Young Richmond defender Matt Dea, in his first AFL game for season 2012, did his best to motivate his team-mates in the frenetic final quarter of last Sunday’s match against the West Coast Eagles at Etihad Stadium.

Dea, playing just his eighth league game, was unflinching when going back with the flight of the ball and into the path of powerfully-built Eagle forward Jack Darling.

The unassuming 20-year-old rose to his feet shortly after the sickening clash, to the rapturous applause of Yellow and Black faithful, but it was only in the days following that the full strength of the hit was realised.

Thanks to force-measuring accelerometers installed within Global Positioning System units, worn by the Richmond players each week, the G-Force of the hit on Dea was measured at a peak of more than 11G.

To put that in perspective, the force while standing is 1G, a space shuttle launch generates 3G, a rollercoaster 3.5G, cornering in a Formula One car creates 5G, and a NASA G-force simulator for astronaut training is measured at 10G.

Dea suffered a broken nose for his trouble, but gained plenty of respect from his team-mates, coaches, the Tiger Army and the football world in general.blog comments powered by Disqus