Anybody play? I’m thinking of joining a team. I was watching a few videos on youtube and it seems like it’d be a pretty sick sport. Sprinters would dominate this.
Give it a go. Best sport in the world 
Depends what sort of player you are really. A quick runner from acceleration point of view playing on a flank or wing, maybe an outside player on the ball would cut most players to bits.
A high class midfielder in the premier league runs upwards of 15km (one has done 19km) even a full forward does 7km.
I know of at least 3 coaches who are head fitness coaches who came from a track & field coaching. And there are plenty of ex track & field athletes and coaches working as specialists and assistant fitness coaches.
I can remember looking at my local 2nd tier footy team, and the only element of testing I was worse at was 3km time trial and only by 30 seconds and I was an 86kg hammer thrower who stands 176cm…
It’s fun…hurts though!
I was asked to join a team yesterday, as I was jogging around infield of track kicking the ball.
If you find a good league where playing is the key and not taking out good players from opposition team - go for it. Although the coach in me is saying don’t
Anybody have good info on fitness for AFL? I’ve got some info from a couple of articles.
Don’t think you’d find those ‘dirty’ leagues in Vancouver…then again I might be wrong 
Don’t have any info on fitness for footy (although I’ve seen some articles on afl.com.au - haven’t checked them out properly though) , but wouldn’t working on general aerobic conditioning through tempo runs, accelerations (<50m), general strength training + med ball work (and maybe a small amount of SE/RSA work for midfielders) in the off season and letting training drills and practice/regular season games cover specific prep pre + in season be enough?
I first played Aussie Rules at Primary School and in a local competition from the age of 10. I progressed through the age divisions in the Essendon District FL before moving to the VFA Under 19’s. I went on to play a few games in the VFA (now the VFL) in the early 80’s before returning to the Essendon District League for half a season. I then concentrated on the athletics for a couple of years before returning to play in the Footscray District League in 1987. That was my last footy season before I joined Jim Bradley’s track squad in 1988. I was keen to play in 1988 because I enjoyed the 87 season so much, but Jim’s general prep program is full on through the Melbourne winter months and I simply couldn’t do both.
I loved playing the game, still follow it with a passion and in hindsight wished I had of done better with my footy.
A few years ago I returned to play a couple of Superules games (Over 35’s) but suffered a hamstring injury. So I haven’t returned to it. (I’m 47 now – thus it’s probably wise not to play anyway….)
I’ve been a sprint coach consultant to two AFL clubs and am currently in my 5th year in that role with the second club.
Once you get to understand the rules and the strategies, it’s without a doubt the best spectator sport of any team sport in the world.
I’d recommend it to anybody. If you are fit and healthy and reasonably young enough - there’s no greater feeling than coming off the ground, battle scarred, after a hard fought win and singing the club song.
I agree with spectator sport. A mate of mine has a US family come to say with him for 3 weeks and they go to every game they can when they are in Melbourne.
Well I live in Hobart so plenty of those around types of teams around.
Thanks for the replies. Is it as physical as rugby? Do you get smoked everytime you touch the ball.
Also, what is a legal tackle? Is it from the shoulder down and you have to “wrap tackle”. Or can you shoulder check like hockey?
Physicality of the game varies and depends on a lot of factors i.e. opposition standard (better teams/leagues will generally have better tacklers), gameplan (loose or close checking), weather (wet weather results in a more scrappy game = much more tackling), oval size (smaller oval = closer checking = more tackling) etc… Still even the most physical games of Aussie rules are nowhere near the physicality of rugby IMO…although in Aussie rules you are much more likely to get unexpected contact (e.g. a tackler from behind) than in rugby where you generally expect it with the tackler coming from front on.
A legal tackle is from the shoulders to the knees. Wrap tackles and slinging are generally used (no spear tackles).
I’m a fair bit younger than Youngy I think but I’ve followed a very similar path - still playing however. During the preseason I try to use a CF high/low template with high tempo volumes - 3000m+. During the season it’s mainly skill based work, it’s hard enough trying to recover from the games let alone adding a heap more weights and running. Usually I limit those to 1 a week each.
In regards to contact, it’s the contact coming from any direction that presents the most problems for new players I think. In most full contact sports the contact generally comes from the front eg. both rugby codes and american football. I had an opportunity to speak to Dwayne Armstrong who played in the NFL as a running back before coming to Australia for a while and played reserves for Essendon and he said that was something he really struggled with. Also there can be a fair bit of contact off the ball and marking contests, especially if everyone knows what they’re doing, get quite physical.
As far as getting smoked everytime you get the ball, that’s really your choice most of the time. If you get it in close then you need to be really quick getting rid of it if you don’t want to be tackled but if you’ve got a bit of space you can easily get rid of it before getting tackled especially if your team mates are telling you what to do and blocking for you.
I recently went to watch my brother make his AFL debut and watching that game live I’d forgotten just how intense the game can be. I’ve watched him play a lot of VFL footy (1 step below the AFL) and playing at local level myself these days the gulf between standards was immense. At lower levels good athletes with a basic understanding of the game can dominate and I’d imagine in overseas comps a good athlete could really do some damage after a few games.
This is getting long winded now but I think footy is the greatest game in the world combining skill, toughness, speed and endurance in almost equal measure.
Sorry I should have mentioned this as well, you can shoulder check or bump as we call it but most of the time it’s better to tackle. Firstly if the player’s had the ball for long enough and you tackle him and stop him from getting rid of the ball you’ll get a free kick. If he only just picked it up or got it from a team mate and you tackle him it’ll be a ball up like they do at the start of the game and after each goal. Either way your team has a chance to get the ball again. If you bump him and he bounces off he’s probably still got a chance to kick or handball to a team mate. You can block, bump or check pretty much anyone within 5 metres of the ball as long as they aren’t going for a mark and you make it really obvious, can only tackle if they have the ball though. Also the head is sacrosanct in AFL. Yeah, you get accidental knocks to it but if you bump someone in the head while they’re over the ball they’ll get a free kick and you’ll most likely get reported/suspended.
dicko6, if you don’t mind me asking, who’s your brother?
Aussie specialists, is that played in europe? I love watching on eurosport in Italy…
Matt Little, been on Hawthorns list for the past 3 years but hasn’t had much of a go for some reason. Only the 1 senior game a couple of weeks ago against St Kilda. He plays as a forward and has led Box Hill’s (Hawthorn’s VFL affiliate) goal kicking for the past couple of years. He’s out of contract at the end of the year and likely to be delisted but hopefully another club will take a chance with him.
So that would make you (and your brother) cousins of the great James Hird?
Good luck to your brother. It would definitely be a tough gig breaking into the Hawthorn forward line, especially with the way it’s been looking this season.
Dick6 Wrote: “Matt Little, been on Hawthorns list for the past 3 years but hasn’t had much of a go for some reason…”
With Franklin, Roughead, Boyle & Dixon in the Hawks front half and the team in the top 4, it gives the Hawks a lot of potency. That’s a fairly good reason he’s having trouble breaking into the ones. Might need to look at a team like the Bulldogs who are crying out for a decent forward to take the heat off Brad Johnson.
Any championship or fans in europe?
I agree they’re playing well at the moment but there’s been times that they haven’t and Matt should’ve been first cab off the rank into the team but wasn’t. Anyway hopefully another team has seen enough to give him a shot, Essendon being the preferred option given the family connection. If not it’s back to the VFL or SANFL to prove his worth. It’s very cutthroat but it’s been that way for a while now.
G’day Dicko6, just happened to see this on BigFooty - Matt has gone to Willy! Pretty good club to go to, although their wind swept ground by the Bay, can be unkind to forwards in the middle of a Melbourne winter.
All the best - hope he kicks a ton.
[i]"Former Hawk becomes a Seagull
Williamstown has added another piece to its forward line for 2008 with the signing of former Hawthorn player Matthew Little.
Matthew Little was drafted to Hawthorn in the 2004 National Draft at pick 26 after showing much promise as a Full Forward for the Calder Cannons in the TAC Cup. He was a dominant goalkicker at TAC Cup level in 2004 and followed this form to VFL level last year where he was leading goal kicker for the Box Hill, kicking 35 goals in 17 games.
Matthew played 1 game of AFL in his time at Hawthorn, playing in Round 16 2007 vs St Kilda, he had 6 disposals for the match.
Matthew is James Hirds cousin so there is some good blood running through his veins. We are delighted to have him at Williamstown for 2008 and add him to our off-season recruits of Jason Cloke, Ben Jolley, Dean Galea and our existing player group.
Matthew Little
Height: 188
Weight: 84
DOB: 3/1/1986
Recruited From: Hawthorn/Calder Cannons"[/i]