BigFooty Forum

Okay – I thought it might be worth giving this topic a life of its own but away from the original Cian Hanley roster watch thread.

SizeMatters said:

Pearce himself said Cian lacked his own explosive pace, but is miles ahead of him in the endurance side of thing sat same age. For some reason the Irish all seem to have some running ability though. The international rules sides they bring over always seem to have more speed than our professional athletes.

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Ruse said:

I wouldn't say that pearce has 'explosive pace' only above average. I didn't think Cian was that quick in the video more agile than pacey.

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In between the inevitable derailing’s we might be able to squeeze in some sort discussion/clarification on clarifying a couple of footy terms that are regularly used but are rarely quantified over the summer break.

The first up for discussion… may as well be ‘explosive pace’.

Sure it’s as much a visual of breaking out of a pack in two or three steps, or creating space and snapping at goal or it could be as simple as knowing a players explosive running speed – meters per second [m/s] or using the combine/club times for players in a 20m sprint.

In looking for a standard unfortunately the best I could initially come up with were from the limited AFL released top 10 times from the combine – But with thanks to another poster, you know who you are – I have now been able to calculate averages for the last six years of testing as follows.

• The average ‘best’ times recorded at the combine in the 20m sprints over the last 6 years was 2.82sec, which equates to 7.10m/s or an average speed over the 20 meters to be 25.53kph.
• The average ‘worst’ times recorded is 3.32sec [6.03m/s or 21.69kph]
• With the average being 3.04sec [6.59m/s or 23.68kph]
• It is also worth noting that at the 2014 combine the 90th percentile level, figuratively speaking, the mark dividing the top 10% from the bottom 90% was 2.93sec [6.83m/s or 24.57kph]
• Coincidently – Usain Bolt at the London Olympics in 2012 recorded a sector split for the first 20 meters of the 100 final at 2.93sec!

So… we have an average and we also have a top 10% time - which for discussion sake, I’m going to suggest could be regarded as the most explosive paced of the draftees. [if you are able to quote club times I’d be happy to change the line but at this stage it’s all I’ve got to work with]

Now to slot a couple of players to times – some of these are able to be located on the interwebby, others have been quoted to me from my source.

• 2.75sec [7.27m/s or 26.18kph] – the fastest recorded combine time was by Joel Wilkinson in 2010.
• Hugh Beasley recorded 2.86sec – [6.99m/s 25.17kph --- OR 0.6kph FASTER than Usain Bolt over the first 20 meters!]
• Both Josh Green and Jordan Bourke have recorded a time of 2.92 [6.85m/s or 24.66kph]

And for the record…

• Rookie Brad Harvey [7.19m/s & 25.90kph] is the fastest I have linked to the club.

So Ruse, SizeMatters others... can you help me identify others at the club with 'explosive pace'?