No Oppo Supporters General AFL discussion and other club news

[extractasam]

Then we just make the game AFL 9s then. You can't dictate that players can't go up for a marking contest because there might be contact with an opponents head. Every bomb into the forward 50 could end in an errant elbow taking someone out accidentally, you simply can't take out every single concussion risk in a high speed contact sport. Larkey was doing his job, had eyes only for the football and Finn wasn't concussed. There's simply no reason for this to be an incident.

As a further example Anthony Scott's concussion last year robbed him of a steady first 22 position in the Bulldogs team. He has now gone down the pecking order there and will likely find it hard to get back in the senior side. That concussion may have impacted his career a little. The person who concussed him was his own teammate, Marcus Bontempelli, who went back with the flight of the ball to mark it and accidentally tunnelled him. Going back with the flight of the ball clearly has capacity to knock someone out - did Bontempelli owe a duty of care to players behind him? Of course he didn't - he was doing what players do and Scott's concussion was a really dreadful accident.

You can't eliminate accidents from the game - it will never happen. What I am absolutely all for is malicious attacks to the head being clamped down on. Sling tackles for the most part can be avoided - great rub them out. Striking another player in the head - suspend the hell out of someone. Late bumps or needless hits to the head where the only intention is to injure - like Jimmy Webster in the pre-season - the AFL should honestly suspend someone in a situation like that for 12-18 weeks minimum for mine because there is no place in the game for it. I am all for protecting the heads of players and avoid concussions - but the only way you can avoid all concussion risk is to eliminate all contact from the game and I don't think you'll be getting the attendances and TV ratings we presently get if we turn this into a contactless contest.

I understand where you are coming from, and you make a particularly good point about contact from teammates I hadn’t thought of. The Rohan/Cameron one last year too. I think these are just outliers. Nobody goes with intent to hurt a teammate, but you can’t rule that out in the case of a player going at an opponent like Larkey did.

Feel like we view the Larkey incident differently as well. High impact, high contact, left the ground, made contact with the head, barely grazed the ball and got there late. I’m not sure how many people we are going to have to medically retire before we start taking it actually seriously.

The game is tough without needing to crack blokes in the skull. Its a skill people are just having to going to develop or they risk getting rubbed out.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

I understand where you are coming from, and you make a particularly good point about contact from teammates I hadn’t thought of. The Rohan/Cameron one last year too. I think these are just outliers. Nobody goes with intent to hurt a teammate, but you can’t rule that out in the case of a player going at an opponent like Larkey did.

Feel like we view the Larkey incident differently as well. High impact, high contact, left the ground, made contact with the head, barely grazed the ball and got there late. I’m not sure how many people we are going to have to medically retire before we start taking it actually seriously.

The game is tough without needing to crack blokes in the skull. Its a skill people are just having to going to develop or they risk getting rubbed out.

I looked at the footage a fair few times - and look it is hard with the grainy stuff but for mine if you look at Larkey he is eyes on the ball the entire time. He might know Finn is coming for it also - they time their jumps differently so Finn is coming down a bit when Larkey is on the rise and he gets collected a bit. This probably happens in multiple contests a game where there is a bit of a bump to a head but the players get on with it like Finn does. I think Larkey's intention the entire time is to contest the ball - I personally don't see him out to get Finn.

The issue with people trying to break these kinds of events down into slow motion and taking random snippets of time is that they can make an incident look so much worse. When you look at the time the incident occurs in we are talking split seconds where players who train week in/week out to do certain things - i.e. go up and contest the footy - that this is likely all they are trying to do and sometimes in a contact sport someone might cop a knock. If we try and iron out these things I think we run the risk of doing too much. I get the AFL is in a tough spot as they rightly should be protecting players as much as possible and there are lawsuits coming all over the place. This is why I think the AFL could be seen to do more by scrutinising footy incidents a little less and going after the malicious stuff far more. A hit like Websters should honestly cost a bloke at least half a season and a significant fine to make them think twice - when the only intent is to hurt someone then throw the book and throw it hard. If it's careless like a sling tackle - absolutely get rid of it. But a marking contest/spoiling contest is bound to have a toll out of it from time to time and assigning malice or intent to it gets a bit much for me.

 

[Off The Couch]

I could buy all of that if I hadn’t seen Wright and Greene get suspended - more so Greene

We have a player knowingly place themselves at risk by running backwards into the contest, and the player moving forward is the one who ends up bracing for impact, hence taking their eyes off the ball and getting suspended

Both Wright and Greene would of had every right to just take the player out

 

[PenAndPaper]

I could buy all of that if I hadn’t seen Wright and Greene get suspended - more so Greene

We have a player knowingly place themselves at risk by running backwards into the contest, and the player moving forward is the one who ends up bracing for impact, hence taking their eyes off the ball and getting suspended

Both Wright and Greene would of had every right to just take the player out

I feel the Wright one was very different to Greene. Wright had made the decision to bump and not try and mark before he even left the ground. Greene at least had his arms out while in the air to mark it but realised he was going to get their second and started to brace.

 

[Yardie]

I looked at the footage a fair few times - and look it is hard with the grainy stuff but for mine if you look at Larkey he is eyes on the ball the entire time. He might know Finn is coming for it also - they time their jumps differently so Finn is coming down a bit when Larkey is on the rise and he gets collected a bit. This probably happens in multiple contests a game where there is a bit of a bump to a head but the players get on with it like Finn does. I think Larkey's intention the entire time is to contest the ball - I personally don't see him out to get Finn.

The issue with people trying to break these kinds of events down into slow motion and taking random snippets of time is that they can make an incident look so much worse. When you look at the time the incident occurs in we are talking split seconds where players who train week in/week out to do certain things - i.e. go up and contest the footy - that this is likely all they are trying to do and sometimes in a contact sport someone might cop a knock. If we try and iron out these things I think we run the risk of doing too much. I get the AFL is in a tough spot as they rightly should be protecting players as much as possible and there are lawsuits coming all over the place. This is why I think the AFL could be seen to do more by scrutinising footy incidents a little less and going after the malicious stuff far more. A hit like Websters should honestly cost a bloke at least half a season and a significant fine to make them think twice - when the only intent is to hurt someone then throw the book and throw it hard. If it's careless like a sling tackle - absolutely get rid of it. But a marking contest/spoiling contest is bound to have a toll out of it from time to time and assigning malice or intent to it gets a bit much for me.

I think people just want consistency. IMO Toby does similar but he will get weeks while Larkey gets nothing.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

I think people just want consistency. IMO Toby does similar but he will get weeks while Larkey gets nothing.

Well that's a different argument - expecting consistency out of umpiring or the AFL is like leaving the porch light on for Harold Holt.

 

[Mr Lizard]

Larkey got hand to the ball ffs. He was not late to this contest.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Crows desperate for a win, with Walker and Fogarty being two talls who love to use their body vs a North backline that is so below average.

I think Clarko is going to be massively under the pump after they get belted by 80pts this week.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

If Norf don't do much over the next 3.5 years I don't know why the Devils would want him.

They’ve gone backwards and the members are turning.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

I think Clarko is going to be massively under the pump after they get belted by 80pts this week.

Internally or externally? Norf would be financially crippled if they sacked him prior to the last year of his contract.

 

[PenAndPaper]

Internally or externally? Norf would be financially crippled if they sacked him prior to the last year of his contract.

They'd just cry to the AFL with their hands out again so they will be fine.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Internally or externally? Norf would be financially crippled if they sacked him prior to the last year of his contract.

I think both.

 

[Newmo89]

They’ve gone backwards and the members are turning.

All 5 of them?
Mazda yesterday had an advertisement up at the ground, buy a new Mazda and get a free Kangaroos membership. Dire straits for that club.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

All 5 of them?
Mazda yesterday had an advertisement up at the ground, buy a new Mazda and get a free Kangaroos membership. Dire straits for that club.

I stopped watching all of their fan engagement stuff, as it was beyond lame.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

All 5 of them?
Mazda yesterday had an advertisement up at the ground, buy a new Mazda and get a free Kangaroos membership. Dire straits for that club.

They are continually profitable and have been debt free for a couple of years. It's a pathetic club but they're not really on dire straits. Their financials wouldn't likely be as rosy if they had to give an early pay-out to a coach on $2M a season though.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

I stopped watching all of their fan engagement stuff, as it was beyond lame.

Worse than a dance cam and sprinting versus the LEDs?

Only fan engagement I ever enjoyed was at a NY Rangers game where you had to hit the puck in from halfway and the hype guy was trying to get the crowd behind both fans - but because one of them was a very attractive woman the crowd turned on the other guy and just kept booing him and almost lost their minds when he came close to making the shot.

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

They are continually profitable and have been debt free for a couple of years. It's a pathetic club but they're not really on dire straits. Their financials wouldn't likely be as rosy if they had to give an early pay-out to a coach on $2M a season though.

They’re getting more money from the AFL than any other Vic club, bar Saints.

Only Giants and Suns get more assistance.

 

[Leather Poisoning]

Can you imagine what it would be like to barrack for North? I don't say that in a mocking way, I feel genuine pity for those fans.

imagine the excitement of getting Jason Horne-Francis and Clarko after some lean years. Now this.
Missing out on Reid is a wild sliding doors moment. (Yes Barret - that's an actual sliding doors moment)

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

I took great pleasure in reading that the knob North supporter who declared in a number of threads over summer that Hawthorn were yet to bottom out, or to truly start their rebuild, who was bumping said threads as soon as we’d get behind on the scoreboard and who was here lurk-liking gameday and autopsy posts in our losses had his “heart broken” yesterday.

Sucked in dickhead.

 

[Sixpence]

All 5 of them?
Mazda yesterday had an advertisement up at the ground, buy a new Mazda and get a free Kangaroos membership. Dire straits for that club.

They could offer a new Mazda with every Kangaroos membership and still struggle to get people to sign up.

 

[Sixpence]

I took great pleasure in reading that the knob North supporter who declared in a number of threads over summer that Hawthorn were yet to bottom out, or to truly start their rebuild, who was bumping said threads as soon as we’d get behind on the scoreboard and who was here lurk-liking gameday and autopsy posts in our losses had his “heart broken” yesterday.

Sucked in dickhead.

Name and shame!

 

[Strapping Young Lad]

Name and shame!

Not hard to find.

Analysis - Hawthorn rebuild: are they tanking?

I need an update from a couple of notorious Geelong posters in this thread. Sending Jeremy Cameron in for surgery before the season is over, when he definitely could have played. Interesting that the Cats look to be selecting a team that doesn't prioritise winning this weekend... A form of...

www.bigfooty.com

 

[Ned Ryerson]

Not hard to find.

Analysis - Hawthorn rebuild: are they tanking?

I need an update from a couple of notorious Geelong posters in this thread. Sending Jeremy Cameron in for surgery before the season is over, when he definitely could have played. Interesting that the Cats look to be selecting a team that doesn't prioritise winning this weekend... A form of...

www.bigfooty.com

You just know that avatar isn't far from real life - save more of a neckbeard with chip crumbs in it.

 

[crazywildhorse]

What I thought was disturbing for North yesterday was their build-your-team-around-him player, for lack of a better term, has already played 100 games and the side around him hasn’t even remotely been formed. He’s basically going to be approaching his twilight when they are ready to challenge—if they get anywhere near challenging.

 

[nelk boys]

I don't understand why Sheezel signed to 2030. Genuinely not sure how him, Wardlaw, Duursma and McKercher survive this.

Apart from Larkey, who are their senior leaders? Zurhaar and LDU have one foot out the door already.