Assessing the impact of three early AFL injuries

Long-term injuries have already hit multiple clubs after just one round of the JLT Community series.

Gold Coast lost Sam Day to a significant hip injury against Brisbane on Sunday, with the Suns confirming late on Tuesday that the 24-year-old will miss the entire 2017 season. Day's dislocated hip was compounded by bone and ligament damage that will see the start date of his rehab program pushed back.

While Day re-signed until the end of 2019 midway through last season, coach Rodney Eade isn't so lucky to have years up his sleeves. Injuries have cruelled his tenure and Day's misfortune robs the coach of a 100-game swingman. It wasn't yet clear if he would stick to defence or the forward line this year; the forward line looked more likely, but it hurts Gold Coast in either case.

It's doubtful that the Suns would employ Jarrod Witts and Dan Currie as dual rucks before Tom Nicholls returns, even though a flexible Witts-Nicholls partnership was in the offing before the latter's own pre-season injury woes. With that in mind, a smaller or younger forward line is in play. Keegan Brooksby ended last season in the ruck after a NEAFL campaign filled with hitouts, around-the-ground marking and the occasional goal - but not on a consistent basis. Listed at the same 197 centimetres as Day, Brooksby is on the rookie list and promotion to the senior list looms as a possibility. If Eade decides against Brooksby before Nicholls returns, downsizing to Ryan Davis or Jarrad Grant would be stopgap solutions.

The Bulldogs safeguarded themselves against injury by recruiting Travis Cloke and benefitting from Stewart Crameri's return, but Jordan Roughead is a decent loss. The 200cm ruckman formed a good combination with Tom Boyd last year, even if there were times early in the season that Tom Campbell might overtake him if push came to shove. Campbell will be considered a backup by many but the reality is he is not actually that far behind Roughead that the Dogs are losing out by a lot.

It may, however, change the ruck-forward splits between Campbell, Boyd and Travis Cloke after what was planned for Roughead. Campbell was the lead ruck when he was in the side with Roughead last year, and his presence could help reduce Boyd's workload in order to save his rebuilt shoulder. Roughead is more useful around the ground than Campbell, though both can take a solid mark. Campbell's ability to ruck longer would free up Boyd and Cloke to play tricks on opposing defences by mixing up who floats up the ground and which small-medium forwards hang around.

The biggest question marks surrounding Roughead's injury remain the man himself, and Campbell's reliability. Roughead won't return to full training for eight weeks, and the Bulldogs may slow down his recovery to prevent an early recurrence. Campbell missed a little bit of time early last year with an ankle problem and spent a month on the sidelines mid-season due to a foot injury. Any issues this year could force coach Luke Beveridge into handing Tim English, a lightly built first-year ruckman who is likely to play in the JLT Series this weekend, into an early debut, but he's surely not ready.

Essendon have had a couple of setbacks with some of their returning players, yet they are small in comparison to the injury suffered by David Myers at training this week. The fringe midfielder has played only 85 games since being drafted ahead of the 2008 season, playing very little of the 2015 campaign (due to various injuries) before serving his doping ban in 2016. He's now sidelined for around eight weeks after undergoing surgery on a damaged finger.

Myers didn't go overboard in the first pre-season game against Collingwood last week, registering eight disposals from a half of footy, though it's a sign of his role that he recorded three clearances, two inside 50s and two tackles. With Jobe Watson, Zach Merrett and Dyson Heppell doing the heavy lifting, Myers only needed to hang around to contribute with his left boot. Even if the Bombers' coaches had high hopes for him in that position, they shouldn't be overly troubled by plugging in Craig Bird or Jayden Laverde.