'Injuries are no excuse' is a bit of a cliche that's thrown around.
If you think about it that makes absolutely no sense at all.
Injuries are an excuse, as well as a reason.
They destroy your structures and plans and throw an extra burden and responsibility on the players remaining.
They result in players being played in unfamiliar roles that sometimes don't suit them at all (Silvagni in the ruck, Cripps at FF).
Injuries to key personnel during the game can be extremely disruptive as there is usually no immediate fix for them.
Injuries have been responsible for the demise of at least two of our coaches over the last twenty years and may be about to claim a third.
Earlier in the season there was this theory floating that once we got some players back from injury we'd be in much better shape.
But you really didn't have to be Nostradamus to realise that a more likely scenario would be that we would see further significant injuries, some season ending.
Added to that with the extra burden placed on players, we were always going to see more of the niggly one or two week injuries and players carrying injuries into and through games.
If you think about it that makes absolutely no sense at all.
Injuries are an excuse, as well as a reason.
They destroy your structures and plans and throw an extra burden and responsibility on the players remaining.
They result in players being played in unfamiliar roles that sometimes don't suit them at all (Silvagni in the ruck, Cripps at FF).
Injuries to key personnel during the game can be extremely disruptive as there is usually no immediate fix for them.
Injuries have been responsible for the demise of at least two of our coaches over the last twenty years and may be about to claim a third.
Earlier in the season there was this theory floating that once we got some players back from injury we'd be in much better shape.
But you really didn't have to be Nostradamus to realise that a more likely scenario would be that we would see further significant injuries, some season ending.
Added to that with the extra burden placed on players, we were always going to see more of the niggly one or two week injuries and players carrying injuries into and through games.