Is Josh Dugan injury prone?

[Crush]

Firstly the facts.

Between Dugans debut, round 4 2009, and 2014 he played 87 of 131 games and missed 44 games due to injury.
So that's 66.4% of games played and 33.6% missed through injury. So essentially in the first 5 years of his career, mostly at Canberra, he missed an average of 9 games a year due to injury.
Since then, in 2015 he only missed 2 games, in 2016 he missed 6 games and thus far this year he will have missed 2.

That is a lot of games missed due to injury, I am sure we can all agree on that at least.

The question is I guess what is the definition of an "injury prone" player?
Is it a player that has re-occurring injuries like a hamstring or back injury that constantly plays up or is it just a player that misses games due to injuries regardless of the nature of the injury? I am of the opinion that the latter true.

Dugan has had an array of various injuries and I think most of them come from heavy contact and him putting his body on the line so often. He plays the game like a missile and throws himself around a lot. The way he plays the game unfortunately means he picks up a lot of injuries and misses games due to that.

So in my opinion, a player that misses a lot of games due to injury is an injury prone player even if it is from a broken jaw, a crusher tackle, an ingrown toenail.....

 

[dangerousdave]

Dugan averages 17.75 clubs games per season in the 8 seasons between debuting in round 4 2009 and round 4 2017 (in teams that seldom play many finals) + trials, origin and Australia. This includes the fact that he sat out the first 10 rounds of 2013 after having his Canberra contract terminated. Factor that in and the ave games/season jumps to 18.73.

So yeah, he misses a few games but he's hardly the most injury prone guy out there.

 

[dangerousdave]

Building on that and looking at some elite long-term fullbacks at other clubs;
Brett Stewart played 17 games per season and Billy Slater 20 with more possible g/s due to finals.

 

[dragon thomo]

Dugan is not injury prone especially for a player that plays as hard as he does. He may go down a bit in games but thats due to running and tackling at full speed .He is an inspiration for our team.
A must to keep.

 

[dangerousdave]

Firstly the facts.

Between Dugans debut, round 4 2009, and 2014 he played 87 of 131 games and missed 44 games due to injury.
So that's 66.4% of games played and 33.6% missed through injury. So essentially in the first 5 years of his career, mostly at Canberra, he missed an average of 9 games a year due to injury.

87/121 is 72%...
Unless you're counting games where he had no club, which in the context of a debate about injury propensity is a bit harsh.

 

[SaintElroy]

You play that hard you are going to get a few injuries. A chunk of his time was a broken jaw through illegal play in the toughest arena of all.

 

[Crush]

87/121 is 72%...
Unless you're counting games where he had no club, which in the context of a debate about injury propensity is a bit harsh.

I was just going off the below. Not sure how they got that math???

 

[dangerousdave]

I was just going off the below. Not sure how they got that math???
View attachment 12424

Yeah, that stat man's a bit out of it then.

Out of curiosity, I just added it up season for season from rd4 2009 to the end of 2014 and it's actually 97/136 including 4 finals games Canberra played while he was there... so neither of our initial stats were on the money. That's 71.3%... not great but not the worst around.

 

[BringTheNoise]

He's tough as f*** - look how the bloke gets injured, always by putting his body on the line for this club and never letting down his teammates. The bloke is deadset fearless.

There's players out there who have torn their ACL's just by trying to step off their foot.

Give Dugan the respect he deserves.

 

[TomRedVRiver]

Dugan players harder than most guys in the NRL so credit where its due, he's bound to pick up a few injuries here and there. I love his output, it must be inspiring to play alongside that.

Although watching NRL 360 the other week, Andrew Webster mentioned a conversation he had with Dugan. He said "Josh, when are you playing well?"
Josh replied, "When i'm not staying down after being tackled".
These are direct quotes as well. He openly admitted to staying down in tackles, I think that's pretty poor form and it's one of the only things i've really disliked about Josh.

 

[TomRedVRiver]

I know this is a Dugan thread, but just while we're on this topic, another thing that pisses me off is when people call James Tedesco 'injury prone'.

The bloke hasn't had a serious injury since 2014. He played nearly every game in 2015 and if it wasn't for literally being flying knee'd in the face by a giant Ryan James and having his jaw broken, he probably would have played close to every game in 2016 as well. In fact he played every game in 2016 up until that point. The jaw injury was totally out of his control.

But people only see the ACL injuries from 3 years ago and claim he is more of an injury liability than most in the NRL. f**king ignorant.

 

[Crush]

He's tough as f*** - look how the bloke gets injured, always by putting his body on the line for this club and never letting down his teammates. The bloke is deadset fearless.

There's players out there who have torn their ACL's just by trying to step off their foot.

Give Dugan the respect he deserves.

Never said he was soft or lacked toughness, I reckon he is a real leader and some of the young kids like Dufty should learn from how guys like Dugan and Slater put their bodies on the line.
My point was that he misses a lot of games due to injury so does that make him injury prone? In my opinion it does.
I wasnt trying to disrespect Dugan at all....

 

[Dragonslayer]

Injury prone - in the sense that your putting it the answer would be NO!
Injury prone by definition where something is "likely" or "liable" to happen then YES he would be given his propensity for attacking the line.

Injuries are injuries you can't avoid them. Would you say Johnathan Thurston is injury prone?

I think your mistaking the true meaning of the word.

 

[possm]

Dugan is great because he runs hard, tackle hard and puts his body on the line every time. This can only be maintained while he is young enough to quickly recover.

I'm sure the Dragons recognise this and that is why the strong will for him to play right centre. Dugan only wants to be signed as a fullback because it draws a better contract. Halfway through his current contract he willingly moved to centre for the Dragons and was subsequently selected at right centre for NSW.

I'm sure the Dragons will increase their offer but not to the 1m asked for. I also confident Dugan will stay at the Dragons and as soon as Field is ready to play fullback, he will not object to be moved to centre.

 

[Crush]

Injury prone - in the sense that your putting it the answer would be NO!
Injury prone by definition where something is "likely" or "liable" to happen then YES he would be given his propensity for attacking the line.

Injuries are injuries you can't avoid them. Would you say Johnathan Thurston is injury prone?

I think your mistaking the true meaning of the word.

I think that you can only go on stats with injury prone, that is, if a player misses a lot of games due to being injured then he is more likely to get injured than other players as proven through his injuries.
And no, Thurston is one of the least injury prone players I can think of. He has hardly missed a game due to injury over his many years and he plays the game, like Dugan, in a very tough manner, always taking the ball to the line and often getting hit late.

 

[BringTheNoise]

Never said he was soft or lacked toughness, I reckon he is a real leader and some of the young kids like Dufty should learn from how guys like Dugan and Slater put their bodies on the line.
My point was that he misses a lot of games due to injury so does that make him injury prone? In my opinion it does.
I wasnt trying to disrespect Dugan at all....

Sorry, wasn't accusing you of disrepect. But there are a lot people out there who are quick to label Dugan "soft" and IMO he's the complete opposite. I'm probably just getting defensive before I need to.

 

[Old Timer]

I think that you can only go on stats with injury prone, that is, if a player misses a lot of games due to being injured then he is more likely to get injured than other players as proven through his injuries.
And no, Thurston is one of the least injury prone players I can think of. He has hardly missed a game due to injury over his many years and he plays the game, like Dugan, in a very tough manner, always taking the ball to the line and often getting hit late.

Quote the stats and list the actual injuries.
In yours and other peoples worlds Alex Mc Kinnon was probably injury prone the way you carry on.
You need to make allowances for injuries that are not the normal occurrence.
Missing games due elbows to heads, crusher tackles, stiff arms, chicken wings, head clashes etc are not as a result of you being injury prone they are as a result of foul play or an accidental clash.
If you miss games because of head bumps from knees and hips due to poor tackling technique as Marketo did a few years back then that means you are prone to an injury due repetitive bad technique.
If you over train and keep tearing hammies as per YKG and Marshall that is injury prone because each time you tear a hammy it weakens the muscle and it scars up.
The Stanley's were injury prone especially recurring knee issues.
Dugan suffers form none of this on a recurring basis.
He just plays hard and gives it 100% every time he goes round.
Sure he will get busted from time to time but that doesn't mean injury prone it just means he put it all on the line with no fear.
Plenty will play careers with very few injuries but they certainly don't save arses like Dugan does.

 

[FlameThrower]

No way is he injury prone..factor in what he does every game..,,he is tough as nails and smashes his body every game. Never seen him disappear or fade in any game. Dugan is a lionhearted player - and he needs to be retained.
He loves the Dragons and I'll be upset to see him go elsewhere..

 

[Crush]

Quote the stats and list the actual injuries.
In yours and other peoples worlds Alex Mc Kinnon was probably injury prone the way you carry on.
You need to make allowances for injuries that are not the normal occurrence.
Missing games due elbows to heads, crusher tackles, stiff arms, chicken wings, head clashes etc are not as a result of you being injury prone they are as a result of foul play or an accidental clash.
If you miss games because of head bumps from knees and hips due to poor tackling technique as Marketo did a few years back then that means you are prone to an injury due repetitive bad technique.
If you over train and keep tearing hammies as per YKG and Marshall that is injury prone because each time you tear a hammy it weakens the muscle and it scars up.
The Stanley's were injury prone especially recurring knee issues.
Dugan suffers form none of this on a recurring basis.
He just plays hard and gives it 100% every time he goes round.
Sure he will get busted from time to time but that doesn't mean injury prone it just means he put it all on the line with no fear.
Plenty will play careers with very few injuries but they certainly don't save arses like Dugan does.

Look, in my opinion a player that is out due to injuries often is injury prone. A one off accident like Alex McKinnon is a completely different thing. Dugan was had multiple injuries and as I have stated it is because of the way he plays, tough and gritty.
The reason for this thread was never to discount Dugans courage or determination or to call him soft.
I think we should do everything to keep him and I admire him as a player and a leader.

Anyway, we have discussed it now on an open forum and I would say that overwhelmingly most people agree with you OT, that Dugan isn't injury prone.

 

[Dragonslayer]

I think that you can only go on stats with injury prone, that is, if a player misses a lot of games due to being injured then he is more likely to get injured than other players as proven through his injuries.
And no, Thurston is one of the least injury prone players I can think of. He has hardly missed a game due to injury over his many years and he plays the game, like Dugan, in a very tough manner, always taking the ball to the line and often getting hit late.

Really?
I think you need to take a look at Thurston stats.
2005- 26/26 - full season
2006- 17/26 - dislocated knee
2007- 25/26 - shoulder injury
2008- 17/26 - 2 shoulder reconstructions
2009- 23/26 - ?
2010- 17/26 - shoulder injury (again)
2011- 19/26 - ACL/MCL
2012- 24/26 - ?
2013- 22/26 - Knee
2014- 24/26 - shoulder injury
2015- 25/26 - Neck injury
2016- 26/26 - full season
2017 - Calf injury