Competitive balance in the AFL

[Colonial]

So if we do have a diluted and thinned out talent pool, doesn't opening it up to more kids (3.2 million people in Western Sydney & 590k or so in the gold coast) help that? Yes there will be short term pain but in the long run theres a heck of allot of athletic kids who may just decide that footy is for them. Im not saying that every one will be AFL quality but there will always be diamonds in the rough.

 

[flamingEMBERS]

So if we do have a diluted and thinned out talent pool, doesn't opening it up to more kids (3.2 million people in Western Sydney & 590k or so in the gold coast) help that? Yes there will be short term pain but in the long run theres a heck of allot of athletic kids who may just decide that footy is for them. Im not saying that every one will be AFL quality but there will always be diamonds in the rough.

to simplify it for others who don't understand. Long term the talent pool will deepen and eventually the number of AFL players will be a lower percentage of the number of juniors playing AFL football growing up than it has been in the past.

 

[Damon_3388]

to simplify it for others who don't understand. Long term the talent pool will deepen and eventually the number of AFL players will be a lower percentage of the number of juniors playing AFL football growing up than it has been in the past.

I don't think the point was difficult to understand in the first place.

 

[flamingEMBERS]

I don't think the point was difficult to understand in the first place.

reading this thread there are some airheads.

 

[Damon_3388]

reading this site there are some airheads.

Fixed.

 

[mianfei]

Ablett Snr, Lockett and Dunstall have all retired in the last 10 to 15 or so years. Lockett is listed as being the tallest of them at 191cm. Between the 3 of them they kicked over 3,500 goals.

Joel Corey in the midfield is listed as 191cm, Cameron Ling at 189cm is taller than both Ablett and Dunstall so too is Steve Johnson, also at 189cm.

What one would have to do to test my hypothesis is (step-by-step):

1. measure the average height (by player-games) of AFL players and compare it with the estimated average height of the general population born in the same year (it would be much tougher to test by season because the key aspect of comparison with the general population would be tougher)
2. standardise the average height of players in the AFL for a given birth year
3. see if there are definite trends or especially breaks coinciding with:
   1. climate change (constant drying in Perth since 1967, abrupt drying in Melbourne in 1996/1997)
   2. closure of suburban grounds (between 1985 and 2005)
   3. replacement of Waverley by Docklands in 2000

Only then would it be possible to see if the AFL really suffers from a “short supply of tall people” or what could be termed an “exclusion at the left side” (ie. whereby shorter people cannot play in the AFL, as was suggested an the article on Barry Cable being elevated to Legend).