Restricted workloads and training sessions are killing the vital skills of AFL football, says Adelaide Crows legend Chris McDermott
AN epidemic of bad kicking has engulfed the AFL and unless clubs change their obsessions with workloads and training levels the skills of AFL will only get worse, says Chris McDermott.
Chris McDermott
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A KICKING crisis has gripped the AFL.
Obsession with “the workplace” has come at a significant cost and it must be addressed immediately before it goes too much further.
The new era of regulations for professional players is damaging the game with far too much time spent on rehabilitation, recovery and relaxation with the basic skills of the game suffering.
Ridiculous restrictions on kicking too much, running too much and eating too much is hampering the game.
How about DO hit a target. Please.
And if you can’t, get out there during the week and practise until you can.
Those days are over.
Players’ kicks are counted and recorded almost in numbers at training now to prevent over-kicking and overuse of important leg muscles that under the current system need rest and recovery more than improvement.
Field kicking efficiency is at an all-time low. It should be at an all-time high.
The early rounds of the 2018 season have been littered with a growing number of out of bounds on the full. Not from hugging the boundary line but from simply poor execution by foot.
In a regular week between games there are two days for recovery, two days off as part of the players’ workplace agreement. One hard session. One sharp session and a day of travel or rest before the game.
It’s a different story out of season and in pre-season, but sports science has taken control — and injuries are not improving. Hamstring injuries in 2018 are off the charts. The game might be faster and played by athletes that are bigger and stronger but is the AFL better as a spectacle? Is the game more engaging for the fans?
Are today’s highs better than the highs experienced by both players and fans 20 years ago? I think not.
The stats, they say, never lie. They tell us players are kicking the ball more.
Up about 10 per cent over the past 17 years. Given the majority of those are short, backwards, sideways or shanked, it is a minimal increase
The biggest increase is in handballs. Up from 108 in 2001 to 171 in 2017. That’s a 40 per cent increase. That’s overuse.
Here’s where the problem lies. Handballing is the simpler skill. Predominantly short disposals in quick succession with minimal errors.
The disposal efficiency over those 17 years has plummeted from 80 per cent down to 73 per cent in 2017.
Kicking efficiency is the problem and it’s getting worse. In 2018 the early disposal efficiency numbers show further decline down to 71.9 per cent The numbers will be under 70 per cent by 2020.
It’s time to stop the decline.
Goal kicking hasn’t improved either over a similar period with total goals per team down from 14.2 a game to 12.4 a game in 2018.
If set shots haven’t improved how can we expect field kicking to improve?
Have we become too big-picture focused to understand how important the small stuff is?
They say, “don’t sweat the small stuff”. How wrong they are.
Second chances rarely pay off for AFL coaches
History suggests strongly that if you miss out on a premiership at your first try as a coach, you should not get another chance — unless you’re Mick Malthouse or Malcolm Blight, writes Chris McDermott.
When two tribes go to war
It was the game that stopped a state — the first Showdown between the Crows and Power on April 20, 1997. Chris McDermott shares his memories for Part 1 of The Greatest Showdowns series.