Fitness staff to ‘earn their keep’ as clubs race clock
THE availability of players looms as one of the most valuable commodities in the game as clubs enter the most frantic period of matches in AFL history.
Injury-struck teams will be racing the clock, while clubs will also wrestle with how and when to manage players.
One Collingwood star says fitness staff will earn their keep as they attempt to navigate the next month.
But for some clubs, the hit has already been harsh to bear.
North Melbourne’s injury list is longer than any club’s.
Champion Data statistics reveal the Roos have lost almost five times the amount of games to injury than the leastaffected team after eight rounds, St Kilda.
Fremantle, Essendon, Carlton and Sydney have also been heavily affected, but less than half of the Bombers’ “games lost” have been to their best team.
While reigning premier Richmond is hoping to have skipper Trent Cotchin and his fellow premiership stars Dion Prestia, David Astbury and Toby Nankervis back in coming weeks, the team has been largely unscathed as a whole with only 10 games “lost” through injury to its best side.
But in a blow to the Roos, 51 of the 73 games that have been lost to injury this season have been to the team’s best 22.
Roos skipper Jack Ziebell was dealt a further hamstring blow this week and will miss at least a month, which under the adjusted fixture could result in as many as six games.
Collingwood star Taylor Adams said teams would have to have “a squad mentality” as teams grapple with how to best manage the next month, with the Pies set to play four games in 15 days.
“(When the fixture was released) I said to Kev White, who’s our head of strength and fitness, that he’s going to earn his keep now,” Adams said on RSN. “There’s going to be a high rotation of players.”