Does anyone else think the medical staff are a bit incompetent?
The reason I ask is we have a habit of playing injured player's over the year's and it's never really worked out. Brian Lake, Easton Wood, Brad Johnson and Shaun Higgins shout out to me over the year's.
Then looking at this year, I don't think Roughead, Minson, Griffen and Talia really looked right yet we kept playing them.
Also rarely do we get a full run down of injuries from the medical staff. Prudden seems to always be on the list, yet very rarely is there an explanation as to why.
incompetent is a very, very strong term, GCBC.
higgins' really only issue that was 'managed' was OP. the rest have been breaks, medical issues. OP is always an injury that is a week-by-week thing. pure rest doesn't really affect outcome. lake's hips have been chronic issues, only really ******ing his performance towards the end of his doggies days - brilliantly managed prior to this. adam cooney still playing football is a miracle.
playing footy players with suspect fitness isn't as black and white as the footy fans thinks it is. there is always a trade off between development, conditioning, team needs, the opponent, the stage of season and the type of injury. the traditional hierarchical of medicine (where the doctor calls all the shots) is long extinct in the sporting sphere.
'fitness' isn't a level - it's an ambiguous conversation. with my knowledge of the state of play with the guys we had - i can't really fault the rehab / medical team.
the worst blue was mitch wallis's sprained ankle, which was actually an avulsion 5th MT bone (tough diagnosis and it didn't cost weeks anyway - he was always going to need surgery). second worst was matty fuller's shoulder management - reckon should have pulled the pin on him earlier (wasn't important structurally, developmentally, and performance was poor). the joys of hindsight.
jabbing a player up each week so he plays at 80% so that he can get to the end of the season (roughy the best example here), have his clean out (or whatever), and recover in the off-season is usually the chosen path - as opposed to pulling a player mid-season for a scope, have him lose condition, match practice, match payments, and have the team suffer structurally (check out where the above players play - key posts).
there is some merit in the communication issue. more info can be done without compromising confidentiality. fans care about their idols' welfare. they pay the medical staff's wages.
anyways - i reckon the medical staff went ok!