Goodes enough to keep playing? I'll be the Judd of that

I wouldn't mind playing Judd off a half-back flank. How much do you have to pay him to get out of bed these days?

I think the Blues should play Judd as a permanent forward next year, maybe forward pocket, leading out of the square while Waite drops back? 2007 final against Port, Judd could barely walk so the Eagles played him at FF... he had a blinder. He was too quick for the big defenders and too strong for the smaller ones... think he still managed to kick 3 goals on one leg. Ablett Snr was a zippy winger when he started out.. no reason Judd couldnt have a productive couple of years up forward from now on.

I don't want to bring up old wounds but I do think the Academies in the northern states will grow the talent pool. Soccer will challenge everywhere but league is just a terrible game to play (and I have the bruises to confirm that assessment). AFL is an awesome option for parents - it just needs the kind of support the Academies can bring.

The difference between Judd and Goodes is that Goodes is a bit more versatile in terms of positions he can play. If you watch Swans games closely, he hasn't been used as a tall at all this year. He's still tall, so people still have to put their 3rd tall defender on him, but he actually plays as a crummer, and no tall defender can read the ball as well as him nor chase him down when he's got the ball. I think he's now Sydney's best crummer, as shown by him being 2nd on the Sydney goalkicking table. That stat alone would make him one of the first choice selections every single week. Whereas Judd is a midfielder. He is best remembered for being both the insider contested ball winner, and then while surrounded by 5 blokes, still get out and then becomes the outside runner himself. The problem is now that he's lost his power and speed he's lost half his repertoire, and as a midfielder has become much more ordinary. He's still a fantastic inside ball winner with good skills, awareness, decision-making, but compared to what he was before he just can't contributed as much any more.

I don't think GWS, even if they do a three peat, will ever get the crowds the Swans get - completely different area and demographics. This isn't such a bad thing, as the leakage of Swans fans to GWS has been minimal. The Suns, on the other hand, look like they've picked up quite a few disgruntled Lions supporters.

Love the anecdote Jason. Sadly football is a young man's game and most players' bodies begin to fail them just as their ability to read the game is reaching its peak. However you're right about the link between age and perspective, though rather than something which arrives with age I feel it better characterized as something which shifts as one gets older. In football this can be expressed by older players often making the transition from player to coach, and I think that metamorphosis in role from doer to teacher of other doers is a very natural one in life. While we all want to see the great players go around one more year, its worth reminding ourselves of the enormous physical toll this sport can extract from its players, even at the amateur level, which will often scar them for the rest of their lives. If I were advising someone like Judd or Fletcher I'd make a point of asking them how close they are to achieving a level of financial security they're comfortable with, and reminding them they probably have another 40 or 50 years ahead of them to live with the body they take away from football.

By "penetrating the national culture" I guess you're referring to penetrating the culture of NSW & QLD, since Aussies Rules has been doing extremely well in every other state for generations. Judging by TV ratings, crowd & membership numbers support for the code in the Rugby states is growing, albeit slowly. As always much of it is driven by individual club success- right now the Swans are experiencing the same bumper crowds & membership numbers (by Northern state standards) that Brisbane enjoyed during its triple premiership heydey. Unfortunately as the Lions' success dried up so did their support, and I imagine the AFL's rationale in establishing a second team in each state is to ensure at least one remains in premiership contention in any given season. So by the time Sydney's premiership window closes that of GWS will be ready to open, and so things will continue in perpetuity or so goes Der Fuhrer Fitzpatrick's masterplan. As for an 18 team competition the country's population is simply not sufficient to sustain it without a drop in quality. The landscape has changed from previous generations and kids are now equally tempted by other sports like Basketball and Soccer, nevermind Rugby. This is also why the AFL Commission's altered so many rules to discourage the extremely physical and brutal play of earlier eras, to broaden the game's appeal parents. Competition between codes for the country's hottest young athletes is becoming so intense it would even make Jimmy Savile's mouth water.

Very good point, its why Geelong had to move Chapman, Hunt and Jpod on, if they kept them all they would have risked a number of future players potentially seeking opportunities elsewhere, there comes a time when the junior players have bided their time and earnt the opportunity to prove themselves.

The other issue in keeping players on is what players you might miss by devoting $$ to older players. Very hard to quantify but there is a cost in terms of lost opportunitities.

Thank you for this article. As a 38 year old, I'm starting to sense the challenges from my younger rivals in my personal life and at work. And that's fair enough. I was 28 and 18 and so on... They have to do their thing. But something that comes with age is perspective. Without perspective, it's easy to say so-and-so is an old man and should retire. In my mind, I'm just getting good at my career. After so many years, I'm now truly ready for my job. Adam Goodes would know what I'm saying. (I would also add the question, what better AFL diplomat could we ask for?) Anyway, here's an anecdote from my life that literally happened today, just hours ago. This afternoon I banned my staff from doing push-up contests in the office. (Really, they were being used to bother and possibly intimidate other staffers.) They offended parties complained "You're banning push ups because you're old and weak." I said, "If I was old and weak, I wouldn't be able to ban push-up contests." You go Adam Goodes, Chris Judd, Dustin Andrew Fletcher (6 months older than me!), Nick Riewoldt and all the over 30 AFL men.

Olivia, Fletcher has now played 393 games with 4 home and away games to go and the possibility of finals. In the unlikely event of Fletcher playing every game and Essendon playing 3 finals he can achieve the significant 400 game milestone this year in which case I would expect him to retire. Otherwise I would expect him to play on if he feels that his body can manage it and achieve 400 games early next year. He is currently in Essendon's best 22 and could still offer some insurance against injuries to their backmen in the first half of next year but all things being equal I would like to see him retire mid-season next year.

Interesting comments. Thanks. I love that there are 18 teams and would like more, but I'm new-ish to AFL and I'm not in Australia. I don't have my finger on the pulse of Australia, so to speak. I hadn't thought of the plethora of teams as diluting the talent pool, but I suppose your argument makes sense. I did grow up in Australia and EVERYONE played footy... in my neighborhood. But then I left for 25 years. I've just assumed for my whole life that all Australian kids played footy in winter and cricket in summer, while the girls go off and do netball or whatever it is they do. I guess the real question is, what does it take to bring AFL to the level where it penetrates the national culture, so that all kids do play footy? Might not expanding into new markets actually work as a long-term cultural influence that grows the sport and its talent pool? I agree that kids won't take up the sport just because of new teams. But what if those teams are not new teams, but rather established parts of the fabric of those communities? Teams have got to start somewhere. I'm sure at some point, early on, the entire idea of a national or even Victoria-wide footy league seemed preposterous to a lot of people.

Bosk, I am glad you have got away from the peptides and you have made some good points here. There are too many clubs in Victoria but I wouldn't put it down to greed, there are 9 Melbourne clubs and one provincial Victorian club in Geelong -- there are certainly too many Melbourne clubs but that is a very difficult political problem to solve, they are not going to vote themselves out of existence and the relocation of South Melbourne to Sydney (the Sydney ducks) and the amalgamation of Fitzroy with Brisbane caused considerable angst among their Victorian supporters at the time. Other attempted amalgamations met with great opposition.

I feel the only people competent to judge whether Judd, Goodes and others play on are the players themselves. As we age it becomes more necessary for us to devote more and more of our energies and daily routine just to remain at our current level. This 'extra' has to come from somewhere and when that somewhere is our family, our outside interests and our ongoing physical health it can be a deal breaker. For some this is a price they are willing to pay but, for others, the price is too high. We should respect the player's right to make that judgement for themselves. For what it is worth I think LRT will retire, Goodes, Judd, Fletcher and Harvey will play one more, O'Keefe will go to the Giants or Doggies and others will decide at season's end. Whatever they choose, I thank them and wish them well.

Frankly the amount of players NSW & QLD has produced has always been a drop in the bucket compared with the other states (even Tasmania & NT) and for all the AFL's fanfare about developing the game in those states I don't see it changing anytime soon. GC & GWS are 20 or 30 year investments by the AFL's admission and kids aren't going to suddenly decide footy is the game to play because there are two teams in their state instead of one. St.Kilda, Hawthorn and probably other clubs have already begun looking overseas to NZ for talent but again its a long term investment not likely to produce huge numbers of recruits in foreseeable future. What's hurting the competition more than anything is 18 teams. The available pool of talent isn't remotely large enough to cover so many adequately. You could even argue most clubs lost a huge amount of depth back in the 90s when West Coast, Adelaide, Port & Freo were created.... I mean look at Fitzroy right before they were forced to relocate -statistically one of the worst teams in AFL history- and yet the side contained Chris Johnson, John Barker, Martin Pike, Matthew Primus & Simon Atkins. The effects of the compromised draft on the other hand won't be fully felt for a few years. The teams hit hardest will be those who bottomed out during that time like the Bulldogs for instance, but the net effect is that every club but two will be forced to make do with less. Naturally the solution to this shortage of talent is to reduce the number of Victorian teams, probably by half in an ideal world. That probably should have happened BEFORE the league went ahead and added two new teams to the expansion states, but such is the Commission's greed they are probably hoping the decline of playing standards will be gradual enough that the majority of fans won't notice.

Good comment.

Bosk - Do you think the talent stretching is due to the lag from when there will be more players coming from NSW and QLD, or do you think this will be the norm? Will the AFL have to cast it's net further overseas? GWS, especially could have done with a few more veterans.

It's also about off field too, Judd has young kids he may want to spend more time with. Sometimes footballers have businesses they start up as they near the end and just have to pull the plug and move on. Its not just about whether they can play or not.

I agree that both should play on next year. This makes sense particularly for Goodes given Sydney are in their premiership window and Reid has yet to prove dependable as that third tall forward. That said if the Swans walk away with the flag this year I'd expect Goodes to do the same. The effectiveness of modern pepti... err "sports science" is such that players are now able to perform strongly even into their mid 30s, just look at Brent Harvey. Another factor is the lack of ready-made talent coming through the ranks at most clubs given the recent compromised drafts and an 18 team competition stretching everyone bar GC & GWS pretty thin. Not only do I expect to see more veterans extending their careers but also more free agents of the Chappy variety.

My guess is that as a player comes towards the end of their career they need to put more and more of their time into preparing for games and also in recovery. Players should have a pretty good idea as to whether they are prepared to meet that increasing commitment, it is up to their clubs as to whether they see a continuing role for the player in their team. Other considerations come into play such as the age profile of a club's list, a club won't want too many players retiring together in a season or two. What can be said about Goodes and Judd is that even at 90% fit they are in the top echelon of their teams.