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THE WESTERN Bulldogs are using breakthrough medical technology in a bid to resurrect the career of veteran defender Dale Morris.
Morris, who will be 30 in December, didn’t play a single AFL game this season - he managed just a quarter with Williamstown's reserves mid-season - after suffering complications to the badly broken leg he sustained against Essendon in round 21 last year.
But the Bulldogs are optimistic that new sensor technology will help Morris' quest for a return to the game next season.
The Dogs are pleased with his progress using Melbourne company dorsaVi's 'ViPerform' product, which costs around $15,000 a unit and has been employed with success Richmond, and the New South Wales and Tasmanian cricket teams.
Four wireless sensors are usually placed on the player's lower back to measure muscle movement during training, providing data that can identify weaknesses and be used to modify training techniques and programs.
The Bulldogs have done this with half their playing list - some as a one-off test for educational purposes - and are regularly monitoring about 10 players who have suffered, or appear at risk of, back-related injuries.
Since the latter part of the season they have also used ViPerform to gather information about Morris's troublesome leg. It took some time and planning to reach that point.
McKenzie said Morris had spent much of his time on the sidelines running in a controlled environment on an anti-gravity treadmill. However, this control was lost whenever Morris ran outdoors.
Then McKenzie had a timely discussion with Andrew Ronchi, his former boss at Hoppers Crossing Physio Centre and an ex-teammate at De La Salle Old Collegians. Ronchi is the CEO of dorsaVi. Ideas were exchanged and McKenzie decided the Bulldogs could benefit from Ronchi's creation.
For Morris's outdoor runs, sensors are positioned on his shins to gain 'ground reaction force' readings.
"We manage Dale's load with standard measurements like time and distance, but this also gives us information on his ability to generate power on each side so that he's not overloading one side," McKenzie told AFL.com.au.
"We use pain and visual technique (to monitor rehabilitation), but this gives us more of an objective reading to work from, and it's been very effective."
McKenzie said the 2008 All Australian's prospects for next season were promising.
"He'll be starting (pre-season training) with everyone else but it'll depend on how he copes with the progressions in his loads," McKenzie said.
"We'll be very careful with that, given his past history with this injury. But he's tracking really well."
McKenzie is also enthusiastic about potential long-term gains the club can make with its ViPerform unit, which he is keen to use as part of a player screening process.
"Now that we've had a bit of a practice with the system and we're getting to understand it more, I plan to use it a lot more," he said.
"With the ability to plan now, we'll be testing all players to identify who has a poor technique and work to rectify them.
"It also gives us a baseline so that if anyone gets injured we can get them back to what they were."
It's a time of great change at Whitten Oval with the Bulldogs appointing New Zealand-born Graham Lowe as high performance manager and Andy Barnett, an American, as strength coach.
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