Richmond CEO, Shane Dunne, concedes the Club’s long-injury list is “frustrating” but has reaffirmed the Tigers are “leaving no stone unturned to address it”.
The injury list reached 17 players after the weekend’s victory over West Coast, and Dunne shared the fans’ frustrations when discussing the availability issues.
“It's incredibly frustrating and I sense the supporters’ frustration. We're feeling it. The players are feeling it. Our high-performance staff, everyone's feeling it,” Dunne said on Talking Tigers.
“It is frustrating, but I can assure you we are leaving no stone unturned to address it, to get on top of it, to get our players back.
“There's some light at the end of the tunnel. Come the bye, you start to see some of the metrics on when players will be coming back, so we're looking forward to that.
“We are exploring every single opportunity that we possibly can. We’ve sent some players recently to Aspetar, one of the world-leading medical hospitals for sports medicine.
“Judson Clarke's recently come back from Oregon in the US, working with specialist strength conditioning coaches there.
“We are exploring the globe to look at opportunities, and we'll do so for all of our boys that have been injured.”
Dunne added there has been no one cause of the injuries, and reviewing the high-performance program is a system that’s always in place.
“There's no one specific thing,” he said.
“I can categorically rule out the [Punt Road] surface. We get regular weekly reports on the surface and its condition, and it's in outstanding condition. There is no issue whatsoever with the surface.
“We've just got to keep reviewing our program. We are constantly reviewing. We're constantly reviewing our program for the week, the way we structure it, the way we come into rehab and recovery.
“We've got some great experts within our program that have been with us for a period of time, been through us with premiership success, and we're consulting widely.
“I'm confident the team are doing everything possible to get the players back, but also to arrest it, so that we don't have any further injuries.
“There's that fine line between making sure they're prepared and ready for the rigours of football. We've got a young playing list that are still developing and still building their bodies for AFL standards.
“It's a real fine line that we continue to balance and I'm confident we'll get through this and be better for it in the long run.”
Dunne explained how the Club is dealing with Josh Smillie’s quad injury, with the number seven pick from the 2024 draft yet to make his debut.
“We're taking a cautious approach with him,” Dunne said.
“Right now we're exploring everywhere around the world where we can get some support and help to get Josh back as soon as we can.
“The team are meeting this week to really go through a thorough plan for what Josh's recovery looks like to get him back out, and we want to see him in the yellow and black soon, because we know what a talent he could be.
“He's a big lad. He's been running really well. He's strong below the legs, but it's just this quad, once he gets up to kicking and starting to build his kicking, we just haven't been able to get that right yet.
“It seems pretty unique to have these tendon issues quite on his quad, so we are exploring globally to see if there are any opportunities or people who can help us with that tendon.”
