That's the same fitness staff though that told us Dusty would be back for the Round 20 game against Brisbane yet we didn't see him until a month later in the final and even then he was only at "80%". The same fitness staff that has overseen so many soft-tissue injures over the past two years. There's no surprise we are searching for new fitness and conditioning staff.
Totally. I don't buy the stuff about everyone getting older etc. Our soft tissue and conditioning management this year was deplorable.
Regardless I think playing Dusty was a mistake. Graham or heck even RCD might have been better on Neale.
Say we beat Brisbane, would you have picked dusty for the Melbourne game and so on if we continued to progress through finals?
They had to pick him at some point it’s just a shame they couldn’t clear him to blow out some cob webs in round 22 or 23. I don’t really think his fitness was an issue and he was far from our worst.
If a guy who has been best on ground in 10 of his last 12 finals games is fit enough to play or anywhere close to that you play him imo.
Also think grahams ‘tagging’ abilities are being overblown by people here. Other than the 2017 grand final job he did on Sloane, is there really that much evidence he can shut down a top line midfielder moreso than anyone else on our team if they were given the job?