Premiership coaches John Longmire and Adam Simpson have revealed the big challenge confronting contending teams at this time of year.
With four games remaining in the home and away season, clubs are starting to lock in their best 23s for finals and cement their preferred strategies and methods in different areas of the ground.
As such, having close to a team's best 23 available is critical.
“We lost (Tom) Papley and (Justin) McInerney at the same time at the back end of the year and they really, I almost call them fire starters, real energy givers,” 2012 premiership coach John Longmire said of the 2024 campaign on AFL 360.
“We got them back just in time for finals but they weren't quite at their best. It's not just those games they miss, it is how they hit the ground when the game is at its fiercest come finals time.”
While returning players interrupt continuity, the alternative, players missing the rest of the season can be equally as damaging.
“For us (Nic) Naitanui did his knee twice in our successful year, and one was 2016 in Round 22 and we just couldn't recover. We couldn't cover that one,” 2018 premiership coach Adam Simpson said.
“He did his knee again in Round 17 of 2018 and there was three or four weeks left for us to learn a new strategy around stoppages.
“If you're coming back in finals, the question will always be ‘if I put him straight back after five or six weeks (out), am I going to get the best out of this player?' and that's the question a lot of teams are going to confront because there's been a lot of injuries this year to good players.”
The pair had the discussion in the context of Collingwood barometer Brayden Maynard being ruled out for three to four weeks with injury.
Geelong is another club which will confront a similar challenge, with Jeremy Cameron still at least a fortnight away with a shoulder injury and Max Holmes in a race against time to return at all.
Hawthorn has not had Conor Nash since the midway point of the season, and have had to make do without Ned Reeves for the past three games and he remains another week away with a knee injury.
While Reeves himself is not a star player, the Hawks have opted for a one-ruck rather than two-ruck model in his absence, which is disruptive and puts onus on Lloyd Meek at a time the club has sought to manage the minutes of others.
Sydney's Justin McInerney will likely only play one home and away game before finals so whether he can immediately find the career-best form he was in prior to the setback remains to be seen, while defenders Connor Budarick and Bailey Dale will return on the eve of finals for Western Bulldogs.
