AFL turning into a girls sport?

[ChrisFooty]

All this empahsis on creating new rules and avoid body contact is pretty sad. The hands in the back new rulling is dreadful. Any other die hard aussie rules fans getting really annoyed at the new rules/interpretations. They should of kept the game the exact same. Some of the games i have watched in the NAB cup have been dreadful.

Any chance of a supporter backlash? drop in crowds, memberships, etc.

 

[betterthanu]

ill def be watching more sanfl this year than past years so i can actually see a game of aussie rules football

 

[magilla]

I agree
A solution to this softness and it may sound stupid, but it would get the point across. All coaches and players unite and show disregard for the new softness and play hard like the old days. Suspensions and free kicks would be given out left, right and centre and games would be lost because of it, but eventually the AFL would get the point of what the players and people want. A good tough mans sport it once was.

 

[Ace Ventura]

Definitely. im even starting to watch netball now and that seems a little rougher than afl. the rules have got to stop changing before we will see tea party's and rich people sipping chardonnay watching the footy, and doing there little claps. im disgusted with the afl. these rules are ruining good players careers with the way these types play football, the way we like it!

 

[Smell The Glove]

AFL is turning into netball. Nick Riewoldt would still need the Kleenex though, someone might steal his bib.

 

[ChrisFooty]

I would really like to see coaches having to agree to new rules. From my understanding this doesn't currently happen. I wonder if the rules committee actually asked anybody if these new rules will be a winner.

 

[Kochie 16]

These new rules are there to help players to avoid injuries. I know that some of the rules take away from the manliyness of the game but the players need to stay injury free. On the other hand if you want a real girls sport, just do what the americans do and put on 20kg of padding and run into each other.

 

[bushie]

Strongly agree with the OP and others.

I struggle to see what Demetriou and Co's long term vision is for the game.

I wish he and his mates would piss off and go and swing their handbags elsewhere.

 

[bushie]

These new rules are there to help players to avoid injuries. I know that some of the rules take away from the manliyness of the game but the players need to stay injury free. On the other hand if you want a real girls sport, just do what the americans do and put on 20kg of padding and run into each other.

Surely the point is..

When you cross the white line in a full body contact sport without padding, you can expect injuries.

Part of life and part of the game.

If you don't like the risks then don't pull on a boot!!

 

[magilla]

These new rules are there to help players to avoid injuries. I know that some of the rules take away from the manliyness of the game but the players need to stay injury free. On the other hand if you want a real girls sport, just do what the americans do and put on 20kg of padding and run into each other.

avoid injuries? ffs why don't they just eliminate all contact from the game, injuries are part of the game and the rules should'nt be designed to avoid injury. That is definately a soft option. As for americans wearing 20kg of padding being soft, they also wear helmets, the padding is a neccessity. imagine copping a helmet at full tilt into the chest without padding. Remove the helmets and the would'nt need the pads, as it is now they need the pads.

 

[general mac]

ill def be watching more sanfl this year than past years so i can actually see a game of aussie rules football

Unfortunatley the AFL's decisions made at the top, have a trickle down effect.

Rules played by in the elite competition tend to be followed by all other competitions beneth.

They are ruining it for everyone.

I am trying to work out how to stop caring about what they have done to a beautiful, hard and skillful game.

I am so pissed about this I could kill somone. I really wish someone would destroy the AFL rules committee.

 

[Kochie 16]

avoid injuries? ffs why don't they just eliminate all contact from the game, injuries are part of the game and the rules should'nt be designed to avoid injury. That is definately a soft option. As for americans wearing 20kg of padding being soft, they also wear helmets, the padding is a neccessity. imagine copping a helmet at full tilt into the chest without padding. Remove the helmets and the would'nt need the pads, as it is now they need the pads.

Avoid as much injury as posible.

 

[fishmonger]

These new rules are there to help players to avoid injuries. I know that some of the rules take away from the manliyness of the game but the players need to stay injury free. On the other hand if you want a real girls sport, just do what the americans do and put on 20kg of padding and run into each other.

there are multiple deaths recorded every year of people playing gridiron. More still become bound to wheelchairs.

and you wonder why they wear pads ...

I agree that the AFL is making the game soft, but this is not a very good analogy.

But the AFL has to get over it. Every sport has injury. There are swimmers who get injured. Stopping contact is not going to solve it.

On the other hand, sports in general are becoming softer. Ask any rugby league fan.

I really hate where the AFL is taking the game. It is nothing like the game I grew to love and I grew up with rugby union and league. I once loved the sort of footy game where your heart pumped hard before you ran out onto the ground and you spent the whole next day strapped to bags of ice.

And yes, it will have an effect, but it will be gradual. I went to 15 less games last year, and I'll probably watch only a few on TV this year. I am considering not renewing my membership. I am sure there are others out there. Afterall, despite what most people will tell you, two of the biggest interstate growth areas contested the GF and most of the finalists were interstate sides. This should translate into another record year for crowds, but in truth, AFL crowds were down by 2-3% last year.

The AFL is counting on growth in the non-Aussie Rules states to replace the drop-off which they expect in their heartland. It is about $$$, not the good of the game. That is why they need to be superceded as the governing body of their game by a genuine independent governing body, one that doesn't have a commercial conflict of interest. The irony is that growth should be way above what is actually happening in NSW/QLD - the problem is competition with soccer, and that will just exascerbate the problem in that the AFL will increasingly try to be non-contact like soccer to compete for kids and ther mum's interest.

Maybe some day the words "footy mom" might become popular culture (god forbid)

 

[Boy from the West]

ill def be watching more sanfl this year than past years so i can actually see a game of aussie rules football

Mate. I hope the SANFL upholds some traditions because the WAFL scratch matches have been marred by umpires eliminating contact from the game entirely.

17 year old kids blowing their whistle every time 2 blokes look like colliding.

All because of the AFL ruling.

Anderson and AD = destroyers of the great game.

 

[Bigdon]

Afl Is Turny A Big Gay, Hence The Fact West Coast And Sydney Are Winning Grand Finals

 

[Lunchlady Doris]

The majority of the Geelong v Brisbane game was pretty terrible. Just after the first bounce, the ball is in the open, one Geelong player and one Brisbane player run toward it - then stop and turn sideways to go for it! Crabs! Then you had the Brisbane superflood, and both teams running players thru the middle handballing it 10 times, it really did look like netball!

 

[bushie]

The majority of the Geelong v Brisbane game was pretty terrible. Just after the first bounce, the ball is in the open, one Geelong player and one Brisbane player run toward it - then stop and turn sideways to go for it! Crabs! Then you had the Brisbane superflood, and both teams running players thru the middle handballing it 10 times, it really did look like netball!

I saw that incident as well, and just cringed.

You could see both players had the previous weeks suspensions on their mind and that made what would have been an innocuous bump into a no contest.

I think soft is too "hard" a word for our current game!

 

[fishbowl]

Geelong are in the AFL, so yes.

 

[Brad Pearce]

AFL is turning into netball. Nick Riewoldt would still need the Kleenex though, someone might steal his bib.

LOL haha!!!

 

[BigCat2]

Even if the new rules are to avoid injury, what's the justification for hands in the back? How does scrubbing someone's back injure them more than, say, tackling? Blokes actually get hurt in tackles, not when feeling up each others backs.

 

[Lunchlady Doris]

Geelong are in the AFL, so yes.

If you hadn't have been around so long, I would swear you were hyperdrivel.

Anyway, Geelong have been around longer than the Tassie Hawks, I think the sport definitely got 3 shades pinker when your bunch of hairdressers joined the comp

 

[ChrisFooty]

The sad thing is i can't stop watching AFL or the saints.....i just can't. However, i just absoutley hate all these new rules.

Is there much media disguest over these new rules in melbourne? Probably not.

 

[fishmonger]

The sad thing is i can't stop watching AFL or the saints.....i just can't. However, i just absoutley hate all these new rules.

Is there much media disguest over these new rules in melbourne? Probably not.

yes there is.

Nice effort at trolling though ChrisFooty. You sucked me right in at least.

I thought you'd be too busy watching NRL to bother with a girl's sport.

 

[ChrisFooty]

yes there is.

Nice effort at trolling though ChrisFooty. You sucked me right in at least.

I thought you'd be too busy watching NRL to bother with a girl's sport.

This isn't a troll thread. It appears actually everyone agrees with the new rules. I lived in victoria for 20 years and the saints are my number one sporting passion. Nice effort trolling to you as well fishmonger

 

[Doog]

its definitely getting softer no question and don't believe that crap that you have to be brave just to cross the line.

I'd also like to know the long term vision of Vlad etc..current admin