THIS week began with senior coach Guy `Bluey` providing an analysis of Essendon's win over Carlton. Last week it was assistant coach Ken Hinkley's turn and he picked-apart St Kilda.

It may seem a little odd considering we are at least 12 months away from taking on the Bombers or Saints for the first time, but everything we do this year is geared towards Rd 1, 2011 when we enter the AFL. And just as we have to prepare our players for entry into the big league, there also has to be an education process for our coaches.

The hottest topic in footy right now is soft tissue injuries, in particular the hamstring strain that will rule Gold Coaster Nick Riewoldt out for four months. Football has never been quicker and the finger of blame has been pointed directly at the skyrocketing rate of interchanges.

The average in the AFL over the weekend was 111 rotations, it has more than doubled in the past five years and that will only get higher and higher. Even with our guys at VFL level, we had 122 rotations last week in our game against Port Melbourne. That means players are at a higher intensity for shorter bursts and that is how injuries happen. Everyone is worried about injures but you can't afford to have fatigued players against fresh legs so what choice do club's have but to ring the changes?

Artificially slowing down the game by capping rotations could frustrate the fans who've had a glimpse of how quick it can be.

I'm leaning towards the opinion that the AFL should not be too hasty in bringing rules into slow the game down, I think it will probably cap itself and it is up to the clubs to properly manage their players.

I already mentioned we are heavily geared to Rd 1 2011, but even during our first season in the AFL we will be geared to getting our players through the year intact and not breaking them down. Only when we have built their strength and resilience will our focus shift solely towards results, hopefully that will be sooner rather than later.

We want them to have success along the way and hopefully we find ourselves in position to win our share of games, young kids want to win and they want to feel good about themselves rather than losing every week but it is not our priority through season 2010.

Which is why Bluey has told them they will only play fourteen or fifteen games each this season, which is probably half the amount most of them played with us last year when you take into account scratch matches, the TAC Cup and the national carnival.

Although we were beaten in our first VFL game on the weekend we couldn't have been happier with how things went, they weren't overawed with their opponents being bigger and stronger, they smacked in just as hard and if the game went on for another ten minutes they may have found a way to win.