The final sport in our series is football, easily the most played sport of the five we’ve analysed. But does that have anything to do with the athletic prowess required to perform?
Probably not, but it’s an interesting discussion point nonetheless. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2013-14 participation in sports catalogue, outdoor football had the highest number of participants aged 15 and older of all of the team sports (438,800 participants), while indoor soccer was ranked seventh (218,800).
Of all of the sports we’re looking at, football is easily the simplest from a rules perspective: don’t touch the ball with your hands, don’t trip your opponent, don’t touch the ball if you’re standing goal side of the last defender on the other team when it’s kicked to you. It’s more complicated than that, but not significantly so.
Football’s beauty lies in the finesse required to play the game. As rugby league coach and fitness expert Rohan Smith said when we discussed the athletic requirements of football, “aside from cricket, football out does the other three codes as far as the need for co-ordination and execution of skill.
“There’s lots of touches of the ball in multiple directions, and needing to use your head, chest and feet for ball control is not just unique, it’s remarkably skilful.”
Agility is critical. Like Aussie rules players, footballers operate in a 360-degree environment. Cricket is remarkably structured, while the rugby codes play facing each other and can pass laterally or backwards. Football is completely open.
“Football players need a quick first step, be able to start and stop on a dime, change direction constantly, all while controlling a ball with their feet,” Rohan said.
“This is somewhat unique to football in the five sports we’re looking and doesn’t fit neatly with our categories, but I would say it’s largely an attribute of agility.”
We see this play out with some regularity, with strikers and defenders embarking on battles of speed in which the ball cuts through a defensive zone.
Strikers are quick, and all football players are required to have some semblance of straight-line speed. I wasn’t able to find any information on maximum speeds, but from video highlights, it is clear players that ply their trade as finishers can reach sprint speeds that many other codes would struggle to match.
A lot of the activities of football players are quick adjustments from standing or slow movements like jogging to outright sprinting.
According to American sports data company SportVU, midfielders can run an average of 11 kilometres a game across the two 45-minute halves. That’s more than the rugby codes, and gets close to what a key position player would put up during a 120-minute game of AFL.
The athletic profile of the different position groups is significant. Rohan said many clubs consider their goalkeepers to be their best athletes.
“Goalkeepers are required to stand, then jump, sprint, dive, leap and scramble. They have the highest percentage of involvements in the game that require all-around athletic performance.”
These somewhat unique requirements of football lean against a player’s athletic prowess in the other categories. More than any other sport in this series, the collective subjective judgments of Rohan and I were difficult to place in the context of the other codes.
Football players have significantly different requirements to the rugby codes and even Australian football where there is a requirement to have physical size and strength.
Football needs wiry, quick-on-your-feet athletes; the average A-League player in the 2016-17 season weighed just under 76 kilograms – easily the smallest in mass of the five codes we’ve analysed in this series. Footballers are made of lean muscle, built to have a balance weighted more towards ease of movement than difficulty in being moved.
The strength requirements of football players are more about winning position rather than physical domination, according to Rohan.
“Football is more an isometric strength, where the other football codes require an ability to overpower, dominate and ultimately defeat an opponent.”
(AAP Image/Julian Smith)
Key Information
Ryan and Rohan are making these judgments based on the highest level of domestic competition in each of the sports – except for cricket, where the Australian Test team seems like the more appropriate comparator.
In this series, each sport will be ranked on key categories. We’ll reveal the final scores and the top sport at the end of the series.
Endurance: the length of time an athlete is required to perform at their peak, in a game and over the course of a season.
Power: how explosive an athlete needs to be, in both speed and strength terms, over and above the “resting” state of play.
Agility: a measure of an athlete’s required evasiveness, ability to change direction and be aware of those around them.
Speed: how fast is a player required to move around the field, both in sprints and general play.
Stay tuned for the next instalment when we’ll reveal the final scores and name which sport produces the best athletes in Australia.
The full series
» Part One: AFL
» Part Two: Cricket
» Part Three: Rugby league
» Part Four: Rugby union
» Part Five: Football
» Part Six: Final Results
This series is sponsored by by POWERADE, fuelling rivalry through the POWERADE POWERSCORE. The Powerade Powerscore, developed in conjunction with the New South Wales Institute of Sport, allows you to compare yourself to mates and elite athletes.
Justin Mahon
Guest
Without doubt the best, most informed and level headed analysis of precisely what a football athlete is, needs and how these factors compare to other codes. Regardless of any final conclusions drawn I, as a football fan, welcome this writing on The Roar because of for all of it's may fine attributes, one stands out - it's educational value. Thank you.
Jeff Morris
Guest
I thought sex was the universal language.
senr
Guest
In South America every boy starts playing Football. The fat and clumsy ones never get selected, so they switch to Rugby ;)
bryan
Guest
The whole premise of this series of articles is flawed, as it is limited to a few particular team games. How about the outstanding athletes in the "Ironman" competitions?, Basketballers?,Field Athletics?, Cycling?, Swimming?,Tennis?, & so on. Is Timmy Cahill a better athlete than, say, Ian Thorpe, (OK,Ian is retired now, but the comparison is still valid), because he takes part in a competition which has many more participants? In fact, arguably some of the best athletes in the world spend their life in activities which are not even labelled as "sports", such as Ballet & other forms of competitive Dancing, Circus Aerialists, & others.
Lionheart
Guest
we must have a game of something sometime Matt - think we'd be a good pair.
Grobbelaar
Roar Guru
Give me Dali and Gaudi any day. How mighty the Catalan are - there's a definite theme here, but I can't quite put my finger on it.
Grobbelaar
Roar Guru
The 10 metre platform takes a lot of courage, it's definitely not for the faint hearted.
Grobbelaar
Roar Guru
oh well, sport is a lot like life, ultimately it's all pointless
Matt H
Roar Guru
Kicking accurately on the run is very hard if you haven't grown up with it. It's a tremendous skill.
Perry Bridge
Guest
#MattH the extension of that of course - just being fast is that in AFL he needs to be able to catch it in the air, pick it up below his knees, he can run - yes, he can run - but if he can't bounce it, kick it on the run etc then he'll only be good for chasing and then he'd better be able to tackle. Often the good runners will cover more territory because they are working harder and not necessarily smarter - - often they get to where the ball was.
Perry Bridge
Guest
#Clipper The key you refer to there around the 'spend' - - talent, pure genetic talent is only part of it, opportunity and then elite talent pathways and development along with a strong work ethic are still required to convert the 'potential' into a decent outcome. So - those reaching the top may be drawn from a far, far smaller available pool of realistic and developed talent. It's the difference between suggesting an Indian F1 driver is 1 in 1.4 billion (or whatever the population is) so he must be the best of the best - - or, to be more realistic and suggest that there's only a pool of a few hundred race car drivers and with respect to having the funding and support to have a crack at F1 and get there then there were only another 2 or 3 people in India who might fit that category. (this is all hypothetical of course). Soccer in many respects has had the luxury of laziness. It's just a numbers game. The future stars will 'emerge' - - high performance coaching and sports science are fanciful notions and not necessary etc etc. Throw enough darts at a brick wall and eventually one will stick.
Matt H
Roar Guru
Nemesis, I've played association football and AFL. They both require a high level of skill. Trust me, punting a ball while running at full pelt to put it on the chest of a guy 40 metres away which is being marked is pretty tough. AFL is closer to football in that respect than either of the Rugby codes, who delegate their kicking to 2 or maybe 3 kickers in their team.
Matt H
Roar Guru
Interesting. Similarly I played indoor touch football, which like futsal has a smaller playing area and less players than the outdoor version. I've never been so exhausted.
Matt H
Roar Guru
Rugby League is littered with super-fast players who were very average. Doesn't matter how fast you are if you can't catch. Apparently Bolt, being form Jamaica, is actually a pretty good football player, as well as a reasonable cricketer.
Matt H
Roar Guru
Nemesis, in reply to your 5:33 post, I think the point is that if association football was the only code, it would have exclusive access to the pool of potential athletes that currently choose to play one of four codes. Then the odds that some of those from this greater pool of potential players would be superstars at association football is pretty good. If there is a baby that has the genes to be a superior athlete, then depending where they are born and what sport they are introduced to, they would likely be very good no matter what sport they play. It's not about whether athletes who have grown up in one sport could turn around and now be successful at another. That rarely happens. From personal experience, my cousin has superior sporting genes. Depending on where he was born, I believe he would have excelled at anything. But he was born on the Gold Coast, basically in the surf, so he became a very good swimmer and ended up an Olympic triathlete. But basic endurance, power, smarts, balance, etc were all there. My other example is me. I am an inferior athlete. I tried football, AFL, Rugby League, swimming, tennis, netball and golf. I am decidedly average at all of them.
Matt H
Roar Guru
Goalkeeping for me was horrible. What a way to spend a Saturday morning - at every moment you are either bored or terrified.
Matt H
Roar Guru
Well I played football, Rugby League, AFL and cricket as a junior and I can tell you: - I was never more scared than on a Rugby League field. The ground is very, very hard, as are the people who drive you into it. Slowest winger ever. - I was never more tired than on a football pitch. Trying to execute a cross from the left wing after my 215th sprint up the line was beyond me. Slowest winger ever. Also, I can tell you that getting repeatedly kicked in the shin and knee makes it hard to swim breast-stroke. - I never looked more like a fool than on an AFL field trying to drop kick a ball accurately while running at pace. In fact, that usually led me to tripping over and finding out that the ground on an AFL field was also pretty hard. Slowest winger ever. - I was never more useless than batting on a cricket pitch. The bat was tiny, the ball was a blur and timing was an impossible dream. So I became a spin bowler. You only need to jog a few paces and other people have to go and get the ball that some talented guy has hit into the creek. Slowest spinner ever.
Lionheart
Guest
I remember a boxing match some years ago between two tough men of NRL and AFL, Mal Meninga and a guy called Jacko I believe. It was done professionally, training and WBA rules, televised. The AFL due lasted no more than 20 or 30 seconds, Meninga just totally destroyed him. OK, it's not a complete measure but there was no doubt who the greater athlete was that night.
Doc Disnick
Roar Guru
I forgot to congratulate you earlier for: "and I’ve spoken to several Premiership winners, who played over 300 games have no interest in how many kms a player runs." *one paragraph later* "In fact, one ex-AFL premiership winner I’ve spoken to delights in mentioning how little he ran during games. The smart players don’t need to run for no reason." ...finally getting the letter case right for 'premiership' in one of those instances. Well done.
Nemesis
Guest
1) If players are running 10km when they could be running 5km for the same output in performance for the team then they are not too bright. 2) I didn't make any comment about the skill of punters. I said the only sport Aussie Rules players have successfully transitioned to outside Aussie Rules is about 1/2 dozen Aussie Rules players over the past 50 years have been recruited as punters. And, from what I've observed when watching NFL, the job of the punter is to kick the ball high & far to try to land in empty space. Kicking the ball to empty space is something that all AFL players do very well.