Our Injury list

[jazzadogs]

Throwing Macrae and Daniel away for virtually nothing will bite us hard now. The Kennedy pickup was always a sideways move. Wouldn't make us better but added depth. It will now be time for the young crop to get their time a little earlier than expected. It's going to be a tough season to get through.

The sideways move to Kennedy, which I think you're underselling slightly due to their different strengths, ages and salaries, means that we're in the same position as we would have been if Macrae was still around.

We turned Daniel, who never plays midfield anyway, into Dolan who is every chance of debuting in round one.

Its going to be a tough first month to get through, but there will still be 18 more games after that.

[G-Mo77]

We got Kennedy for Macrae, and pick 25 for Daniel which is wellllll overs. Definitely not virtually nothing, both still look like good moves for our list into the future

Overs? Bloody hell, we got reamed. I'll agree on the Caleb Daniel trade as we did well there but I'll die on the hill saying that we should not have traded both.

This was all we got for Bailey Smith and Jack Macrae. Keep in mind this was all in one trade. Is the salary dump of a club legend worth that much of a downgrade? No bloody way.

Pick 20 and Matt Kennedy

[Bulldog Joe]

Overs? Bloody hell, we got reamed. I'll agree on the Caleb Daniel trade as we did well there but I'll die on the hill saying that we should not have traded both.

This was all we got for Bailey Smith and Jack Macrae. Keep in mind this was all in one trade. Is the salary dump of a club legend worth that much of a downgrade? No bloody way.

Pick 20 and Matt Kennedy

I am expecting Matt Kennedy to contribute more this year than Macrae did in 2024.

In fact he probably contributes more than the combined output of Macrae, Daniel and Bailey Smith for all of 2024.

We just need to work through these injuries and we will be fine.

[doggies ftw]

Overs? Bloody hell, we got reamed. I'll agree on the Caleb Daniel trade as we did well there but I'll die on the hill saying that we should not have traded both.

This was all we got for Bailey Smith and Jack Macrae. Keep in mind this was all in one trade. Is the salary dump of a club legend worth that much of a downgrade? No bloody way.

Pick 20 and Matt Kennedy

Forget about Baz we got reamed there but there was nothing we could do about it.

Look at the bigger picture, half the salary, 3 years younger and a better fit for the team in what we need going forward. Macrae wasn’t a starting midfielder anymore and Kennedy is objectively a better forward. Plus Macrae can’t defend in the middle and it’s been an issue for us.

i love Macrae and I think he’ll go fantastically at the Saints where he’s basically the main man again. Unfortunately his time was up with us and there wasn’t a spot in the midfield for his type whilst we try to rejuvenate. It’s a win win win for everyone involved (except Carlton) as far as I’m concerned.

[FrediKanoute]

I am not going to debate and go over the list decisions, but I am more concerned with why we have so many soft tissue injuries.

Bont, Treloar, JJ, L Jones, Richards, Dale, Brew have all complained of / been side-lined with soft tissue injures.

Given these are usually overwork injuries, have our medical team and our conditioning team got it wrong? I remember Essendon had a spate of soft tissue concerns during the lead up to their supplements saga. I hope we haven't gone down a similar quick win path.

[NAUGHTY100]

Fred maybe just maybe , the over work injuries are more catch up injuries , we have been a terribly slow starting team the last few years , maybe the condtioning team has realised this and uped the anty and this is a result , when you pull it apart a bit Treloar has suffered from soft tissuse injuries even befor he came to us , Jones i remember hamstrings in his history and of course his age , richards has had 2 or 3 hamstring injuries in his past , and im not sure about Dale , but that leaves Bont then who also is getting older , with significant soft tissuse injuries , which isnt ideal i admit but the truth will be in the pudding on how we start the year wether we can run out games early in the year , this will detrmine if they have been worked to hard or they have been worked hard enough with a few individuals going down early.

[doggies ftw]

I am not going to debate and go over the list decisions, but I am more concerned with why we have so many soft tissue injuries.

Bont, Treloar, JJ, L Jones, Richards, Dale, Brew have all complained of / been side-lined with soft tissue injures.

Given these are usually overwork injuries, have our medical team and our conditioning team got it wrong? I remember Essendon had a spate of soft tissue concerns during the lead up to their supplements saga. I hope we haven't gone down a similar quick win path.

There’s gotta be some questions raised, especially someone like Bont whose never had a single soft tissue injury that I can recall.

To be fair though with that list, JJ is a walking calf strain at this point and has been for the better part of 3 years, Brew got injured in his first training session with us from memory, or at least very early on and Treloar as well seemed like he wasn’t training from very early in the preseason so not sure you can put these 3 down to poor management/being overworked.

Seems like we’ve definitely got something wrong though, the severity of these injuries is really concerning, they haven’t been 2 week “tightness” they’ve basically all been 6 + week tears, we have really ramped up the running compared to previous years and it hasn’t paid off. Maybe it will in the long term hopefully? But we need to make sure the next two weeks is about getting everyone where they need to be to start the season. Can’t afford any more of these injuries

[Rusty12]

The Dogs' medical and high-performance team are experienced and very good at what they do.
People at the top of their field constantly review what they do and how to improve. They will review the pre-season regardless of the injuries, and of course, with a few more injuries, they will have a deeper look. This is common practice at all clubs.

A highly tuned human body is a complicated thing, then X that by 40plus whilst looking for a new edge, these things happen.

Bont never being injured is not guaranteed; he won't get injured.

Collectively, some of these soft tissue injuries that occurred early in warm-ups, etc, will be the area of focus.

This pre-season has had an edge to it, despite the injuries. What we also saw Vs the Hawks was progression in those 11-30 on the list; maybe this pays dividends in the long term.

[kruder]

Im glad the club is pushing the boundaries, we have all called for a change in approach to fitness. They may have gone a step too far but I reckon we back them in to make the adjustments its only Daniel Duvnjak-Zaknich second year at the club.

[jeemak]

Why Bont’s injury might be worse than the Bulldogs are saying

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/why-bont-s-injury-might-be-worse-than-the-bulldogs-are-saying-20250303-p5lgh7.html

Three-time AFLW premiership player and physio Libby Birch has cast doubt on Marcus Bontempelli’s injury recovery timeline and raised questions over the Western Bulldogs’ strength and conditioning team after several players sustained injuries since the end of last season.

“As a physio, looking at their off-season, I’ve analysed their injury trends, and it seems to me like they’ve got a massive soft-tissue injury trend happening there,” Birch said on The Age’s Real Footy Podcast.

“Obviously, their loads have been too high for a substantial amount of time, and we’re just seeing this bulk of soft-tissue injuries. So their high-performance team will be under a lot of pressure.”

Injured Bulldogs include Aaron Naughton, who injured his calf shortly before Christmas, defender Liam Jones, who suffered a significant hamstring strain in February, and midfielder Adam Treloar, who was sidelined after a late-January calf strain. Defender Jason Johannisen will also miss several weeks of the season after undergoing surgery for a hamstring strain.

Captain Marcus Bontempelli was ruled out for at least six weeks when he sustained a calf injury in Thursday’s practice match against Hawthorn.

Birch said she was particularly worried about Bontempelli’s injury, which was described as a “complex” calf strain, believing it could involve the skipper’s plantaris muscle as well as his tendon.

“That is a concern for me. They’ve said six weeks, but I think we’re looking more like eight for Bontempelli.”

The Bulldogs declined a request for comment.


As a professional Libby should know it's unwise to comment on the prognosis's delivered by other fellow professionals, who are on the right side of information asymmetry and have a track record of delivering conservative return to play plans.

It amazes me when apparently informed commentators start a critique with the word "obviously". And while I appreciate time is short on the air, if you can't thoroughly explore causes for complex scenarios in a balanced way it's probably best not to shit on folks who are at the coal face.

[GVGjr]

I can't imagine the club deliberately misleading the media and the supporters but there are quite a few in the media saying it's 2 to 4 weeks light on.

[jeemak]

What's the common denominator with Ed, Dale and Bont - the guys who you might not have expected to get soft tissue injuries - and their preseasons?

Was there anything unusual about Naughton's preseason? Glandular fever's main symptoms usually kick in four to six weeks after infection, meaning he was heading towards fever, dehydration and an outbreak of the illness not long after preseason had started.

[jazzadogs]

“As a physio, looking at their off-season, I’ve analysed their injury trends, and it seems to me like they’ve got a massive soft-tissue injury trend happening there,”

I think a pizza delivery man would be capable of that analysis Libby.

[jeemak]

“As a physio, looking at their off-season, I’ve analysed their injury trends, and it seems to me like they’ve got a massive soft-tissue injury trend happening there,”

I think a pizza delivery man would be capable of that analysis Libby.

Not sure if it's a context thing given it being an excerpt from a podcast. But it seems pretty simple.

[Rusty12]

“As a physio, looking at their off-season, I’ve analysed their injury trends, and it seems to me like they’ve got a massive soft-tissue injury trend happening there,”

I think a pizza delivery man would be capable of that analysis Libby.

100% Mate.
What a headline. The club announced it is a complex calf injury, which is the first time I can think of that a club was honest about this.
There are loads of these yearly, usually just reported as a standard injury.
Her entire point was that it might take up to 2 weeks more than 6; that is the case with every injury's expected recovery timeframe.
Don't be surprised if it is 8, not 6, however, they won't know until he completes a couple of weeks of isometrics and rescan it.

[angelopetraglia]

Swamp

Games experience named on this week's @AFL website injury list

1363 - WBD
1043 - SYD
687 - COLL
622 - GCS
609 - BRIS GWS
572 - FREM
570 - MELB
540 - CARL
495 - STK
416 - PORT
377 - WCE
350 - RICH
344 - ESS
324 - GEEL
207 - NTH
186 - HAW
175 - ADEL

[jazzadogs]

From the AFL injury list
"It has been a brutal pre-season on the injury front at the kennel, but the Western Bulldogs are hoping to regain Dale, Richards and West for the round one clash against North Melbourne. All three will need to prove their fitness next week. Treloar has made strong progress recently and is pushing to be available earlier than first planned. Bontempelli won't be available until after Gather Round in a massive blow for the club."

Good to hear that Treloar is making progress.