By SEAMUS BROMLEY
AIS/AFL Academy strength and conditioning coach James Veale believes young players are risking injury, and potentially their AFL careers, due to high workloads in underage football programs.
As the focus of AFL clubs turns to recruiting the best young talent at next month’s national draft, Veale said that many young players were over worked.
“A lot of these kids end up playing 30 or 40 games a year, for two or three years in a row,” Veale said.
“It really adds up for a 17-year-old athlete. It doesn’t surprise that some kids come up with burn out issues at this sort of age.
“You have the AFL boys who are complaining that the 22 match year is too much, yet we are not really worried about the 16-year-olds playing 40 games a year.”
Veale has worked extensively with the best young players through the AIS program in recent times. Many of these players are involved in state, school and club football programs throughout the year. Veale says monitoring their workloads could help them avoid injury. “The biggest issue that I have come across is that the kids love their footy too much,” he said.
“We are trying to change a few things by getting the players to report how much they are doing. Then we can educate them that sometimes playing because you love to, is not always the best thing for you.”
AIS/AFL Academy high-performance coach Jason McCartney agreed saying an injury to a young player could damage his prospects.
“One thing that frustrates AFL clubs is when they draft a player and he can’t participate straight away because he is injured,” McCartney said “When you are drafted you only really have two years to make an impact, otherwise you are out the door. You can’t afford to be sitting idle for six to 12 months because it could cost you. We really need to encourage everyone involved to take the long term view.”
Queanbeyan Tiger’s midfielder Kaine Stevens was involved in the AIS program this season. He played around 35 matches for Queanbeyan, NSW and the AIS, despite an injury that ended his season in August. While he is not eligible to be drafted until next year, Stevens’ father George believes the injury lay-off is a blessing in disguise.
“He has been going non-stop for three years,” he said.
“The break will do him the world of good.”
