North Melbourne AFL coach Brad Scott praised his club’s fitness and medical staff on Thursday, saying a low rate of injuries wasn’t caused simply by luck.
In contrast to Sunday’s round-20 opponents Essendon, the Kangaroos are almost injury-free.
“Other than Hamish McIntosh and young Tom Curran, we’ve got a full list to choose from,” Scott told reporters on Thursday.
“Continuity is a great thing. I’ve been rapt with our football staff this year.
“Not enough credit (goes to them).
“People talk about injuries and they associate a great injury run with luck. We don’t feel that’s the case.
“You get a certain element of luck when it comes to direct-contact injuries.
“But our soft-tissue injury rate has been just unbelievable this year and we feel that’s in direct response to the staff we’ve got here who do an enormous amount of work in preventing those types of things.”
The Bombers have suffered more than 20 soft-tissue injuries this season, with hamstring problems forcing out Ben Howlett and Jason Winderlich this week.
“I’m not sure of the exact total of how many we’ve had, but it’s far too many,” Essendon coach James Hird says.
Essendon fitness coach Dean Robinson has been under instruction to fast-track the club’s plans to build bigger, stronger players more able to finish games full of running.
“We’re having a good look at our program at the moment, looking at what we could have done differently, why we’re getting them,” Hird told Radio 3AW last month.
“There’s certainly a lot of theories flying around. It’s my job to narrow them down and work out why and make decisions about how we get better in that area.”