Sandilands, Osteitis Pubis and Rotations in the AFL
It was reported in the media that Aaron Sandilands from Fremantle has Osteitis Pubis. In 2005 especially I noticed early in the season that clubs like Sydney, West Coast and Adelaide were playing 2 Ruckmen. There had been the intervention with the centre circle to stop PCL injuries. But clubs had realized that playing 100 minutes plus for ruckmen was just too much. Almost a midfielders role and yet these guys are huge men. Some have amazing endurance capacities but still big blokes who are not going to excel in distance running. They are more like big rowers.
One exception was Jim Stynes who played so much football. He was quite light and an exceptional runner and also played in another era.
The problem that clubs had and have is that their ruckmen has to get some possessions and be a normal player unlike the lumbering giants of the past. This was the only way of justifying 2 ruck players.
Coaches in general were scared to go 2 ruckmen in the early 2000’s ( although EFC had Alessio and Barnes) given they wanted run. So rotations and ruckman that can get their hands on the ball have become the key. And so many ruckmen were worked into the ground in this period when the game became super quick, making them look even worse given they often played 100% of game time .
I was very keen for this to happen in 2005 . IE Rotating ruck men and rotations in general. Sydney had Ball and Jolly,West Coast ( Cox and Seaby) and Adelaide ( Biglands and Hudson). All these players rotated almost predictively when interchanges were studied and also had an impact on the game both as ruckman and as general players picking up kicks and stats around the ground. Also given the increase in the speed of the game the theory was to decrease their risk of overuse injury and injury in general. But performance was the main aim.
So back to Sandilands. I don’t have his game time statistics but it seemed to me that in 2006 he played a lot of football on the ball and did some very hard running. He played 18 games and bore the brunt of the load in the ruck as far as I could see.
Just a tough gig to do it without adequate help. Ottens and Blake are working effectively in tandem now since Mark has matured. In the Sydney final of 2005 King was playing his 3rd game in 18 days ( Sun RD 22 Rich/Sat Final Melb/Fri Semi Sydney) and came up against Ball and Jolly by himself and was off with a hamstring by the 3rd quarter. Ball was the class act and Jolly is a good hard runner.
So Osteitis is often a reflection of load and the inability of the core to stand up to fatigue. I think we will see Sandilands rotated a lot more next year.
But eh I might be wrong. Trends and players often go against theories. What will be the new trend in this area? 2 * Jimmy Stynes?
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loris bertolacci 
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