injuryupdate
20-09-2004, 05:19 AM
Interesting article. Not sure how much credit for the fact that Brisbane is the best team should be given to their medical staff being the 'best', and that all of their unconventional treatments work. Obviously they make the players believe they are going to be right:
From Herald-Sun:
Big guns nursing sore bodies
By Mark Robinson
September 20, 2004
ONLY seconds after the last of the Brisbane players limped into the rooms on Saturday night, the outside world was shut out. Literally.
The bloke on the door said no one was allowed to enter for 20 minutes.
Why? They would open after the warm down, he said.
Yeah, but why? "Secret medical stuff," he said.
There's nothing untoward there, of course, because Brisbane, like every AFL team, keeps its sore bodies away from revealing eyes.
But Brisbane, more than any other club, is the master in the AFL medical world. It is innovative, professional and so damned bloody secretive.
They did it so successfully at last year's Grand Final that it was only on the Monday did we learn the medical staff had used an incredible 18 vials of painkillers to get the players through their third successive premiership.
The painkillers will be needed again this Saturday after their bruising encounter with Geelong. How many is anyone's guess. Perhaps we'll have to wait until Monday again.
Once in the rooms, the Lions told one story and our eyes told another.
Other than Shaun Hart with the busted face, every player to a man, including the hamstrung Craig McRae, were either OK or, in Hart's case, a chance to play in the GF.
Their injury list is long but not at crisis point. Jonathan Brown (knee) and Alastair Lynch (legs) are the obvious concerns, while McRae is almost certain to miss.
Michael Voss had slight concussion, Luke Power slightly more after a crunching shirtfront from Steve Johnson.
"It will take some time to get my faculties back," Power said as he left the medical room and headed for the team bus. Power did not seem too distressed. He was one of 13 players to complete the warm-down run-throughs, but Lynch said don't look too far into the missing nine. "A few of us never do them," he quipped.
Indeed, the medical room was as busy as the showers.
Voss looked sore, Brown even worse. Those two were the last to depart for the bus, just before midnight.
Brown was the last to leave the medical room. The game finished just after 10pm and Brown, severely limping, headed for the showers at 11.30pm. Voss was still in his footy gear at 11.15pm.
Club doctor Andrew Smith wouldn't talk about Brown's knee, or Voss, or anyone for that matter. It's club policy. No medical staff go on the record.
Media manager Ron McDonald said Brown was off limits to the press, as was Vossy. Asked if it was common for Voss to still be in his gear an hour or so after the game, McDonald said: "Not normally. He's just caught up with a few people. He gets his leg iced, he gets everything iced, but I tell you what, I know the first bloke who will get picked next week."
The Lions are medical giants of the AFL. They have two doctors, an orthopedic surgeon, four physiotherapists, an acupuncturist, a dietitian, eight masseurs, a podiatrist and a psychologist, who apply a host of conventional and unconventional methods. It was reported last year that tennis balls and potatoes were used for treating injuries. Chris Johnson, who has had just 12 weeks layoff in two years, has sore groins, and will need daily treatment this week from the support staff. But he was adamant the team on the whole was healthy.
"It's just that everyone's got little niggles and stuff. Go to any side and there's little niggles. But when it comes to competing you just forget about it," Johnson said.
"The medical staff do so well. They give you the opportunity to train without the pain. You've got Peter Stanton and Victor Popov that work wisdoms on your back and all that sort of stuff.
"I'll be in all week with them and getting the work done and they'll get me up no worries."
Lynch, who was barely moving at game's end, will work with the physios every day and be on the track, hopefully, by Wednesday. "I've spent most of the year with the physios," Lynch sighed.
Last year, coach Leigh Matthews joked post-match there would be a shortage of painkillers in the country, but the Lions players said the situation this year was not nearly as epidemic.
"We're not using (anywhere) near the amount of painkillers that what happened last year," Johnson said.
"Our medical staff has been criticised for it, but they do a great job for us. They get us up week in, week out. They wouldn't use it unless it had to be used."
Herald Sun
From Herald-Sun:
Big guns nursing sore bodies
By Mark Robinson
September 20, 2004
ONLY seconds after the last of the Brisbane players limped into the rooms on Saturday night, the outside world was shut out. Literally.
The bloke on the door said no one was allowed to enter for 20 minutes.
Why? They would open after the warm down, he said.
Yeah, but why? "Secret medical stuff," he said.
There's nothing untoward there, of course, because Brisbane, like every AFL team, keeps its sore bodies away from revealing eyes.
But Brisbane, more than any other club, is the master in the AFL medical world. It is innovative, professional and so damned bloody secretive.
They did it so successfully at last year's Grand Final that it was only on the Monday did we learn the medical staff had used an incredible 18 vials of painkillers to get the players through their third successive premiership.
The painkillers will be needed again this Saturday after their bruising encounter with Geelong. How many is anyone's guess. Perhaps we'll have to wait until Monday again.
Once in the rooms, the Lions told one story and our eyes told another.
Other than Shaun Hart with the busted face, every player to a man, including the hamstrung Craig McRae, were either OK or, in Hart's case, a chance to play in the GF.
Their injury list is long but not at crisis point. Jonathan Brown (knee) and Alastair Lynch (legs) are the obvious concerns, while McRae is almost certain to miss.
Michael Voss had slight concussion, Luke Power slightly more after a crunching shirtfront from Steve Johnson.
"It will take some time to get my faculties back," Power said as he left the medical room and headed for the team bus. Power did not seem too distressed. He was one of 13 players to complete the warm-down run-throughs, but Lynch said don't look too far into the missing nine. "A few of us never do them," he quipped.
Indeed, the medical room was as busy as the showers.
Voss looked sore, Brown even worse. Those two were the last to depart for the bus, just before midnight.
Brown was the last to leave the medical room. The game finished just after 10pm and Brown, severely limping, headed for the showers at 11.30pm. Voss was still in his footy gear at 11.15pm.
Club doctor Andrew Smith wouldn't talk about Brown's knee, or Voss, or anyone for that matter. It's club policy. No medical staff go on the record.
Media manager Ron McDonald said Brown was off limits to the press, as was Vossy. Asked if it was common for Voss to still be in his gear an hour or so after the game, McDonald said: "Not normally. He's just caught up with a few people. He gets his leg iced, he gets everything iced, but I tell you what, I know the first bloke who will get picked next week."
The Lions are medical giants of the AFL. They have two doctors, an orthopedic surgeon, four physiotherapists, an acupuncturist, a dietitian, eight masseurs, a podiatrist and a psychologist, who apply a host of conventional and unconventional methods. It was reported last year that tennis balls and potatoes were used for treating injuries. Chris Johnson, who has had just 12 weeks layoff in two years, has sore groins, and will need daily treatment this week from the support staff. But he was adamant the team on the whole was healthy.
"It's just that everyone's got little niggles and stuff. Go to any side and there's little niggles. But when it comes to competing you just forget about it," Johnson said.
"The medical staff do so well. They give you the opportunity to train without the pain. You've got Peter Stanton and Victor Popov that work wisdoms on your back and all that sort of stuff.
"I'll be in all week with them and getting the work done and they'll get me up no worries."
Lynch, who was barely moving at game's end, will work with the physios every day and be on the track, hopefully, by Wednesday. "I've spent most of the year with the physios," Lynch sighed.
Last year, coach Leigh Matthews joked post-match there would be a shortage of painkillers in the country, but the Lions players said the situation this year was not nearly as epidemic.
"We're not using (anywhere) near the amount of painkillers that what happened last year," Johnson said.
"Our medical staff has been criticised for it, but they do a great job for us. They get us up week in, week out. They wouldn't use it unless it had to be used."
Herald Sun