Probably just stating the obvious here, but I think the first and last games of the round do demonstrate just what a difference a fit list makes. Tonight sees Brisbane warm favourites to beat a Richmond side that have been quietly resurrecting their season. Now, not that I really wish ill will on to Brisbane, but yet again they have been sailing through the season with hardly any injuries. I mean, their current injury list of five players, is almost the worst I've seen it in the last few seasons. Consequently, their place in the eight seems assured, some people highly rate their premiership chances and nobody is calling for the coach to be sacked. Contrast that to the last game of the round. where pretty well no one thinks that West Coast will beat St Kilda. Not even after the public flogging that the whole organisation has copped throughout the week. Almost everybody who's voiced an opinion, seems to think that premiership coach Adam Simpson is a clueless plodder, that others in their management are just as incompetent and the players are soulless time-servers. But I suspect that the major problem was that they only had 26 fit (or fit-ish) players to choose from. And it's been much the same for at least the last couple of seasons.
And I'm curious, if there's actually been much difference in the way that the respective clubs have gone about their fitness and injury management? Has Brisbane been running a successful experiment, with methods that are bit more advanced than the rest of the competition? Or are their methods much the same and they've just been extraordinarily lucky? Alternatively, have West Coast been fundamentally incompetent with their fitness programs, or have they been spectacularly unlucky? While I suspect that there's some differences from club to club, I think it's likely that the people in charge of each club's programs are all highly qualified professionals, with much the same education and similar ideas. So, maybe luck has been more of a factor? Actually, if anyone is knowledgeable about what the clubs actually do, I'd be interested to hear.
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