Cornes calls for change to "brutal" pre-season conditioning

The AFL injury list is growing by the day with Melbourne skipper Max Gawn the latest name added after he suffered a fractured finger at pre-season training.

The Dees skipper sustained the injury on Monday and will be sidelined for at least two weeks but will be able to maintain his fitness.

Also nursing issues are Dan McStay, Aidan Corr, Darcy Moore, Bailey Laurie, Jeremy Howe, Clayton Oliver, Cillian Bourke and Toby Greene while Jackson Archer and Jesse Motlop have both been ruled out for the season with ACLs.

And in a breaking news story on Thursday morning, Hawthorn superstar Will Day has gone down with what appears to be a serious shoulder injury.

While pre-season setbacks are nothing news, Kane Cornes has called for change to how much time players are being given off between seasons suggesting their careers are under threat because of the lack of preparation time to re-condition.

"It happens every year but seems to be worse this year," Cornes said on SEN Breakfast. "This is absolute carnage. Time is going to run out on a lot of these players.

"There's a number of factors in this; you condition the players now during match play which is different to how it used to be.

"You used to be able to condition players with pure running and then you would transition into match play.

"Players are having so much time off, they have de-conditioned; couple that with the fact they don’t have time to reintegrate with running skills to get up to speed, they are just straight back in and we’re seeing it. It’s brutal.

“Whilst the players association think they are doing the right thing by giving players so much time off, they’re harming the product and harming the players and their careers.

"They’re not ready to be put through what clubs are putting themselves through after such a long break.

"Most people would think ACL injury, bad luck, nothing to do with conditioning or brain-body connection, but there is a factor that it is connected.

"We need to change the way clubs are training the players. It has to change across the industry. It is harming the product and their careers.