injuryupdate
18-09-2004, 03:54 PM
Extract from an article by Michael Stevens (Herald Sun):
While all interest last night was supposed to focus on Brisbane's injury worries – Alastair Lynch, Clark Keating and Nigel Lappin – Matthews' comments were much more entertaining.
Particularly so because that trio barely trained, and what they did do was completed at a leisurely pace.
Lappin, who injured a calf muscle at training eight days ago, was the only one of the trio asked to perform even a semblance of a fitness test.
That comprised three 20-30m run-throughs under the watchful eye of team physiotherapist Peter Stanton.
Before training Matthews said it was not good policy to take injured players into a final.
"You don't want to take injured players in," he said. "If they (medical conditioning people) say they're available, then they're available.
"I don't decide whether players are available to play.
"You might say they haven't had sufficient preparation and you prefer A to B.
"But I haven't really decided a player's availability in my time in Brisbane.
"The medical conditioning people say, `Yes, we think they're OK', and then we decide whether we pick them."
The Lions have brought a fourth emergency, Anthony Corrie, as well as those named – Joel Macdonald, Ashley McGrath and Darryl White – to Melbourne to cover for the worst-case scenario of Lynch, Keating and Lappin all being ruled out.
While all interest last night was supposed to focus on Brisbane's injury worries – Alastair Lynch, Clark Keating and Nigel Lappin – Matthews' comments were much more entertaining.
Particularly so because that trio barely trained, and what they did do was completed at a leisurely pace.
Lappin, who injured a calf muscle at training eight days ago, was the only one of the trio asked to perform even a semblance of a fitness test.
That comprised three 20-30m run-throughs under the watchful eye of team physiotherapist Peter Stanton.
Before training Matthews said it was not good policy to take injured players into a final.
"You don't want to take injured players in," he said. "If they (medical conditioning people) say they're available, then they're available.
"I don't decide whether players are available to play.
"You might say they haven't had sufficient preparation and you prefer A to B.
"But I haven't really decided a player's availability in my time in Brisbane.
"The medical conditioning people say, `Yes, we think they're OK', and then we decide whether we pick them."
The Lions have brought a fourth emergency, Anthony Corrie, as well as those named – Joel Macdonald, Ashley McGrath and Darryl White – to Melbourne to cover for the worst-case scenario of Lynch, Keating and Lappin all being ruled out.