Israel Folau to GWS

[Conspiracy Theorist]

And apparently his longest kick went all of 23m.

Should be an interesting marketing exercise anyway.

CT

[gmatical]

apparently he can run a 100m in 10.5, which is insane for a bloke his size. but he has no aerobic capacity

He will be decent on a lead then!

[Larx36]

apparently he can run a 100m in 10.5, which is insane for a bloke his size. but he has no aerobic capacity

He will be decent on a lead then!

All good as long as he doesn't lead any longer than 23m out

[bennymacca]

from the AFL website. so there is some precendent there, as we have already discussed, but the difference is the money that these guys will be paid, and the relative standing in their own game before making the switch (only really brogan and pyke could lay a claim to being top flight sportsman in their previous game before switching to AFL)

JIM STYNES
Club: Melbourne (1987-98)
Games: 264
Goals: 130
Having grown up in Dublin, Stynes first played rugby union at school before taking up gaelic football. He and his brother Brian became stars in the Dublin team and Jim was a member of the 1984 team that won the All-Ireland Minor Football Championship. He arrived in Australia in late ’84 and didn’t make his senior debut with Melbourne until 1987, but after that he became one of the game’s greats, winning the Brownlow Medal in 1991, along with four club best-and-fairest awards.

SEAN WIGHT
Club: Melbourne (1985-95)
Games: 150
Goals: 63
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Wight played soccer as a kid before he switched to gaelic football after moving to Ireland in 1978. The first player to be recruited under Ron Barassi’s 'Irish Experiment', Wight became one of Melbourne’s finest defenders during his 11-season VFL/AFL career.

TADHG KENNELLY
Club: Sydney Swans (2001-present)
Games: 167
Goals: 29
The son of champion gaelic footballer Tim Kennelly, Tadhg became the first Irish-born AFL premiership player when the Sydney Swans defeated West Coast in the 2005 grand final. A player with brilliant kicking skills, Kennelly is now back with the Swans after returning to Ireland in 2009, where he achieved a lifelong dream by guiding Kerry to victory in the All-Ireland Football Championship.

SETANTA O’HAILPIN
Club: Carlton (2005-present)
Games: 68
Goals: 54
Born in Australia to an Irish father and a mother from the Pacific Islands, O’hAilpin moved to Ireland with his family at the age of five. He took up hurling and became a star as a teenager, while playing for Cork. He was brought back to Australia by Carlton and placed on the club’s rookie list in 2004. Since making his debut in 2005, O’hAilpin has played mostly as a defender and part-time ruckman, but this season he’s been a dominant figure in the Blues’ forward line.

DEAN BROGAN
Club: Port Adelaide (2001-present)
Games: 150
Goals: 47
Brogan’s initial elite sporting career was in the National Basketball League, where he played in the Adelaide 36ers’ championship winning team in 1998. When he was part of Port Adelaide’s premiership side in 2004, he became the first player to win both an NBL and AFL title.

LEWIS ROBERTS-THOMSON
Club: Sydney Swans (2003-present)
Games: 128
Goals: 14
While Roberts-Thomson’s father Barry played in the VFA with Sandringham, Lewis spent his childhood in Sydney and as a result took up rugby union. He didn’t cross codes until the age of 14 and had played less than 40 games of Australian football when drafted by the Swans.

KURT TIPPETT
Club: Adelaide (2008-present)
Games: 53
Goals: 88
Tippett represented Queensland at under-18 level in basketball, before turning to Australian football in his late teens. Since being drafted by Adelaide he’s become one of the most dangerous forwards in the AFL.

TOM WILLIAMS
Club: Western Bulldogs (2007-present)
Games: 43
Goals: 1
The son of Steve Williams, who played rugby league for Parramatta and was a co-founder of the Brisbane Broncos, Tom Williams played representative rugby union for Queensland as a teenager. Having been identified as an Australian football prospect, he was enticed to switch codes and was drafted by the Western Bulldogs after playing just a handful of matches.

MIKE PYKE
Club: Sydney Swans (2009-present)
Games: 12
Goals: 0
Born in Canada, Pyke grew up playing soccer, basketball and ice hockey. During his secondary schooling he began to concentrate on rugby and showed such talent he eventually represented his country 20 times in international matches and scored 35 points. Having suffered a number of injuries, he switched codes and since joining the Swans has begun developing into a ruckman of note.

SEAMUS McNAMARA
Club: Collingwood
Yet to play a senior game with the Magpies, McNamara was a basketball player back home in the USA, and even played a season of professional basketball in Germany. Standing 204cm and weighing 104kg, the Magpies hope McNamara will develop into a ruckman or key forward.

[bennymacca]

yep - its all about the marketing. and 6 million isn't that much at all in marketing terms.

i was wrong about this bit though

for the next 3 seasons or so until GWS are in the league, Folau will be paid ALL of GWS's marketing budget.

he is reportedly going to be getting around 1M a season, 250K of that under the salary cap, 500k or so from the GWS marketing, and the extra being made up by the AFL

[sunbury2]

Falou will play FF/FP and thats it. he's a big unit. hunt will more likely play HF/HB i think.

apparently he can run a 100m in 10.5, which is insane for a bloke his size. but he has no aerobic capacity

If he is playing FF, would he really need to run further than 100m in short bursts. You watch Fevola, Brown, Hall none of them are running constantly, just short sharp bursts. I am sure Falou can cope with the running, unsure about the kicking.

[bennymacca]

fevola probably not, brown and hall absolutely run a lot in a game.

even someone like fevola is expected to run back and forth with the play for midfield zones etc. gone are the days where you would just park yourself in the square all day. out of anyone in the league, fevola would prolly run the least i would say, but he is very much the exception to the rule.

my bro prolly has more correct figures, but (from sketchy memory) a forward will run anywhere from 5-10km in a game, and the elite midfielders up higher than that. i think shane crawford ran 18km or something in a game once (confirm matt?)

aerobic capacity would be a lot about training as well - no need to train for it if its not required in league, so a couple of AFL pre seasons will bring him up to standard, at least the standard for a forward line player

[maccatak11]

yeah we did a bit of a study on this at uni. pretty spot on, midfielders anywhere up to 18k's (probably slightly less nowadays because of higher midfield rotations) and other players 10-12ish.

[Origami]

apparently he can run a 100m in 10.5, which is insane for a bloke his size. but he has no aerobic capacity

He will be decent on a lead then!

All good as long as he doesn't lead any longer than 23m out

lol @this ...

gmatical u should apply to b the talent scout for one of the new teams

[gundog]

Gee you blokes just want to dump on Issy, for wanting to try and become a elite player in the premier code of fooball in the nation.

I think he will suprise you all as I think he will adapt very quickly, with Sheeds and Tom Harley mentoring him the transission will be not easy but it will come the bio-mechanics of the game wont be the problem, it will be more about learning to read the game and develop a football brain.

Another young bloke who has made the transission from league to AFL is young Keiren Jack son of the great Balmain and Australian Fullback Gary Jack.

I think the amount of free advertising in the Sydney Press the heartland of league that has and will be generated because of Folau, a local lad playing in the newest AFL team can only be good for GWS.....they lost their Rugby League team (Blacktown) was forced to merge with Balmain.