North Melbourne head of performance Kevin White has provided an extensive injury breakdown before the club sets out to tackle the remainder of the 2023 season.
With both the AFL and VFL sides on a mid-season break, White spoke in depth about the controllable and uncontrollable injuries that have affected the club's list, as well as squad availability over the course of the first 14 rounds.
White's first graph, below, shows that uncontrollable injuries (traumatic and illness/other) have contributed to 84 per cent of players' missed games (72 percent traumatic, 12 per cent illness/other).
The 'traumatic' category covers injuries such as concussion, bone breaks and finger fractures. Kangaroo players to have fallen into that category so far this year include Charlie Comben (ankle), Tristan Xerri (ankle) Jack Mahony (shoulder), Hamish Free (shoulder), Cam Zurhaar (facial fracture) and Brayden George (knee). 'Other' usually represents suspension.
Off the back of the work done by White and his team, soft tissue and overuse/stress injuries have had minimal impact.
Throughout stages of the first half of the year, Ben McKay (foot) and Jackson Archer (pubic overload) have been sidelined due to overuse/stress, while low-level soft tissue hamstring injuries to Josh Goater and Darcy Tucker and a "more moderate strain" for Luke Davies-Uniacke have caused the trio to miss patches.
Goater and Davies-Uniacke will both be hoping to return to the senior side for its Round 16 clash with the Crows, with the pair set to face tests in the build-up.
Currently dealing with a knee issue is Aiden Bonar but the defender is estimated to return to the field in three weeks.
White's second graph, below, presents the squad's availability over the first 14 rounds, revealing when the club has been hit hardest by both controllable and uncontrollable injuries.
As the graph depicts, a bruising encounter against the Power in Round 9 led to Davies-Uniacke, Tucker, Mahony, Zurhaar and Flynn Perez all being unavailable for the Round 10 bout with Sydney due to injury.
With Aidan Corr out suspended, North Melbourne faced the Swans with their lowest player availability for any game so far this season, at 73 per cent.
The only other time availability has dropped below 80 per cent was after onballers Jy Simpkin and Hugh Greenwood suffered concussions against Essendon in Round 12. This left the Roos with just 74 per cent of their squad available for the Round 13 match with GWS, which they lost by 28 points.
"We've had pretty high squad availability throughout the first 14 rounds," White said.
"We generally look for a KPI of above 85 per cent of the squad (available).
"We've been progressing with about five to six players on the injury list each week … and some of the boys on that list do have traumatic, long-term injuries so keeping those costs more minimal is harder.
"The strong availability we've had so far has lent itself to some strong VFL performances and those youngsters getting some continuity of games played together.
"Post-bye, the big thing is trying to minimise the uncontrollable injuries, maintain that minimal soft tissue and overuse injury and then to get some of the cavalry back for the last nine games."
