Fittest player ever?

[00Stinger]

Shane Crawford

Didn't he use to run 10 or 15 kms to training and then run home the same distance after?

 

[00Stinger]

Crawford
Cousins
Scully
R Harvey
Blicavs

 

[The Swert]

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.

According to what?

These days they interchange multiple times per match and perform more in bursts.

10-15 years ago the top players never went off the ground, except for injury.

 

[00Stinger]

According to what?

These days they interchange multiple times per match and perform more in bursts.

10-15 years ago the top players never went off the ground, except for injury.

Did they run as far back then though?

 

[Topkent]

Did they run as far back then though?

I bet Crawf Banger and Cuzzy did

 

[Kappa]

According to what?

These days they interchange multiple times per match and perform more in bursts.

10-15 years ago the top players never went off the ground, except for injury.

Because players are pushed further and further every year? Players have never been more fitter, anyone who argues that is clueless.

 

[The Swert]

Did they run as far back then though?

Robert Harvey ran 19.6km during a match in 2000.

Show me a match where Scully or Blicavs ran further.

Best I can find for Scully is 18.9km in 2017.

 

[thecatattack]

Ling hit 15 on the beep test and was told to stop.

So I assume he was up there.

 

[thecatattack]

Robert Harvey ran 19.6km during a match in 2000.

Show me a match where Scully or Blicavs ran further.

Best I can find for Scully is 18.9km in 2017.

Blitz may not have run more in a game because he was never exactly a midfielder but he's far and ahead of the best runner at Geelong and was a middle-distance and steeplechaser who was trying to qualify for the Olympics.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-01-17/running-men-whos-your-clubs-endurance-king

 

[KermitJagger]

Robert Harvey ran 19.6km during a match in 2000.

Show me a match where Scully or Blicavs ran further.

Best I can find for Scully is 18.9km in 2017.

Okay so - Robert Harvey ran 19.6km during a match. How was that estimated? I say estimated because GPS was only made available on a widespread basis in 2000 and was nowhere near as accurate as it is now.

Even if we do say that those guys ran as much as the modern player (which isn't likely), if Tom Scully was thrown back to the 90s in a limited rotations game he would be able to cover more ground than he is now. The fact that he and others cover so much ground in less time isn't proof that they're less fit, it's probably the opposite. If Scully never left the ground and every other player was just as hampered by the lack of rotations, he'd still have the same advantages.

He only leaves the ground now because rotations allow other players to keep up with the ridiculous pace he sets.

Also - the game was less physical in general. It was dirtier, generally, as you go back, but not as physical. If you go back to last year, Tom Mitchell had a game where he covered roughly 16km on 93% game time, had 50 disposals and laid 13 tackles. This is an inside mid. No one in the 90s or early 2000s was close to doing that, and now you have Mitchell, Cripps and Oliver who do it regularly.

 

[The Swert]

Also - the game was less physical in general. It was dirtier, generally, as you go back, but not as physical. If you go back to last year, Tom Mitchell had a game where he covered roughly 16km on 93% game time, had 50 disposals and laid 13 tackles. This is an inside mid. No one in the 90s or early 2000s was close to doing that, and now you have Mitchell, Cripps and Oliver who do it regularly.

Definitely agree with that. Strength and endurance were rarely a combination previously. And tackling skills have really improved too.

Hence my initial response to the OP was querying how we measure fitness. Need a combination of factors really.

 

[Aphrodite]

This guy!

 

[Damon_3388]

Gotta be Blicavs right now:

Round 1: 97% TOG
Round 2: 95% TOG
Round 3: 96% TOG
Round 4: 99% TOG
Round 5: 93% TOG
Round 6: 89% TOG

(Round 6 an anomaly due to the fact we had the game won at half time, haha)

I think you'll find most key defenders clock in somewhere in the high 90s in terms of TOG%. It's not direct evidence of great endurance.

 

[Damon_3388]

Hence my initial response to the OP was querying how we measure fitness. Need a combination of factors really.

We could do it by how people generally refer to athleticism around the world, by measuring sprint speeds, agility, leap, explosive strength, etc., but then that would probably make AFL players look mediocre athletically.

 

[BrisDog]

Mick Conlan (Fitzroy) looked like he did many a pre season at the Bombers

 

[R Chee Manning]

Over the duration of his career... probably Shaun Hart.

 

[Knox Harrington]

Didn't Scully play 99% game time on the wing one day?

100% in 2017 for gws v collingwood

 

[Knox Harrington]

I think you'll find most key defenders clock in somewhere in the high 90s in terms of TOG%. It's not direct evidence of great endurance.

Further to that Mitch brown last year four times at 100.
This year three at 98 and 1 at 97.

 

[theyellowsash]

Probably cousins, but that might have been the drugs

 

[faible]

We could do it by how people generally refer to athleticism around the world, by measuring sprint speeds, agility, leap, explosive strength, etc., but then that would probably make AFL players look mediocre athletically.

They’re strong all-rounders, elite in none. Most team sports would be weighted more heavily towards the power end of things than the endurance side, AFL is quite demanding aerobically.

But then rarely are any athletes in team sports comparable to a pure athlete in any given sport.

 

[demondavey]

Was it Joel Wilkenson or something from Gold Coast who had some amazing strength and speed records? Like bench pressed huge numbers, really high sprint speeds and stuff

Pretty sure he hit 160kg on the bench

 

[SnowyontheTram]

Riding across the Nullarbor compared to climbing the French Alps isn’t a great comparison for average speed

Shane Crawford. Retired and then ran to Adelaide and Cycled to Perth at a higher average speed than a Tour de France rider

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

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.

Kind of like saying Leigh Matthews, Haydn Bunton and John Coleman would get destroyed today, so they can't be considered among the best of all time. Jesse Owens wouldn't qualify for the Olympics these days. They should be judged by how much better they were than their contemporaries, the only fair measure.

 

[Topkent]

Riding across the Nullarbor compared to climbing the French Alps isn’t a great comparison for average speed

Mate relax. It's just an indication of good an effort Crawfs was. Riding in a straight line through the desert isn't as fun as the beauty of the alps with competitors either

 

[KermitJagger]

Kind of like saying Leigh Matthews, Haydn Bunton and John Coleman would get destroyed today, so they can't be considered among the best of all time. Jesse Owens wouldn't qualify for the Olympics these days. They should be judged by how much better they were than their contemporaries, the only fair measure.

I'm right with you in not comparing the greatness of players era to era, but fitness is fitness.

Greatness is hard to measure and is relative, fitness isn't. Jesse Owens might be a great sprinter, but it would be disingenuous to say that he's the fastest purely because he was once the fastest.