TOPIC:

The current injury crisis of the Eagles has been the topic of discussion, a lot of it aimed at the condition of the MRP ovals.
My own view is that the playing areas at MRP are state of the art and along with Optus equal to the best playing surfaces in the AFL.
The real problem IMO is twofold...footwear and taping. I have been watching football for many, many years and have never before seen the number of serious ankle and knee  injuries of the past few decades and we see more and more each year. 
I wonder if players at the top level are disciplined in taping their ankles and if such taping is religiously done in line with the best sports' medicine advice. The same should apply to taping knees, shoulders etc.
Secondly, footwear. When I was a boy my first pair of footy boots were high cut in design and had leather stops tacked to the soles. Then came aluminium stops also tacked to the soles. Much later they were screw ins. In the late 50s low cut moulded boots became popular for comfort but offered little support to the ankles. 
In the years since there have been many advances in design with many variable options available. I wonder if sports' medicine has kept pace and if players opt for show instead of proper support?
I do believe that there is more of a strong correlation between footwear and ankle/knee injuries than ground surfaces.



 

There could be something to your theories Smokey but I reckon a lot of injuries nowadays are down to over training. These blokes are running miles and miles from November through to March. No coach is brave enough to challenge the status quo of having all 18 players running up the ground, and down the ground, and back up the ground, and back down the ground, and...
So the training regimes mean a lot of miles in the legs.

Good post Smokey, spot on I reckon.  One of my, probably weird, theories is added to yours.  I reckon the players are born and built as nature wanted them, but they are adding kilos of muscle. It’s ok to be bigger, faster, stronger, but I believe they are paying a price for this.  Can’t fk with nature and build legs that support this bulking up.  As for the boots, I have no doubt that they, particularly the younger, ones are choosing fashion so they look good on the field and on TV.  Old fashioned me!!

The modern game is helter skelter at a million miles an hour where 36 players swarm up and down the full length of the ground. Resulting in too many collisions and players changing direction.

If the playing surface at MRP is an issue then they've only got themselves to blame as they are the ones that maintain it.

Agree with your point Smokey about low cut and high cut shoes. I've always preferred a higher cut myself.

The AFL is going to destroy the State leagues like the WAFL. Gill just announced that each club can have 20 top up players in the event of Covid hitting clubs that they run out of players. He said the AFL will not stop this season and will go on. The WAFC muppet said that they have to accommodate the AFL. Surprise! Surprise!

If that is the case, then all those WAFL sides who played finals last year should be in the gun first.....saying that Feo should only select from their aligned club Peel.....whilst WCE should exhaust all their non listed WCER players first, before tapping into other WAFL clubs.....not sure the likes of EF, EP or Perth have the depth to lose  many.....looks like EF are about to lose 3 very soon, so taking more during the season will definitely hurt big time.....eg Marsh, Schoenfeld, English etc.

They will have to use all their players available on their list first. They just cannot go and cherry pick players from WAFL sides.

Roman wrote:

They will have to use all their players available on their list first. They just cannot go and cherry pick players from WAFL sides.

Unfortunately Roman the afl lead by that Dill Gil will just do whatever they please and stuff the WAFL, SANFL etc.
The very simple solution would be Freo or WCE just pick players from their respective Reserves teams to fill any covid related players missing but that would be far too simple for the likes of Gil the Dill!

What compensation do they Eagles and Dockers have to pay the WAFL clubs for taking a player and what contract are those players then on, is it for a weekend, week, month or based on we take Kytel if Kennedy/Lobb gets hurt but once they are back Kytel then returns to West Perth.
Don’t Like it at all, could really destroy a team’s chances of finals/flag. A top team loses 3 to the AFL clubs then cops a couple of injuries themselves and chances are slim.
if the AFL clubs want to do this they should be made to pay a hefty price (they make plenty)