Stumpy’s short shots - RICK DREWER
WITH the AFL tribunal clearing
Adelaide midfielder David
Mackay of a “rough conduct”
charge, the league has missed
a golden opportunity to start
cleaning up the game and bringing
it into today’s standards
of safety and wellbeing in the
workplace.
The reality is that Australian
football is not only a very faint
replica of the original game but –
and this is what it is all about – the
game is much more dangerous to
play now than at any other time or
version of yesteryear.
By today’s standards, the general
fitness and strength levels of
the top players of earlier eras were
very average – after all, they only
trained twice a week.
As a primary schoolboy and
Sturt fanatic, I can clearly remember
running onto Unley Oval at
three-quarter time, over to the canvas
square where the players were
taking their break before the start
of the last term and seeing a trainer
offering one particular player,
for example, a cigarette and a hipflask.
That particular player was, arguably,
one of the truly great players
of the era, winning three Magarey
Medals! Players frequently
smoked at the half and three-quarter
time breaks.
There was no such thing as the
interchange bench, where players
come off and back onto the ground
after recovering. In the good
old days, the 18 starting players
played the entire game and if they
came off the ground due to injury
or any other reason, they were not
allowed to return.
This obviously affected the
speed and intensity of the game.
Without a doubt, the major difference
is the body strength and
size of the modern-day player,
compared with the past.
Today’s players have spent
many hours in weight-training
rooms increasing their overall
body strength, tuning appropriate
muscle groups to dramatically increase
the intensity and, possible
damage when the body-to-body
contact occurs.
This alone enhances the potential
for severe injury – particularly
head injury – but strategy changes
also contribute.
Many defensive structures and
zones from games such as soccer,
basketball, hockey and the
rugby codes, have been adapted,
resulting in many more players
constantly around the ball, creating
congestion, less spare space
and consequently increasing the
potential for many more clashes
compared to the past.
Add to that increased emphasis
and improvement in the skills of
tackling, no wonder there has been
a dramatic increase in the number
of serious injuries in the modern
game.
Add these factors together,
magnified by the interchange rule,
which results in players contesting
every contest in a far less fatigued
state, and it should come as no surprise
that the AFL is facing a huge
dilemma in wanting, and needing,
to provide as safe a workplace as
possible, given that footy is a contact
sport.
Clearing Mackay of a “rough
conduct” charge sends the wrong
message with regard to player
safety, even if going the other way
involves changing the nature of the
game. Saying heavy, high contact
was inevitable and unavoidable is
only true if players are allowed to
attack the football as hard as possible,
with no regard for their opponent.
The reality is that the AFL must
act, or else the game will disappear
within 20 years under the constant
cost of litigation from damaged
past players.
Have your say:
Contact Rick at
editor@bunyippress.com.au
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