Round 1 2021 and player fitness concerns.

Feb 18, 2003
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So the AFL have decided to move season start date to March 18 for the Richmond v Carlton traditional opener. Okay.

I have concerns. After such a late finish to the season this year, pre-season training is likely not going to start till after the draft in December and with Christmas holidays, it effectively means that pre-season training will be at most 3 months...is that going to be long enough to get the weight training, running and skills development into the players for Round 1?
 

mike123

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3 months should be plenty of time of time
 
The AFLPA has been pushing for a shorter pre-season for quite a while now. "Excessive training demands" article from 2013:

Patrick Dangerfield last year:

"Length of the pre-season, I think a bit of work needs to be done around it. We’ve got the longest pre-season in world sports. I think at some stage we’ll see senior players returning in January and the players one to four years, there’d be some sort of training camp.

"To engage pre-season at the moment, you return for two weeks then you’ve got a three-week Christmas break and then you’re back to training, it’s a little bit untidy. I think eventually we’ll get to a stage where it would be a build-up over eight weeks in that January period."

Kane Cornes said it was a bad idea because AFL players get paid real good, or something dumb like that.

Sam Mitchell said he's against it, on the grounds that players would just use their extra free time to get into trouble in London or Mykonos (little chance of that happening this off-season)--not from a physical preparation perspective.
 

PT Bar None

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At some point, elite professional athletes should be trusted to manage their own condition you'd think.
Young blokes to do extra to learn elite habits. Four years. Effectively do a Cert IV of footballery.
Graduates maintain their own condition and turn up when the tactical stuff starts. Or become landscapers if that is too hard.

23 year old Aussie blokes? Yeah, probably not.
 
Last edited:
Feb 28, 2007
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At some point, elite professional athletes should be trusted to manage their own condition you'd think.
Young blokes to extra to learn elite habits. Four years. Effectively do a Cert IV of footballery.
Graduates maintain their own condition and turn up when the tactical stuff start. Or become landscapers if that is too hard.

23 year old Aussie blokes? Yeah, probably not.

Yes what is it with footballers being landscapers? There are so many who either work as landscapers before becoming footballers, during or after their football careers.
 
So the AFL have decided to move season start date to March 18 for the Richmond v Carlton traditional opener. Okay.

I have concerns. After such a late finish to the season this year, pre-season training is likely not going to start till after the draft in December and with Christmas holidays, it effectively means that pre-season training will be at most 3 months...is that going to be long enough to get the weight training, running and skills development into the players for Round 1?

My Grandmother said she'll be ready if the boys aren't
 
Sep 13, 2015
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1st-4th year players return on December 7 for a two week block, senior players return in the new year - https://www.afl.com.au/news/510960/return-to-train-dates-revealed-for-afl-players
Last year Richmond senior players only returned in early December, about the same time as young players this year, so they're only missing two weeks of majority fitness work, and as senior AFL players they are expected to keep this up themselves anyway. It's not that big of a deal.
 

Puddy

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If they don't like it they can get a real job and actually slog it out for 45k a year like most people do
 
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