Tyson Goldsack: Playing shorter AFL games may reduce the risk of injury and prolong careers

Collingwood’s injury crisis isn’t the fault of the club but rather a combination of factors including the heavy demands the game asks of its players, writes Tyson Goldsack.

Collingwood trio Darcy Moore, Jordan De Goey and Ben Reid are missing with hamstring injuries. Picture: AAP

AFL footballers have never been better rewarded for their efforts, but it’s fair to say they’ve also never had to work as hard — or had to push their bodies to the extremes — as they have to now.

That’s not a whinge; that’s reality.

The brutal, ballistic nature of the game not only expects that, it demands it.

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The rewards are fantastic and the highs are pretty darn good, but mixed in are some difficult times. Most of them come from dealing with and trying to come back from injury.

We’re seeing that at Collingwood.

The club had almost 15 players unavailable for various reasons for Sunday’s game against Gold Coast, leaving a small pool of players from which to choose at selection.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t chosen to take on the Suns. I’ll be playing with the Magpies’ VFL side on Sunday, but more of that later.

The injuries we have had to endure across the past two seasons have probably been greater than at any other stage of my 13-year career, but that doesn’t mean they were all preventable or that we are doing something wrong at the club.

Quite the opposite. Sometimes it can be pure plain bad luck.

You can’t control trauma injuries — we had plenty last year, including my ACL, and those suffered by Lynden Dunn and Matt Scharenberg, as well as Tim Broomhead’s broken leg.

This year we’ve had a few more soft tissue injuries, which can be caused by the speed of the game which is almost running at breakneck level.

Tyson Goldsack (centre) is giving up on breaking back into the Magpies’ senior team. Picture: Getty Images

Old-school supporters are quick to say: “We never had as many injuries back in our day.”

They’re right in a sense, but what we have in 2019 is a vastly different game to the slow, much more stop-start contests of earlier years.

Fans love the explosive nature of our game, but aren’t as prepared to accept what that naturally brings — a greater injury toll.

It’s a double-edge sword.

Have we reached a bit of a tipping point for the game where something needs to be done to try and slow the game, without impacting on the spectacle?

We won’t be shortening the season any time soon, given the lucrative TV rights deal.

But what we can do is shorten the quarters.

The AFL has long looked into cutting game durations, but it needs to happen soon.

If we can cut two or three minutes out of very quarter, that means we will be having 10 or so minutes less from the contest. Over a whole season — it’s about two whole games worth of time!

It won’t cure all of the ills, but it may prolong some careers.

Jordan De Goey’s soft-tissue injuries could be caused by the way he plays. Picture: Michael Klein

Back in the old days, footballers had to leave the game because the medical technology wasn’t there to help them recover. That technology now has advanced to incredible levels, but our bodies are struggling to keep up with the huge demands of training and playing.

The amount of injuries a club suffers often comes back to luck, or a lack of it, but it also rests on the type of player you are, and the type of game your team plays.

Jordan De Goey is an explosive player, possibly lending him to have some soft tissue injuries issues on the back of it. The same could be said for Jamie Elliott.

Darcy Moore plays the game as if he was a medium-sized player rather than the 203cm 23-year-old that he is.

He’s a phenomenal athlete for his size and you can’t expect him to play the way he does, without some stress impacting on him.

So the question needs to be asked of the supporters — can you accept that players are going miss games through injuries, in the hunt for absolute performance and entertainment on game day?

There has been so much talk in recent weeks about Collingwood’s long injury list at the moment, albeit only a small portion from soft tissue and the rest for various other reasons. And are we getting criticised for taking the cautionary roads of missing a week instead of pushing it and missing a month?

It’s hard to know.

Darcy Moore plays like a mid-sized player. Picture: Getty Images

Much has been said about the Holden Centre ground, but I can assure you it has never been in better shape. It has been in worse condition than it is at the moment, so I don’t see that as the current issue with our injuries.

There has also been external criticism of our fitness and conditioning staff, but they are always an easy target.

That’s frustrating as the people making those claims don’t see the amount of hard work that goes into preparing the players and how diligent those staff members are in their roles.

They tick every box, I know that from first-hand knowledge.

What we are finding is that this game is getting so demanding that perhaps the players’ bodies aren’t going to last as long in the game as they have in the past.

There are exceptions to every rule, of course. Shaun Burgoyne is the perfect example.

Unless we do something soon to ease the strain on the players — and that might be as simple as cutting as little as 10 minutes out of a game — there won’t be many who play deep into their 30s in the future.

Tyson Goldsack attempts to tackle Ben Reid at training last month. Picture: Getty Images

Back to my situation, it’s no secret I am a lot closer to the end than the beginning.

I’m still itching to play in Collingwood’s AFL team, and won’t give up on that until the last game has been played.

I don’t need to make any decisions on my future until the end of the season because, as unlikely as it looks right now, you just never know what might happen in the coming month or so.

My body is in good shape and, form-wise, it has been pretty solid run over the past four to six weeks.

I’m still doing all the training and I am not just doing that for the fun of it.

One thing I can assure you is that I am ready, and have been ready to go if needed, but I just haven’t been called upon yet.

The carrot of finals football is pretty tasty, and I wouldn’t mind a bite!