Folau, Hunt could redefine AFL: coach - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Folau, Hunt could redefine AFL: coach

By Wayne Heming 02/06/2010 03:23:18 PM Comments (0)

Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau could change AFL recruiting by opening the door for more Polynesians, a leading high performance fitness coach said on Wednesday.

John Quinn, a Sydney 2000 Olympics track coach who was in charge of player fitness during Essendon's golden run under supercoach Kevin Sheedy, believes the spiralling number of interchanges will help Hunt and Folau make the transition.

AFL clubs now regularly make more than 120 interchanges per game, prompting calls for the number to be capped.

But if the AFL continues to allow the number to go uncapped, Quinn predicted clubs would begin scouting for bigger, stronger athletes.

"Maybe these two guys will redefine the way the game is played if they're used to it coming from a rugby league background," Quinn told AAP as debate raged about the merits of splashing out millions of dollars on two league stars who have not played AFL.

"Their body type and the explosiveness they'll bring into the game could actually be a masterstroke for these two franchises.

"(GWS coach Kevin) Sheedy is pretty switched on and very little gets past him.

"If they don't cap player rotations, then these kind of players are going to be made for AFL."

AFL officials are currently looking into any correlation between an upsurge in injuries and its unlimited rotations.

Several years ago, interchanges averaged around 50 a game.

But Quinn says they hit an all-time record of 140 last weekend with clubs like Collingwood and Hawthorn making full use of the uncapped rule.

"Those clubs are rotating players nearly every minute of the game, it's a revolving door," he said.

Quinn, who helped the careers of Bombers great James Hird, track stars Cathy Freeman and Darren Clark and Olympic swimming medallist Daniel Kowalski, said Folau had a difficult road ahead of him making the transition to AFL.

"Physically, I think they'll be able to do it, but skill wise, it'll depend on whether they have enough natural aptitude to pick up a game like AFL - only time will tell," he said.

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