Fitness of te players on the line in AFL’s season reboot

There’s no doubt AFL players will return to their clubs fit, but the challenge is to get them match fit for a fast and furious 2020 season.

Melbourne ruckman Max Gawn works on his fitness at home in Rye. Picture: Getty Images

Melbourne captain Max Gawn has been one of the many footballers across the country sweating it out daily throughout the AFL shutdown.

But the crunch for some will come when they are called back to their clubs for training and their fitness levels and skinfolds are put to the test.

With a start date pencilled in for mid-June, it appears certain footballers will be asked to play games with greater frequency than usual to ensure the season is completed.

Ruckman Gawn has spent a fair chunk of his training time out on the bike. On one occasion, he completed a round trip to Arthurs Seat on the Mornington Peninsula, which proved a decent blowout. But as he said there is a key difference between feeling in good shape and being football fit.

“It clears your head and takes up a couple of hours, which we all need something for a couple of hours to do at the moment, so I couldn’t recommend it more,” Gawn said.

“I’m not sure if that fitness goes into running fitness, but it might go into overall fitness. I am not sure it is going to help me run, but it might lower my heartrate a little bit … so I get better sleep, something like that.”

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley is another who has some concerns about how players will cope with the challenges presented by an unusual season.

In the short term, it is likely players will be able to train in groups of 10 once they are back at their clubs, given the easing of coronavirus restrictions.

But contact training is likely to be the last element allowed before the abridged season resumes.

A challenge for football club personnel is devising a training program that ensures their players are as match-fit as possible.

“The fact they haven’t been able to run around and change ­direction for six weeks, that is a long time,” Buckley told SEN.

“They will be fit. I have no doubt they will be fit. But running good five to six (kilometre) times or being able to run repeat 200 (metres) is one thing. The change of direction and being able to cut and turn and accelerate, decelerate is going to be where the real challenge is.

“You actually get sore whilst you are conditioning up to that period. These guys are elite athletes and they could play — we could play three days after returning. But you are not going to get quality and you are going to get athletes who are sore and you will lose guys. We have to get the season out. There is no doubt. But we might as well try and get a quality season out.”

Geelong star Patrick Dangerfield, who is also the AFL Players Association president, said the ­introduction of shorter quarters for this season would help players cope.

“I think it is far less taxing than a normal AFL game, so let’s keep our eyes open as to what might be possible,” he said.