AFL matches must be shorter: Kennelly

[come on oliver]

Meh! Shorter quarters would simply promote more game intensity similar to a larger bench being rotated...

This logic is just dumb...

Spot on. No different to hurdle racing. Lower the height in a hope to reduce horse injuries. Instead horses travelling faster over jumps promoting more.

 

[LoungeLizard]

He was asked the question and he answered it, i thought he said what 90% of footballers would say.
He complained about the pain, then said he'd do it all again.

But the 20 min 1/4's i don't think he thought through, imo they would just make the running more intense and the hits harder.
I think a better idea if they did change the length of game time would be to have 40 min halves.

 

[Bollox]

He's not mentioning less games which seems the obvious fix.
More byes?
He wants his cake.

No he doesnt.
What wasnt made obvious is that he was advocating a longer season with a slightly shortened game time.

It is easy to dismiss one opinion from an ex player (who by the way not many would describe as a "champion" as the OP did), but it is good to get all perspectives from as many ex players as possible.

Kenneally deals with parents a lot who dont know a great deal, but do get exposed to a lot of footage showing what they might call "brutal" contact which can make them apprehensive i.e. highlight reels. When little jimmy could play soccer or gaelic or anything else the AFL starts looking like a high risk option of inevitable pain for gain. The idea has been to attract more talented 17/18/19yo's rather than the 20-21yo's who may have already made a name for themselves in a related code.

He cant lie to them...but on the flip side he had a knee and shoulders that were very susceptible to popping out and that is painful as hell in both immediate and long term. He has previously acknowledged that he wasnt brought up with the body contact and it may have been a factor...it just didnt come out in this interview.

Thought it was a good interview. He was simply being frank and open about his own career repercussions, and makes the point that perhaps we could have a slightly longer season if we had slightly shorter quarters due to player attrition.

 

[Damon_3388]

The issues don't just come from contact or collisions. The running and physical workloads alone can cause repeated ongoing issues post-career in any sport.

 

[FRUMPY]

People just want to put ideas for change to make themselves relevant. No-one made you take the shots, if you were injured, don't play.

You don't hear local footballers who play 200+ games complain about their injuries post career. They played for the love of the game and accept that injuries occur and you have to deal with them.

The amount of complaining AFL players and ex AFL players do is unbelievable.

 

[Coops93]

Some pretty unempathic comments here towards Kennelly and his pain.

Despite all he goes through he is still an advocate for the game and works hard to recruit and introduce young Irish to the sport.

And he does have a point. The sport needs to do something to protect the welfare of its players that gave their all to it in their playing days for our entertainment. No one poo hoos Greg Williams in the predicament he finds himself now from all the concussions he sustained during his playing career.
Why dismiss Kennelly?

Concussions are different. Noone thought anything of them really until relatively recently.

However the toils of football have been known since forever. Footballers know what they're getting into and get paid very well. It's not the AFLs fault if guys who play elite level football for 10+ years are a bit sore.

 

[mistylake]

And so many that are getting around better than many concreters or brickies etc...

Agreed. A Chippy here, had a dodgy shoulder for 4 years I have 2 hernias and continue to work, my feet ache in the morning. Cut my little finger off with circular saw once, My hearing is worst than if not in this trade. I could go on. Harden up softy.

 

[astro1212]

And so many that are getting around better than many concreters or brickies etc...

This. What about plumbers with bad backs, drivers with bad necks, office workers with RSI and tennis elbow from using the keyboard and mouse all day.

As we go through life most of us get niggles and pain as a result of our choices and misfortunes in life.

 

[Pessimistic]

We already have preseason to compare with. might mean coaches see less need to play tempo footy or head for the boundary. so the quality of the spectacle migh no be reduced

 

[BigFootyIsFav]

I think honestly the game length is fine, let's just leave the game as it is because I feel changing the game time length is a big change, but this is just my opinion.

 

[didaksrightfoot]

Kennelly says that he still takes pain relief most days to deal with the injuries that he sustained during his career. Some mornings, he says, he can barely walk and has to drag himself out of bed. Playing through over 200 cortisone injections has taken its toll on Kennelly's body and it is still recovering from the trauma it experienced during his playing career.

Well that looks like the problem to me.

Yes AFL is a tough sport, and like all athletes takes a huge toll on peoples bodies - but at least AFL players get financially renumerated quite well, unlike say gymnasts, dancers etc.

But 200 cortisone injections? That would be something like one per game - sounds ridiculous to me.
If you are needing a cortisone injection every single week to get up for the game - then you need to take a ****ing rest. I can understand getting it occasionally, or say for Finals when you know a long rest is coming, but 200 over a career seems a hell of a lot. The question here should be whether the club, or the club doctor, was putting undue pressure on him to play each week - or whether it was him choosing to take that risk (in which case he has no one but himself to blame).

This is a reason to look at player welfare.
NOT a reason to shorten games. That doesnt make a whole lot of sense to me.