Dogs' cursed injury run down to bad luck: Bevo

[bornadog]

Link



LONG injury lists have become the norm for Luke Beveridge in his four seasons at the Western Bulldogs, but the premiership coach puts the constant personnel attrition down to bad luck.

Even when the Bulldogs were storming to the 2016 flag, Beveridge had to do without key cogs Easton Wood, Tom Liberatore, Jack Macrae and Matt Suckling for large chunks of the year, while former captain Robert Murphy missed the drought-breaking triumph after rupturing his ACL in round three.

Murphy is one of seven past and present Bulldogs to have knee reconstructions since Beveridge took the reins in 2015, with Liberatore and Roarke Smith both undergoing the operation twice.

Clay Smith, Jack Redpath, Lin Jong and former Bulldog Josh Prudden also required the procedure.

Six rounds into 2018, the Dogs once again have a busy medical room, with Liam Picken (concussion), Dale Morris (knee), Marcus Adams (ankle) and Tory Dickson (hamstring) all important players who are spending long periods on the sidelines

Wood is the latest to join that extensive rehab group that currently has 11 members, with the skipper's troublesome hamstrings likely to see him miss two weeks.

Speaking on Friday, Beveridge said everyone at Whitten Oval was doing their best to decrease the injury misfortune that has impeded the club.

"We think about it often, and we continually review and reflect, and there's no doubt we've had some bad luck with collision and joint injuries," Beveridge said.

"Our people do a great job in preparing our players and our medical staff are meticulous in the way they go about rehabbing our players.

"Maybe we go the extra yard and the players spend another week or two really preparing to get back, so maybe those periods they're out seem a bit longer than other clubs.

"We're concerned about the player's long-term wellbeing, as well as the now.

"Our soft-tissue (rate) have been pretty good, but you get some high-risk athletes that are prone to mainly hamstring injuries, and we've had two or three of those over a period of time and Easton is probably one of those.

"I think we've had a bit of bad luck and hopefully that changes."

Asked if the club's training methods and playing style were contributing factors to the injury rate, Beveridge was adamant that wasn't the case.

"We certainly don't push the boundaries with what we put the players through in the training track, as we're quite conservative during the year at times," he said.

"We constantly review and there are no alarms bells there for us."

[Eastdog]

Maybe it's bad luck as Bevo has said but I can't help thinking it could be something else although it's part of the game isn't it. I can be ok with 1,2 or 3 footy injuries but 11 is a lot.

[Twodogs]

Maybe it's bad luck as Bevo has said but I can't help thinking it could be something else although it's part of the game isn't it. I can be ok with 1,2 or 3 footy injuries but 11 is a lot.

Maybe we should rethink our tradional welcome to new recruits of hitting them on each knee with a ball head hammer?

[macca]

Are these injuries conditioning related? Are our players doing the correct or sufficient strengthening exercises to ensure that their bodies can handle the rigors of AFL ?

Does playing on Etihad or training on Western oval have greater impact on their knees and hamstring?

[SlimPickens]

God I hate the “bad luck” stance on injuries. We control the conditioning, we control the rehab, we control work loads, we control recovery, we control the treatments, we control the prevention...blaming “bad luck” is accepting that it is happening and it’s bullshit. Our injury rate is on par with our goal kicking, it’s concerning and it appears we aren’t doing anything about it!

[Ghost Dog]

God I hate the “bad luck” stance on injuries. We control the conditioning, we control the rehab, we control work loads, we control recovery, we control the treatments, we control the prevention...blaming “bad luck” is accepting that it is happening and it’s bullshit. Our injury rate is on par with our goal kicking, it’s concerning and it appears we aren’t doing anything about it!

Been following your posts slim. Thanks for that. Concerning injury list and needs to be reviewed.

[bornadog]

God I hate the “bad luck” stance on injuries. We control the conditioning, we control the rehab, we control work loads, we control recovery, we control the treatments, we control the prevention...blaming “bad luck” is accepting that it is happening and it’s bullshit. Our injury rate is on par with our goal kicking, it’s concerning and it appears we aren’t doing anything about it!

I think a full analysis of injuries should be done to split out how many are soft tissue. We have had a large number of acls which are bad luck, but would be interesting to see total injuries split up, over the large 3 years.

[Eastdog]

I think a full analysis of injuries should be done to split out how many are soft tissue. We have had a large number of acls which are bad luck, but would be interesting to see total injuries split up, over the large 3 years.

Would be good to investigate and find out what is behind it if it really is just bad luck or if there is something more than it. There are a number of players we all wish were out there now on our injury list. Marcus Adams a notable one down back would be great to bring in now (not available) and missing Libba's influence in the midfield. Schache hopefully will be playing soon in the seniors. Roughy is another who wasn't even playing VFL this weekend. Bont and Wood out. Something needs to change.

[LostDoggy]

God I hate the “bad luck” stance on injuries. We control the conditioning, we control the rehab, we control work loads, we control recovery, we control the treatments, we control the prevention...blaming “bad luck” is accepting that it is happening and it’s bullshit. Our injury rate is on par with our goal kicking, it’s concerning and it appears we aren’t doing anything about it!

Must agree. Teams can have a bad run but year after year? If the same thing occurs consistently over 4 years, that ain't luck, there are reasons and those in control have a responsibility to investigate and amend practices.

[1eyedog]

Do we really think we haven't rigorously analysed, scrutinized and reviewed and reviewed our injuries over the past few years? Short of cleaning out the cupboard and replacing with a new team I'm not sure what we expect? Bevo said we have a lot of collision injuries. I mean, how do you prevent / predict an ACL / ankle?

Tristan Tweedie once told me before he joined the Bulldogs that once a player does a major injury (he managed one long term), you are pretty much on a tailored training program long after the injury heals. That means that Libba, Smith and Redpath are possibly / probably on highly-altered programs that take into account their past ACL issues. You mitigate it as much as possible by altering training techniques and you rigorously pour over data but you can't 100% prevent an ACL or an ankle no matter which medico team you employ.

Easton has always had hamstring issues, high performance athletes like JJ will too, all ultra-fast athletes do, the Hill brothers, Isaac Smith, Sicily, Charlie Cameron. Adelaide currently has seven hammys, that's bad luck too. I trust the review system at the club there are two many learned heads in there, who would also be consulting at length externally, to not identify major issue(s) in our programs.

Take a look at everyone else's injury list, most are extensive.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl...8abdde3ce7b63a

[AndrewP6]

Do we really think we haven't rigorously analysed, scrutinized and reviewed and reviewed our injuries over the past few years? Short of cleaning out the cupboard and replacing with a new team I'm not sure what we expect? Bevo said we have a lot of collision injuries. I mean, how do you prevent / predict an ACL / ankle?

Tristan Tweedie once told me before he joined the Bulldogs that once a player does a major injury (he managed one long term), you are pretty much on a tailored training program long after the injury heals. That means that Libba, Smith and Redpath are possibly / probably on highly-altered programs that take into account their past ACL issues. You mitigate it as much as possible by altering training techniques and you rigorously pour over data but you can't 100% prevent an ACL or an ankle no matter which medico team you employ.

Easton has always had hamstring issues, high performance athletes like JJ will too, all ultra-fast athletes do, the Hill brothers, Isaac Smith, Sicily, Charlie Cameron. Adelaide currently has seven hammys, that's bad luck too. I trust the review system at the club there are two many learned heads in there, who would also be consulting at length externally, to not identify major issue(s) in our programs.

Take a look at everyone else's injury list, most are extensive.

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl...8abdde3ce7b63a

Spot on.

[Mofra]

Do we really think we haven't rigorously analysed, scrutinized and reviewed and reviewed our injuries over the past few years? Short of cleaning out the cupboard and replacing with a new team I'm not sure what we expect? Bevo said we have a lot of collision injuries. I mean, how do you prevent / predict an ACL / ankle?

We actually pulled Easton Wood out of most pre-season training one year and analyzed his running technique (thanks to the partnership with VU) and in the words of the osteos "completely re-taught him how to run".

His chronic hamstring injuries subsided and a couple of years later he's an AA Premiership captain. We are doing a fair bit to avoid injury although some suggest we do still have problems.

[Daughter of the West]

We actually pulled Easton Wood out of most pre-season training one year and analyzed his running technique (thanks to the partnership with VU) and in the words of the osteos "completely re-taught him how to run".

His chronic hamstring injuries subsided and a couple of years later he's an AA Premiership captain. We are doing a fair bit to avoid injury although some suggest we do still have problems.

He and a couple of the other boys (Will Minson and maybe even Tommy Campbell) took up reformer Pilates as well to strengthen and refine his technique.