Boomer saying he'll be the last to play 400 games

[Jeremias]

To get to 400+ games you really need to be best-22 from age 18/19, and have significant longevity.

Players of the archetype like Nick Daicos and Harry Sheezel are genuine chances if they can stay healthy.

But it's still incredibly difficult.

You also really need to be playing finals early on in your career.

Daicos has that, Sheezel doesn’t.

Pendlebury was playing finals in his second season.

 

[Chadwiko]

You also really need to be playing finals early on in your career.

Daicos has that, Sheezel doesn’t.

Pendlebury was playing finals in his second season.

Ehhhh yes and no.

The difference between averaging playing 1 final a year vs 0 finals only means it'll take you 16.6~ years to reach 400 games compared to 17.3~ years.

For reference, Brent Harvey played for 21 seasons and played in 24 finals.

So finals will help, but now that we are in a 23 game regular season it doesn't really matter whether you play finals early in your career or not. What matters is not missing time to injury, having longevity, and at least playing 15-20 finals over your career.

 

[Chadwiko]

Pendlebury is in his 19th season and played 31 finals, but what "hurts" him in his race to 400 is the fact he only played 9 games his first year, then has a handful of other seasons where he missed 5-to-8~ games.

Again: finals help for sure, but consistent availability over a sustained period is the clear biggest priority.

 

[Freomaniac]

Boomer's point was that footy in the 90s and 2000s was a 2-3 day a week gig. Now you have ultra-professionals like Petracca and Sheezel who take their pre-game prep very seriously, and players are at the club 5-6 days a week - and he expects players will burn out before 400 games.

Teams used to have only 1-2 guys like this (e.g. Boomer), where now it's the standard.

Who knows if it'll turn out to be true, but I think it's a decent point.

good Point.

Players train all week in this current climate of footy rather than the 1980s and 1990s where you rock up to training once or twice a week.

 

[Freomaniac]

Ehhhh yes and no.

The difference between averaging playing 1 final a year vs 0 finals only means it'll take you 16.6~ years to reach 400 games compared to 17.3~ years.

For reference, Brent Harvey played for 21 seasons and played in 24 finals.

So finals will help, but now that we are in a 23 game regular season it doesn't really matter whether you play finals early in your career or not. What matters is not missing time to injury, having longevity, and at least playing 15-20 finals over your career.

Good points.

Brent Harvey was Fortunate to play for North Melbourne when North were at least semi decent and contested for finals after the 1999 flag.

Guys like Matthew Richardson and Robert Flower were not fortunate due to their sides strugging and injuries in their careers.

Matty Richardson played 282 games from 1993-2009. Richmond only made finals in 1995 and 2001. Richo didnt play one minute of Richmonds 3 finals in 1995 due to injury.

Robbe Flower played 272 games for the demons from 1973-1987. Talented but injury Prone. Crazy stat about his career was he only played 3 Finals. Those 3 finals were the last 3 games of his playng career.

 

[Freomaniac]

He won't be the last at all, with many athletes around the world (somewhat suspiciously) continuing to perform in their 40s we will definitely have more to come.

I heard someone say exactly say the same thing in 1990.

I know you are both hawks fans....

I didnt think Shaun Burgoyne was gonna make it 400 games. He was stuck on 389 games. He only played 13 games in that virus marred 2020 season.

He only needed to play 11 games to make it to 400. He played 18 games to make it to 407.

 

[Freomaniac]

It's funny to think way back when I joined this site Mundy was a massive whipping boy by fans.

lol good times.

I remember his 100th AFL game. some dockers wanted him traded at the time lol

 

[Freomaniac]

I would've thought more players would reach 400 games in the modern era.

Nowadays you have a full-time staff of mediocs and physios to help players recover at clubs. There's now the added retoric of keeping players longer at clubs for mentoring the younger players too.

and you got Gather round which make it 23 games in the regualr season.

Who knows? After the 2025-31 tv deal is done, we could have 24 or even 26 regualr season games.

 

[Augustine]

To get to 400+ games you really need to be best-22 from age 18/19, and have significant longevity.

Players of the archetype like Nick Daicos and Harry Sheezel are genuine chances if they can stay healthy.

But it's still incredibly difficult.

I think the same. I look at Sheezel and think 400 gamer possible. Kid could win over 10 BnFs. He's about to chalk up number two already.

Need to play more finals series though to boost the numbers