This may interest those who like stats.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-05/cody-and-sean-heights-across-the-history-of-the-afl/103668180

The AFL should "homenigize" the data like the BOM does with the historical weather. We could get a tallest and shortest player on record every month

I remember when I was about 8-9 being at La Porchetta in Greensborough and Spider Burton walked in and stood next to me. 
 

I couldn’t believe a human could look like that in real person. He really was like a spider, incredibly long limbs and thin looking even though he was so large. 

Players used to be shorter but they were relatively naturally physically stronger for their size. Thats why Gordon Coventry and Bob Pratt could play key full forward roles despite being at the average midfielder size these days. Men in the old days were used to daily hard physical exertion and daily incidental exercise since they were children and not when they started gym work as teenagers as many do these days after relatively less physically challenging childhoods.

Edited April 5, 20241 yr by John Crow Batty