"Carnage" as star trio add to hamstring plague

The injury carnage in 2026 has continued in a major way, with Richmond's contest against Gold Coast hosting three significant hamstring concerns to three top players.

Within three quarters at the MCG, Richmond veterans Tom Lynch and Toby Nankervis, alongside Gold Coast superstar recruit Christian Petracca were all withdrawn from the contest, icing the hammys after a trio separate incidents.

Petracca, who started his Gold Coast tenure in superb fashion, went down to the rooms immediately after being tackled mid-kick, ruled out of the contest with what looks to be a serious hamstring.

Lynch and Nankervis were also withdrawn with what appear to be significant hamstring concerns, while Round 2 has already seen Crows recruit Callum Ah Chee suffer another nasty hamstring. Isaac Heeney also missed Sydney's loss to Hawthorn with a hamstring.

Questions have been asked over the game's new rule changes and their impact on the speed of the game. Since the introduction of the out of bounds 'lasso' rule, the pace of ball movement has increased exponentially, with players covering ground at record speeds within the opening weeks of the 2026 campaign.

Former Eagles coach Adam Simpson wonders if the injuries are simply unfortunate, or if the rule changes are starting to seriously impact the health of players across the AFL.

“There’s a lot of fallout from an injury point of view, for both sides,” Simpson told AFL Nation.

“Nankervis is a big loss, along with Lynch – hopefully they are not out for too long, but both hamstring.

“Then you’ve got Petracca with a hamstring as well. It just makes you think, is this just the game, or the rule changes? Are there things at play here that we’re not aware of?

“The earlier start to the year… we’ve seen a lot of carnage early on.”

Amid Round 2's carnage, SEN's Kane Cornes made comment on the pace of the modern game, wondering whether Greg Swann and the AFL would come to regret the changes implemented over the off-season.

“I think the physical demands that the rule changes are placing on the players are going to become a problem a little bit later on down the line,” Cornes told SEN Fireball following Hawthorn’s win over Sydney.

“Dean Cox, as you know, is very open with the media… but he was sort of saying that Isaac Heeney’s hamstring off a nine-day break at the time was interesting to them. They reckon the high-speed running is absolutely through the roof, so players are running less distance, but the speeds that they're running at is through the roof (putting them at risk of injury).

“Then you see what we saw in the first quarter, the speed of ball movement, which is great with 11 goals… Hawthorn had eight entries for eight scores at one point.

“Now is that sustainable? Or are we going to see all-time carnage in the second half of the year when it comes to injury and the demands of the players?

“The ball is in motion, basketball-style, the whole time.

“I really enjoyed watching it. But I don't know if it's sustainable, and I don't know if the league is helping the clubs and the players by putting them at this risk.

“We’ll see, but I suspect there's going to be all-time carnage when it comes to injuries.”