When it comes to sport, no one does it better than the Americans. The National Basketball League, National Football League and Major Baseball League provide the gold standard for how a sporting code should operate.

The AFL industry is constantly looking to these sporting organisations for ideas on how to improve the game; whether that is with regard to fixturing, working conditions for players, coaching methods or broadcast innovation. In fact, next month a delegation including members of the AFL Players’ Association, the AFL and club representatives will travel to the States to learn more about the NFL’s sophisticated equalisation methods.

In this modern era of increasing professionalism, where the demand on players continues to intensify, the importance of players achieving work-life balance becomes even more critical.

Under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiated between the AFL and AFL Players’ Association at the end of 2011, all players are given one full-day off per week plus another four hour block, dedicated to pursuits outside of football; whether that is work, education, training or professional development.

Almost all of the 800 plus players on AFL lists are engaged in some sort of off-field activity with a view to life after football. Despite this, AFL legend and current president of the AFL Coaches Association David Parkin believes the current generation of AFL footballers are “the most unbalanced people in Australian society”.

Parkin hinted that the answer might be to lift the draft eligibility to afford young footballers the chance to gain further education beyond Year 12 and begin to experience more of life before becoming professional sportsmen.

An answer to this might also lie in the USA, through the collegiate athletic system. Young athletes in the USA traditionally complete a college degree before embarking on a professional sporting career.

In the college system athletes have four years of athletic eligibility, allowing most to complete an undergraduate degree while developing their sporting career simultaneously. Unless an athlete has the raw talent and ability beyond their years like a Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, who went straight to the NBA from high school, most will enter the professional sporting arena aged 21 or older, with a degree.

Having played college basketball at three different schools over five years before earning an AFL contract with the North Melbourne Football Club as an international rookie, Eric Wallace is qualified to provide an insight into whether this sort of structure would be effective in helping our footballers achieve better balance in their lives.

Wallace gained an undergraduate degree in business with a master in finance during his collegiate career and believes the collegiate system is of great benefit to the athlete, because it allows them to pursue a professional sporting career and a college degree with the same vigour concurrently.

But Wallace reports that in his experience at the Kangaroos there is no less focus on developing the people within its organisation despite the primary focus being winning games of football.

“There is a big importance on life outside footy; coaches and administration do a really good job of allowing players to dedicate hours each week away from the club to establish something outside of football,” Wallace says.

Gold Coast veteran and AFL Players’ Association delegate, Campbell Brown agrees that within the current environment there is ample opportunity and resources for players to achieve life balance.

”Especially in your first two years when you’re probably not going to be playing too much senior footy. That’s when you should be studying. I’d make it compulsory …,” Brown told The Age.

“I’ve been bored this week and I’ve done my headspace stuff [working for the national youth mental health organisation], I’ve trained, and I’ve read the form guide. If you’re proactive in that department you will be well balanced.”

Brown believes a lack of opportunities to participate in normal social activities has a greater impact on work-life balance.

“…they can’t just go out and have a beer without it being frowned upon. Some aren’t leading any form of social life.”

Wallace says the beauty of the college system is it allows young guys to grow up and gain more life experience before stepping into a professional sporting environment.

“If anyone has seen any college movies, like Old School, they will understand the college experience, where you can have some fun, grow up a little bit, find yourself, work out your future direction, get all the nonsense out of the way, study and figure out what you want to do with your life.”

He says there is always a greater risk when drafting players aged 18 versus drafting athletes at 21 because there is mystery around how guys will adjust to the demands of elite sport. But he believes it is not something apparent within the Kangaroos playing list, who have made an incredible impression on Wallace with their humility and professionalism.

“It’s a great list of guys, not one bad egg on the team, just guys who love to play footy and get around each other and try to win a game,” he says.

“One of our values at North Melbourne is living an elite lifestyle. So if you want to be elite and get paid to play this game you have to take on what it entails, which is being an upstanding role model for kids.”

Overall he believes neither system (AFL pathway and collegiate) or club structure is any better at producing athletes or people, “it just boils down to cultural and structural differences”.

There is currently a study being conducted by Australian Catholic University with the support of the AFL Players’ Association investigating the work-life balance landscape across AFL clubs with the view there is a correlation between work-life balance and sporting performance.

The AFL Players’ Association recently presented a document entitled A First Class Sporting Workplace: From Vision to Reality, which focuses on three key areas; structural, resources and cultural.  It recommends various changes in these areas to allow for greater opportunities for players to engage in meaningful activity off the field.

Check out this big alley-oop dunk from Eric for DePaul University.

And his first goal in Aussie Rules.