When a rampaging Fremantle Dockers outfit destroyed my beloved Swans in the 2013 finals, Luke McPharlin had only just made his return after a 8 - 10 week lay off from a calf injury.
He came straight back into the senior side without any game time in the WAFL which was thought to be a huge risk to play someone who hasn't felt actual game time pressure for 10 weeks, especially for a cut throat final.
In the grand final I watched an interview with Ross Lyon who explained their reasons as to why they thought he was ready to go straight back into the senior team. Here are the points he made:
#1 - A really heavy pre-season training load is 30 - 38kms per week depending on your playing position.
#2 - McPharlin did 24kms per week for the last 2 weeks of his rehabilitation program to come straight back in after 10 weeks out.
#3 - The Saturday before he returned the senior side he did 10 - 12km training session with 2 of the kms being sprints.
#4 - Running backman will do 1.3kms of sprints per game
As a side note he also mentioned that everyday the players come into the club they are tested for power to see where their recovery is at (heart rate variability).
Don't think that as local footballers we need that sort of training load because we don't but it does provide a little insight into what returning to full fitness really looks like and that you really can't take a week or 2 off playing and training and expect to comeback in and be right to go.
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