NRL and AFL go head to head in Sydney's west on Saturday night

[Brutus]

Rorkes Drift, Blinkhorne's record, the infamous 'no try' in the drawn test in 29, the Battle of Brisbane, the Battle of Leeds, Ron Roberts Ashes winning try, the Les Chantileers in 1952, the Swinton massacre, the Invincibles, Henderson Gills bum wobble, the classic Old Trafford test in 1990, the infamous Dowling-Tamati brawl, Olsen Filipaina destroying Wally Lewis, the Kiwis in the 05 Tri Nations, Mason attacking the Haka and Kidwell's response, Morley's send off and last years dramatic World Cup Final.

.

And who can forget Kevin Walters' brilliant face ball to send Steve Renouf over for the match-winning try in the 1992 World Cup Final at Wembely Stadium in front of 75,000?

 

[Adams22]

They aren't even that good at running tbh. They have 100+ interchanges per team per game. Get any office worker/tradie/whatever to jog around an oval with the same number of breaks that fumbleballers get and he'd have no probs.

Thats just not true ive played both league and aussie rules, and one the main things you need to be able to do for aussie rules was to have a good endurance and that was just local level. Most defenders in the afl play 100% of the game time and there not as fit as the midfielders.

 

[VictoryFC]

Well it sure sounds like afl apart from the round ball, If this is the case how come all these afl wankers carry on about afl being the "indigenous" game? It's as indigenous as Pizza or hot dogs.
Where does this stupid game even come from? A guy at work said it evolved from Rugby and was played by cricketers to keep fit in the off season.

That's how soccer came about is it not?

 

[Phil McGrawhan]

Thats just not true ive played both league and aussie rules, and one the main things you need to be able to do for aussie rules was to have a good endurance and that was just local level. Most defenders in the afl play 100% of the game time and there not as fit as the midfielders.

Yes it is.....Fumbleballers fitness levels are a myth...believed by moronic braindead fans like you.

AFL interchange numbers set to boom in 2009

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,...-23211,00.html
March 24, 2009

Stand by for more interchange madness. That is the strong message to come from this year's NAB Cup.

On the eve of the AFL premiership season, clubs are bracing themselves for another explosion in the number of interchange rotations.

The figure, which has climbed dramatically in recent seasons - from 30 per side in 2004 to 80 last year - is set to reach a new level again as clubs tell their players to go hard and then get off.

This year's NAB Cup revealed some eye-popping numbers.

While a lot of the pre-season talk has been about zoning, interchange numbers went through the roof.

Collingwood made the most ever moves in a game in round one against West Coast, recording a remarkable 137 on spacious Subiaco Oval.

This smashed the previous record of 119 by Melbourne last year.

Amazingly, the Magpies made a change every 47 seconds during the 107-minute match.

Fremantle then broke Melbourne's old record, making 121 interchanges against Richmond.

Rotations rose to such an extent that six of the top eight highest interchange moves in a game were recorded during the NAB Cup.

Collingwood - whose coach Mick Malthouse has taken the mantle as king of rotations - followed its record 137 with 114 against Richmond and 118 against Essendon.

Hawthorn and St Kilda also set club records, recording 114 interchange rotations against Melbourne and Brisbane.

Overall, the number of rotations per side in the four-week series was 104.4 - 24 more than last year's record home-and-away season average.

While NAB Cup games have a history of throwing up exaggerated statistics, Port Adelaide assistant coach Matthew Primus says the numbers are a clear warning sign bench moves are going to explode to a new level.

"They'll rise again, there's no doubt about that," he said, adding the use of the interchange bench is one of the biggest changes the game has seen.

"That's the way the game's going."

Teams were always going to make more rotations during the NAB Cup because they have more players on the bench (six players instead of four plus two 'substitutes').

But countering this effect is that games were, on average, 15 minutes shorter than they are in the season proper.

Last year the AFL capped interchanges in the NAB Cup to 16 per quarter.

This year there was no such ceiling and clubs took full advantage.

"Whichever way you look at the numbers, I've got no doubt what we've seen indicates there will be more interchange moves this year," Primus said.

"It's been a talking point among the coaches."

The Power averaged 95 moves in matches against Sydney and Geelong, ranking 12th in the league.

Hometown rival Adelaide made 86 moves in its round-one defeat to eventual premiers Geelong.

In looking to gain a competitive edge, Primus said clubs had instructed their players to go as hard as they could for as long as they could and to take themselves off the ground when they are spent.

Once they regained their breath, they were sent back on.

Primus said apart from not fielding tired players, the other big advantage of making wholesale moves was to play havoc with the opposition's match-ups.

"It can create a bit of angst for coaches when the match-ups change so often," he said.

"Clubs definitely use the interchange bench to their advantage.

"If you're not using it, you lose out."

 

[RL1908]

That's how soccer came about is it not?

The Football Association was founded in 1863 in London following a series of meetings between clubs and schools - each of whom played by their own rules, with some allowing very limited handling of the ball, and others playing variants of the ball-carrying game as at Rugby School.

During the initial negotiations about the FA's rules the clubs/schools that preferred football along the lines of the game at Rugby School felt no compromise game to their liking would result, so they left (eventually forming the RFU in 1871).

The idea that football was a good idea for cricketers to keep fit in winter is most often connected wit the founding of Aust rules - however, I've read similar statements in newspapers/archives in regard to the founding of various football clubs of other codes in England and in Sydney as well.

There is a strong influence of Rugby football in the first rules of Australian rules (not that many in Aust rules land want to read/hear that said!):
http://www.ColonialRugby.com.au/victoria.htm

 

[Shire Panther]

There is a strong influence of Rugby football in the first rules of Australian rules (not that many in Aust rules land want to read/hear that said!):
http://www.colonialrugby.com.au/victoria.htm

That cant be true afl is the indiginous game just ask the deluded Victorians :crazy::sarcasm::lol:

 

[El Diablo]

Yes it is.....Fumbleballers fitness levels are a myth...believed by moronic braindead fans like you.

don't forget these endrance athletes get a breather every ad break http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/afl-bounces-back-over-delays/story-e6frf9jf-1225700523851

 

[m0nty]

Yes it is.....Fumbleballers fitness levels are a myth...believed by moronic braindead fans like you.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the whole idea of limiting rugby league interchanges based on the idea of the bigger players not being fit enough to offer maximum performance across 80 minutes, thus giving the smaller blokes a chance to break lines? Thus the stink when interchanges were increased about how the game got more boring because the big boofheads had time to blow up on the sidelines and recover. The rules of the game are predicated on having a class of player whose endurance is assumed to be less than others.

I don't think there's any doubt that both NRL and AFL players are fit, they're just built for different physical tasks. Put them in an Olympic decathlon and the AFL players would win the long-distance (400 & 1500 metres) and jumping (long jump, high jump) contests, while the NRL blokes would win the field events (shot put, discus, javelin) and they'd break even on the sprinting ones (100m, 110m hurdles, pole vault). Thus things like that Greatest Sportsman are always a crock because they're inevitably skewed towards one sport's strong suits.

 

[Gregbyday]

AFL would win the high jump if they could launch of the back off another person.

 

[thorson1987]

AFL would win the high jump if they could launch of the back off another person.

This.

im quite sure the likes of Folau and co would beat them.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the whole idea of limiting rugby league interchanges based on the idea of the bigger players not being fit enough to offer maximum performance across 80 minutes, thus giving the smaller blokes a chance to break lines? Thus the stink when interchanges were increased about how the game got more boring because the big boofheads had time to blow up on the sidelines and recover. The rules of the game are predicated on having a class of player whose endurance is assumed to be less than others.

I don't think there's any doubt that both NRL and AFL players are fit, they're just built for different physical tasks. Put them in an Olympic decathlon and the AFL players would win the long-distance (400 & 1500 metres) and jumping (long jump, high jump) contests, while the NRL blokes would win the field events (shot put, discus, javelin) and they'd break even on the sprinting ones (100m, 110m hurdles, pole vault). Thus things like that Greatest Sportsman are always a crock because they're inevitably skewed towards one sport's strong suits.

FFS, if they were that bloody good, they'd be in the Olympics already :roll:

 

[hineyrulz]

FFS, if they were that bloody good, they'd be in the Olympics already :roll:

Didn't you know???? Dildo could beat Usain Bolt if he wanted too. But nothing will tear him away from his chosen sport of Boggerball.

 

[ParraEelsNRL]

Didn't you know???? Dildo could beat Usain Bolt if he wanted too. But nothing will tear him away from his chosen sport of Boggerball.

Yeah, plenty more money and fame involved in boggerball than the Olympic games :?

 

[hineyrulz]

Yeah, plenty more money and fame involved in boggerball than the Olympic games :?

Only in Victoriania mate.

 

[m0nty]

This.

im quite sure the likes of Folau and co would beat them.

Actually Folau hasn't reached 40" in the running vertical jump, but both Jared Brennan and Nic Naitanui reached it in their draft testing.

 

[Teddyboy]

The Football Association was founded in 1863 in London following a series of meetings between clubs and schools - each of whom played by their own rules, with some allowing very limited handling of the ball, and others playing variants of the ball-carrying game as at Rugby School.

During the initial negotiations about the FA's rules the clubs/schools that preferred football along the lines of the game at Rugby School felt no compromise game to their liking would result, so they left (eventually forming the RFU in 1871).

The idea that football was a good idea for cricketers to keep fit in winter is most often connected wit the founding of Aust rules - however, I've read similar statements in newspapers/archives in regard to the founding of various football clubs of other codes in England and in Sydney as well.

There is a strong influence of Rugby football in the first rules of Australian rules (not that many in Aust rules land want to read/hear that said!):
http://www.ColonialRugby.com.au/victoria.htm

The English Football game which allowed very limited handling of the ball sounds before the FA was formed sounds a little bit like Gaelic Football.

 

[adamkungl]

More NRL players would win the long distance, and the sprint. AFL athleticism = myth.

 

[Shire Panther]

Jared Brennan and Nic Naitanui reached it in their draft testing.

Who are those 2? Whats draft testing?

 

[RL1908]

The English Football game which allowed very limited handling of the ball sounds before the FA was formed sounds a little bit like Gaelic Football.

There are also comments in Melbourne newspapers in 1865 (i.e. just after the FA was formed) congratulating the FA on seeing the light by adopting the "universal" form of football, as the Victorians had done earlier (1859).

As with Aust rules, soccer at first had no cross-bar, allowed a "mark" for catching the ball, but did not allow hand-passing of the ball, or running with the ball. Aust rules initially allowed running with the ball (1859), then outlawed it (c.1860), then allowed it again (1866) but added the provision that the ball be bounced at a set distance.

From the FA laws of 1863:

A goal shall be won when the ball passes between the goal-posts or over the space between the goal-posts (at whatever height), not being thrown, knocked on, or carried.

If a player makes a fair catch, he shall be entitled to a free kick, providing he claims it by making a mark with his heel at once; and in order to take such kick he may go back as far as he pleases, and no player on the opposite side shall advance beyond his mark until he has kicked.

No player shall run with the ball.

Neither tripping nor hacking shall be allowed, and no player shall use his hands to hold or push his adversary.

A player shall not be allowed to throw the ball or pass it to another with his hands.

All of which shows "football" was essentially the same mass-scrummaging game throughout the English-speaking world, and the rule changes which defined each football code, were not so great to distinguish one form of football from another (certainly not to our eyes anyway) apart from rugby's heavier tackling and running with the ball.

 

[m0nty]

Who are those 2? Whats draft testing?

Brennan plays for Brisbane, indigenous lad recruited from NT. Naitanui is the humongous Fijian kid drafted by West Coast a couple of years ago. NicNat is a freak.

Draft testing is where the AFL calls all the major potential kids likely to be recruited in that year's upcoming draft to a camp where - amongst other things like interviews with club recruiters and media training - they undergo a series of physical tests to ascertain their fitness levels.

* anthropometric measures: height, hand span, arm length, body mass and skinfolds
* shuttle run (beep) test and the three kilometer time-trial
* vertical jump test (there is also a AFL specific running vertical jump test)
* 20 meter sprint
* anaerobic sprint-recovery test
* agility test
* sit and reach test

You can bet your bottom dollar that the NRL will start doing this soon in a centralised manner, as part of junior recruitment. It's not as if they would be copying the AFL either - the AFL only followed the AIS in doing this, not to mention the NFL combine.