A reply to: @Bomberjay07 regarding QuoteLink
I remember reading somewhere (ergo it must be true), that in terms of aerobic fitness requirements for sports, professional boxing was number 1, olympic level water polo was next, followed by AFL level football at 3. I think NHL Ice Hockey and MMA rounded out the top 5.Aussie Rules has never sounded like a saner choice of sport than in that comparison!
I remember reading somewhere (ergo it must be true), that in terms of aerobic fitness requirements for sports, professional boxing was number 1, olympic level water polo was next, followed by AFL level football at 3. I think NHL Ice Hockey and MMA rounded out the top 5.
A reply to: @yaco55 regarding QuoteLink
Don't confuse endurance on a running track, and endurance on a footy field. Many are claimed to have elite endurance but it doesn't show on the field.
Good point. Interval Training would more closely approximate the work on the field under match conditions. Interval training involves alternating between aerobic and anaerobic activity.
It may be that an entirely different group of players excel in interval training compared with 2 km run endurance.
Pfft. Hi Johnny Rayner, Hi Dean Rioli. Who would you rather have in your team? Who would you rather watch as a spectator and fan? Skills trump everything.
… A Rayner Rioli blend with the best of both.
Ultimate player.
A reply to: @samwoods regarding QuoteLink
LOL. Mate I'm a QLDer and grew up on league.Different game, different body sizes and different skills. But I’d place the fitness of an AFL player a long long way ahead of the league boys.
I moved to Sydney many years ago after a lifetime of playing Australian Rules. Decided to give Rugby League a go, I was fit, fast and thought I could do OK. It was easy to pick up the rules and the game, but handling the tackles was the hard bit. Even the little blokes hit you so hard, and when the 150 kg Tongan smashed you, well you just wanted to die. And it was every time you received the ball. 40 years on, and I still remember the pain.
I played 6 games, found the closest Sydney Aussies Rules club, and went back to the softer game.
I don’t reckon you can compare fitness levels as there is different types of fitness and League sure has the hard edge,
Played under 13s league on the wing up in central Qld…still having nightmares about the kid 3 times anyone else’s size…they called him Drago after Ivan Drago.
I have always said that league State of Origin is the toughest football in the world…QUEEEENNSSLANDER!!!
A reply to: @Bacchusfox regarding QuoteLink
A reply to: @samwoods regarding QuoteLinkLOL. Mate I'm a QLDer and grew up on league.Different game, different body sizes and different skills. But I’d place the fitness of an AFL player a long long way ahead of the league boys.
I moved to Sydney many years ago after a lifetime of playing Australian Rules. Decided to give Rugby League a go, I was fit, fast and thought I could do OK. It was easy to pick up the rules and the game, but handling the tackles was the hard bit. Even the little blokes hit you so hard, and when the 150 kg Tongan smashed you, well you just wanted to die. And it was every time you received the ball. 40 years on, and I still remember the pain.
I played 6 games, found the closest Sydney Aussies Rules club, and went back to the softer game.
I don’t reckon you can compare fitness levels as there is different types of fitness and League sure has the hard edge,
Seems to me Rugby League is all about hurting your opposition and scoring when you get the chance , where Aussie Rules is all about scoring, and hurting your opposition when you get the chance.
That snooker looks a physically demanding game too…
Can we all just take a minute to appreciate the real story in all of this, which is the fact that Brent Stanton has now won every December time trial at the club for the last three hundred years? It’s Groundhog day. Next you’ll tell me we’ll get rolled by the Saints in a clusterf*ck at Etihad mid-season and Stevo will be admirably taking half-cut potshots at their supporters in the Locker Room and it’ll be like every other year from whenever Stanton won his first time trial, which at this stage seems like about 300BC.
NO’B says hi, as does Rayner.
Hell, Steinerg and Goddard won (shorter, repeated) time trials last week.
The Nerg
A reply to: @Damnation regarding QuoteLink
Black Kav.We were ranked bottom 4 for contested possession last year.
Of course running is important. You’re running for about 80% of a match, isn’t that obvious?
Stupid stupid thread.
A reply to: @Warlock Paul regarding QuoteLink
A reply to: @berkna regarding QuoteLinkEqually, with everything else equal the side able to go for another 5 minutes will always win?Endurance lets you get to more contestsEndurance lets you stay in the contest for longer (think 4th qtr fade outs in 2014)
Endurance is a key pillar for any position on the ground.
Strength is the foundation, everything is built from this. From the moment you can lift and rotate your big melon head as a baby, to rolling over, rocking and crawling, standing, walking and ultimately running you are building reflexive strength in the body. Everything else simply builds on this for either more physical strength (ability to lift heavy weights or how fast you can run, jump, etc) or more endurance (ability to repeat said lift of the heavy load ad infinitum, or how far you can run maintaining a speed, how many times you can jump, etc).
As we age, we lose our strength on a progressive decline unless we are do something about it, but there does comes a time when you hit that critical point where rapid and progressive decline in strength and health occurs. The stronger/healthier person will prevent this decline from happening for as long as possible.
It doesn’t matter how much endurance you have if you don’t have the strength to run or walk. You won’t go anywhere.
With everything else being equal the stronger person in the contest will always win.
In your theory why have all clubs fined down a few kgs from about 2011 and focussed more on running?
Have a look at the Port side - the only team who looked like beating Hawthorn in finals.
Polec. Pittard. White. Wingard. Neade. Extraordinarily light (and young) side. But boy, can they run.
Have a look at some of the kids we debuted. Gleeson. Orazio. Ashby, Jerrett, Zerrett, Aylett. Again - light, wouldn’t be able to go with a Hocking in a pitched battle - but they can run (and play, which always helps)
That’s the trend, people.
A reply to: @BakerWasAStar regarding QuoteLink
A reply to: @Damnation regarding QuoteLinkQuoted Post^Where did you got that stat from? I assume it means top 1% of professional athletes, because of course they would be in top 1% of the general population. If that was a genuine statistic, I would be interested to see how they determined it.AFL players top 1% in professional sport?
Marathon runners?
Triathletes?
Ironman?
Rugby League?
Boxing?I don’t think 1% far from it, there are many more than mentioned above.
AFL players are easily, by far, the fittest athletes in the world.
It is the only sport that demands sprinting, gut running and powerful collisions often in the same piece of play. Most AFL midfielders would run 12-14 km a game which is half a marathon.
Being strong enough to tackle, to stand up in a tackle, crash into a pack, be crashed into (I’d class all as part of the “collision” part of the game) is unique when combined with the sprint running and endurance running demands - there are no “timeouts” in quarters (e.g. basketball), there is no switching of forwards and defenders at stoppages (NFL), there is no off-side rule that means there is no demand on players to sprint forward to make position ahead of the ball (rugby, soccer) and the average AFL ground is much, much bigger than the rectangular playing areas used for all other footballing codes around the world.
Straight out endurance it’d be miles behind a lot of other sports (x country skiers are regularly quoted as being the fittest in any endurance stats like VO2).
You are right in that AFL players are the fittest for the demands of AFL but that’s hardly earth shattering. (They’d get smashed trying to do marathons or cross country skiing just as marathon runners or cross country skiers would get smashed playing AFL)
Can we all just take a minute to appreciate the real story in all of this, which is the fact that Brent Stanton has now won every December time trial at the club for the last three hundred years? It's Groundhog day. Next you'll tell me we'll get rolled by the Saints in a clusterf*ck at Etihad mid-season and Stevo will be admirably taking half-cut potshots at their supporters in the Locker Room and it'll be like every other year from whenever Stanton won his first time trial, which at this stage seems like about 300BC.
You need to take a closer look at this year’s results.
There is a related definition of fitness, that is that something is made or set up correctly to do a certain job. eg. “fitness for purpose” , “match fit” or “running fit”.
In this sense an argument that has gone on for 3 pages is rather pointless, as its absolutely clear that fitness for one sport is different to fitness for another sport. AFL training ( of which the time trial is just one part) aims to makes players fit to play AFL, not rugby, otherwise running into brick walls 
and developing massive trapezius musculature would form a major part of AFL training.
Can we all just take a minute to appreciate the real story in all of this, which is the fact that Brent Stanton has now won every December time trial at the club for the last three hundred years? It's Groundhog day. Next you'll tell me we'll get rolled by the Saints in a clusterf*ck at Etihad mid-season and Stevo will be admirably taking half-cut potshots at their supporters in the Locker Room and it'll be like every other year from whenever Stanton won his first time trial, which at this stage seems like about 300BC.
But he didn’t he came 3rd.
Sorry don’t mean to spoil your party just saying the facts is all.
A reply to: @berkna regarding QuoteLink Strength is the foundation, everything is built from this. From the moment you can lift and rotate your big melon head as a baby, to rolling over, rocking and crawling, standing, walking and ultimately running you are building reflexive strength in the body. Everything else simply builds on this for either more physical strength (ability to lift heavy weights or how fast you can run, jump, etc) or more endurance (ability to repeat said lift of the heavy load ad infinitum, or how far you can run maintaining a speed, how many times you can jump, etc).As we age, we lose our strength on a progressive decline unless we are do something about it, but there does comes a time when you hit that critical point where rapid and progressive decline in strength and health occurs. The stronger/healthier person will prevent this decline from happening for as long as possible.
It doesn’t matter how much endurance you have if you don’t have the strength to run or walk. You won’t go anywhere.
With everything else being equal the stronger person in the contest will always win.
Is that you Weapon?
Do you even time trial Bro?