One of the more favorite sports activities in Australia is Australian Rules Football (AFL). To those outside Australia it is considered considerably weird because they have seen no sport like it, but they are in awe of just what incredible sports athletes that those who take part in the game at the professional elite level are. This is a fully professional men’s competition of Australian rules football and has now been competed for over a hundred years. It began in the state of Victoria, but now some other states have teams in what is now viewed as a national competition. The eighteen professional clubs that play in the AFL invest greatly in the sports sciences as well as sports medicine to get the most out of the players in every club. The sports medicine staff with each team includes a podiatrist included to help manage the foot injury and footwear needs of the athletes. The role of Podiatry practitioners in the AFL in Australia is recognized as a model of how podiatrists really should be involved in professional teams worldwide.
For one of the episodes of the podiatry related livestream, PodChatLive the hosts spoke with five of the podiatry practitioners associated with AFL squads to discuss the world leading template for Podiatry inside an professional sports league and the growing role of the recently formed, AFL Podiatry Association. The Podiatry practitioners that were on this livestream ended up Ben Holland with the North Melbourne Kangaroos, Emma Poynton with the Western Bulldogs, Nicki Quigley with the Hawthorn Hawks, Todd Brown with the Geelong Cats and Tom May from the Adelaide Crows. They discussed the requirements of AFL and just how this affects the athletes and what the frequent injuries observed. There was a great discussion concerning the footwear used and also the problems that brings. There was additionally a conversation of the preseason screening process process that is normally followed in the 44-man teams. The episode was sent out live on Facebook, but is also available these days on YouTube.