Lions great Jonathan brown raises concerns with grwoing AFL injury lists for all 18 clubs, Andrew Dillon comments

Lions great Jonathan Brown has raised concerns with the length of the AFL pre-season, as injury lists across all 18 clubs continue to grow.

Every team has a growing casualty ward, with Brown the latest to call on the league to consider shortening the pre-season.

Most clubs begin training for the new season in October or November, with a short Christmas break before returning in mid January.

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"The game is hard, they're longer pre-seasons. I'm not sure you need to be starting training in November," Brown said on The Fox's Fifi, Fev & Nick.

Brown indicated that the long pre-season has been around since his playing days, more than 15 years ago.

He reflected on his time in the game, with one particular pre-season leaving him injured and under duress, even before the year began.

He spoke of the 2010 pre-season, when former Carlton goalkicker Brendan Fevola headed north to join Brisbane for one year.

"You know what stuffed Fev (Brendan Fevola)?" Brown began.

"He came to Brisbane, and they started training him in November and then he got osteitis pubis. We both did.

Fevola played one season with Brisbane in 2010. Getty

"So how do you get osteitis pubis if you're sitting playing full-forward in the goal square? Too much running! Fev's not there to run marathons, he's there to kick goals."

All 18 clubs have growing injury lists, with Essendon the most depleted with 12 players sidelined, alongside Melbourne (11), St Kilda (10) and Richmond who has four players out with long term knee issues.

But AFL CEO Andrew Dillon has called for calm, urging everyone to wait until pre-season is finished, when the league will properly analyse the extent of injury damage.

"Any injuries, we would prefer not to have," Dillon said.

"I think what I would like to do before we jump anywhere is get the data.

"Or will the data tell us that there is more injuries? If they tell us that, then we will certainly look at it.

"I wouldn't want to jump ahead of getting to the end of pre-season to see what the data tells us."

Andrew Dillon and AFL Executive General Manager of Football Laura Kane. AFL Photos via Getty Images

Dillon refused to acknowledge whether the injury lists look worse this year, compared to last.

"What I can anecdotally say, is that some clubs are having a great run and others aren't, and that's unfortunate for those clubs, but it's a super long season and can't wait for it to start," he said.

Opening Round kicks off with Brisbane hosting Geelong at the Gabba on March 6.

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