The most popular sports activities in Australia is Australian Rules Football (AFL). To those outside this it is regarded as rather odd since they have observed any sports activity like it, but they are in awe of what remarkable athletes that those who take part in the sport with the professional high level are. This is a fully professional men's league of Australian rules football and it has been competed for over a century. mostly in Melbourne. It began in the state of Victoria, however other states have teams in what is now regarded as a national competition. The 18 professional teams which compete in the AFL invest a lot in the sports sciences and sports medicine to get the best out of the players in each team. The sports medicine staff with each club has a podiatrist associated to help manage the foot injuries and shoes needs of the athletes. The role of Podiatry practitioners in the AFL in Australia is considered a model of how podiatry practitioners should be included in professional sports teams around the world.
For one of the episodes of the podiatry related livestream, PodChatLive the hosts chatted with five of the podiatry practitioners associated with Australian Rules Football teams to talk about the world leading template for Podiatry within an professional sports team and the growing role of the newly formed, AFL Podiatry Association. The Podiatry practitioners that were on this live ended up Ben Holland from the North Melbourne Kangaroos, Emma Poynton with the Western Bulldogs, Nicki Quigley from the Hawthorn Hawks, Todd Brown from the Geelong Cats and Tom May with the Adelaide Crows. They pointed out the needs of AFL and just how that has an effect on the players and just what the prevalent injuries seen. There was an excellent dialogue about the footwear worn along with the issues that can bring. There was also a chat of the preseason assessment procedure that is commonly followed within the 44-man teams. The episode was broadcast live on Facebook, but is also available these days on YouTube.