Richmond’s blessed run with injuries continue as premiership rivals count cost of bad luck
RICHMOND’S blessed run with injury has been revealed as GWS count the cost of more bad luck and beaten grand finalists Adelaide, Collingwood and Geelong are all battling to stay fit. SEE EVERY CLUB’S INJURY NUMBERS
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RICHMOND’S blessed run with injury has been revealed as Greater Western Sydney count the cost of more bad luck.
No club has lost more players to injury since the start of 2017 than the Giants, while the Tigers’ premiership defence has started with a near-empty medical room.
Richmond’s imperious grip on the competition is franked by a playing list that has missed a combined 15 games in 2018 — 11 fewer than the next best, the Brisbane Lions.
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The Tigers’ Grand Final rival Adelaide, on the other hand, has lost a league-high 56 games this season as the Crows battle a hamstring crisis.
GWS, who have made back-to-back preliminary finals despite having a squad far from healthy, are again battling with one hand tied behind their back.
Absent Brownlow Medal fancy Josh Kelly (groin) and star forward Toby Greene (foot) have both had a recurrence of injuries they rested and nursed throughout the pre-season, while Rory Lobb (knee) hasn’t been seen since Round 3 and Tom Scully faces 8-10 weeks out with a broken ankle.
Zac Williams has already been ruled out indefinitely with an achilles injury.
GWS football manager Wayne Campbell on Tuesday said Kelly would play “in the next couple of weeks”, while Greene will this week see a specialist in an attempt to determine the nature of his soreness.
“That will give us the best indication because we don’t absolutely know what the problem is,” Campbell said on Greene.
“There’s a hot spot there, but we don’t know if that’s causing the pain. It got a bit sore over time, he’d had it pre-season and we rested him, but it came back after he started playing again.”
The Giants, still 4-2 and third on the ladder, face Geelong at GMHBA Stadium in a blockbuster clash on Friday night having already lost 50 games through injury this season, behind only Adelaide (56), Carlton (54) and Fremantle (52).
But Campbell said the Giants didn’t just explain the injuries away as misfortune and were determined to find answers.
“You’re working on your program on a daily basis to make sure there’s no luck involved. Whether that’s the running side of it in pre-season, the way they train in terms of tackling technique or the recovery work they do. Then you require a bit of luck,” he said.
“I think you can control most things. But sides have shown, and the Western Bulldogs did it in 2016 — they were almost the opposite of Richmond.
“The Dogs had lots of injuries and they just got them right at the end of the year ... but it’s been shown you can do it.”
The injury ladder is detailed by Champion Data. The game’s leading analysts also measure the effect of injuries on what they consider to be a club’s best 22.
The Tigers missed 136 games through injury in their premiership year — the 10th most — but only 74 of those hit their best players — the 15th most.
This year, Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs have lost the most games (39) from their first-choice sides.
The best 22 measurement names Gold Coast as the hardest hit team of the past two years.
The Suns, who have had 187 of their 198 games missed through injury hit their best side, have now lost co-captains Tom Lynch (knee) and Steven May (finger) for Saturday’s meeting with the Western Bulldogs.
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