THE great thing about the Olympics is it actually puts the focus back on all types of athletes and gives everyone an understanding of what each and every one of them has gone through to reach the pinnacle of their sport.

It gives people a great perspective on how hard these people have worked to get to that point.

We can get so engulfed or cocooned in our own little world of AFL that something like the Olympics – which only occurs once every four years – is a nice little refresher.

I’m a huge basketball fan and I obviously like watching the Boomers and Opals when I can, but the big thing about the Olympics for me is the fact that with many of these sports, it’s the only time you see them in four years.

During the 16 days of competition we get to see athletes from all over the world, of all different shapes and sizes, each enormously talented in their individual sport.

Many are hugely gifted in an athletic sense.

I’m pretty sure every AFL club will be watching these Games with interest. Could the Games spark a revolution in recruiting?

The event showcases the world’s very best and, when you look at the AFL and compare the physical abilities, it can kind of make you a little bit humble.

You realise that while there are some super athletes playing AFL footy, others are just pretty good, and are nowhere near the level of an Olympic athlete.

There’s no doubt the AFL has become more athletic and dynamic over time.

In years gone by there was a lot more continuous running. Back when I was playing we were probably more 5000m and 10,000m runners.

There was more steady running done by the likes of Craig Bradley, Greg Williams and Johnny Platten.

They were all terrifically fit guys, but footy has changed.

Now there’s a lot of stoppages and bursting from stoppages and a different type of running is required more often.

Different types of athletes are therefore needed. Today, there’s nowhere near as many six-foot-five, six-foot-six type guys running around – except for the two ruckmen.

A “big” guy now is six-three, six-four and around the 93 or 94kg mark.

With the Olympics in the spotlight at the moment, it might have some clubs thinking ‘is there an untapped worldwide market?’

Here at the Swans, we’ve just recruited a 24-year-old rugby player (Canada's Mike Pyke) to see if we can capatalise on his athletic ability.

There’s no question that athletically we’re drawing from a fairly small pool in Australia. We’ve only got 20 millions people, and out of that how many males are there?

And out of those males, how many are between the age of 17 and 30? It's a relatively small population base.

When you look at the Olympics, why is the US so good at pretty much every sport? Well, for one, their population is up towards 300 million.

Athletically, Australia is an above-average nation, but there’s greater numbers of better athletes out there in other countries.

That’s why I’m sure there’d be clubs closely looking at the Olympics and asking themselves; ‘Could we possibly tempt a young 400m or 800m runner over here and teach him the required skills? Could we get a power forward from basketball?’

I guess that would come back to several factors, including cost.

It will be really interesting to see where footy goes in terms of recruiting over the next few years, especially if we have two new teams coming in.

Obviously we can never lose sight of the fact that AFL football is a very specific, skill-orientated game and the difference between a good kick and a poor kick can mean winning a losing a match.

I don’t think we’ll ever get to the stage where we’ve just got athletes playing.

But the Olympics, and the superb athletes on show, does make the mind wander.