After poring over all of the numbers and all of the analysis, it’s time to crown a winner. Which of the five major Australian sports produces the best natural athletes?
As a reminder, I am making these judgements in partnership with ex-NRL coach Rohan Smith. I’m the numbers guy, he’s the real world guy.
Together, we’ve discussed and debated where AFL, cricket, rugby league, rugby union and football rank relative to each other on four key attributes of athletic performance.
Those are:
Agility: a measure of an athlete’s required evasiveness, ability to change direction and be aware of those around them;
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;
Speed: how fast a player is required to move around the field, both in sprints and general play.
It was a tough task, because the five sports are all remarkably different.
Cricket is a skills-based game, albeit one that requires power and endurance. While the rugby codes share similarities, as time has gone on, they’ve evolved to become vastly different sports; league is all about power, where union is strength-based.
Football and AFL are often the two lead combatants in the code wars, but share a need for spatial awareness, endurance and skill execution – although again, they are drastically different sports.
But that’s the point. What Rohan and I have sought to do this series is make judgements on the basis of the best available facts, data and information.
Each sport was given a points ranking based on its performance in each area; the highest-ranked sport in each field would be given one point and the lowest given five, with the aim to finish with the lowest score. The best possible score was four, the worst was 20.
Let’s go through each area and sport line by line.
Agility
It came down to the two 360 degree sports in our assessment of agility. Ultimately, it was the only piece of quantitative (ish) evidence we could rely on to split the five sports.
AFL and football are played with a player’s entire orbit as fair game, where the rugby codes are played mostly face up and cricket’s interactions are highly regimented.
What gave it to Aussie rules at the end of the day was the need for players to be agile in an environment of strength-based tackling as well as in open space. Football requires far more of a focus on the open-play aspect in comparison.
(AAP Image/Ben Macmahon)
“Agility is a vital ingredient in every sport,” says Rohan.
“AFL got the nod due to the frequency of change in direction and the amount of acceleration and deceleration required. The unpredictability of deflections and the bounce of the odd-shaped ball also makes it more reactive and less predictable than the other sports.”
We made a judgement that rugby league required more agility than rugby union, mostly on account of union’s repeated phases of rucks and mauls compared to league players having more repeated moments of dodging, weaving and deceiving. Cricket came in last.
Endurance
This was a no-brainer: AFL requires the most endurance of the five sports assessed.
There was some conjecture in the beginning between AFL and cricket, given we are assessing endurance on the basis of an individual game as well as over the course of a season.
A full-time member of the Australian Test cricket team could be expected to be plying his trade for more than 50 days a year, on his feet for up to six hours a day, plus all of the work that goes into training and preparation. An AFL player’s year is over in up to 26 two-hour bursts, plus training and preparation.
Ultimately though, Rohan, as a professional sports coach, marvelled at the endurance abilities of AFL athletes.
“The sheer volume of high-speed running in AFL trumps the other codes, particularly when you combine it with the collisions, tackles, agility, skill execution and jumping required. The size of the pitch is a major contributor.
“That said, cricket has the far greater mental endurance requirement.”
We ranked the other sports mostly in order of the time they play on game day: football, rugby league, then rugby union.
The peak professional Australian seasons of rugby league and football are deceptively similar in length; the A-League runs for 27 rounds plus finals, the NRL 26 rounds plus finals. Rugby union is done in 17 rounds plus finals, largely due to union’s penchant for international showdowns.
Power
Again, this one is pretty obvious. Rugby union wins it, ahead of rugby league, with AFL a relatively-close-but-not-really-close third.
This assessment came down to the need to include strength into a measure of power. If the assessment was based solely on power as we’ve defined it here, cricket would come out on top – every action in cricket (batting, bowling and fielding) is a power action.
But because strength and mass and the ability to physically overwhelm come into it, the rugby codes reign supreme.
“Rugby league requires way more strength at speed than union, but union has more time under strength,” says Rohan.
“The strength component of power is a dominant factor in the 15-man game for scrums, stripping the ball and so on, and there’s no beating the brute strength requirement of union scrums.”
As we discussed in the two rugby assessments, union requires its players to be physically large and strong to move the opposition with pushing motions; league is more about mass for repeat collisions. We’re splitting hairs in a way, but union comes out on top.
(Photo by Tim Anger)
Speed
Speed is again a very subjective judgement. If we had the time, resources and contacts, we’d love to watch the fastest player in each of the codes face off in a few 40-metre sprints.
Rohan and I made this call on the basis of how important speed is to the general requirements to be a peak athlete in each sport. It’s not particularly important for rugby union, somewhat important to rugby league and cricket, and very important to AFL and football.
What splits the two was the requirements in general play. Rohan was of the view that a lot of football movements were jogging and half-paced running, where Aussie rules requires its players to be constantly moving between jogging and sprints. In that environment, speed is a real asset.
“The size of the pitch in AFL enables players to get to high speeds more often than football,” says Rohan.
“It’s position dependent. Protecting a bigger field against speed is more difficult than doing so on a smaller field!”
I can see the argument on both sides. Footballers often find themselves trying to outrun an opponent to chase a through ball, or to sprint and break a line to create an opportunity. In the end, I defaulted to the man who does this stuff for a living.
The results!
At the end of the ranking, one sport comes out clearly on top: AFL, with a score of six out of 20, only two away from a perfect result. It was rated by Rohan and I as the number one sport on agility, endurance and speed, and third on power.
In second place is football, which was runner-up to AFL for agility and speed, third for endurance, and fourth for power, giving it a final score of 11. One point further back was rugby league, which ranked second on power, third on agility and speed, and fourth on endurance.
Rugby union was fourth with 14, with the need for hefty players making it difficult for the code to score highly anywhere other than power, where it finished first.
And bringing up the rear is cricket, which, despite drastic improvements since the days of David Boon’s in-flight drinking efforts, remains the athletic minnow of the major Australian sporting codes. Cricket wound up with 17 points.
Here’s the full results table:
| AFL | Cricket | Rugby League | Rugby Union | Football | |
| Agility | 1 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| Endurance | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 3 |
| Power | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| Speed | 1 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| Total | 6 | 17 | 12 | 14 | 11 |
That’s it! It’s been a lot of fun learning about the different athletic traits of the five major sports with Rohan. Now the real debate begins…
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.
Mona
Guest
At least our game is played an actual NATIONAL game
Simon
Guest
If speed is so important to AFL, then why is it that NRL (and football) constantly produce faster players. Instead of looking at what each sport supposedly requires. Why dont you compare actual athletes from each code? Leaguies, particularly the backs would leave AFL guys for dead in any distance under 100m. AFL dont have anyone as quick as Josh Addo Car. AFL players could not make the transition into NFL positions such as running back and offensive line like rugby league players do. Why is it that just about any contest AFL blokes come up against leaguies, leaguies generally kick their butt. AFL the best athletes? What a joke.
Simon
Guest
Definitely calling BS on these findings. Look at which code's athletes constantly make successful switches to other codes and other sports completely. It's rugby league. League guys have been going to union very successfully for a while now. They just run and hit harder. Furthermore you've seen leaguies dabble in Aussie Rules. The amount of running is a massive adjustment, but that's about it. Leagues guys would eat up AFL guys for breakfast in terms of strength. I find it amusing when they used to have those league v AFL boxing matches and the Leaguies would towel up the Aussie Rules guys with ease. Mark Geyer on Monkhurst comes to mind. First round KO. Which brings me to the next point, Leaguies are better fighters - look at the leaguies who have gone into and done well in boxing. The ultimate, though, is that Rugby League is the only Australian code that can feasibly produce outfield grid iron players. AFL can produce punters but that's about it. League has given the NFL Jarryd Hayne at running back and now Jordan Mailata. Rugby players are not built for it. They are too slow and not explosive enough. Perhaps some wingers have the speed. But playing union, you just don't have that level of collision and mongrel that league and NFL require. Aussie Rules should be last on the athletic table. It is the easiest game to play provided that your aerobic levels are up to it. and that would only take some training to achieve. I think with rugby league skills in the tackle and their general ruthlessness on the field, if more made the switch to Aussie Rules, they'd be cleaning those Mexicans up like they were kids. The aussie rules guys would be overmatched in strength speed and general nastiness. That mongrel is an intangible factor that Leaguies just have. It's a real nasty streak that every rugby league junior develops if they want to compete. Aussie rules is a couple of steps down when it comes to physical contact. So you can skew your study to favour Aussie Rules all you want. Leaguies have shown they are better athletes in the real world.
Karlos
Guest
Yes. As soon as I read he was an afl fan the winner was always going to be afl. You only have to look at the various times sportsmen from each sport come up against each other and 90% of the time rugby league players win. Even in England where league is not so popular, it has defeated the other codes there for the title of fittest athletes. I am 53 and could still run 15km over three hours if I had to. Watching WAFL final a couple years back I kept my camera on one player from each team and recorded them for about 4 Minutes. Neither of them sprinted in that time. They jogged maybe 50m and made zero tackles. Not saying they are average, but nobody gets away with that in league, even at z grade level.
New York Hawk
Guest
This is an obvious and kind of silly article. Not your best effort Ryan. Who cares about averages? And for Rugby, discounting the international season and the travel requirements is a questionable assumption. So props in rugby are slow? Yes, those 125kg guys are slow compared to those 85kg AFL players. But put any AFL player in the tight five of a scrum at even a first grade club game, and they will emerge with a broken neck. Without wanting to be condescending, if you haven't packed down in a scrum in Rugby Union, you really have no comprehension of strength AND skill/precision required. Technical skill there is extraordinary. AFL player barely convert set shots for goal at 50%. And the tackling in the AFL is woeful at best. Speaking of skill, where is the category of skill? Cricket gets completely dudded there. For endurance, where is the mention of the fast bowler in all of this? Or the keeper? Or the gully and slips fielders? And on and on I could go. In short, comparisons like this are pointless in their ranking as the complexity to do so is to great to be covered in six articles.
Flea
Guest
Your bias is unbelievable. How many real world examples are you going to ignore? How many league players have gone to union and killed it? How many league player go to AFL and make it? Both Rexona and Nutri-grain put on shows demonstrating athlete's abilities. You've ignored every one. Look up the 100m dash times for each code. AFL is at least 3rd. You can find that the fastest ever time for 20m in the AFL draft camp combine was 2.82 seconds. The Newcastle Knights whole team was tested for a day and the fastest 20m sprint was 2.82 seconds. One team on one day matched 13 years of AFL Combine data. So how does the AFL have the fastest players? They're faster at 20m and 100m. What imaginary metric did you use? You've turned a blind eye to every bit of hard evidence and used horrible bias and anecdotes to make a point you've already drawn the conclusion to.
Flea
Guest
@spruce moose, They aren't. There is one Union player making more than any League player, Dan Carter, and he's not far from retiring. After that it's very even with NRL players making gains and will overtake Union. There are reportedly around six Million Dollar plus (AUD) per year contracts in rugby union. There are already 10 in the NRL. There is a really significant number of top quality players off contract too. The salary cap hasn't even been finalised either. It's looking to make a very significant jump.
Link
Guest
Half the swans are League juniors Pieman, Heeney, Mills, Both Jacks to name a few...haha
Link
Guest
What do fullbacks half backs and half forwards full forwards do when the midfielders are scrapping and bumbling and funbling around on the deck for 15 minutes after repeated stoppages ???....Nothing...... Pretty good breather I`d expect..
Link
Guest
Perry Baker (Rugby sevens) - 10.48 over 100 meteres
Mantra
Guest
yes but can they kick? How far do you want to go back . Mike Cleary and ken Irvine were NRL wingers in the 60s - one was top flight pro runner and one Comm Games finalist and RL have had sprinters convert to play wing but the found the physical part too tough. Speed over 40 is common in all games so impossible to measure in this context.
bigbaz
Guest
This
TIM .MEAGHER
Guest
would have thought Track and Field produces the best athletes
anon
Roar Pro
Soccer is the 4th most attended of the four football codes in Australia. In most parts of the world it's no issue calling soccer "football" since it's the dominant code and there's not confusion. Since it's less watched than the other codes and only had any kind of popularity in recent decades, it's referred to as soccer in Australia to avoid confusion. Please try to respect our sporting history and cultural values.
BrainsTrust
Guest
The problem is they don't really measure the total power output, a bigger cyclist can put out a lot of power over a long period of time than a small cyclist and they can even beat a small cyclist on the flat because the effect of weight is different. Whereas in running if your not around the 55-65 kg mark depending on your height you can forget about endurance events. A fit 110kg man will have trouble matching a half fit 80kg man on a beep test. The you have the problem is your measuring activity with GPS whereas in cycling they can measure the ouput through the bicycle.. USing GPS doesn't tell whether a prop spent 5 minutes pushing in the scrum or 5 minutes standing around.
Agent11
Guest
The endurance requirements in League are massive. It's why there are so many plays and tactics purely to conserve energy. Why do think wrestling was brought in? to give the defense a few extra seconds to rest and reset. It's why there is so much focus on coaches getting the bench right and your interchanges spot on. Leaving a tired forward on the field for 5 minutes too long can be the difference between winning and losing.
Grobbelaar
Roar Guru
George On this point, the Roar has it 100% correct. There is only one true football. As the SBS ad used to go: soccer....soccer....soccer is the real football!!
Olly
Guest
Played union , league and AFL ( we trained with a soccer team for endurance training), the tackle zone in AFL is hardly an endurance area. Just taking the tackle...you have no idea mate. Soccer and AFL is hard on the running legs, no doubt about it. But it is also hard to run when are being driven into the ground. Rugby codes is like running after doing a max weight leg session. Endurance is a broad term and hard to compare but when it comes to running endurance, AFL and Soccer take the cake.
Olly
Guest
So you are saying a mid 10s runner is slow over 40m.....
clipper
Guest
That's funny, because it's true, Cat!