The scourge of football’s on-field battle toll is now a matter crying out for serious treatment. It’s not good enough for the AFL’s annual injury survey to be released with a blithe: ‘Things are largely stable’. We’ve heard all that before.
In the real world, fans are seeing teams’ entire seasons undermined by injury. And they’re seeing too many individual players forced to endure heartbreak. Too much football is being played with star players missing. In short, too many big injuries are occurring in the modern game.
Here’s a microcosmic example. As the Demons and Swans began their match at the MCG last Sunday, Melbourne’s Jesse Hogan was manned up by Sydney’s Alex Johnson. I made a mental note of the rare struggle endured by this pair of opponents.
One had been forced to take a break last year following the death of his father, and soon after returning was diagnosed with testicular cancer. The other was playing his second game in almost six years, following five knee reconstructions.
Eight minutes in, Hogan attacked the ball in the left forward pocket at the city end, with Johnson close behind.
Next moment, it was all over for the admired Swan.
In appearing to avoid a tangle of feet, he seemed to change stride and went down in a painful heap. We now know the outcome is as bad as was feared in the moment.
Then, on Tuesday morning, we learnt Hogan’s season is over. The dreaded stress fracture of the navicular bone has taken another victim. It’s an injury that requires a lot of getting over.
How shattering for two young men. Particularly given the height of their hopes at 3:20 last Sunday afternoon at the G.
Johnson was back at the ground where he’d played the last game before his succession of injuries. That day, he’d been part of a Sydney premiership and, at 20 years of age, had the footy world at his feet. Now, almost six years later, he was back at the cathedral.
For Hogan, there was the prospect of what lay immediately ahead. He was where every young footballer aspires to be; his team at last on the brink of playing finals.
The serious back injury that halted his progress early, the loss of his father and the cancer scare – as painful and debilitating as they were – had been confronted. Now it was time to enjoy the upside of footy, and life.
But now, for both, the season is over and the future unclear.
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They are, of course, just two players. And they are two whose struggle has been particularly exposed. But there is an almost endless litany of others who’ve endured psychological and physical trauma due to their commitment to playing in the AFL.
Then there are the clubs. At this crucial juncture of the season, three within the finals mix are seriously compromised by injuries to important players.
GWS are doing a remarkable job of overcoming a devastating injury toll, but it may get them before September’s done. The same can be said of Collingwood. Port Adelaide’s chances of making September, let alone prospering, might have vanished in one quarter late on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Melbourne are now without Jake Lever and Hogan, while Jack Viney is sidelined with a recurring foot injury. West Coast has lost Nic Naitanui and Josh Kennedy has missed almost as many games as he’s played this year. So it goes.
It’s a reality that will diminish this year’s finals. Not only will the biggest games of the season be missing many of the best players, but some teams will inevitably fall short of their best.
The rate of attrition is too great. Amid the discussion about making the game more attractive, consideration must be given to keeping more good players available more of the time.
How could it be achieved? Almost certainly via a raft of changes; slowing the game down, reducing the rate and intensity of collisions, and softening the playing surfaces are three measures that should be considered.
But it’s a fourth option – reducing the number of games – which is most intriguing.
The idea is instinctively resisted due to the notional reduction in TV revenue it would cause. Yet, a reduced season might soon have to be considered. And it could eventually be seen as an attractive option given its potential side-benefits.
For not only would it cut back on the physical load expected of players, it also has the potential to at last bring integrity to the AFL draw, and to enable the overdue inclusion of a Tasmanian team.
A 19-team competition, with each playing all the others once, would bring an 18 per cent reduction in the number of matches played by each club. That would have to provide relief for players, although other measures would also be required to rein in the injury toll.
As for the reduction in television product, there would be 13.6 per cent fewer home-and-away matches than is now the case. However, there would be four extra weeks available for pre-final play-offs or, perhaps at the other end of the season, for AFLW or a pre-season format.
When a respected club administrator spoke to me about four years ago of such a concept, it sounded pie-in-the-sky. But, that was then.
Things are changing. The season has too many inconsequential games. There’s a footy state desperately in need of the salvation that only AFL-involvement can bring.
Perhaps, most compellingly for the AFL, too many good players are getting injured. The corrective options must be explored.
Goalsonly
Roar Rookie
Hi Tim Ifs a big topic. You only need to change one thing. And it's not even part of the game. Just take the bug out of the tally room. Footy needs to look at the four point system. Playing the man is largely caused by the defensive and combative style that is more interested in stopping goals than scoring them. Four points frames the game for drama ie trouble when what we really want is spectacle. One goal or poor umpiring decision can cost a season. Everyone is under the stupidity pump. Just Tally up the goals. It would make for a much more dramatic final round. 10 teams would still be in it including Essendon. Here's the goals ladder Melbourne 321 Richmond 296 Collingwood 289 West Coast 281 Hawthorn 278 Geelong 276 North Melb 268 Essendon 263 GWS 260 Sydney 258 Of course if the four points was replaced by goals only these numbers could well double or more. You know the average score is about one goal every 10 minutes. Yet we know you can kick 5 in 5 minutes when the mood takes you. Four Points sucks. Since the defensive strategy took hold there has been a lot of pretty ordinairy footy. It does not have to be this way. Let the elite shine, reward all goals on the ladder. The four points aren't even part of the game. If the scoreboard doesn't tell the story then four points tells sweet FA. Reward the creative side of the game. Its so duh.
Philby
Guest
Hi Tim - I was wondering if you would get a team for Tassie into the discussion! Having said that, I agree - an 18 game season would be ideal; a more reasonable length, more importance on each game, fairer.... Not quite sure to what extent it would reduce injuries (how many had already occurred prior to round 19?), but it gets my vote.
Badger
Guest
AFLX designed for northern markets. I don't hear RU and RL supporters criticizing their officials because they have Nines and sevens games respectively. I remember sitting behind a "large" family at an MCG final where they struggled to fit in the seats and they blamed the AFL even though the MCC looks after the ground. I met another Victorian who didn't follow the AFL because they were money hungry (it is non -profit) and yet he followed the EPL where fans have to pay heaps to watch and view games on pay-tv and yet he saw no hypocrisy. The great Victorian pastime - bagging the AFL when you have nothing else to do.
Badger
Guest
Tim, Congrats on being inducted into the Seven cricket stable (according to press reports). In your excitement you had rare praise for the Giants and perhaps now you might write less critical articles of the AFL. You never explain how Tasmania would fund an AFL team in your annual "Tas for AFL" critique although one assumes heavy AFL and government subsidy given your political beliefs..
Aligee
Roar Rookie
It is IMO the Elephant in the room a few people are in serious denial about. The AFL due to the players association tip toes around it, but i think we will see another reduction this year for next season( hopefully). MO is the AFL in every presser about rules changes has floated all these other ideas, but has always mentioned I/C cuts in small print, seeking IMO to hide it, but secretly knows it is the elephant in the room.
Aligee
Roar Rookie
I have seen AFLX, it is very very open and i doubt contributes to any injury rate, in fact i wouldnt be surprised if AFLX looks for a completely different style of player and eventually is a separate list to the main AFL list. AFLX with a few tweeks is actually a pretty good game to watch, probably great to play as well. IMO the Australian Football Community will undergo significant changes in the years ahead. * change of rules ( interchange/tackling etc ) * length of game * number of players on ground etc etc
Pablo
Guest
Why does everyone want to change the rules of a great game. What do you mean reduce the length of the season. October and February are already the most boring sports months with no footy or cricket. So you want to reduce the length of games, do you think that will stop players giving it their all until the final whistle. What if someone said the marathon was too long. Maybe we should shorten it to 10, 000 metres or 1500 or 100 metres. Oh, we already have those races and the last time I looked the competitors at the end of a 100 or 1500 metre race looked pretty stuffed to me. You have 22 footballers in a team, 18 are on the field and 4 on the interchange bench. Limiting the number of interchanges will not change the average number of minutes a player will spend on the field ie [(18/22) x 100 minutes]. It will affect the average length of each rotation and a sports scientist can tell me if that impacts likelihood of injuries. The force of an impact is mass times acceleration. If you want to reduce that force you could reduce the size of players. Maybe we should have a rule that only jockies should play football. Maybe we could attach a ball and chain to the players, that would slow them down. If we attached it to their preferred kicking leg it would have the side benefit of improving skill levels. If you want to stop players running all over the ground, maybe we should stick posts in the ground and tether the players to them like you might do with a dog. If the game on the Tv looks ugly maybe it's because the AFL have scheduled crap teams to prime time spots (Carlton have 4 Friday night slots this year). Maybe we should stop fiddling with our great game.
Cat
Roar Guru
US domestic sports will never give up control to a foreign authority.
Peter the Scribe
Roar Guru
Agree. AFLX is one of those spur of the moment ideas Gil Mclachlan is becoming infamous for. His administration makes policy on the fly like the great game of Australian rules football is his little toy to experiment with. He treats the fans like we are all fools in the process. Get rid of it and the stupid JLT series. Just let clubs have practice matches as they see fit.
John
Guest
I dont want shorter seasons and i dont think i know anyone who is craving a longer off season with no footy on. Get rid of AFL X and Pre Season comp if u want to shorten the season!
XI
Roar Guru
Decades ago.
Gary Harvey
Guest
I stand corrected. I thought that they had signed up in some capacity after the Manning incident. They definitely run all their testing in house.
Cat
Roar Guru
MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA are not members of WADA. They run their own programs.
Gary Harvey
Guest
They claim to be. They are signatories to the WADA code but still run all their drug testing programs in house. In other words its the fox guarding the hen house. For what its worth scores of ex players have said that the NFL is awash with PEDs. I can see no reason why the AFL or NRL would be any different. And if what happened at Essendon and Cronulla are anything to go by, they are not. PEDs are creating superbly conditioned athletes, but the athlete's bodies cannot fully adapt to the stress that this strength, speed and endurance puts on their bodies, hence the injuries. I might add that these injuries are happening at the same time that the science of conditioning and injury prevention are continually improving. Essentially a constant rate of injuries is equivalent to an increase.
helmet
Guest
mate this is what no-one mentions but, I think that it's a significant contributing factor. All teams try to bend the rules, to push the limits of what is allowed and the reality is that medicines, drugs and supplements are a grey area which does get manipulated be-it within the laws of the game or not. Couple that with all the other concerns noted above and you've got a recipe for greater injury tolls. You can change the rules but some team will figure out a way to push the limits again. This is the nature of professional sport enterprises.
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
Is there any statistical evidence showing that injury rates are any worse or getting worse now than they were before? Injuries have drama and undesirability to them so whenever there's a spate of them it always seems worse.
MQ
Guest
A bit of a strange logic to jump from needing to reduce the number of games to all of a sudden being able to justify a 19th team in Tassie. If the reduction in games, of itself, doesn't result in a reduction in revenue, at a minimum, the same revenue will be shared amongst a greater number of clubs, and the odd number of teams upsets things as you approach finals. That's before we consider that Tassie would find it harder to attract players than the Gold Coast currently does (if 18 year olds don't want to go and play footy on the Gold Coast, you're hardly going to convince them that they should be playing in Tassie). No thanks.
MQ
Guest
Is the NFL WADA compliant?
Col in paradise
Guest
Yep so the can get injured miss games come back repeat so the stats stay high and people can whinge.....and below a previous comment on interchange... Nope..how about when you had no interchange...only a bench to replace injured players..that's it no coming back on...less damn injuries then....well that sounds like a solution !!!!
Col in paradise
Guest
Nope..how about when you had no interchange...only a bench to replace injured players..that's it no coming back on...less damn injuries then....well that sounds like a solution !!!!