Faster, taller, heavier: stars of the future
By Samantha Lane
The Age
April 23, 2006
Attention all teenage males: if you answer YES to each of the following questions, you may have what it takes to form the next generation of AFL stars.
Will you hit at least 180 centimetres or, preferably, reach 190? Could you bulk up to about 90 kilograms and run, mostly at top speed, about 17 kilometres per match? Is your kick deadly accurate? Could you be thrown into any position on the field? Could you have competed at a high level in three or four other sports?
Richmond teenager Brett Deledio could have. Ditto Carlton veteran Anthony Koutoufides. One is only beginning his career, the other is nearing the end, but both players are still considered prototype AFL footballers.
The naked eye tells us that the game is becoming quicker, but that it's also an increasingly gruelling test of endurance. To cope with the demands of the modern game, AFL recruiters, coaches and experts say that the exceptional players of the next decade will have to be taller, faster and a bit heavier.
As part of a Sunday Age examination of how AFL will be played in the future, five experts — Michael Voss, Rodney Eade, Malcolm Blight, Adelaide Crows recruiter James Fantasia and former great Wayne Carey — identified supreme athleticism, flawless kicking, versatility and endurance as the skills required to cut it in the next decade.
"The players, I reckon, will be bigger, will be taller. It'll be the Adam McPhee prototype," Western Bulldogs coach and four-time premiership player Eade said, citing Essendon's 23-year-old gun.
Brownlow medallist and triple-premiership captain Voss selected Carlton skipper Anthony Koutoufides as the ideal player.
Carey chose Brisbane Lion Jonathan Brown just ahead of West Coast's Chris Judd. "You look at a Chris Judd, who's super quick, he's strong above his head and just a great player, and then you look at a Jonathan Brown who's a lot heavier but can go into the midfield and is just that real power player. They're both probably the complete opposite but I think they're both great prototypes at different ends of the spectrum," said Carey. "Just because he's a big bloke, though, I'd probably choose Brown."
Dual premiership coach and two-time premiership player Malcolm Blight chose Port Adelaide's Chad Cornes, who measures 191 centimetres, weighs 95 kilograms, and can play forward, back, on-ball or even in the ruck.
"He has a leap like Chris Tarrant in good nick, has the long kicking skills of a Luke Hodge, and has the courage of all the great in-and-under players of all time," he said.
These days, the chances of a football aspirant can be determined almost by his height alone. In 1996, Collingwood had 12 players on its list under 180 centimetres. Today the club has three. "I've been doing this 11 years, and in that time I would say that the player's height, and size, has become an immediate issue," Fantasia said.
http://www.realfooty.theage.com.au/realfooty/articles/2006/04/22/1145344321245.html
