Luke Meehan and Conditioning team

[Mr Brightside]

No doubt there’s always questions asked re each part of the football club.

With having zilch idea of these roles ,imho a tell tail usually appears when players get multiple soft tissue injuries when something is not right in this department. Usually the axe falls not long after . Can’t remember who or which clubs but I think I’ve read a couple of times where fitness stafff have trialled “ new” training routines to “ fix” hammies and its actually created more problems

 

[JoeGee]

Blaming the strength and conditioning dept, and one guy in the dept in particular, doesn't really hold up imho.

I mean, is anyone really surprised that aging, and/or injury-prone players get injured? I reckon if we had held a straw poll prior to the season on which players were most likely to spend time out injured, based on history alone you'd expect Prestia, Grimes, Lynch, and Graham to be up there.

Gibcus was cruel luck, but onfield injuries happen. And they tend to happen to players coming back from a long period off who may be subconsciously trying to protect the old injury.

Hopper did his knee on field. It happens.

Tresize had his legs taken out from under him and was lucky to walk away.

Dusty has calf trouble. Again, not overly surprising given it's the old-man injury, and he's kinda old.

When was the last time Graham had an injury free season? Yeah I don't know either.

Grimes has been broken for a while now, and honestly the backline has looked better without him in it.

And anyone expecting Prestia to play more than 50% of games in a season these days is kidding themselves. I don't buy the 'if we just gave Prestia another week off he'd be ok' line. He's paid to play footy. If his body can no longer handle it, maybe it's time to hang up the boots. Or take a pay cut commensurate to the amount of time his actually able to get on the park.

Yes, we have a lot of injuries, but it's mainly the usual suspects filling the roster. Does anyone truly believe that a new strength and conditioning team would miraculously keep Prestia on the park for longer? Or arrest the passage of time and prevent it from eroding the physical prowess of our once great champions? Or prevent the sort of footy incidents that happen every week to every team? Of course not. There's no golden bullet here.

...but there is a silver lining. Kids are getting games they wouldn't have gotten. They're being thrust into positions of responsibility and accountability before their time. We're going to find out a hell of a lot about the list this season, before hitting the draft with a pretty strong hand. Injuries played a massive role in shaping our premiership dynasty after they effectively forced Dimma to reinvent the game in 2017. The list balance is very different in 2024, but it could prove to be a defining year nevertheless.

I agree on most of this - in my (now ancient) exprience in S&C most of the injuries we've had have been 'playing incidents'... but I would observe our overall kids fitness doesn't look as good as it could be, and the plethora of calves are a concern. Without knowing what the program looks like, the most you can do is speculate and do a data comparison. There's been plenty of examples all over the world of teams bringing in a 'new / advanced' approach that destroys everyone.

Not sure if anyone here has the time to go through every teams list? Would be an interesting deep dive.

 

[tigertime2]

When doing detective work look for evidence........when did Mehan take over? when did the injuries start?
Facts never lie.

 

[Tenacious]

Didn't realise there were so many sports scientists on PRE.

And elite sports scientists at that

 

[RoarEmotion]

I agree that many of our problems come from pushing our guys before they are ready but with Gibcus, Lynch and Balta injures, they were just happenstance due to landing awkwardly. However I accept that the club needs to look at a the conditioning team to see where we can improve

But does that mean the work hasn't been done?

Its a proprioception thing right?

If your brain doesn't know where your leg is because the muscles etc. haven't been developed (especially after coming back from a long term lack of use of that part of the body) then you put it in the wrong spot and injure yourself.

Surely we can be doing more on the prevention part for some of these items?

This area seems worse than HTB. If it does happen people put it down to bad luck / genetics. If it doesn't happen its due to good preparation.
What's the point then of even having someone responsible for this.

When lightning strikes 47 times you tend to think something is wrong with the leadership of that part of the group.

If we have players on the list who we know will break down because the body is shot, then doesn't that need to get into list management and also be something that is known?

 

[Brodders17]

Didn't realise there were so many sports scientists on PRE.

I'm sure they have all done their research.

 

[Redford]

We’re not using enough Deep Heat.

 

[tigerdell]

We’re not using enough Deep Heat.

Disagree. That's all wrong.
And that's the problem with following young uneducated shysters with their new methods.
We are using too much Deep Heat.
And at the wrong time.
Apply only a handful after the game and then another handful just before bed

 

[mrposhman]

Lynch landed badly apparently. Did Meehan push him like Hawkins pushed Soldo?

Lynch was pushed off balance when in the air, he came down looking like he didn't hold his ground but it was the landing on the leg which kind of buckled. He then went up for 2 more marking contests and he couldn't hold his ground and fell on the ground again, thats when he limped off.

Why doesn't it happen to other older talls? Maybe because the opposition aren't allowed to push them in the back like they are allowed to on Lynch.

 

[Tenacious]

....................................

When lightning strikes 47 times you tend to think something is wrong with the leadership of that part of the group.

If we have players on the list who we know will break down because the body is shot, then doesn't that need to get into list management and also be something that is known?

If lightning strikes 47 times it will surely be Steely Greens fault

 

[spook]

Deep Heat, sheesh, there's ya problem. All the best use Dencorub.

 

[hutstar]

When doing detective work look for evidence........when did Mehan take over? when did the injuries start?
Facts never lie.

They're not facts though. You're doing the opposite and using correlation as causation and drawing a conclusion. I think we're all concerned about injuries, we're screwed now for the year. I am sure management is seeing the same thing and conducting their own investigation into what's going on.

 

[Redford]

Deep Heat, sheesh, there's ya problem. All the best use Dencorub.

I'm sure if we were cutting edge, we'd be using Penetrene. Clearly not.

 

[Don’t Argue]

Didn't realise there were so many sports scientists on PRE.

I think you’ll find that the “SS” qualifications listed on their business cards actually stands for Sh#t Shovellers

 

[fastin bulbous]

Questionable recruiting- pre speculates
Questionable coaching- pre speculates
Questionable fitness and conditioning- pre speculates

I fail to see why we all need a degree to ask the question of Meehan. There’s obviously a problem with such a long injury list early in the year and for the third year in a row. Yes we have some older players who are more susceptible to injury but we also have two younger players with stress fractures in their backs. That speaks to poor management. We have hammies and calves pinging all over the place. There is a problem.

 

[TT33]

We’re not using enough Deep Heat.

Or those infra red lamps!!!!

 

[TT33]

I'm sure if we were cutting edge, we'd be using Penetrene. Clearly not.

Some blokes I knew used horse liniment.

 

[taztiger4]

Capsolin, horrible *smile*

 

[ceehook2]

Disagree. That's all wrong.
And that's the problem with following young uneducated shysters with their new methods.
We are using too much Deep Heat.
And at the wrong time.
Apply only a handful after the game and then another handful just before bed

a little on the rim just before the first bounce might improve our overall leg speed

 

[Leysy Days]

Injuries to Lynch, Martin, Grimes and Prestia have nothing to do with Meehan. These guys are experience, ageing professionals who would be running their own show after years of basically doing the same thing every year. They know their bodies better than anyone. If anything, it would be the players pushing too hard and over doing things. lynch had to be held back. Martin would play on one leg if he could.

Gibcus ACL = Meehan fault LOL
Balta knee injury = Meehan fault LOL
Lynch landed badly apparently. Did Meehan push him like Hawkins pushed Soldo?

Blaming the strength and conditioning dept, and one guy in the dept in particular, doesn't really hold up imho.

I mean, is anyone really surprised that aging, and/or injury-prone players get injured? I reckon if we had held a straw poll prior to the season on which players were most likely to spend time out injured, based on history alone you'd expect Prestia, Grimes, Lynch, and Graham to be up there.

Gibcus was cruel luck, but onfield injuries happen. And they tend to happen to players coming back from a long period off who may be subconsciously trying to protect the old injury.

Hopper did his knee on field. It happens.

Tresize had his legs taken out from under him and was lucky to walk away.

Dusty has calf trouble. Again, not overly surprising given it's the old-man injury, and he's kinda old.

When was the last time Graham had an injury free season? Yeah I don't know either.

Grimes has been broken for a while now, and honestly the backline has looked better without him in it.

And anyone expecting Prestia to play more than 50% of games in a season these days is kidding themselves. I don't buy the 'if we just gave Prestia another week off he'd be ok' line. He's paid to play footy. If his body can no longer handle it, maybe it's time to hang up the boots. Or take a pay cut commensurate to the amount of time his actually able to get on the park.

Yes, we have a lot of injuries, but it's mainly the usual suspects filling the roster. Does anyone truly believe that a new strength and conditioning team would miraculously keep Prestia on the park for longer? Or arrest the passage of time and prevent it from eroding the physical prowess of our once great champions? Or prevent the sort of footy incidents that happen every week to every team? Of course not. There's no golden bullet here.

...but there is a silver lining. Kids are getting games they wouldn't have gotten. They're being thrust into positions of responsibility and accountability before their time. We're going to find out a hell of a lot about the list this season, before hitting the draft with a pretty strong hand. Injuries played a massive role in shaping our premiership dynasty after they effectively forced Dimma to reinvent the game in 2017. The list balance is very different in 2024, but it could prove to be a defining year nevertheless.

Sure, some of the injuries couldn't have been prevented,

But some could - the Prestia one is 100% on Meehan.

Playing a veteran who has done countless hammies 5 days after travelling to Gold Coast for round 1 - Criminal.

He needed to think bigger picture and be strong and tell Meatball to sit that one out - long season ahead, let's not put extra stress on a suspect part of your body now. Instead he going to miss what 10 weeks.

For that decision alone there should be a serious review of our fitness area. If her can't make simple risk management decisions like that one - massive eyebrow raiser.

Luke seems like a decent chap but this is his first gig running a physical performance dept. And the results aren't good.