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But speaking on AFL360, Lyon has leapt to the defence of the format.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one was filthy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cActually, Toby Greene was filthy that he didn\u2019t get to play more, Zach Merrett was probably filthy that he didn\u2019t get to play in the midfield, they were filthy when they came off the ground.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe that was the speed of the game that caught them by surprise.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need the clubs’ support in all of this.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to see this (injury toll), but this is what happens in footy games. (Nick) Daicos, (Ed) Richards, (Marcus) Bontempelli and Greene, (Sam) Collins and (Noah) Anderson \u2013 they all thrived. Some didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just what footy is at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon\u2019s comments come as clubs hit back over the Origin injury fallout, which included the likes of Matt Rowell (finger), Sam Taylor (hamstring), Patrick Dangerfield (calf), Bailey Smith (calf), Jacob Weitering (rib), Callum Ah Chee (hamstring) and Sam Darcy (back).<\/p>\n
Speaking on Fox Footy, Hardwick was adamant the speed of the game was to blame.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really challenging when we\u2019re preparing for Round Zero to have our players three to four weeks out playing the fastest game that\u2019s probably ever been recorded on GPS,\u201d he lamented.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just weren\u2019t ready for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t compromise our season for a game \u2013 although important \u2013 that is not ready to be played at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n
While could understand those concerns, he was adamant the game was a success.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said it was dead and won\u2019t work in February; it was a sellout. They said \u2018oh OK well it\u2019s a sell out but the big names when push comes to shove will pull out\u2019 \u2013 not a single player pulled out, and they said \u2018Oh when we get over there they won\u2019t take it seriously, it\u2019ll be Mickey Mouse\u2019 \u2013 and now we\u2019re getting criticised because it was taken too seriously!<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always someone trying to talk this down, which disappoints me a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bombers star Zach Merrett also spoke in favour of the Origin match, claiming it was a \u201cdream come true\u201d to pull on the Big V.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe importance of Victoria and what the Big V stood for from an early age was massive and in my DNA,\u201d he said on AFL 360.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an incredible five days. I think every player that played would be a massive advocate for it moving forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was itching to get on a bit more!<\/p>\n
\u201cPre-game, I think \u2018Tobes\u2019 (Toby Greene) was keen to start on the ground I case there was a biff started and I went to the bench.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Merrett agreed the 141-minute match could be shortened if changes were applied. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think if the game was maybe a little bit shorter, we can keep the intensity up and make sure we de-load the risk of injuries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the positives outweigh the negatives anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lyon said it would be a \u201cbrave club\u201d to turn players away from State representation should the format continue. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victoria\u2019s chairman of selectors and AFL 360 co-host Garry Lyon isn\u2019t backing down in the face of stinging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,689,55,639,42255,9203,14385,59145,29383,12099,10145,2105,2485,263733,263735,4490,19080,12157,7198,109266,677,39209,46,701,12144,85,263732,263734,19086,660,3439,25581],"class_list":["post-531027","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-bailey-smith","tag-catherine-healey","tag-damien-hardwick","tag-footy-games","tag-four-time-premiership-winner","tag-game-time","tag-garry-lyon","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-injury-fall-out","tag-injury-fallout","tag-injury-toll","tag-jordan-lewis","tag-matt-rowell","tag-michael-willson","tag-mickey-mouse","tag-oceania","tag-patrick-dangerfield","tag-perth","tag-queensland","tag-sam-taylor","tag-sports","tag-state-game","tag-state-representation","tag-toby-greene","tag-victoria","tag-western-australia","tag-zach-merrett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531027","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=531027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}