"GENERAL soreness" has made way for "managed" as means of an explanation for "resting" an AFL player on the team selection notes.
The game has moved far from the 1990s when coaches told players they were being rested - and, to avoid the image of arrogance or the suggestion of insulting an opponent, an injury would suddenly emerge to explain a regular player's unexpected stint on the sidelines.
No matter how the absence of a player is labelled, the need to get key players through the marathon of a 25-week, 23-round home-and-away season is critical to having the best available when they are needed most for the month-long sprint of September's top-eight finals.
The non-Victorian teams that travel every second week have to contend with the proven fatigue of long-haul flights. Even Melbourne-based clubs such as Collingwood a decade ago opted to "manage" veterans such as Brownlow Medallist Nathan Buckley out of long-distance assignments.
And then there is the fixture itself as games spread from Thursday night to Sunday evening with no consistency in the breaks between matches.
Port Adelaide backs up from a Saturday afternoon road trip - to Hobart - with a Thursday night top-eight blockbuster against Carlton on Adelaide Oval. This will conclude three games (Hawthorn, North Melbourne and Carlton) across 12 days - a six-day break between Hawthorn and North Melbourne and a five-day break between North Melbourne and Carlton.
Port Adelaide's fixture this season for the first 15 rounds - as the AFL released late last year - handed Ken Hinkley's crew the equal-most combination of five- and six-day breaks.
It presented quite a challenge to the Port Adelaide high-performance team to plot critical recovery sessions for the players involved in perhaps the most-demanding game in the world - and a moment for the match committee to reflect on the lessons from the burn-out suffered by key players last season.
One of these battered men last year was Port Adelaide key forward - and occasional ruckman - Charlie Dixon. He was rested on Saturday, marking the second time - but not last time - he has been purposely held back from an AFL game this year.
Dixon played the first five games of Port Adelaide's fixture - and, as planned before the season began, was kept at home when the team travelled for the round six clash with Collingwood at the MCG last month.
Dixon resumes on Thursday from a 10-day break rather than five had he played against North Melbourne on Saturday.
And now that there is a confirmed fixture for rounds 16-23 (but not 24), the Port Adelaide coaching and fitness staff can plan how to best work Dixon - and perhaps others - for the last nine weeks of the home-and-away series.
The final draft of the fixture has given Port Adelaide another two six-day breaks and one more five-day gap.
There also is the question of how often Port Adelaide wishes to put Dixon - and perhaps any of the trio of ruckmen on the list - onto long-haul flights during the second half of the minor round.
"Ken Hinkley has a blueprint in his mind," Port Adelaide forwards coach Chad Cornes said at the weekend.
"These rests for Charlie Dixon were planned at the start of the season. We will discuss his program (during the bye that follows the Carlton clash).
"Charlie is keen to play every week. His age, the (physical) game he plays, his body as it is at the moment it is a good idea for him - and us - to give him a rest once a month so he is fit and firing towards that pointy end of the season."
The flip side of this player management (or health) plan to ensure Port Adelaide has Dixon - and perhaps others - in their best possible physical (and probably mental) condition towards September is how absence clarifies to all just what Hinkley has (or lacks) when Dixon is unavailable.
Again, the squad theme - as opposed to the "best 23" - gains greater merit and more relevance ... even if King Charles would prefer to reign in the Port Adelaide goalsquare (and sometimes centre square) week after week.
