Injuries through the roof

23 per cent of competition sidelined

ALMOST a quarter of the competition is sitting on the sidelines as the injury toll of the post-COVID season continues to grow.

An alarming 177 players have been named on the official AFL injury list for this week, which equates to around 23 per cent of the competition.

Bottom-placed North Melbourne has been the hardest hit with 15 casualties, followed by the GWS Giants on 14, while Fremantle and West Coast both have 12 players classified as injured.

The Sydney Swans only have five players on their injury list, while St Kilda is next best on six.

There are 11 players missing because of concussion, which is an inflated figure this year because of the AFL’s new 12day rule.

While the severity of the injuries fluctuates between clubs and plays a part in balancing the equation, there is a growing opinion that changes to the game on the back of last year’s COVID affected season are behind the spike. The increase in game time combined with across-the-board cuts to club medical teams because of the AFL-enforced soft cap reduction are at the top of the list, according to AFL Players Association president Patrick Dangerfield.

“We’ve got work to do. Certainly from a medical side and the care we provide players with, I think every club in the competition has reduced the physios that we have on hand to service players with,” Dangerfield, pictured, told SEN.

“With that, I think, and it’s still a small sample size, but I think it’s contributed to injuries to a certain extent.

“I would find it very difficult how you could argue the latter when you don’t have as many people to spread the load because you’ve got two physios that have to care for 40-odd players instead of three.

“You’re not getting that same care because it’s physically not possible to keep your eye over that many players.

“We understand why the cuts were implemented, but we’ve also got to review it, look back and now take stock and review where we are and make sure we have as many players on the park performing weekto-week to generate the income that is critical to the game from a business sense.

“I see it as an investment as much as anything.”

The AFL cut the soft cap from $9.7 million down to $6.7 million to save money and pay back the loans that kept the competition alive during the COVID-19 crisis last year.

Dangerfield said there needed to be a correction after the league went too hard with its cutback on football departments, which resulted in assistant coaches being let go, senior coaches taking pay cuts and medical departments being slashed.

“It was widely recognised that we were in nowhere near the dire financial position that was forecast initially,” he said.