“Clubs have had enough”: The reasons behind the spate of AFL injuries

AFL clubs have had enough and believe that players have too much time off.

The discussion came about after SEN Breakfast’s Sam Edmund and Kane Cornes spoke on Wednesday of the spate of pre-season injuries across the competition.

Edmund says that some high performance managers have grievances about how little access they actually get to the players.

“I was contacted yesterday by one high performance boss who heard our chat yesterday before I reached out and contacted another,” Edmund said on SEN Breakfast.

“Without hesitation these two guys provided me with a laundry list of gripes they had with the way the off-season and pre-season calendars looked - a calendar they say makes this sort of injury rate inevitable and in fact a disaster waiting to happen, if it isn't already in their eyes.

“I’m just not sure how aware or how much they care, the average fan, about this sort of stuff.”

Cornes, who has often commented on this topic, felt compelled to again speak strongly on the situation.

“It’s been one of my biggest frustrations for a long time,” Cornes said.

“I actually have been writing about this for seven years.

“Players get far too much time off and the lack of preparation is leading to this significant spate of injuries.

“Clubs have had enough.

“You’ve spoken to people, I’ve spoken to coaches before, I’ve spoken to high performance. They say they just do not have enough time with the players to prepare them.

“We all remember this little clip from Ross Lyon which I was staggered by - ‘We give them a lot of time off, I think they get three and a half days a week off. 16 hours in (at the club) and game day’.

“16 hours a week… I’ve always thought I’m going to get to the bottom of this. I’m done some digging around in terms of how much leave does an AFL player get.”

Cornes went through the contact hours of the North Melbourne playing group this off-season, as an example.

“I’ve used North Melbourne as the example as they didn’t play finals,” he added.

“Their last game was on August 24, they returned to pre-season training for five-plus year players on November 25 - so 12 weeks of holiday in the off-season.

“They then trained for three weeks before Christmas, they broke up on December 19 - so they've had three weeks training.

“They then returned post-Christmas on January 9 - so there's another three weeks holiday and we're up to 15 weeks already and we’re in January.

“Their first pre-season game is on February 22 - so they have five and a half weeks of training from January 9 to February 22 to prepare the players after Christmas. That is eight and a half weeks for the year to get ready for the most difficult sport to play in the world, the most physically demanding.

“Eight and a half weeks is not enough, so it's no wonder the high performance staff you're speaking to, the coaches that we’re speaking to… speak to a coach off the record and they’ll say, ‘We just don’t have enough time with the players’.”

Edmund chimed in: “Broadly speaking - this is what the clubs say - the players have more time off now than they have ever had before.”

Cornes added: “It’s gone way too far and the AFL Players’ Association have far too much power in the game.

“Who is going to stand up to them? I’m not sure what the answer is here.

“If you’re wondering why everyone is getting injured and why it’s never been worse, this is why.”

Cornes also floated some of the guidelines in the AFL players’ handbook, astounded by the amount of time the playing fraternity has off.

Listen to the full conversation below:

Former AFL high performance guru Andrew Russell then provided his brilliant insight into pre-season training and access to players in comparison to other elite sports.