09-14-2024, 03:26 AM
The "hard men" of the football I grew up watching wouldn't last five minutes in today's game. Even if they could achieve the level of fitness of modern day footballers, umpires all over the ground and TV cameras covering virtually every square centimetre would mean that they would be playing the same sanitised footy as everyone else ... and there's nothing wrong with that.
If you can find the footage on the club website, have a look at Matty Cottrell talking about his grandfather telling him that he should be running through his opponents. It's a vastly different game to what Len played in the late 1950s.
As G2C is fond of saying, anyone who runs out for an AFL has to be as hard and tough as all get out. Despite what some fans may think, there are no "soft" AFL players ... and it's mental toughness as a well as physical toughness.
We may have deficiencies in other areas but, if anything, we may be a little too eager to get physical, as suggested by the bit of biffo that allowed Joe Daniher an easy Joe the Goose.
If you can find the footage on the club website, have a look at Matty Cottrell talking about his grandfather telling him that he should be running through his opponents. It's a vastly different game to what Len played in the late 1950s.
As G2C is fond of saying, anyone who runs out for an AFL has to be as hard and tough as all get out. Despite what some fans may think, there are no "soft" AFL players ... and it's mental toughness as a well as physical toughness.
We may have deficiencies in other areas but, if anything, we may be a little too eager to get physical, as suggested by the bit of biffo that allowed Joe Daniher an easy Joe the Goose.
“Why don’t you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don’t you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don’t you say something righteous and hopeful for a change?” Oddball