Saintsational Fan Forum - A passionate community of St Kilda Football Club fans discussing news, history, players, trade rumours, results, AFL stats and more.
Hello, everyone.
My name is Anthony and I just joined this forum last night. I live in the States and have been a Saints fan since the Grand Final draw with Collingwood. That's not very long, but I love this team. That being said, with me living half-way across the earth, it's difficult to watch the team play because of the time difference, but it's worth staying up until 02:10 to watch the team.
I posted this question in another part of the site and it was suggested that I would get more responses here. I suppose I'll just be blunt and ask: What makes a good footballer? I've been watching this wonderful game for a few years, but I don't really have a grasp on all the rules or what good fundamentals are. I know that things like having the money to spend on players makes a huge difference in a team's success, but what things do coaches and owners look for when they draft players or sign veterans? Thanks, and forgive me if this seems a ridiculous question!
It's difficult to know where to start explaining the game. Perhaps it is best in small doses. Unlike USA sports teams, there are no owners in the AFL. St Kilda is effectively a club of about 30,000 members. It is important for the club to have money, but there is a salary cap, so the wealthy clubs are not able to purchase a pennant. For the most part, our players are drafted at the Rookie Draft, as 18 year olds. The draft is designed to give the worst performing teams from the previous year the first choice of Rookie draft picks.
There are some "journeyman" players who change clubs, but typically there would only be 4 or 5 of these in each team. Ocassionally there is a blockbuster trade between clubs, but this is very rare in comparision with USA sports like baseball.
A good footballer is somebody who has the courage to get the football, and the skill to use it effectively. He needs the pace of an Olympic sprinter, the stamina of a marathon runner, and the ability to absorb the physical punishment of a boxer.
Welcome Anthony - great to have you on board. Don't worry about silly questions, I've been asking them for years!
Tough question to answer - and I'm not even going to try, but there are some smart football people here and I'm sure between them you will start to get a feel for what clubs, coaches and importantly recruiters are looking for.
Hi Anthony,
Modern day football is aerobically very demanding, I think now days most recruiters look for players with great athletic ability. Our game is played on the largest playing surface of all the football codes and for the longest duration, a great deal of the players will cover between 8 and 10 miles a game and most of those miles are done at top pace.
I think recruiters also look for players with sharp reflexs and great peripheral vision. Kicking skills are probably the most important of all the footballing skills particularly these days with the high pressure and crowding. You really need to be able to kick long and accuratly
I hope this helps, its great to see new converts to the greates game on earth
Stamina AND pace (even in short burst - Chris Judd in prime)
Tough/ ball winning ability and smart - reads the play long before others and knows where ball is headed)
Decision maker - in heavy traffic, when about to be crunched these guys always have that extra time and find a target ( see Pendlebury/Dal Santo)
Skills - invariably good foot skills and make their possessions count (Pendlebury/Dal... which is why they attract heavy tags weekly....leave them lose in forward half and they cut you up)
Thank you to everyone for your replies. I appreciate the explanations. I didn't realize there were no owners. Unfortunately I live in a sports world with owners and very little loyalty to the clubs for which players play (switching teams like underwear). I HAVE noticed, though, that players in the AFL tend to stay with one club for their whole careers, or at least for many years.
Again, thanks everyone!
Welcome aboard Ant. one thing that makes our game great is that this is a difficult question to answer. there are so many skills and attributes in the game that very different types of people/body shapes and skill sets can all be great players in their own way.
Hi Ant, welcome! I live in France and I know what you mean about the time difference; the Swans game started at around 5am here!
One thing which other posters don't seem to have mentioned is the ability to mark (catch) the ball especially in a contested situation. If you are tall and strong and you can take strong contested marks in either defence or attack, you are an invaluable asset to the team, even more so if you can kick straight afterwards!
Many of the most celebrated players in the sport could do this very well and take a 'speckie' or a spectacular mark, which involves jumping incredibly high and launching off another player's back or shoulders to mark the ball. You might say it's a dying art but still most kids AFL dream is taking a speckie at the Grand Final and scoring a goal!
Our Nick Riewoldt (especially about 5 years ago), Fraser Gehrig, Stewart Leowe, Tony Lockett, Nicky Winmar are some of the more famous Saints forwards to do this well, along with Trevor Barker in defence, and it's worth looking for on YouTube. I suppose some players from other teams were alright at it too.
Hope you keep learning about this great sport and don't let different poster's negativity (mine included) bring you down. It has positives and negatives like any sport.
Just My Opinion
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Austinnn wrote:Hi Ant, welcome! I live in France and I know what you mean about the time difference; the Swans game started at around 5am here!
One thing which other posters don't seem to have mentioned is the ability to mark (catch) the ball especially in a contested situation. If you are tall and strong and you can take strong contested marks in either defence or attack, you are an invaluable asset to the team, even more so if you can kick straight afterwards!
Many of the most celebrated players in the sport could do this very well and take a 'speckie' or a spectacular mark, which involves jumping incredibly high and launching off another player's back or shoulders to mark the ball. You might say it's a dying art but still most kids AFL dream is taking a speckie at the Grand Final and scoring a goal!
Our Nick Riewoldt (especially about 5 years ago), Fraser Gehrig, Stewart Leowe, Tony Lockett, Nicky Winmar are some of the more famous Saints forwards to do this well, along with Trevor Barker in defence, and it's worth looking for on YouTube. I suppose some players from other teams were alright at it too.
Hope you keep learning about this great sport and don't let different poster's negativity (mine included) bring you down. It has positives and negatives like any sport.
Thanks for sticking with us after the drawn Grand Final especially after losing the following week in the replay. Many a Saints barracker like me still carry a heavy heart about that loss and I cannot and will not watch either the drawn GF or the replay now or forever, it still hurts that much.
I have to agree with a fellow poster that this is the best game played in the world, with the pace and the scoring and the marks that make players look like they're flying.
This is a game whereby your team can be seven goals down in the last quarter and still get up and win, or in Richmond's case snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and lose by two points after the siren. Hang on, I reckon I've sat through some Saints games with the same result so I know how their supporters felt.
I think keeping up with this forum will give you further insights with links to photos/articles in the press, videos on Youtube, or podcasts from the local radio station that seems to broadcast footy 24/7 and you can hear the coach or players being interviewed.
We all share a common goal, whether pauper or millionaire and everyone in between, a love of the St Kilda Football Club which has at time sorely tested the loyalty, but has provided life enhancing moments eg the night the lights went out midgame and everybody had to come back four days later for the game to be finished.
Just consider us your "water-cooler " companions, someone you can ask questions of and one of us will try and come up with at least one decent answer and everyone will then answer to the contrary.
so thats a couple of US states accounted for
if we include the Texan Family that Nick R is bringing to the Fold them
then it's three
maybe we can start a USA supporter group- co-ordinated via an Online system
Well, I don't know about the other states, but I know Arizona is *relatively* big into footy. There are a few leagues in Arizona alone. The nearest team is all the way in Phoenix, though, which is 6 hours away...
Phosphorous Saints wrote:Well, I don't know about the other states, but I know Arizona is *relatively* big into footy. There are a few leagues in Arizona alone. The nearest team is all the way in Phoenix, though, which is 6 hours away...
I can attest that footy is not popular in Idaho. Closest team is in Colorado, about 11ish hours away from me. I'm the only person I know here who likes footy
Phosphorous Saints wrote:Well, I don't know about the other states, but I know Arizona is *relatively* big into footy. There are a few leagues in Arizona alone. The nearest team is all the way in Phoenix, though, which is 6 hours away...
I can attest that footy is not popular in Idaho. Closest team is in Colorado, about 11ish hours away from me. I'm the only person I know here who likes footy
Great to have you guys on board to hear different perspectives. Top stuff.
