Footy 20 years ago has today's AFL covered - Mike Sheahan

[RUNVS]

I thought this article was worthy of some discussion

Footy 20 years ago has today's AFL covered
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...days-afl-covered/story-fn7shz1t-1226044157690

MY spiritual affair with football stretches more than half a century. In that time, I have never strayed from the view that the best of the day is superior to anything that went before.

I adopted one of Ron Barassi's oft-quoted lines when asked what was happening to the game: "Go and get a video of a game from 20 years ago and then come back and tell me football's not as good as it was."

This week, I did get a video of a game from years ago - Anzac Day 1995 - and I have to declare a monumental change of mind.

The Collingwood-Essendon draw of '95 was a gem. I don't know if I appreciated it as much at the time for it might have been the norm, but it was a superb exhibition of all the skills and features that made the game so appealing. A classic.

The game today is different, and not all the changes are for the better.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...days-afl-covered/story-fn7shz1t-1226044157690

I agree with Sheahan here. I really do think the rules committee need to do a comprehensive review of the rules and really think about what the fans want to see. Surely there has to be some satisfying compromise between player safety and keeping the game from being over umpired and soft.

 

[Frogkase]

I think the game has become WAY too politically correct for my liking.

It was great seeing a bit more body contact between players back then. It's really heading towards touch footy and the players have changed from tough gladiators to metrosexual princesses.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Pessimistic]

Monkey up for racial slurs ?

anyone remember teams regularly getting 3 goals up then heading to the boundary line for the rest of the game ?

Theres good and theres....bad

 

[hawka187]

I prefer footy in the 90's. much better to watch than todays games

 

[Rob]

He's also comparing the best of 20 years ago to an average AFL match. If in 20 years time someone gets out a video of the drawn grand final, they'll come to the same conclusion.

But IMO, footy would simply be a whole lot better if the umpires let the game go. Stop looking for free kicks, and instead look for reasons not to pay them. 20 years ago that was a major difference in the game - umpires were a lot less likely to pick out soft kicks in a pack - not that it didn't happen, but it happened a lot less.

 

[Jentleman Geff]

It's the soft free kicks that are ruining today's footy.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

Monkey up for racial slurs ?

anyone remember teams regularly getting 3 goals up then heading to the boundary line for the rest of the game ?

Theres good and theres....bad

Of course there is good and bad but the games rules should never be changed to help a side who can't get the ball be given an equal chance of getting the ball.

It was actually a skill or a plan to keep the ball off the opposition once 3 goals up so you can win the game, never heard a supporter of a winning team complain or walk out of the ground whinging they had won but thought the game needed changing?

Its like in cricket when the batting side is dominating they change the rules to allow some water poured onto the pitch to make it fairer?

This business the AFL has about everything being equal opportunity for everyone is just auskick crap. Do that for the kids but not for the premier league of our game.

The game has changed and we have no choice other than accepting it, we do not have the option of walking don the road to watch Aussie rules played. That game has been replaced and the one that is here now is a poor cousin to our once great game.

 

[CAS79]

When the old man in the family starts with.

Back in my day things were better. You stop listening.

Thanks Mike, great work. Here's a gold watch and off to the old peoples home now.

 

[Roddy]

Yeah, the old stuff is always better than the new stuff. Back in my day, things were so much better. Things today just aren't as good. Young kids these days, I don't know...
Everything was better in my day. Football, music, movies, TV. I wish I could make a time machine and go back to my day and just live there, with time stopped. All these new fangled things, I just can't work them out. Back in my day you did a good day's work for a good day's pay. Men were men, and women were women. These days you just can't tell.......

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

The game today is different, and not all the changes are for the better.

This wraps it up in a nutshell for me. All I can say is I loved the game 20 years ago. Today I tolerate it. Funny that people such as Barassi would lament days gone by, it was people like him who allowed the game to become a runaway train in the first place.

 

[Byron_Clanger]

I prefer footy in the 90's. much better to watch than todays games

That's the thing about football

 

[BigBroMike]

Some of the changes have been good. I like the deliberate out of bounds rule and also the holding the ball rule. A decade ago players would just dive on the ball and sit on it. Then you'd get another ruck and the same thing would happen until someone eventually took the initiative to clear it. Now players know if they gona go for the ball they need to get rid of it. So it makes the game more exciting. Also what i like is the players are getting more and more athletic. Each year players are getting slightly bigger, stronger and faster. Rules that i hate refer to physical contact. The game has deterioated so much in this aspect that strength advantages are becoming nullified. E.g that horrific Blair free kick a couple weeks ago. E.g AFL outlawing the bump thanks to byron pickett. e.g the free kicks given away for getting body position in a contest. e.g the free kicks given away for having a niggle with your opponent. I could go on all day but the best way to see just how rapidly our game has changed is by looking at this video.

[youtube]0I44o0GULck[/youtube]

In todays game the niggle at 0:07 would've resulted in a free kick. 7 years ago it was nothing.
In todays game 0:24 would've been reported and awarded with a free kick. 7 years ago it was nothing.
0:29 would've been a 50. Back then nothing.
0:33 would probs get reported in todays game lol. Back then nothing.
1:44 would be free kick and reported in todays game. Back then nothing.
1:50 would be a free kick. Back then nothing.
2:17 would be a free kick. Back then nothing.

And this is just 2004 after the game had already been getting much softer since the 90s...ffs open your eyes people the current AFL admin is wrecking our game with all this non-physical freek kick shit!!!

 

[Ron The Bear]

Yeah, the old stuff is always better than the new stuff. Back in my day, things were so much better. Things today just aren't as good. Young kids these days, I don't know...
Everything was better in my day. Football, music, movies, TV. I wish I could make a time machine and go back to my day and just live there, with time stopped. All these new fangled things, I just can't work them out. Back in my day you did a good day's work for a good day's pay. Men were men, and women were women. These days you just can't tell.......

This uncharacteristic (of Sheahan) swipe at the modern game, and the shock Daniel Southern received upon viewing his first match in seven years, lend weight to what us old fogeys have been saying for a while now.

 

[The Speaker]

Yeah, the old stuff is always better than the new stuff. Back in my day, things were so much better. Things today just aren't as good. Young kids these days, I don't know...
Everything was better in my day. Football, music, movies, TV. I wish I could make a time machine and go back to my day and just live there, with time stopped. All these new fangled things, I just can't work them out. Back in my day you did a good day's work for a good day's pay. Men were men, and women were women. These days you just can't tell.......

Did you even read the start of the article?

 

[legend166]

Everything could be fixed if they added one line to the law book:

"A free kick should only be paid if the infringement impedes the player from being involved in the contest."

The mot annoying free kicks to me are when this isn't taken into consideration. A player goes up for a mark, drops it, and then a defender chops the arms, and a free kick is paid. Who cares? That arm chop changed absolutely nothing in the context of the game.

This is what seems to have changed most in umpiring.

 

[Rik E Boy]

When the old man in the family starts with.

Back in my day things were better. You stop listening.

Thanks Mike, great work. Here's a gold watch and off to the old peoples home now.

Bloody good call this. As has been pointed out he is comparing the best of the previous decades with St Kilda fests but I remember the game when the Bullies beat up on a young Gardiner out at Western Oval in the slop and four goals won the day. Rivetting stuff.

The only thing that has degenerated markedly over the past two decades is the media coverage of the game. Because there are so many fish in the tank these days the focus is on scandal and 'an angle' rather than just reporting what is happening in the game. Journalists are now uniformed 'analysists'.

Ever since Wayne Carey porked Kelli Stevens and Gazza did a runner it's pretty much all we hear about for six months of the year. The other six months of the year is dedicated to spotting trends that have occured over short periods, sometimes within the course of a single game!

Mike has become very negative in his reporting on the game and the Gold Watch is certainly in order for him a few others as well.

 

[Scotland]

But IMO, footy would simply be a whole lot better if the umpires let the game go. Stop looking for free kicks, and instead look for reasons not to pay them. 20 years ago that was a major difference in the game - umpires were a lot less likely to pick out soft kicks in a pack - not that it didn't happen, but it happened a lot less.

In our 4 games this year there have been 48, 53, 42 and 28 free kicks.

Go back to our first 4 games 20 years and it's 56, 62, 40, 48.

Those stats aside, there is no need for 50 free kicks to be paid in games in 2011. Our game against the Swans was a congested slug fest with stoppage after stoppage and resulted in 42 frees. It makes you wonder what the hell the umpires were doing a week earlier to pay 53 in the relatively free flowing game against Port.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Headline grabbing!

Remember 2008?
Hawthorn played like a team of the 90's and sheahan banged on about us being thugs, and was the one who pushed for several rule changes to further "advance" the game away from that style

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

There have been two big changes that have reduced the standard.

One is the pressure skills have improved significantly. There is so much more heat around the footy compared to previous decades. The opportunity for players to display sublime skills, execute pin point passes, go on long runs etc has reduced because they just don't have time. More pressure, less time, more fumbles and more untidy football.

The second is that all players are defenders now. The six forwards don't just stand their with their hands on their hips when the other team has the ball like they used to. Now they run back, clog up space, create 2 on 1's and basically make it harder for the opposition forwards to strut their stuff.

Neither of these things are anything to do with the umpires, the rules committee or the AFL. It's just how the game has evolved.

 

[OnceWeWereKings]

Perfect example in the Ess Vs Coll match today.

Fletcher hands in the back Vs Dawes paid by Razor Ray. The technically minded and the umpires will say it was there and the rules that apply today deem it to be a free kick....It had zero effect on the contest of the two footballers involved yet it was still paid as a free kick. It interupted the contest of the game.

It is this type of umpiring that is diluting the spirit in which the game should be played. We want the players to decide the contest and not the umpires. The umpires intent in the game today is to pay every infringement they see, however minor. They WANT to pay free kicks.

 

[RUNVS]

Everything could be fixed if they added one line to the law book:

"A free kick should only be paid if the infringement impedes the player from being involved in the contest."

The mot annoying free kicks to me are when this isn't taken into consideration. A player goes up for a mark, drops it, and then a defender chops the arms, and a free kick is paid. Who cares? That arm chop changed absolutely nothing in the context of the game.

This is what seems to have changed most in umpiring.

I agree with that 100%. There is no way a simple hand in the back should result in a free kick.

 

[rufus t firefly]

I think the game has become WAY too politically correct for my liking.

It was great seeing a bit more body contact between players back then. It's really heading towards touch footy and the players have changed from tough gladiators to metrosexual princesses.

Just my 2 cents.

You don't have a clue what "politically correct" means do you? No doubt you're one of those right wing morons that trots it out on a regular basis in the Hun.

 

[le dominateur]

Perfect example in the Ess Vs Coll match today.

Fletcher hands in the back Vs Dawes paid by Razor Ray. The technically minded and the umpires will say it was there and the rules that apply today deem it to be a free kick....It had zero effect on the contest of the two footballers involved yet it was still paid as a free kick. It interupted the contest of the game.

It is this type of umpiring that is diluting the spirit in which the game should be played. We want the players to decide the contest and not the umpires. The umpires intent in the game today is to pay every infringement they see, however minor. They WANT to pay free kicks.

Yeah, that was a bullshit free kick, but in general the game was well umpired. Take into account it was Razor Ray, he loves the spotlight.

 

[markjjj]

I thought this article was worthy of some discussion

Footy 20 years ago has today's AFL covered
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...days-afl-covered/story-fn7shz1t-1226044157690


http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...days-afl-covered/story-fn7shz1t-1226044157690

I agree with Sheahan here. I really do think the rules committee need to do a comprehensive review of the rules and really think about what the fans want to see. Surely there has to be some satisfying compromise between player safety and keeping the game from being over umpired and soft.

I agree 100%

We won our last flag in 95, and the brand of footy we played that season is fantastic compared with today. Not saying we would beat the teams today......we probably wouldn't, but the style was so much greater.

Plenty of one on ones, handballing genius from Diesel, contested marking from Sticks, classic leading from Pearce and tough committed defence from Dean, Silvangi, McKay etc. Kouta and Ang strutting their stuff, it was great to watch.

 

[Pessimistic]

88 is only 23 years ago.

The stynes prelim is regarded as a memorable game and they replay the final quarter occasionally.

If you get a chance, take a look. the skills including goalkicking in the final quarter were deplorable.

Not pressure - both teams were stuffed, yet some today are saying the sub rule bringing this back a bit is a good thing ?