Bombertalk

Shannon Grant says he is a good chance to return to the VFL this week and play a half, just got a few training sessions to get through this week

Great news.

Not expecting much this season, but getting him back will be huge.

Even with the way the game is played these days, being a KPP should mean his lack of fitness will be less of an issue than if he were a midfielder.

Not getting excited at all LOL... same with Gumbleton until they can get through a season relatively injury free. Not denying it's not great news though.

JumboPaddy wrote:Not getting excited at all LOL... same with Gumbleton until they can get through a season relatively injury free. Not denying it's not great news though.

I see your point, but I reckon they're different cases. Pears had a long-term structural injury, whereas Gubleton keeps doing the hammy.

Yeah they are different j-mac but still I'm over getting excited to then hear of injury relapses. Hope this time all ends well for Tayte & Gumby.

JumboPaddy wrote:Yeah they are different j-mac but still I'm over getting excited to then hear of injury relapses. Hope this time all ends well for Tayte & Gumby.

im confident about Tayte, not so Gumby, he's up shit creek

Where's that broken record image BD always posts?

Believe it when I see it. Hope he can get through one game let alone 5 reserves games.

This one?

Truth is, it would seem both Tayter and Gumby have finally had their medical issues identified and dealt with. In my opinion,both will need to basically go through a Quasi-preseason program over the next 4 weeks. But what a potential bonus to have both guys fit for the last half of the year when other players begin to show fatigue as well as wear and tear.

As much as losing Hocking has been a pain, I am sure he will also be another "fresh" player to call on in about a month

I don't know, I find the constant malaise of our ongoing and ever growing injury disposition all so depressing...It's the same every F****** year and this season's turning out to be no different from about the last 10.

You know, I look at a side like Geelong and marvel at the dream run they seem to have year in year out. Yes they have their injuries too but somehow they still manage to get pretty near their best 22 on the park every flamin week. Chapman for example...he has dodgey hammies, he misses the odd game with them but I reckon you could still count the number of games he's actually missed over the past few seasons almost on one hand....they (the club) get him on to the park. Rooke was another with the same issues but they spared no expense to get him right by sending him o/s to Germany to be treated by the best the world has to offer. They got him back on the park too, esp for the big (finals) games. Sydney are another side that seems somehow to get it's best players back on the park quicker than most. They have a player (can't recall his name just atm) but he's ready to play after doing his ACL only about 9 weeks ago through the LARS op. Malcheski was another one they did the same thing to.

But at Essendon, we lose em like it was the Western front but what is so infuriating, so disappointing, it seems to take them soooo long to get them back on to the park again....weeks and weeks. The weeks turn into months for many of them or worse still, whole seasons. Even with blokes like Hurley, he goes out with an injury and we are led to believe (mostly via the mushroom treatment) that he'll only miss a week or so...but no, you keep looking at the following weeks teamsheets, week after week and still no Hurls. I wont be at all surprised if the same thing ends up happening to Jobe. I wont go into ALL the other cases, both present and past...the Gumbies, The Tayters, The Johns' and the Laycocks et al. we all know who they are and were. Then, of course, even when (or if) they do reappear back in the side, they've all lost so much fiftness and match conditioning, they're another 3 or 4 weeks or more getting back to where they were before their injuries IF they're lucky...often they simply don't find the same Mojo again. As the father of an elite level athlete who had a very promising career cut short by constant injury I can vouch for the fact that, certainly at the elite level, of practically any sport you could name, the constant toll of injury gradually dimishes whatever ability you might have had in the first place, you lose just that little bit more every time you come back....I think a lot of people don't understand this. Most of us just expect these athletes and footballers to just pick up where they left off...it doesn't work like that I'm afraid. Oh sure, there will always be the exceptions, the freaks, like Lance Armstrong but that's just what they are freaks...freaks don't come along all that often, and we should never count on it.

I know we always use what really has become a cliche by saying that you shouldn't blame injuries for poor team performance, that we should have the depth to cover them blah, blah, blah, but in reality, I think that is all cloud cuckoo stuff. With the talent pool spread so thinly these days, quality player depth has largely become an anachronism. If you want to win flags, you have, quite simply, got to keep your best 22 on the park as much as is humanly possible. The records and short injury lists of all the premiership sides over the past years is clear evidence of this.

It's an issue that simply must be overcome if we are ever to become a powerhouse side again. Bomber found the answer to it at Geelong by getting the right people around him, let's hope he can bring the same knowledge and experience to bear at Essendon.

Geelong certainly do well with their injuries. But they lost Mathew Egan forever to a very similar injury as we are trying to get Pears back from. Here's hoping WE have the luck on this one.

will our new facilities help at all? access to a better ground, more space and obviously more gadget's will be added for recovery and treatment..... even little things like bigger hot/cold baths over the tiny things they have to cram into now would be better

Jazz_84 wrote:will our new facilities help at all? access to a better ground, more space and obviously more gadget's will be added for recovery and treatment..... even little things like bigger hot/cold baths over the tiny things they have to cram into now would be better

Maybe they all need Thai massage with happy endings to release the pressure on their bodies??

Windy_Hill wrote:In my opinion,both will need to basically go through a Quasi-preseason program over the next 4 weeks.

I think Pears has already been doing this.

IF he does play this weekend in the VFL they said it would be half a game then step up next week, that would leave him a further 2 games in the VFL then we play Hawks, anyone think he's a chance to play on the extreme fitness freak of Buddy?

Jazz_84 wrote:IF he does play this weekend in the VFL they said it would be half a game then step up next week, that would leave him a further 2 games in the VFL then we play Hawks, anyone think he's a chance to play on the extreme fitness freak of Buddy?

No. Also IIRC Hooker played on him last year anyway.

j-mac31 wrote:

Jazz_84 wrote:IF he does play this weekend in the VFL they said it would be half a game then step up next week, that would leave him a further 2 games in the VFL then we play Hawks, anyone think he's a chance to play on the extreme fitness freak of Buddy?

No. Also IIRC Hooker played on him last year anyway.

yeah i know im looking for an alternative to that....

Can't see Pears being fit enough by then. I think Hooker is as good an option as we have for the one on one stuff - he's taller than Pears and long arms - and no one in the league can keep up with Franklin when he gives a f*** if he takes off anyway.

Can't wait to see him back. There may well be a few setbacks, i.e. soreness, but after not playing for such a long time, you would expect it.

Looks like they have been very cautious with him, and he has been going through a 'mini preseason' to ensure that he is fit enough when he does finally return.

Fingers crossed we see him on the field in the next couple of weeks.

Jazz_84 wrote:IF he does play this weekend in the VFL they said it would be half a game then step up next week, that would leave him a further 2 games in the VFL then we play Hawks, anyone think he's a chance to play on the extreme fitness freak of Buddy?

Bendigo have a bye after this week, iirc. I'd say Pears might play a half, then have a week off, then step it up a little bit week 3. or they'll play it safe, give him two weeks off and then resume after the bye. hopefully the former, play a half then two weeks to see how he pulls up. no need for a rapid increase in workload.

edit: very good chance Longy will play some game time this week, too. i'm hoping to see them both play. will give you a rundown if they do.