Fittest player ever?

[Del165198]

Average speed was the wrong wording then. Still ******* impressive.

https://www.bcna.org.au/news/2013/07/tour-de-crawf-raises-132-million-for-bcna/
In raising $1.32 million for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Crawf performed at a higher level of endurance than the cycling professionals, riding further in fewer days than the famous Tour de France. He finished the epic 22 day ride in Perth last Thursday.

It's an impressive feat of endurance, no doubt.

 

[SuperSteele22]

Nick Riewoldt has to be in the conversation. If all players did the pre game warmup he did a lot of them would have blown up before half time. For a CHF to do it every week and then cover the ground with ease for four quarters was pretty impressive.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Why isn't he in the tour De France then?

Cant think of anything more thrilling then riding up and down mountains for 10 weeks while gettiung blood transfusions every night. Sounds hectic

 

[ZEV]

Cant think of anything more thrilling then riding up and down mountains for 10 weeks while gettiung blood transfusions every night. Sounds hectic

I've heard you clock over 130 km/h on the downhill way home from the shops with a carton of milk in the front basket of the old Malvern Star as well.

 

[hoianbulldog]

Of all coaches to have ever coached the game Tom Hafey would be right up there probably would've been fitter than some players today near the end of his life too

You saying Hafey was fitter than Stu Dew?

 

[hoianbulldog]

 

[Upgrayedd]

I've heard you clock over 130 km/h on the downhill way home from the shops with a carton of milk in the front basket of the old Malvern Star as well.

Don't Hate

 

[Captain_Bender]

You saying Hafey was fitter than Stu Dew?

Yes

 

[revo333]

Nick Riewoldt has to be in the conversation. If all players did the pre game warmup he did a lot of them would have blown up before half time. For a CHF to do it every week and then cover the ground with ease for four quarters was pretty impressive.

He was doing running at a college in America and apparently the college American Football coaches were watching him and thought he was a freak.

 

[bullish23]

Robert Harvey
Daniel Cross

 

[juss]

Theres a difference between covering ground and hard running. I would love to see the stats on high intensity efforts over a game. You would think this would be where the real functional AFL fitness would shine through and benefit performance.

 

[Angus Young]

Craig Bradley
Robert Harvey
Ben Cousins

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Thought I remembered this video. His opponents here are obviously AFL players. 5 lap, 2km race and within half a lap he was running away from them at speed. Nearly lapped some and won it by about 20 seconds

https://m.geelongcats.com.au/video/2013-11-19/strapped-on-2km-time-trial-with-blicavs

 

[Chuckie357]

Ben Cousins *

End thread

 

[Kappa]

Why are people nominating players from the past when modern fitness requirements have never been higher?

Modern players are on a completely different stratosphere in terms of fitness compared to the past.

 

[The Casey Cat]

What about Michael Tuck. 7 flags aside, he was renowned in his day for running all 4 quarters and I recall they measured him covering 15kms a game.

Yea Tuck definitely seemed before his time fit. Could another one from that time be Dale Weightman (no silly pun intended)? Seemed fit as hell and like he'd run all day to me. Obviously being small and wiery probably helped.

 

[KermitJagger]

Anyone who nominates any player that isn't from the current era is kidding themselves. The lustre of the old days doesn't make your less professional athletes better than the super athletes we have now.

Tom Scully has the following records:
7 of the top 10 KMs covered
8 of the top 10 KMs covered at speed

Brad Hill has:
9 of the top 10 repeat sprinting efforts
6 of the top 10 sprint efforts

I wanted to have a look at average work rate states but they seem to be skewed with games where the GPS tracking messed up. They've got certain games where 10 people from that game are in the records and their average speed is something crazy like 31km/h.

 

[dockshark]

Ben Cousins when he was at his peak had incredible endurance and running ability.

 

[gavaniacono]

Yea Tuck definitely seemed before his time fit. Could another one from that time be Dale Weightman (no silly pun intended)? Seemed fit as hell and like he'd run all day to me. Obviously being small and wiery probably helped.

Was Weightman asthmatic?

 

[KermitJagger]

Was Weightman asthmatic?

Not sure if he was asthmatic but he was definitely diabetic.

 

[Burzum]

Travis Cloke had great endurance and strength.

 

[gavaniacono]

Not sure if he was asthmatic but he was definitely diabetic.

Ahh yes, that is what it was.
I remember a young Tony Lockett saying he thought Weightman was the best footballer he had seen...some praise.

 

[Shaneprice97]

Craig Bradley
Near 500 games of senior footy that's endurance

What a beast, debuted in the VFL at 22 years old and managed almost 400 games.

Tim Watson for comparison had played about 130-150 VFL games by the time he was 22.

 

[CharlieMortdecai]

Cameron Smith, Melbourne Storm.

Near 500 games. Club, State rep. and country.

( Shannon Watt had a season at North at full back under Laidley where he spent the whole season on the ground )

He did the same to Spider Burton. I remember hearing him being interviewed on ABC radio after a round 22 game where they mentioned he was the only player in the league that year to play every minute of every game.

 

[Brighton_Diggins]

Probably need a little more quantification here. V02 max test perhaps. Top AFL players would probably be around the 60-65 mark. Playing every minute of every game prob isn't a good measure. It's great effort no doubt but it's the diesel engines vs the race engines. Love to see someone like Tom Scully's V02 max test. He'd have to be up there in a numbers sense.