AFL Record - Why taping is a necessity

An AFL club can use up to 37 kilometres of tape in a year, that’s about 1 km of tape per listed player. Taping is not cheap for clubs; an annual taping bill can run into the tens of thousands. Ankles and thumbs are most commonly taped, some clubs enforce compulsory taping of ankles at training and on game day, other clubs go by player need and injury history. The interesting thing about this practice is that it is not strongly supported by scientific research. Read on to find out why this is such a ubiquitous practice in the AFL.

This article was originally published in the AFL Record in Round 9, 2009.

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