SA Footy

we are only 2 rounds into the NAB comp, anf their is a total of 6 players that already require season ending knee recon's

Mitch Brown from the Eagles and Magpies youngster Brad Dick have both been ruled out for the year

Fremantle onballer Paul Hasleby, Adelaide ruckman Rhett Biglands, Sydney defender Nick Malceski and young teammate Kristen Thornton have all needed surgeries, ruling them out for 2008.

not good

it doesn't help playing on rock hard surfaces in february

Hawthorn President Jeff Kennet made the point when interviewed the other day that he didnt like the idea of a pre season competition for the reason that player can get injured and be ruled out for the season proper, clearly that has come to pass as a direct result for at least two clubs so far....

bayman wrote:it doesn't help playing on rock hard surfaces in february

So have the pre-season comp in March/April, start the H&A in Late April, early May and
have the finals in October.

this might sound stupid to some but i swear there are so many kness being done now because of the strapping they have to have on there ankles at every training if there is no movement of that joint (the ankle) where does it all go to ? the next joint being the knee and taken in to account how much these guys train it has to be putting plenty of strain on the knees just my thoughts i'm guessing some will tell me i'm a wanker and its got nothing to do with it but i think it does .

it could be a contributing factor Carey, as well as the increased physical demands/pace of the game

carey wrote:this might sound stupid to some but i swear there are so many kness being done now because of the strapping they have to have on there ankles at every training if there is no movement of that joint (the ankle) where does it all go to ? the next joint being the knee and taken in to account how much these guys train it has to be putting plenty of strain on the knees just my thoughts i'm guessing some will tell me i'm a wanker and its got nothing to do with it but i think it does .

Not as silly as it sounds.
A lot of guys I played with in the '80s have the same idea, and I have heard
this theory thrown about by Gerard Healy, a qualified physiotherapist.

carey wrote:this might sound stupid to some but i swear there are so many kness being done now because of the strapping they have to have on there ankles at every training if there is no movement of that joint (the ankle) where does it all go to ? the next joint being the knee and taken in to account how much these guys train it has to be putting plenty of strain on the knees just my thoughts i'm guessing some will tell me i'm a wanker and its got nothing to do with it but i think it does .

I've underestimated you Carey

I actually know of a couple of SANFL and a couple of AFL players who were so against the idea of compulsory ankle taping, they used to just wrap a couple of pieces up around the top of the achillies area to make it look like they have strapping.. but actually didn't.

Would be interesting to look at the number of ACL injuries over the last few seasons and see if any pattern emerges as to which time(s) of year the majority have occurred.

I think this time last year there wasnt many knee injuries. I guess with not much rain over the past 4 months the grounds will be pretty solid.

Apparently Mitch Browns is the 3rd knee injury done at Albany in the past 2 seasons.

Mr66 wrote:

bayman wrote:it doesn't help playing on rock hard surfaces in february

So have the pre-season comp in March/April, start the H&A in Late April, early May and
have the finals in October.

Sounds fair to me.

Macca19 wrote:I think this time last year there wasnt many knee injuries. I guess with not much rain over the past 4 months the grounds will be pretty solid.

Apparently Mitch Browns is the 3rd knee injury done at Albany in the past 2 seasons.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm sure i heard on the report on Foxsports News last night that he actually kept on playing after damaging his knee, where as the Collingwood player was carried off the ground.

bayman wrote:it doesn't help playing on rock hard surfaces in february

No AFL club plays on any ground in a match without months of watering. If the local association doesn't meet the ground standards imposed on them, the game is cancelled and moved back to Melbourne/ Subi/ AAMI wherever. The players association and clubs ride that incredibly hard. There was a rash of games in country victoria cancelled 2-3 years ago, and also at Morningside in Qld.

AFL hasn't played a game in Albany in the last 10 years, so not sure what these other knees are from there, aside from Dick (a tackle) and Brown over the weekend??

As for Mitch Brown, he actually played for a quarter and a half after he did his knee, in the same way Lenny Hayes played on last year. It didn't swell up at all and it wasn't till training the next morning when he said the joint still felt weird that they did the checks and the bad news for him came up.

The one thing that 16 years of injury surveys in the AFL has told us though that if you are going to do a knee non-contact, it will most likely happen in the first six weeks of the year (hardly ever the last six weeks) and will more likely happen in WA, SA and Qld, compared to NSW, Vic and Tas. However, Nick Malceski completely blows that history of evidence by doing his knee non-contact in Tassie.

Thats pretty interesting Rog ... I should point out that my post wasn't trying to allude to anything untoward, more just trying to find potential reasons.

The most interesting part there Rog is the bit suggesting the injuries are less likely in Vic, NSW and Tas, states that (at a guess) would have traditionally softer turf than SA, WA & QLD?

No, I'm not fired up at all. More disappointed that we've had six re-co s already for 2008 after having pretty low totals for the last four years.We had an absolute rash in 2002-2003 but then it dropped back. Hopefully we are not about to see a spike again, like we have had in shoulder injuries for the last two years (that's assumed to be because of younger players coming into sides, and hence the stricter interpretation on players being slammed into the ground shoulder / head first with their arms pinned).
Grima did his at training.
Biglands did his at training, as a second time.
Malceski did his changing direction, as a second time.
Hasleby did his in contact.
Dick did his in a tackle.
Brown isn't quite sure when he did his, but is assumed to be contact,

The greater numbers of knees, as said, have been in WA, SA and Qld compared to the other states, over the journey of 17 years of research, but the other states invariably have their knees in the depths of winter (why is that, we don't know), with completely the opposite conditions. Maybe it is just all random.

Perhaps these are the exceptions that prove the rule Rog.

Hopefully, as you said, this does not indicate a change in the winds.

rogernumber10 wrote:Maybe it is just all random.

Would have to think there's a fair chance of that ... No doubt you guys would have invested heavily over the years in researching it in both our codes and other sports throughout the world and still there's nothing significant to strongly suggest, how, when and why.

Greg Gallman it tipped to have a knee re-co, anyone mention that???, and how did he do his???

dash61 wrote:Greg Gallman it tipped to have a knee re-co, anyone mention that???, and how did he do his???

In todays paper it said the Crows were confident he doesn't require surgery.

And btw, I saw Dick's injury, how the heck did that lead to an ACL?

Macca19 wrote:I think this time last year there wasnt many knee injuries. I guess with not much rain over the past 4 months the grounds will be pretty solid.

Apparently Mitch Browns is the 3rd knee injury done at Albany in the past 2 seasons.

Thankfully the Crows beat Collingwood. Never did I think a game in Dubai held so much significance.

But looking back at last year, I can't remembed a year with so few injuries. 7 knee reconstructions already is just plain bad luck IMO.