Jordan Lewis of Hawthorn lies injured during the AFL Round 03 match between the Western Bulldogs and the Hawthorn Hawks at Etihad Stadium, Melbourne.
The speed of the game has created a fair bit of interest in the past couple of weeks after serious injuries to some pretty big name stars within the league, and it’s creating some real interest from me, too.
I wait in anticipation to see how the AFL responds to the problem and I do not think capping the interchange numbers is the answer to this. The game has without doubt got faster over the past five years, and the demand on our bodies week in week out is making it physically tougher to get up for the next week’s game.
The AFL has modified rules over the years that have made the game quicker and now they are faced with the problem of slowing it down otherwise soft tissue injuries will become more and more common.
Firstly, I must say though I believe the rule changes that the AFL has made have been fantastic for the game, and I have no problem with them at all. I think it has turned our great game into more of a spectacle for supporters, but this is going to come at a cost.
If the AFL does cap interchange numbers it is going to mean that players are going to be spending more time on the field than what they previously have. At this current point in time players bring themselves off in order to get a rest so that they can finish off the game.
The speed of the game has made it physically more taxing on the body and if interchange numbers are capped this will result in more soft tissue injuries. Players come off in order to avoid fatigue, and this is what is one of the biggest causes of soft tissue injuries. The more fatigued a player is then the more likely they are to “pull” a hamstring, calf or a quad.
Due to the speed of the game every sports scientist in every team will tell you that rotations are extremely important for teams to run out games. They know, and their stats will tell you, that by rotating players on and off the bench that this can give them a distinct advantage, and Collingwood is the best in the league at it. The players will deliberately rotate themselves on and off so that they play in seven minute bursts where they will be producing maximum efforts for that whole period of time.
I must admit that being out there you can definitely feel the difference in speed from previous years. There has been a shift in the training that you do. It has moved from being an aerobic game, to an anaerobic game where players are training their repeated speed efforts more.
This only enhances the chances of injury because the body can only do so many repeated maximum efforts before it starts to take its toll. The game is getting considerably quicker and the AFL have a challenge, and an obligation, to make sure that their greatest assets are able to take the field week in week out.
What the change is I am not sure, but putting a cap on interchange, I believe, will not help this at all.
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Beautiful to see from Charlie Clarke.
Hamish Brayshaw goes WHACK!
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