Goodes does PCL

[Bob]

It appears as if Adam Goodes of the Sydney Swans has done a PCL during the first ruck contest of the match against the Eagles. Surely the AFL will change the ruck rule, too many of the top ruckmen have gone down with one - Gardiner, McDonald, Darcy etc

Special mention to Johnny Gibbs - performing a text book Posterior Draw Test on channel 10's coverage. Pity a reverse pivot shift couldn't be added for good measure.

[Bob]

c/o of afl.com.au - comments by Hugh Seward, president AFLMOA

Knee injuries not increasing
4:37:39 PM Tue 18 May, 2004
Paul Gough
Sportal
It’s the most worrying injury in the AFL at present but the overall rate of players suffering posterior cruciate knee ligaments injuries has not increased over the past decade.

Sydney ruckman Adam Goodes was the latest player to be struck down with the injury on the weekend, joining a long list of ruckmen including Michael Gardiner, Beau McDonald, Jeff White, Peter Everitt, Justin Koschitzke and Luke Darcy to have suffered the injury in recent times.

It often occurs as a result of the two ruckmen clashing knees at the centre bounce, leading to renewed calls for the AFL to change its ruck rules, which currently enforce ruckmen to contest the centre bounce from opposite directions.



The AFL is currently doing a medical study into the problem and while the final results will not be known until another fortnight, it has already revealed some surprises.

“The number of posterior cruciate ligaments overall remains about the same as in previous years and that is going back to the mid 90’s,” said Geelong club doctor and the head of the AFL’s medical association Dr Hugh Seward on Tuesday.

And Dr Seward also told afl.com.au the injury can also occur in other ways besides ruck contests, such as when a player falls to the ground.

However Dr Seward said the AFL study had so far been unable to determine whether there was a rise in the number of players suffering the injury specifically from ruck contests.

The current ruck rule was brought in to stop ruckmen from turning centre bounces into wrestling contests, instead forcing them to run at the ball from opposite directions.

Options to change the rule include doing away with the centre line which forces ruckmen to contest the ball from opposite directions altogether, or reverting to the Wizard Home Loans Cup rule which limited the run-up of ruckmen as they contested the bounce.

However Dr Seward said while players were getting injured under the current ruck rules, that did not necessarily mean they had contributed to the injury.

“It’s not the jumping (at centre bounces) that is the problem, it is the clashing of the knees,” he said.

With the clashing of the knees at centre bounces being identified as the reason behind the spate of knee injuries to ruckmen this year, that could also result in the AFL keeping the current ruck rules but cracking down on ruckmen who lead with their knees in ruck contests – a measure usually done by the big men to protect themselves.

Dr Seward said the posterior cruciate ligament injury – which unlike the anterior cruciate ligament injury usually resulted in only a six week lay-off instead of 12 months, was most commonly found in car accident victims.

“It’s caused when the leg below the knee is bent forcibly backwards by a degree of violence,” he said.

“It’s most commonly found in car accident victims when a person has hit the dashboard.”

And Dr Seward said the injury can lead to problems for victims later in life.

“It can lead to arthritis and it produces a mild degree of instability in the knee.”

The results of the AFL medical study will be analysed and then sent to the AFL Laws of the Game review committee, which will then decide if there needs to be any change to the current ruck rules – which would not happen before next season at the earliest.