not much more than 22 fit players at the moment.

We had Hinkley and Dunn (an elevated rookie) as our only two senior listed players to play WAFL. Connelly, Mourish and I assume Smith also played - that's the extent of our rookie list available. From all reports, Murphy requires surgery but wants to play WAFL finals, hence he's still available.

I think the absence of acknowledgement or sympathy for Freo is due to the number of players who have pulled the pin mid year, particularly when two of them were still playing reasonable football and weren't finishing due to injury.

 

[Clay Davis]

Didn't really appreciate Bell's retirement.

I understood Macca's decision.

 

[Scham]

Haven't any of you been reading the Worst or watching channel 7? The Eagles have had the worst injury problems out of any teams this year!

 

[Cisco Kid]

Haven't any of you been reading the Worst or watching channel 7? The Eagles have had the worst injury problems out of any teams this year!

Wot a load of tank..lol

 

[theGav56]

Just the feeling in my gut is that alot of teams are down to not much more than 22 fit players at the moment.

For sure we have had injuries, but it is also symptomatic of where our year is at. If we were heading for the finals would Tarrant be in for surgery? Would Carr, MacManus, Black and Bell be unavailable? Solomon is not injured. Potentially there is another half-dozen best 25 players available if our year wasn't over 13 rounds ago.

 

[FootyEater]

For sure we have had injuries, but it is also symptomatic of where our year is at. If we were heading for the finals would Tarrant be in for surgery? Would Carr, MacManus, Black and Bell be unavailable? Solomon is not injured. Potentially there is another half-dozen best 25 players available if our year wasn't over 13 rounds ago.

i agree with this. if we were in the finals you can bet that pav, taz etc would all be playing at the moment. you could also bet that bell wouldnt have retired effective immediately, nor mcmanus. black was genuinely injured so im not sure that he would be still playing.

 

[pistol17]

Yea agree as well footyeater. My guess would be Warnock would still be in the side as well.

 

[theGav56]

Didn't really appreciate Bell's retirement.

I understood Macca's decision.

Maybe. Bell retiring co-incided with Schammer playing a heck of a lot better, plus a few other moves (such as Mundy into the middle, which every one can see would be a logical replacement for Bell). I think he was making the hard decision for the coaching staff. If Bell didn't retire he'd be played every week. there is no way Harvey would not select him in order to give Schammer a different role and send bell back to the WAFL.