THE AFL produced a masterstroke of free advertising by linking a high-profile player such as Jarryd Hayne with its new western Sydney club, according to leading rugby league medico Dave Givney.
Givney, who is the NSW Origin team doctor as well as Cronulla’s chief medical officer, said the two codes called for vastly different body types.
Therefore, he said, there would be few AFL talent scouts sniffing around NRL players.
Hayne being linked to the western Sydney team was merely sports marketing, he said.
The Parramatta fullback and Test winger was yesterday named international player of the year at a gala dinner in Leeds.
“I don’t know if anyone is as cynical as I am but in the end it’s a good bit of free publicity,” Givney said yesterday.
“Everyone in rugby league now knows there’s going to be an AFL team in western Sydney.
“They’ve put the fright through a few NRL people.”
Givney nominated only Brisbane Broncos pair Darren Lockyer and Karmichael Hunt as being the right shape for AFL.
“I wouldn’t have thought there would be anyone in the NRL who would be specifically ideal for AFL, apart from those two,” Givney said.
Hunt is off to the AFL’s new Gold Coast club next year and will have a season in the second-tier VFL to prepare for the Gold Coast’s entry into the AFL in 2012. The Greater Western Sydney team will start in 2011.
Sydney Swans team doctor Nathan Gibbs, a former first grade rugby league player who captained South Sydney, believes Melbourne’s Greg Inglis could make the transition.
“He’s an exceptional athlete so it wouldn’t suprise me at all if he had the same repeat sprint power as Adam Goodes,” Gibbs said.
AFL midfielders run between 15km-18km a match. Even forward Barry Hall runs 12km.
“Because of all the running needed, body types are more aerobic, leaner,” Gibbs said.
“To compare them with athletics, AFL would be the middle distance runners over 1500m or 3000m.
“An NRL player would be more the powerfully-built 400m runner.
“The NRL game is becoming even more powerful so the body type needed will move further away from an AFL athlete.
“The games are very different now and becoming more so.”
Givney confessed to not being an AFL expert but said common sense dictated the body types that suited different codes.
“I suppose a tall (NRL) second-rower could be a go. But most of the shorter, more muscular NRL players wouldn’t make it.
“Take (Test lock) Paul Gallen for example. He’s one of the best league players around, can play 80 minutes but his body shape would make him the least ideal.”
Gibbs said heavier AFL players, such as retired great Tony Lockett, were nearly extinct.
“Because of all the running involved in AFL now, he would probably struggle to play the game.” Gibbs said.
“Goodes, a dual Brownlow medallist, is probably our most powerful and best athlete and he would do about 30 to 35 sprint efforts in a game at maximum speed of over 25km an hour.
“These are measured by GPS devices.”
Brisbane NRL club’s performance director Dean Benton thinks some players could make the switch.
“Notwithstanding skill set differences, rugby league halves and outside backs’ physiques could be transferable to an AFL mid-fielder, half-forward or half-back role in AFL,” he said.
And which AFL players could ponder a switch to the NRL?
“Gary Ablett Jr, Chris Judd and Jonathan Brown,” Benton said.
ARTICLE BY: MARGIE MCDONALD AND DAN KOCH
From: The Australian November 11, 2009