For centuries, nay millennia, people have been obsessed with finding the fountain of youth. Rich mythology from the times of Alexander the Great and the legends of Greek history onwards have spoken about the quest for eternal youth.
Conquistador Juan Ponce de León was said to have been searching for the fabled fountain in the 16th century when he met his untimely demise in Florida, becoming an early example of “Florida Man”.
Perhaps Ponce de León would have been better off searching in and around Seymour: That’s where David Mundy hails from. Despite the endless march of the clock, Mundy seems to get better each year.
On Monday, Mundy called time on his illustrious and lengthy career. Since 2005, Mundy has been a rock for the tribe in purple, a constant force.
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His journey is unique, aging like a portrait of Dorian Gray and following a path that few, if any, players had forged before.
Blue Mundy
Mundy’s place as one of the competition’s best midfielders in the 2020s would have been utterly inconceivable in late 2004. Back then, Mundy was a talented junior player plying his trade for a talented Murray Bushrangers’ side, as well as for Vic Country.
But Mundy wasn’t playing through the middle, instead playing as a full-back.
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A surplus of talented midfielders for the Bushrangers led the coaches to call for volunteers to play down back. The selfless Mundy volunteered for the new role, and he thrived in it.
Mundy started his career in defense, with his first AFL season ending with third place on the Rising Star list.
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But Mundy’s future was in the middle, a move that has paid dividends. His years in defense improved his ability to read the flight and bounce of the ball. Mundy is able to snatch the ball from the grasp of opponents at will.
His teammates — such as longtime teammate Michael Walters — attribute his ongoing ability to his footy IQ.
“He’s one of the smartest players I’ve ever played with. He knows his way around the footy field which obviously gives him the longevity,” Walters said last year.
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On the field Mundy shapes as the hardest worker out there, often jumping and reacting before others can get a jump on the play. It’s perhaps why his game has aged so well, reliant less on speed than smarts.
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That’s not to discount his athletic abilities. One of the reasons that Mundy was a credible, tall defender was his sheer size and strength. At 193cm and 93kgs, Mundy was arguably one of the first of the current wave of “big bodied midfielders”, paving the way for Patrick Cripps, Marcus Bontempelli and Christian Petracca.
Few can win the ball on the inside then drill the perfect ball down the throat of a leading forward. Mundy is able to release the ball to teammates via pinpoint handballs or shred opposition defenses via foot, with his disposal skills getting sharper over time.
He’s also got a knack of impacting the game when it matters.
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Mundy stands almost alone for how his game has aged and improved over time. His 20 Brownlow Medal votes last year was the most of his career, and the most for a player over 34 years of age since 1985.
help the aged
Major milestones have become a regular occurrence for footy fans in recent years. Of the 98 players to play in at least 300 games, 63 have played in the 2000s.
In the past three years, the 10 “oldest” sides in VFL/AFL history have all been fielded by the ladder-leading Geelong.
The rules about player age and performance are being rewritten on a yearly basis, with improved fitness regimes and sports science programs as a contributing factor.
However, the long hangover from the Coulter Law — instituted in 1930’s VFL, capping payments and outlawing sign-on bonuses and other inducements — and lessons learned from it, might have finally eased on selection panels and recruiting departments across the league.
In the last round of the 1947 season, Melbourne spearhead Fred Fanning walked off the field triumphantly after kicking 18 goals in an afternoon of footy.
Despite the Fuchsias missing the finals by a game, Melbourne had real hope for the future, led by their 25-year-old goal master.
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However, it would be Fanning’s last game in the red and blue. Fanning received an offer for at least three times more money to play and coach in his wife’s home town of Hamilton. Fanning led his new club to a premiership immediately and kicked bags of goals for years to come.
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Fanning was far from the only player to leave the VFL in their prime. Peter Box is the only Bulldog to win a Brownlow Medal and a Premiership and was just 25 years old when he played his last VFL game. Box left for more money in towns like Goreng Goreng and Narrandera, where he dominated the competition.
The Coulter Law, in existence from 1930 to 1970, limited players to a meager wage, three pounds, for much of the time. Players would often build a platform in the VFL, before chasing proper professionalism in the VFA or lower leagues.
That law chased older and successful players out of the game, and gave clubs with good commercial contacts a huge edge.
Many of the long-term stars of the era were appointed as player-coaches — who were exempt from the law, such as Ted Whitten and Dick Reynolds — to keep them at their clubs.
The hangover from the Coulter Law took decades to overcome, alongside expansion of the competition. Recent studies have pointed to the effectiveness of players in their 30s on the field, with availability and health a bigger concern than loss of skill.
In the future, greater retention of older players — as Geelong has experienced with — might be the standard.
The Happy Mundys
When asked what he wants to accomplish before retirement, Mundy’s answer was simple: six more wins.
That would see the men in Purple hoist their first Premiership trophy aloft, going one better than their near miss in 2013.
In that game, Mundy was perhaps Fremantle’s best, nearly turning the match the Dockers’ way. Just three players remain from that Grand Final team, with Mundy, Nat Fyfe and Michael Walters still among the Dockers most important players when firing.
Few players get to go out with a Premiership win in their last game at AFL level, but Mundy’s career has followed the unbeaten path. For Freo to taste the ultimate success, Mundy will likely have to dive into the fountain of youth one last time.
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