Juddy and the Kruezers is leading me there but I am not sure whether I want to follow.[/quote]

Stay strong and do not follow...

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"Truth, for the tyrants, is the most terrible and cruel of all bindings; it is like an incandescent iron falling across their chests. And it is even more agonizing than hot iron, for that only burns the flesh, while truth burns its way into the soul"     — Lauro Aguirre

this thread has some merit in that weve had a higher rate of soft tissue injuries this year compared to the last few.

bower
mclean (according to icke today )
houla
yarran
lucas

all out with soft tissue injuries at some stage this year. ive read elsewhere that armfield has complained of similar as well.

is this coincidence or is it linked to the style of game weve been playing?

or have the grounds we've been playing on too hard.

Our home ground (by default as opposed to our spiritual home Princes Park) is The Dome and it is known to be very hard.

Just taking a punt.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

That is, if we actually believe what's coming out of the club in regard to injuries. The quad injury at Carlton appears to be a little bit like the Essendon* flu.

We have played at Etihad twice out of 9 matches.
That's not much.

I cant recall if there were injuries after the Saints game.
After the Hawthorn game we have Yarran and Armfield pulling up sore.
White injured too, but I believe he wasn't 100% coming back from Adelaide?

Is that enough evidence to blame our injuries on the Etihad surface?
Not sure

I don't think you can blame injuries on anything. They just happen through a whole lot of little factors.

Getting a corked hip and landing on your knee awkwardly can happen.. its bad luck.

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Koperek.

So to look over this methodically, I've tallied up all the soft tissue/ankle injuries I can think of. Individual likeliness aside, these could be as the direct result from poor player management.

Quad
---------
Yarran
Bower^
Armfield

Hip
---------
McLean*^
O'Keeffe*^

Hamstring
---------
Hampson*
Lucas
Houlihan*

Groin
---------
Austin*^

Ankle
---------
Grigg*^
Thornton*

* - Denotes resuming/resumed
^ - Denotes two or more recurrences of this injury in previous 12 months

Significantly, only 4 of the above are 23 or over, and only 2 of those are over 25. I say this because muscle growth and repair only begins to decline at this age. For these younger athletes, small strains can prove beneficial in the long term as the body overcompensates muscle growth at injury sites to strengthen against repeat damage.

In terms of injuries there which could be reasonably linked to overworking of a player, one can overlook Hampson, Thornton, Grigg, Austin & O'Keeffe, as they either have shown no signs of recurrence or have a documented issue that stems back to their own bio-mechanical issues/bad luck.

Furthermore, one can rule out Houlihan, Armfield & Yarran as they are likely victims of a fortnight of short-handed rotations.

This leaves us with Lucas, McLean & Bower. Lucas is arguably a first year players falling victim to the increased demands of senior football; McLean is arguably unlucky to have copped two corkies in two separate games, but perhaps the medical staff were hasty in clearing him after a noted history of being sidelined due to ankle injuries (can lead to strains in the hip or knee if not managed correctly from a physio perspective).

The one that concerns me the most is Bower. This is the third time in less than 12 months he has had a quad problem, and it looks as though we rushed him back too soon. Hopefully our reliance on him late last year with Jamison, Waite & Austin missing hasn't created a more serious concern (as I understand it he was carrying a quad injury through the last few games), however, it would appear the club has been more cautious with his latest spell.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

Brilliant analysis jimmae.

I think there were a couple more groin problems IIRC.

As mentioned above I had a quad pulled when I was young and I played harder footy in better grades later in my 20's and never had a quad niggle again. I can relate to the points you make about the older players.

Very interesting. Great effort.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Murphy comes to mind, but that was after a hefty year-long campaign, for which he initially was opted out of surgery, and he hasn't missed a beat since returning.

_________________
29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.