The media(well Eddie and Stevo) never stopped banging on about it but it wasn't all just the media. I remember McLennan coming out in the press and blaming the sides injuries for their poor preformences and he said he hoped other clubs would start to suffer the same problems.

All class that bloke.

Is the pre season becoming to intense?? Finch injured in training and now Tomkins and Gleeson who had no problems at the back end of the season with injury.

If there are any players with niggling injuries then don't play them on Sunday. We need them more in two weeks than for a friendly, another two weeks rest will probably do them more good, there's a l-o-o-o-o-n-g season ahead.

I heard that Tomkins was injured during the Five Nations. Not sure about the others.

Not been straying to the dark side during the off season have we?

Didnt Davies do his jaw in training as well. Must be fairly goin for it!

Spot on. As much as the practice might help, it's lunacy to risk someone with a slight injury in a testimonial.

I was thinking the same, and Hansen & Davies can be added to the list.

To me it sounds lunacy to have such a hard pre season if there getting injuries

Isn't Finch's injury the same as what kept him out of his last couple of Melbournes games?

and yet our league victory was widely attributed to flogging the lads during the last pre-season. In 2010 it led to us winning four in a row in our opening games, our best start to a season since 1998, co-incidence? I doubt it. If you want to win the league you have got to hit the ground running. Perhaps the balance needs to be re-addressed but I'd hardly call a hard pre-season lunacy when the rewards are so obvious.

I agree with Grimmy.

Time to lie down in a dark room.

He did nothing of the sort, he maintained throughout that yes we did have injuries, it was clear to see, but at no point did he say it was the reason for our poor form. He was far from perfect but he always gave credit to the better side and didn't blame this on injuries.