New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nHowe believes the demands of the game have never been greater as clubs look to get an edge on the rest of the competition in a potential reason for the current injury epidemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe game is not getting any easier,\u201d Howe said on SEN radio.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is always looking for an extra 5-10 per cent, whether that\u2019s fitness based and good game plans getting implemented. Guys are working harder … fitness regimes are getting more intense and more high intensity running.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look at \u2018Pendles\u2019 (Scott Pendlebury), and as good as he looks after his body, if he did 20 pre-seasons like they\u2019re built up now, it\u2019d be pretty hard for him to play 400.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the seasons are getting longer, that will always add to it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Collingwood players at pre-season training (Photo by Daniel Pockett\/Getty Images)Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
Oliver injury scare during GWS preseason | 00:48<\/p>\n
The 35-year old said players are trusted to stay in shape over the Christmas break and thinks those that don\u2019t would quickly fall behind and struggle to reach peak fitness levels in season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always autonomy in programs and trust gets handed out; I\u2019m sure it fluctuates at different clubs with certain athletes. Our program\u2019s are second to none,\u201d Howe added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no-one to hold your hand throughout that period, so it\u2019s up to you how much work you want to get in. There\u2019s an expectation you come back ready to train. Where in an industry where, if you fall behind, it\u2019s almost impossible to catch up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe try and get together and make sure everyone doing the right thing, but you don\u2019t want to be holding their hands. There\u2019s got to be an element of trust with what you\u2019re doing away from the club when no one is watching.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is trying to do the same amount of work. I back in that our guys are doing it correctly, and judging by how they come back, I\u2019m pretty happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Motlop and Archer out with ACL injuries | 00:57<\/p>\n
On his own minor calf setback, Howe said \u201cit\u2019s not ideal\u201d but \u201cnot the worst-case scenario,\u201d with the veteran not expected to miss any practice games.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me it\u2019s deload for seven days, then build straight back up. It\u2019s not a good thing, but I\u2019ve been exposed to the best part of a dozen calves through my career, so we\u2019ve got a pretty clear plan as to what gets be back as quick as possible,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoing one in early Jan is not the worst. We\u2019ve got a plan for me to get back into full training and I\u2019m not going to miss any scratchies or intra-clubs or anything like that, which is pleasing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Collingwood\u2019s spate of injuries in addition to Bobby Hill taking personal leave, Howe said the club was tracking well over the pre-season as it eyes practice games.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike with a lot of clubs, it\u2019s filled with optimism at the moment. You always hear it, everyone is fit, flying and humming and everyone\u2019s never looked so good,\u201d Howe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPraccy games are just around the corner and we\u2019re starting to get into some match simulation, which I think everyone kind of craves at this time of year. Only a couple of weeks away when we start doing that fully.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have an intraclub in early Feb. That\u2019s generally when blokes start putting their traits on show and the excitement comes out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pies open their season proper in Opening Round against St Kilda on Sunday, March 8 at the MCG.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Collingwood premiership defender Jeremy Howe says the ever increasing workload and intensity of AFL programs could be contributing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,684,14349,221416,7803,10133,49773,3499,10989,221415,2105,221412,177786,143728,221417,10132,221414,12097,647,221413,12002,677,221418,148140,11330,218831,17286,19083,72174,85,1122,19086,660],"class_list":["post-420444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-ben-cotton","tag-bobby-hill","tag-carnage-off-season","tag-clayton-oliver","tag-collingwood-magpies","tag-dan-mcstay","tag-daniel-pockett","tag-darcy-moore","tag-fitness-regimes","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-injury-epidemic","tag-injury-scare","tag-injury-updates","tag-intensity-running","tag-jeremy-howe","tag-key-names-hurt","tag-max-gawn","tag-melbourne","tag-minor-calf-setback","tag-newcastle-united-football-club","tag-oceania","tag-off-season-injuries","tag-practice-games","tag-pre-season-training","tag-pre-season-training-efforts","tag-premiership-defender","tag-scott-pendlebury","tag-soft-tissue-setbacks","tag-sports","tag-st-kilda","tag-toby-greene","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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