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#1
Little discussion at the water cooler today. The point of conjecture was -
old time players , champions even , where would they fit in todays footy?
For instance one of our greatest , the best #5 to ever come from WA , The Great Polly. Looking at his stats he was around 191cm mark, now even if had huge leap I'd say he would struggle to play as a ruck/follower today. The restrictions of the current ruck rules and the plethera of bean pole ruckman would make it difficult to play his old time position , I felt. This made me wonder where he would fit, having not seen him was he mobile enough to play elsewhere?
My counterpart being a tad older than myself had memories of the man and he had no doubt that he could play and dominate in todays footy. He thought there were tall rucks in Pollys time that he beat , and he would be even more effective around the ground in todays footy with the general fitness of runners to offer many more options for his handpassing, the general cleanness of the game would only help him and if he struggled in the ruck he could have , with a little bit of a knee tidyup , been a great KPP player
I suppose it started me thinking , which champions from the past would be the most and least adaptable to todays footy . The problem I suppose is a lack of evidence to make rational judgements but could players who were deemed good enough to be in our Hall of Fame or Team of the Century struggle today? Could Edward "Carji" Greeves at 175 cmm play today let alone be as good as he once was?
old time players , champions even , where would they fit in todays footy?
For instance one of our greatest , the best #5 to ever come from WA , The Great Polly. Looking at his stats he was around 191cm mark, now even if had huge leap I'd say he would struggle to play as a ruck/follower today. The restrictions of the current ruck rules and the plethera of bean pole ruckman would make it difficult to play his old time position , I felt. This made me wonder where he would fit, having not seen him was he mobile enough to play elsewhere?
My counterpart being a tad older than myself had memories of the man and he had no doubt that he could play and dominate in todays footy. He thought there were tall rucks in Pollys time that he beat , and he would be even more effective around the ground in todays footy with the general fitness of runners to offer many more options for his handpassing, the general cleanness of the game would only help him and if he struggled in the ruck he could have , with a little bit of a knee tidyup , been a great KPP player
I suppose it started me thinking , which champions from the past would be the most and least adaptable to todays footy . The problem I suppose is a lack of evidence to make rational judgements but could players who were deemed good enough to be in our Hall of Fame or Team of the Century struggle today? Could Edward "Carji" Greeves at 175 cmm play today let alone be as good as he once was?

