Lacrosse and AFL; drawing the links
Sunday July 17, 2011
by Lacrosse Victoria
AFL and lacrosse have stronger links than many would know.
First off, in 1907 they cancelled a round of VLF matches to play a
lacrosse test series between Australia and Canada. Secondly,
we have seen some great footballers who once played lacrosse in
their younger days, Nick Stevens and Brendan Fevola to name
two.
In The Saturaday Age on the 15th July, Gary Lyon wrote an
article titled 'Footy at lacrosse roads', (worth reading if
you have not done so yet) which drew on what football clubs are
learning from lacrosse given its strategic nature.
Importantly, this is not so new, Mark Williams, (former coach of
Port Adelaide and brother of Jenny Williams, former Australian
Women's lacrosse coach) made it very well known that he had
consulted with his sister on tactics such as riding, clearing and
offence/defence structures in lacrosse, which assisted him in
developing and implementing such concepts in football.
So how does the reverse look? Given that much of what we
know is filtered through from Canada and the USA (who are the two
best in the World), what can we learn from AFL to give us the
advantage in future World Championships? Food for thought, but
worth thinking considering.
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