An “extraordinary” AFL injury ladder has revealed the full toll of West Coast’s horror run, the remarkable resilience of the Swans and the prime position Adelaide finds itself in ahead of Round 6.
Sports statistician @sirswampthing on Tuesday released an 18-club ladder via Twitter that ranked the teams – largest to smallest – by the number of games each is missing at the moment, according to the injury list compiled by AFL Media.
“That is extraordinary,” Melbourne champion Garry Lyon said on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 when the ladder appeared on the screen.
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West Coast, which has won one of its first five games, sits on top thanks to 15 players with a total of 1384 games experience being sidelined. Jamie Cripps, Jeremy McGovern, Nic Naitanui, Liam Ryan, Dom Sheed and Elliot Yeo are all on the list, while premiership skipper Shannon Hurn is set to join them due to hamstring issues.
“This year has been a cluster. Three weeks ago we had four injuries,” Eagles coach Adam Simpson told reporters.
“And we are not the only club. There are other clubs dealing with this as well. It has just happened to us two years in a row, which you are always trying to get better at. There are some things there we just can’t avoid.”
Remarkably, though, Sydney sits second behind the Eagles on the injury ladder, as they have 10 players with 1153 games experience on their injury list.
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Despite their personnel issues, the Swans have won three of their first five games, including a stirring win over Richmond last weekend despite having the youngest team of all 18 clubs in Gather Round.
“What a performance from the Swans to be still up there,” Lyon said.
“A lot was made of Richmond and how decimated they were – and they were – but the Swans were the youngest team out there on the weekend and still managed to get it done.”
Melbourne (934 games experience missing), Collingwood (848), Carlton (846), Richmond (813), St Kilda (772) and Fremantle (640) make up the ‘top eight’. Yet the Demons, Magpies, Blues and Saints are all in the top six on the premiership ladder.
Adelaide, conversely, has had a terrific run, with only 2022 draftee Hugh Bond (knee) sidelined due to injury – and Bond hasn’t played a game yet.
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“Now (Crows fitness boss) Darren Burgess has long been held up as a pillar of what‘s all good about strength and conditioning, but even he wouldn’t suggest that they (the Crows) could be sitting there without one game missing,” Lyon said.
But the Crows’ run of luck is clearly against the injury trend in this year’s competition.
“The game is brutal, the players are brave and the toll is savage at times … long-term injuries, trauma injuries in the comp at the moment,” Gerard Whateley told Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“What annoys me is when you thoughtlessly get the fans who still want the capacity to be able to jam a bloke’s head into the ground and if you take that away ‘the game has gone soft’ – well, no it hasn‘t. The physical, brutal nature of the game is absolutely inherent still and it loses nothing on recognising a period of enlightenment around head trauma. It doesn’t diminish the risks within the game and the sheer bravery that I acknowledge all of you who have played it take.”
Lyon, however, said the injury toll was not out of the ordinary compared to past AFL seasons.
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“We should be unapologetic when it comes to this. I know that that sounds brutal and it‘s not an uncaring statement for those that have suffered,” he said.
“We have made the head a priority – as we should and I‘m all for it and I really drive that really hard – but the gladiatorial nature of this game is what has drawn people to it over 100-plus years and it remains to be there.
“Players of past eras … you walk around (Fox Footy) and you’ll see blokes and their knees don’t work, their hips have been replaced – and to a man I would suggest that none of them want their time again, because we take that on knowingly and we wear it almost as a badge of courage: ‘Yes, these injuries are a possibility, but that’s the nature of the game and we accept the risk that comes with it.’
“I know it reads horribly and there‘s been a little spate of them in recent times. But if you go back over time, there’s no difference.
“For those who are bemoaning the fact that the sling tackle is resulting in a weak (suspension), hey you’re still going to get your carnage – if that drives you to the footy. I‘m not saying that as a smart alec, because I know that there are people who walk away from their jobs to go there and witness an overtly physical contest – and we celebrate that. We say that this game is as physical and hard to play as any in the world. Well there (the injury lists) is the by-product.”
