The AFL's annual injury report makes interesting reading

"Well I woke up Sunday morning with no way to hold my (pelvis) that it didn't hurt.... And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad so I had one more for dessert...." I've been having some dark moments lately but it could be that I'm listening to too much country music. Like the one about the old soccer player whose crop failed, dog died and just when he thought things couldn't get worse he suffered osteitis pubis chasing the bank man offa his land
In fact, on Sunday morning I spurned a coldie and kicked back with a few pancakes, only to choke on one at the most unsavoury vision outside my window. Yes, Fergus Rourke, a grown man with at least one brain, was running around kicking a football in a three-aside game. Man, what was that about? It must be addiction. How else to explain it when he had the previous week off knowing that last week's bye would give him two good weeks of rest for his long running groin problem. Of course you can all tell what happened next . . .
Having been there myself - a three-time victim of the same recurring groin injury three years ago before an eight week rest put it to rights, not to dwell on the current state of my wreck of a body - I am full of sympathy. I was still trying to digest it (Fergus's participation, not the pancake) as I kicked back in my Qantas seat on the way to watch another old crock (H Kewell) in action in Brisbane. A glance at the Sunday paper uncovered an interesting yarn from the AFL about injuries. I've put a link here for those who are interested (check out the full report in PDF form next to The Age's news story) . In summary, hamstrings and then groin strains and osteoitis pubis are the most disruptive injuries in the AFL. Each club on average lost players for 23 games last season because of hammies and 18 games for groin and OP injuries. Both these rates were higher than for cruciate ligament injuries, where there is, at least, a well defined path to recovery. The most interesting stat, for me, was that a whopping 38 percent of groin and OP cases in AFL teams were RECURRENCES. "Groin strains recur within the season at almost twice the rate of any other injury," the report found. "The recurrence for groin strains is 38%, for hamstrings 22%, for ankles 20%, for quadriceps strains 18% and for calf strains 9%."
At the ground, I got in early from the bar to watch the teams warm up. They had the cones out and did some similar contested games to the Chogs - including a fast paced and technically excellent 5v5 two touch contest between backs and forwards. They did all the syncro dynamic stretching and bounding, and no one yelled shit at them while they did it.
Anyway, for those who want to have a look the link is
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/missing-in-action/2008/05/28/1211654122495.html?page=2

Meanwhile, Matt is out this week (I think everyone will be sheltering indoors to be honest) but hopeful of returning from his hammy injury a week later. John and Ian have meanwhile been doing some recruiting, with details to follow soon.