toughest AFL players

Aug 25, 2004
13,999
39,744
Sydney
AFL Club
St Kilda
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Melbourne Storm, San Antonio Spurs
There is nothing remotely 'tough' about Rugby League....

Its a sport that involves 5 seconds of running then followed by a 20 second rest once the next ball is played... No endurance element at all

Apart from the occassional awesome shoulder charge or 'brick wall' style tackle, which only occurs once a week across 8 games, contact always comes from the front unless there is the 'common' dog-act of drilling a player in the ribs after he's tackled already... other than their size & arguably their strength which makes them 'big', what is actually 'tough' about these guys?

And what classifies them as being 'tougher'? I love the Storm & to me the toughest guy in the game is Cam Smith & Cam reminds me a lot of Lenny Hayes, Luke Ball & Chris Judd because he is tireless, fearless, a tackling machine & gives his all 110% of the game....

Would love to see an experiment involving five 2km time trials (each to be completed in under 9 minutes) with a 1 minute boxing round inbetween.... I dare say the AFL guys would prove to be far far 'tougher'!
 
Mar 11, 2008
5,046
5,483
Melbourne
AFL Club
Collingwood
Are we talking about tough humans or are we talking about tough footballers??

Luke Hodge is a tough dude and probable courageous but he goes to water when he has an opponent and can't handle a tag. He plays his best football (in fact most of the time his only good football) when he's left alone. Put some pressure on him or give him someone other than space to worry about and he's anonymous.

Andrew Swallow is a tough footballer. Jude Bolton is a tough footballer. Luke Ball is a tough footballer. Lenny Hayes, Alan Toovey, Max Rooke, Jordie McKenzie, etc, etc, etc. These guys are tough footballers.
 

detox

Premiership Player
Nov 26, 2007
3,140
4,035
Melbourne
AFL Club
Hawthorn
Are we talking about tough humans or are we talking about tough footballers??

Luke Hodge is a tough dude and probable courageous but he goes to water when he has an opponent and can't handle a tag. He plays his best football (in fact most of the time his only good football) when he's left alone. Put some pressure on him or give him someone other than space to worry about and he's anonymous.

Andrew Swallow is a tough footballer. Jude Bolton is a tough footballer. Luke Ball is a tough footballer. Lenny Hayes, Alan Toovey, Max Rooke, Jordie McKenzie, etc, etc, etc. These guys are tough footballers.

Absolute BS mate,

Hodge is close checked every game. No coach lets him run free these days.

He gets touched up every now and then but will usually beat a tag. You don't know this though because you dont watch Hawthorn.
 
Aug 3, 2007
10,213
406
AFL Club
Carlton
Nick Maxwell isn't tough because he only does "tough" things to rookie players. He snipes kids.

He knows if he did that s**t against a 24 year old he'd have his face ripped off.
 
Mar 11, 2008
5,046
5,483
Melbourne
AFL Club
Collingwood
Absolute BS mate,

Hodge is close checked every game. No coach lets him run free these days.

He gets touched up every now and then but will usually beat a tag. You don't know this though because you dont watch Hawthorn.

I do watch Hawthorn but he is the most easily tagged out of the universally regarded elite mids.
 
Apr 27, 2008
64,472
78,064
The 'Yabba
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
Other Teams
Chael Sonnen: Moral Champion
Tom Logan for ports toughest, there's a clip somewhere of him having his head smashed open in a showdown, and getting straight back up to contest the ball before being sent off.

Robert Harvey too, for the whole jumping of the table thing
 
Jun 23, 2008
33,485
27,225
Headed for Kirribilli House
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Collingwood
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Norwood, Everton, Detroit Red Wings
Nick Maxwell isn't tough because he only does "tough" things to rookie players. He snipes kids.

He knows if he did that s**t against a 24 year old he'd have his face ripped off.

Not just a Nick Maxwell thing, but I love how some fans take one isolated incident (eg. the McGinnity hit) and embellish it into a career-long, consistent pattern of bad behaviour. Darren Milburn has suffered the same fate since knocking out Stephen Silvagni a decade ago. Labelled for life as a "sniper" and a "dog", when he's never been involved in anything nearly as untoward since that regretable hit on SOS.
 

Underdog

Brownlow Medallist
Jul 30, 2005
24,158
11,142
Perth
AFL Club
West Coast
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Swan Districts
Nick Maxwell isn't tough because he only does "tough" things to rookie players. He snipes kids.

He knows if he did that s**t against a 24 year old he'd have his face ripped off.

Does that make everyone in the opposition weak for letting him get away with it?

s**t, I'm a big McGinnity fan and I don't care - I seriously doubt Paddy cares. Injuries and mistakes happen.
 
Sep 4, 2007
11,250
770
Melbs
AFL Club
Collingwood
Other Teams
Manchester United, New York Knicks
Nick Maxwell isn't tough because he only does "tough" things to rookie players. He snipes kids.

He knows if he did that s**t against a 24 year old he'd have his face ripped off.
[YOUTUBE]6aqKs63GRp4[/YOUTUBE]

And he gets straight back up without any bullshit.

Classic example of a piss weak person who feels the need to talk down a guy who has more courage than you'd ever even be able to dream of having. You're nothing.
 

GarnerSmash

They tried to make me go to rehab
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Jun 2, 2009
26,836
52,085
AFL Club
North Melbourne
Ed Lower played half a game against the Dogs last year with a broken collarbone and was still throwing himself into packs in the last few minutes despite the obvious pain. Does that count?

But yeah, Jonno Brown, and anyone else who puts their head in even though they know its gonna get smashed.
 

Roddy

Brownlow Medallist
Jul 10, 2006
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M-Town
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Maybe in a stand up fight the average thugby league player would beat the average footballer. But there's WAY more to toughness than that, especially in a footballing sense. Your average inside midfielder runs 12-15KMs a game (your average thugby league player would probably need 5 games to run that far) whilst getting bumped, scragged, tackled, jumped on and knocked to the ground over and over. THAT's tough.
 
Jan 16, 2005
28,038
5,912
paradise
AFL Club
Carlton
Not just a Nick Maxwell thing, but I love how some fans take one isolated incident (eg. the McGinnity hit) and embellish it into a career-long, consistent pattern of bad behaviour. Darren Milburn has suffered the same fate since knocking out Stephen Silvagni a decade ago. Labelled for life as a "sniper" and a "dog", when he's never been involved in anything nearly as untoward since that regretable hit on SOS.

I'm with you here ..one incident in a career should not define a players reputation for life.

As for the OP...being tough is not about charging into players with elbows and shoulders when they open and unprotected ...it's standing or jumping in front of a charging forward...or running back for a mark with your eyes on the ball.... knowing the hit is coming.

That is my definition of tough.
 

Vitamin K

Debutant
Oct 22, 2007
104
22
Melbourne
AFL Club
Geelong
He's had a pretty massive fall from grace in recent years but Daryn Creswell belting his dislocated patella back into place was friggin hardcore!

Current players - Lenny and Jimmy are the two that come to mind.
 

Roddy

Brownlow Medallist
Jul 10, 2006
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I'm with you here ..one incident in a career should not define a players reputation for life.

As for the OP...being tough is not about charging into players with elbows and shoulders when they open and unprotected ...it's standing or jumping in front of a charging forward...or running back for a mark with your eyes on the ball.... knowing the hit is coming.

That is my definition of tough.

A bit like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNAWvhfBlNo
 

Hellgood

Cancelled
10k Posts
May 21, 2006
10,084
8,713
WA
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
Love the way Lenny Hayes and Beau Waters play footy, awesome to watch. Waters this year in the derby running back into a pack and getting straight back up just shows you how tough he is.

Then theres guys like Mitch Robinson and Tom Logan who are just absolute nut cases! They will stop at nothing to get the ball and it is seriously good to watch.

In a different way Tom Lonergan and Max Bailey would be right up there in toughness too. Lonergan lost his kidney in a courageous act, came back to the game a couple of years later and reinvented himself as a player. Bailey's had something like 3 knee reconstructions, but he keeps coming back and continues to jump and run even though he can't trust his knees.
 
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