Injuries are not an excuse, they’re a reason – Gerard Whately (well probably someone else before him but I love Gerard and that’s who I heard it from). TipBetPro are fully in Gerard’s camp with this one and as much as people hate to use injuries as an excuse, the fact is there is (unsurprisingly) a strong correlation between teams missing their best players and under-performance.

The table below looks at how many Top 10 ranked players (as ranked by TipBetPro based on AFL Player Rankings, SuperCoach points and optimal experience levels) from every club have missed through injury or suspension over the first 8 rounds of the season. The trend is clear with only Hawthorn (equal 7th on the “Injury Ladder”) managing to find themselves both in the Top 8 on the AFL Ladder and Injury Ladder (and many would argue that the Hawks have under-performed and are lucky to be there). As much as criticism has been levelled at the likes of Collingwood, Fremantle and Richmond this season – we would argue there is good reason for their poor 2016 season-to-date with numerous key players absent from all sides. In the opinion of TipBetPro, perhaps the spotlight should be more on the Saints who have only managed the two wins this season despite having the best run with injury in the AFL (although one might argue we would be looking very differently on the Saints had they managed to defeat Hawthorn and North Melbourne and were 4&4).

Meanwhile whilst there is no doubt that North Melbourne and Geelong have been superb to start the season – given their charmed runs with injuries (although the luck starting to change for North!) perhaps the test is still to come!



TipBetPro Tips
Not a lot of excitement with TipBetPro following the favourites with our tips this week although we have a lot more confidence in a Richmond victory and a lot less confidence in West Coast and GWS than the market.



Check out our full match previews at http://www.tipbetpro.com/#!current-round/cee5 and once again if there is any analysis on teams or players you would like us to take a look at please let us know.