The world has gone so soft: AFL to no longer reveal player weights, declares it inappropriate

[jeemak]

Re: The world has gone so soft: AFL to no longer reveal player weights, declares it inappropriate

How would Mick Nolan go these days

He'd probably be a midfield bull! In his draft year at least.......

[azabob]

Re: ?the world has gone so soft?: Afl to no longer reveal player weights, declares it inappropriate

I'm sure many others will join me in hating this sort of nonsense.l Full body contact sport without pads ? These blokes are footballers. They've been playing in schools and footy clubs for years. Tom Boyd is right up there with Sutton, Whitten because he turned it on when it counted. This rubbish diminishes Tom.

D Mitchell not sure what you are on about. Can you elaborate what you mean by nonsense? What are you hating exactly?

[chef]

Re: ?the world has gone so soft?: Afl to no longer reveal player weights, declares it inappropriate

I'm sure many others will join me in hating this sort of nonsense.l Full body contact sport without pads ? These blokes are footballers. They've been playing in schools and footy clubs for years. Tom Boyd is right up there with Sutton, Whitten because he turned it on when it counted. This rubbish diminishes Tom.

Its also just a workplace now and these guys are just doing a job. Its not like what it used to be.

[D Mitchell]

Re: ?the world has gone so soft?: Afl to no longer reveal player weights, declares it inappropriate

D Mitchell not sure what you are on about. Can you elaborate what you mean by nonsense? What are you hating exactly?

Ban on publishing weight as "inappropriate" on mental health grounds, (I accept Cornes' version of the ground for the decision). Height and weight are the first published stats on players and have been forever. This faux sensitivity trivialises genuine mental health conditions, thus my reference to Tom Boyd.

[Grantysghost]

Re: ?the world has gone so soft?: Afl to no longer reveal player weights, declares it inappropriate

Ban on publishing weight as "inappropriate" on mental health grounds, (I accept Cornes' version of the ground for the decision). Height and weight are the first published stats on players and have been forever. This faux sensitivity trivialises genuine mental health conditions, thus my reference to Tom Boyd.

It's seriously insane. For the men. I get it for the women.

Remember we have many differences between the two games.

One is full time for starters, then player numbers, ball size et al.

I see no issue with not publishing weights for the AFLW.

Men though, crikey they're athletes it's just a standard stat.

Imagine boxing... And in the red corner, weighing in at *STOP*...! *hushed tones, impromptu ringside conference*....

Ahem, let me try that again.

In the red corner, weighing in at "a very appropriate weight for their height and not at all outside of their normal BMI" it's BUTTERBEAN!

[Happy Days]

Re: The world has gone so soft: AFL to no longer reveal player weights, declares it inappropriate

This is actually a positive for body shaming. Used to be so annoying calling a player fat only to get no support from a clearly incorrect player weight listing (Sean Darcy at 110kg looking at you).

Now speculation for real haters can be absolutely baseless. Kane isn’t seeing the big picture here.

[Grantysghost]

Re: The world has gone so soft: AFL to no longer reveal player weights, declares it inappropriate

This is actually a positive for body shaming. Used to be so annoying calling a player fat only to get no support from a clearly incorrect player weight listing (Sean Darcy at 110kg looking at you).

Now speculation for real haters can be absolutely baseless. Kane isn’t seeing the big picture here.

Sean Darcy is at least 125.

[azabob]

Re: ?the world has gone so soft?: Afl to no longer reveal player weights, declares it inappropriate

Ban on publishing weight as "inappropriate" on mental health grounds, (I accept Cornes' version of the ground for the decision). Height and weight are the first published stats on players and have been forever. This faux sensitivity trivialises genuine mental health conditions, thus my reference to Tom Boyd.

Did you read Tom Boyd's book and section about his struggles from under age footy, from his time at the giants and the bulldogs? How he was judged on his skin folds and his weight and not what he was doing on the football field? How he would go without eating meals to make sure he weighed in at the correct weight or was at the right skin fold. How his training suffered and how it impacted him mentally.

[Grantysghost]

Re: ?the world has gone so soft?: Afl to no longer reveal player weights, declares it inappropriate

Did you read Tom Boyd's book and section about his struggles from under age footy, from his time at the giants and the bulldogs? How he was judged on his skin folds and his weight and not what he was doing on the football field? How he would go without eating meals to make sure he weighed in at the correct weight or was at the right skin fold. How his training suffered and how it impacted him mentally.

What's that got to do with elite athletes? That's a massive failure of his junior clubs and complete rubbish from them. Once in an elite program where you are taught how to eat etc, this shouldn't be keeping anyone awake at night.

Unless you're on meth and lsd and it's one of your hallucinations.

[hujsh]

Re: ?the world has gone so soft?: Afl to no longer reveal player weights, declares it inappropriate

What's that got to do with elite athletes? That's a massive failure of his junior clubs and complete rubbish from them. Once in an elite program where you are taught how to eat etc, this shouldn't be keeping anyone awake at night.

Unless you're on meth and lsd and it's one of your hallucinations.

GG, this is kinda why I called you a Boomer once or twice (and before you do it, know that correcting me to say you're actually Gen X is maybe the most Boomer thing possible).

There's nothing here to really get upset over to decry as insane. I doesn't really matter to us what the 'published' weights are of the men and it seems to me that including both groups in the decision has shielded the women from some of the backlash with it instead being pointed more to the AFL admin/men. So for once the AFL have kinda done their job maybe?

Using Tom Boyd as a way to diminish a policy meant to help with mental health issues also reeks of 'MLK would support my cuts to welfare'. Aza's example from Tom's book is illustrative of the way that a focus on arbitrary targets around weight, skinfolds etc detract from actual important metrics around performance. Weight is not a substitute for strength so who cares about it? The only reason to care is if you have a reactionary aversion to removing it emotionally. Until the AFL brings in weightclasses we'd be better off learning their PBs in the gym over summer.

I also doubt the AFL hates that they've given Cornes something to whine about over summer.


I'm with HD, without published weights that are obviously wrong we can now make our own conclusions about who's fat/lazy. Did anyone here really bother to check Stringer's listed weight when he took off his top to reveal the abstract art piece on his chest?

[Sedat]

Re: ?the world has gone so soft?: Afl to no longer reveal player weights, declares it inappropriate

I also doubt the AFL hates that they've given Cornes something to whine about over summer.

CoNtEnT

[azabob]

Re: ?the world has gone so soft?: Afl to no longer reveal player weights, declares it inappropriate

What's that got to do with elite athletes? That's a massive failure of his junior clubs and complete rubbish from them. Once in an elite program where you are taught how to eat etc, this shouldn't be keeping anyone awake at night.

Unless you're on meth and lsd and it's one of your hallucinations.

GG, his experience was exactly the same at the Giants and Bulldogs.

[ReLoad]

Re: The world has gone so soft: AFL to no longer reveal player weights, declares it inappropriate

Sorry who has eaten all the pies again?

[Grantysghost]

Re: ?the world has gone so soft?: Afl to no longer reveal player weights, declares it inappropriate

GG, his experience was exactly the same at the Giants and Bulldogs.

He wasn't prepared for elite sports I'd suggest.

What! I have to be fit to play sports and get paid

It's tough, what do you do, change the system for the minority (don't do fitness testing/weight testing) or educate that this is part of the gig.

There are many parts of my job where I am exposed to criticism, and it's tough, however you work on resilience,step away from a victim mentality, and move to a place where you embrace life and it's struggles.

With Tom it sounds more like he wasn't really mentally prepared and was living in a false reality where he could just turn up and be the best. We need to be better with kids like him in their preparation so they aren't lost to the game.

[hujsh]

Re: ?the world has gone so soft?: Afl to no longer reveal player weights, declares it inappropriate

He wasn't prepared for elite sports I'd suggest.

What! I have to be fit to play sports and get paid

It's tough, what do you do, change the system for the minority (don't do fitness testing/weight testing) or educate that this is part of the gig.

There are many parts of my job where I am exposed to criticism, and it's tough, however you work on resilience,step away from a victim mentality, and move to a place where you embrace life and it's struggles.

With Tom it sounds more like he wasn't really mentally prepared and was living in a false reality where he could just turn up and be the best. We need to be better with kids like him in their preparation so they aren't lost to the game.

...he was missing meals to meet arbitrary goals that didn't match his body type or maximize his performance. Meeting those goals made his performances worse. It's not even fitness or strength that's being tested it's weight and skin folds.

Did you read Aza's post or just kinda skim it? I do that sometimes so maybe you're missing the important parts.