My bugbear about the AFL doesn't just apply to this season, but to any season.

It is the area of the game that has lagged compared to progress of player maintenance, sports science, administration and tactics. It is an area of the game that in my opinion that makes the AFL a non-elite sport.

The AFL players may be in the main elite athletes with fantastic sprint and recovery times, vertical leaps and the ability to continually punish their bodies week after week. However, that is only 50 per cent of the sport.

The other half of the sport is skilled based. As a supporter, it is not unrealistic, to expect that at least 60 per cent of players possess elite skills. I would argue that in the AFL the figure is around 20 per cent at best.

I am not talking about extraordinary skills that only a small percentage of players possess, but being exceptional at the fundamentals. I rate one fundamental as being skilled on both sides of body. Another fundamental, particularly for a specialist goalkicker, is to kick goals from set shots.

Now I have heard arguments from players who like to use the analogy of golf, saying that even the pros miss putts and occasionally slice a drive. Sure, but I would argue that the number of times I have witnessed players from all AFL teams miss easy goals, kick poorly and miss targets - and do that consistently - easily outstrips anything I've seen in pro golf. All of which have a deflating effect on a team, and when repeated, it usually has as an exponentially damaging effect.

Another argument the players like to use is pressure. Again using the golf analogy, I would argue that golfers are under more pressure. As a result of this, golfers practice for hours a day, exercises of repetition so that as a back up, muscle memory can help overcome the tricks the mind plays in pressure situations.

I challenge anyone to find a single player in the AFL who practices similar exercises of repetition. A specialist goal kicker who kicks 150 shots on goal from a variety of angles every day? Any player practising hitting stationary and moving targets by hand and foot, on both left and right sides, at least 150 times each side?

I don’t think so.

Some might argue that such attention to detail is overkill. I would argue that it is professionalism.

Shane Marden lives in Melbourne and barracks for North Melbourne.