Have the events of the last four years impacted your love of Aussie rules?

[Colonial]

Thanks , someone actually sees the folly of the AFL, at the expense of real AFL clubs including Fitzroy(Bris) and South Melbourne (Syd) we are now seeing some , although not much, but some success from GWS and maybe better this year for GC, but neither of these clubs should exist, I am a passionate hater of this expansion , the sycophants on Fox Footy and FTA tv ALL JUMP ON THE PAYMENT BANDWAGON, AND BEAT IT UP ALL THE TIME ABOUT THESE NEW CLUBS .
BUT IN THE LONG RUN IT WILL SEE THE DOWNFALL OF OTHER REAL CLUBS AND MAYBE FROM ALL FOOTY STATES, WHILE THESE NEW ENTITY'S
BLUNDER ALONG!

 

[mfcrox]

Melbourne being a shambles for the last 10 seasons hasn't helped. I still go as often as I can though, and seeing some steady improvement helps.

My loss of love for the game has been less to do with Melbourne, and more to do with the adminstration side of the game, which has butchered the competition in the last 10-15yrs. I've gone from someone who was football obsessed (watched every game every round) when younger, to now watching only Melbourne games or the occasional other game. I watch more football games at lower level competitions.

The competition is so boring to watch in my opinion... and that isn't because I love football less, it is because the sport has become a defensive bore at the elite level. I still love watching it at TAC Cup/local level because it is in my opinion 'pure' football. Not the boring keepings off crap seen in the AFL.


I'd also talk about the mess that is 'equalisation' and free agency and how that has also butchered the competition... but I don't wanna hi-jack this thread. Let's just say it is going to cause a lot of damage to the competition if other sports using a free agency model are a precedent

 

[scotty13]

Im sort of a bit meh about footy at the moment... I can't wait to see my Port play today, but not really interested in watching other games. Maybe once the season proper starts and there are a cpl of great games and the A-League has finished I may start to get into it more.

 

[JoondalupJ]

Love the game, but the AFL is still an infant when it comes to managing a professional sport. It's a self-serving boys club that has zero accountability and answers to no one - until of course an international body like WADA comes Down Under and reminds the boys club that they are in fact boys, not men, in the realm of world professional sport.

What's particularly annoyed me are:

• the corporatisation of the game and the clubs. We're seen and treated as cash cows, not supporters. This thirst for our money needs to be tamed, and the AFL needs to recognise the spirit/community aspect of our game. It's failing on this, and fixturing a few themed rounds isn't the quick fix.

• expansion. While I agree with it, it's has been handled poorly, and having a tremendous impact on the quality of the game as well as the evenness of the competition. Eighteen teams in one comp is just too much - we either need to move to a US style conference system, or cull. The boys club never seem to think ahead and study the consequences of their (in)actions.

AFL still has a lot of growing up to do as a sporting body.

I think that's all correct except for expansion. Australian rules is one of the hardest sports on earth to play and especially to learn and be able to play it at elite level,I'd argue til the cows come home on that one, There fore for me its pure logic that in a small population like Australia having 18 teams is impossible to keep the standard at top level for all teams. And you get exactly what we see now unevenness beyond belief! Floggings beyond belief.

If you split those 18 you create another terrible situation whereby clubs outed to the second tier may lose support , especially if those clubs are heavily followed but not up to scratch Melbourne clubs . You know who I'm talking about , maybe Carlton and Essendon, StKilda, Footscray heaven help us the original Aussie rules football club Melbourne could be there , what about Brisbane or Fremantle if they fade again , our national game is suited to perhaps fourteen clubs with merge (which is just as bad as tiers) but the only way really, we are diluted at the moment and the AFL money grabbers are to blame totally.

As for your comments about WADA being the men showing the AFL "boys" how to do it, well maybe they can handle world sports but all of them made a mistake about what's happened to the "Hated 34" I'll call them now.

The rule about knowing what your taking under the circumstances that, that was applied to the 34, is a ridiculous joke, unfair and has created a terrible state of affairs for those young men.

That I will also argue til the cows come home about. The wrong people are being punished no common sense or decent compromise was ever even though about they just set the rule in cement and carried it, what they should be doing or have done was look at that stupid law (ok for individuals ) which cannot prove one way or the other, when it comes to Essendon's and Port's and the others of the Hated 34!

AFL is an incompetent boys club. YES!!!

 

[JoondalupJ]

OK, you lost me there.

I don't have an issue with the existence of expansion clubs per se. The AFL is much, much stronger for being a national league, with the involvement of clubs such as Sydney, West Coast and Adelaide. Without that, it's still effectively amateur hour.

My issue is the way in which the expansion clubs have been introduced and effectively been non-competitive for five years. West Coast and Adelaide made the AFL a stronger competition because they quickly rose to the standard required, and in the case of the Eagles, effectively set the started from 91-94. The expansion clubs should have been made to compensate their early picks for players of a certain age or over, to avoid this Bad-News-Bears-esque farce of a noncompetitive competition.

Don't know how I lost you? You have just agreed with me. You say you don't have an issue with the expansion clubs but you bring up points about Eagles and Crows lifting the standard , yes they did. GC17 and GWS have done nothing more than dilute the standard of the game. By cutting into the pool at maybe 80 to 100 hundred footballers!!!
Its what I meant when saying that some clubs will be sacrificed for TV rites and money in Western Sydney , which is a joke, and the only support for GC is expat Victorians.

What if its one of the hugely followed clubs like Carlton or Essendon that fall over , shit they've tried to kill the bombers! FAns leave members leave and its the end, thats what worries me, as far as WCE and Freo and the Crows and Port they are all welcome and great clubs , their from football states , Swans and Lions are the only two north eastern state teams we needed.

Point is we didn't need those two manufactured sides at all!!! Dim and co needed it for corporate money making!!!

 

[Colonial]

Yes.
Hawthorn fans seem to have forgotten not long ago they were a joke and staring down the barrel of extinction.
Now they are rather free with their advise of killing of everyone elses clubs.
Will be interesting when they fall again.

 

[OhhhhhCyril]

Absolutely not ..

 

[JoondalupJ]

Yes.
Hawthorn fans seem to have forgotten not long ago they were a joke and staring down the barrel of extinction.
Now they are rather free with their advise of killing of everyone elses clubs.
Will be interesting when they fall again.

We will all fall again, newbie. But just more quickly than in the past. Hope you'll see my point one day. 18 is too many . No more to be said!

 

[iameviljez]

Don't know how I lost you? You have just agreed with me. You say you don't have an issue with the expansion clubs but you bring up points about Eagles and Crows lifting the standard , yes they did. GC17 and GWS have done nothing more than dilute the standard of the game. By cutting into the pool at maybe 80 to 100 hundred footballers!!!
Its what I meant when saying that some clubs will be sacrificed for TV rites and money in Western Sydney , which is a joke, and the only support for GC is expat Victorians.

What I am saying is that I think bringing GC and GWS into the game was the right thing to do, but allowing them to field a team of kids like that was plainly ridiculous.

 

[Colonial]

We will all fall again, newbie. But just more quickly than in the past. Hope you'll see my point one day. 18 is too many . No more to be said!

Nope. Disagree.

 

[windyhill]

I've missed four Essendon games in Vic since 1973, I'll still go this year but I'm completely ****ed off with Essendon and I'm going to say it, they don't deserve supporters like me. (Very self indulgent, apologies)

 

[The King!]

Hawks winning three flags certainly has taken a lot of love out of it for me

Watching Essendon implode helps ease the pain

 

[BACCS]

I just got full afl membership and have been a Cats member for 17 years. I also have a reserved seat at the cattery and therefore i pay almost $900 a year and still need to upgrade my seats at Docklands so i don't sit on level 3. I also buy some type of merchandise every year so really the footy is quite expensive and now i have kids and added responsibility where i may not be able to attend as many games as i once could.

Then Geelong complained how they don't get enough money from AFL members with club support and later issued an apology/explanation and now they want us to donate more to the club.
I tell you what it's a good thing there is a lot of excitement down at Geelong this year with Danger and players returning from long injury lay offs because I'm feeling aggrieved atm and asking myself what do i really get out of paying for all this? But i can't give it all up, i love footy and the cats too much.

Even though I hate Danger for leaving, your story sucks, the AFL really do take us for granted

 

[BACCS]

There is no doubt the fact my interest in the game has dropped over the last 15 years is largely due to the fact that my club is now a complete and utter abortion. I lived overseas for work for a bit and as a result haven't renewed my membership since 2012.

To be fair - I'm probably more of a racing fan anyway and with SKY and Racing.com I can pretty much watch live racing every Saturday now - that wasn't an option when I was a kid.

In addition to that however, having a bit of a cycling background - the disgraceful way the AFL tried to cover up the Essendon saga has close to killed my interest for the game. It was obvious what the punishment should have been quite early on, and to take 4 years to get to that result is a complete and utter disgrace.

Add to that 3 really ordinary GFs in a row and my interest in watching games is at an all time low. I don't really like the way the game is played these days and to be honest the only games I really enjoy watchings is seeing Hawthorn pump the shit out of teams - they are an amazingly well run club with a great gameplan and deserve all the success they get.

Mate, that's pretty pathetic. So you can't follow Carlton through the thick and thin?

 

[BACCS]

The AFL has done many things to piss me off over the years, but I'm a simple man...

Oh footy, I can't stay mad at you...

Far out that is one of the best Simpsons episodes

 

[AFDogs]

I love footy now more than ever in my life. So no.

Helps my team has a good young list, and I've just started playing footy myself after never playing before. So my interest has sky-rocketed.

 

[iluvparis]

Mate, that's pretty pathetic. So you can't follow Carlton through the thick and thin?

Stopped reading before the in addition part?

 

[Lunchlady Doris]

Only thing disappointing for me has been the past few grand finals have all been boring as batshit. Hawthorn have been ruthless and interstate sides haven't bothered turning up. Puts a big dampener on a day everyone looks forward to eagerly.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

As time goes on, it becomes more and more obvious that Football is a business first, and a sport second.

Yep - the Essendon, Martin etc stuff referred to in the OP hasn't affected my love of the game.

Articles like these, however, do and I seriously question whether I will remain any more than a casual observer in future years if the predicted changes come to a head.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-ne...ight-grand-final-in-2016-20160219-gmyn2p.html

• A historic Thursday night elimination final will launch the 2016 finals series
• the AFL still not ruling out a twilight or night grand final in 2016. Strangely, McLachlan said the commission had not yet confirmed the 2016 grand final would be played as an afternoon fixture. "I haven't ruled it (a twilight grand final) out. I've said it openly - there's divisions on this. I haven't ruled it out.. At some point in the next 10 years, there'll be a change."
• Gillon McLachlan says he remains a supporter of a model in which each team played each other once before the competition was divided into three groups of six for the remainder of the season in a bid to decide finals places and draft picks
• McLachlan acknowledged the risk involved in staging a football-free weekend but stressed the game could not "allow a situation that happened last year to repeat itself."
  
• The AFL is unlikely to clarify the round 23 fixture until a week before the actual games
  

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-ne...th-mclachlans-appeal-bid-20160219-gmz2v2.html

In his pre-season briefing, AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan said there was "a changing view of coaches" in terms of "where we want the game to go".

That is a more free-flowing spectacle, with less stoppages, and potentially more goals, although a tight, low-scoring contest can still be a ratings winner.

AFL Coaches Association chief Mark Brayshaw said senior coaches were now more open to rule changes.

The number of ball ins and throw ups last year (excluding centre bounces) jumped to 70.7 a game, an increase of four from 2014, and a massive spike of 23 since 2006.

This not only slows down play but means the length of the match is dragged out because of the added time-on - something the league is conscious of.

I would add because of the impact on our broadcasters to the end of that last sentence.

 

[sherb]

I still love the game.

But my love of the AFL competition has waned. For a number of reasons.

I am far more interested in local footy these days.

 

[brett_warne]

I am not sure if it is that I have young kids and very little time but I only watch 1 game now. I am like a lot of other people here, I go to the local footy and love it. Even though the shit defensive game style is filtering down it is still enjoyable. I have been excited by all the coaches saying they need to kick more goals so we can all hope

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

[Xtreme]

The last 4 years have been pretty good...................... pretty pretty pretty good as a Hawthorn supporter

All of the other stuff PED/Sports Drink/Painkiller related, booing being determined as racist behaviour, former players low balling their "friends" by having an affair with their ex partner, whether people are really suffering mental illness or not are minor blips on the radar.

Only thing disappointing for me has been the past few grand finals have all been boring as batshit. Hawthorn have been ruthless and interstate sides haven't bothered turning up. Puts a big dampener on a day everyone looks forward to eagerly.

You just need to marvel at their effort, I've been a bit non-plussed with BIG results in the past (eg: 2010 replay... you knew that Collingwood were destined to win that year - unlucky to not win the drawn game) so I'm also guilty of throwing my hands up in the air wanting a better contest in some matches.

I don't want to make everyone vomit from my talking about it, but the way Hawthorn dismantled Sydney in 2014 was unexpected but brilliant imo. Some say Sydney failed to turn up on the day, a large reason why they failed to execute was that Hawthorn didn't let them with their pressure on the man .

The 2007 GF was just , good on Geelong but I hated the margin because I really really really wanted Port to win... much like how everyone has wanted Hawthorn to lose the past 3 gf's .

 

[Hank Scorpion]

Yes.

Obviously a large part of that is my team's dreadful last few years. When the season is over by round 6, as it has been for the last 5? years, makes it difficult to get overly excited; it just becomes a cycle of: season over early > look forward to draft/trades > get excited for next season > season over early > etc.. This upcoming season especially, I don't feel at all optimistic about our chances and am not especially keen for the start of the season.

That aside though, there are a number of other factors limiting my affection for the game. We've played pretty average for a decade now, but I watch far fewer neutral games nowadays too. My other gripes include:

• Hawthorn/Sydney/Geelong dominating for the last ~8 seasons
• Replacing NAB cup with NAB challenge - NAB cup had some competition element to it, built up the season launch better
• Increased focus on gambling
• The atrocious commentary
  
• Commentators and media telling everyone who's a good bloke, irrespective of their conduct
  
• The duration of the Essendon saga
  
• The controversy over booing
  
• Other minor incidents that get ridiculous amounts of criticism (Sam Mitchell's injection stunt v Essendon for example)
  
• Constant rule changes: to the game itself, and drafts/trading etc.
  
• Inconsistencies with the MRP, umpiring

 

[Lunchlady Doris]

You just need to marvel at their effort, I've been a bit non-plussed with BIG results in the past (eg: 2010 replay... you knew that Collingwood were destined to win that year - unlucky to not win the drawn game) so I'm also guilty of throwing my hands up in the air wanting a better contest in some matches.

I don't want to make everyone vomit from my talking about it, but the way Hawthorn dismantled Sydney in 2014 was unexpected but brilliant imo. Some say Sydney failed to turn up on the day, a large reason why they failed to execute was that Hawthorn didn't let them with their pressure on the man .

The 2007 GF was just , good on Geelong but I hated the margin because I really really really wanted Port to win... much like how everyone has wanted Hawthorn to lose the past 3 gf's .

Yeah I did mention Hawks were ruthless, and you can't fault them for it, just annoying.

Why would you want Port to win 07?

 

[Xtreme]

Yeah I did mention Hawks were ruthless, and you can't fault them for it, just annoying.

Why would you want Port to win 07?

I actually like and respected them as a football side . Despite the detriment they have been to the Hawks in recent seasons I'm actually happy they are better placed now than they were in the "tarp" era. In short they're my favourite interstate team (WCE would be next, Sydney wayyyyyyyy down the bottom ).

I wanted Port to win that grand final soooo bad, because I'm not really a fan of Geelong