Losing your love/passion for the game

[footscore]

nah' love the game as strongly as ever before.
Biggest concern though is watching players get suspended for ridiculous petty incidents..the Kelly/Ziebell/Ryder bumps this year have been deplorable and outright embarrassing.

If they can sack Fraser and that old timer in Kevin Bartlett gets put into a retirement home along with Gieschen then the game will be a little more appealing again, especially to the NSW fans who are obsessed with their rugby and love the biff.

 

[Blues_Man]

Is anyone else like me and just about done ? These last 6 months have really made me question why I follow the sport and if half the things you hear are true we follow a corrupt sport (I'm not only including the REDnBLACK in that statement) that we only thought existed overseas. If clubs are to pigheaded to admit guilt when caught I just don't see the point anymore.

No i haven't lost any passion for the Game ...am i pissed off at having to listen to all the bomber crap then yes ...the sooner they clean up this whole mess the better .

 

[Cmarsh]

Personally I think that those turned off the game just because of the Essendon scandal have a pretty low tolerance.
If they don't like that, then how will they have handled part or even whole seasons cancelled over money disputes like what has happened in the American leagues? Yet their fans still turn up in droves.

 

[AstroboyUK]

lost interest NOW???? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!????

 

[TheHoneyBadger]

I love the game as much as ever - the footy experience is still well and truly alive, I love having football on all weekend and the programming during the week, the footy talkback, the jumpers, the predictions, the small feel good moments in each week, the emergence of young players and the milestones of the veterans, the rich history of the game and how it defines how we think about it today.
I'm a bit disillusioned with how the Essendon saga is being handled - while at the Bulldogs games, it's the furthest thing from my mind, and it doesn't permeate my day-to-day existence too much, but I can't help but think how it would be different if it was us, or North, or St Kilda, and the possibilities just piss me off. If they get a shred of sympathy just because they're a big club and we cop something down the track despite operating honestly I'll give it away for good. I'll find better things to do than pour my money, time and heart into a club that has been and likely will be ****ed over by a corrupt officiating body.

 

[HungLong]

I wouldnt call it the best sport in the world, thats just sounding like an American, great yes but hardly best in the world.

It's american to have an opinion?

 

[giggler99]

Lost my passion for the AFL years ago under the current admin, they've put $$ ahead of its most treasured asset which is always the fans and that doesn't sit well with me and by the looks of it a lot of people on this forum judging by this thread.
still love my club and always will to ends of the earth. Watching my team Winning a premiership has been one of the most joyful experiences I've ever and probably I'll ever experience hopefully more to come.

As for supporting passionately the AFL? Meh I don't feel the need too, I find them being the bullies on the block and I never liked bullies, as long as Vlad is there it will continue that way.
This season has been a total disaster and not just on the Essendon situation a lot of crap as gone down that has made an embarrassment of the AFL, as well as the AFL showing its true colours in being total c$@ts!!
Personally I have never been more excited and wanting the A-league season to begin.

 

[yakka man]

Essendon and the AFL are certainly trying to ruin and taking a bit of the joy out of the game. But as others have said, it's still the best game in the world by far.

 

[seysearles]

Is anyone else like me and just about done ? These last 6 months have really made me question why I follow the sport and if half the things you hear are true we follow a corrupt sport (I'm not only including the REDnBLACK in that statement) that we only thought existed overseas. If clubs are to pigheaded to admit guilt when caught I just don't see the point anymore.

I am as passionate about footy as I have ever been my entire life. If anything this issue has made me grateful that the sport is managed in a professional and even handed manner where perpetrators are punished for their infractions. The Bombers have made mistakes and they going to have to pay for them. They're not going to use their influence to stare the AFL down, nor should they be able to. I believe that it's the best sporting code in the world and there is no way on earth I would let something as predictable as this convince me otherwise.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

Lost the passion years ago. Don't like the contemporary game, and my interest is mainly academic. It's still be best soap opera in town though.

 

[YearOfTheDog]

I have definitely lost some passion for the game but that's mostly due to the struggling Doggies the last couple of years. I do love to watch any team play but I just feel as if a number of things have caused this wane in passion for me:

- Heightened media interest. Why do I give a @#$% if Daisy Thomas is injured. This stuff is just constantly on TV and papers and I don't care. I love being overseas during the footy season because of this.

- Guys are paid too much/it's too easy to leave their sides now. Many guys out there appear to be more worried about their stupid hairstyle/beards than their game. Free agency and expansion teams has contributed to this focus on the individual. It's also just a job now and people like Chris Judd are perfect examples of professional football being just a job.

- The football is quite an expensive day out and the Bulldogs are never on free to air TV so I don't see much of my favourite team.

- Rule changes. The game has become incredibly soft and nothing like the game we watched 10 years ago. It reminds me a bit of basketball now.

I talk to many guys in their twenties and early thirties who are losing interest and spending their days at the local footy (EDFL etc). This is not a good sign for the AFL.

In saying that, I'll still get into my Friday night football with a couple of wines in hand.

 

[Riccardo11]

I used to watch every game of AFL I could on the weekends, I'd even go to games my team wasn't involved in because I loved the sport. The AFL have seriously dampened my love for the code with constant rule changes, political staging and a seeming desire to support the big clubs while back handing the smaller ones.

Make no mistake, the AFL is no longer a sporting competition, it is a business, and they will do what is in their best interests financially before anything else, even if it kills the game.

I still have huge love my team, but I hate the AFL as an entity with a burning passion. I switch a lot of my energy to the VFL a few years ago, but now its under the control of "AFL Victoria" and is seemingly going the same way. There is very little purity in the game at any level anymore.

May need to find a team in the ammos shortly!

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Lost passion long ago for the game
Still love the hawks though

 

[rodent killer]

Is anyone else like me and just about done ? These last 6 months have really made me question why I follow the sport and if half the things you hear are true we follow a corrupt sport (I'm not only including the REDnBLACK in that statement) that we only thought existed overseas. If clubs are to pigheaded to admit guilt when caught I just don't see the point anymore.

I've had it but only because my team is absolutely rubbish, can't watch it anymore................

 

[rodent killer]

I've had it but only because my team is absolutely rubbish, can't watch it anymore................

plus l hate Demetriou and the AFL Dictatorship

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

No. On field, apart from frustrations with rule interpretations, I don't think the game has ever been better and I go back to the 70s watching it.

If you asked cricket, then yes, from being a passionate player and supporter to now not watching one ball of it and not being able to tell you who more than half of the test side is. It's now been turned into a horrible game.

 

[jko'neal]

nah' love the game as strongly as ever before.
Biggest concern though is watching players get suspended for ridiculous petty incidents..the Kelly/Ziebell/Ryder bumps this year have been deplorable and outright embarrassing.

If they can sack Fraser and that old timer in Kevin Bartlett gets put into a retirement home along with Gieschen then the game will be a little more appealing again, especially to the NSW fans who are obsessed with their rugby and love the biff.

I agree with the names in bold, but it must be said apart from Gieschen the other two are part of a committee/panel what ever way you want to put it. So if the mouth piece goes, so do the rest including current players who sit on the rules committee.

 

[mightymouse75]

What happened to the vote vlad out petition?

 

[Cosmic Energy]

I've certainly lost some passion for the AFL brand of football, this year has topped it off with the Essendon garbage. I'm still keen on the game of Australian Rules. That's the game that belongs to the people, helps communities get together all throughout Australia and is still pretty pure at many levels.

While the pre-AFL state-based comps had a lot of issues, I almost feel a bit sad that the AFL has in some ways taken those away only to get to this point where the the supposed best brand of national football is still full of inequalities, conflicts of interest, greed, constant scandals, win at all costs attitudes, over-inflated egos putting themselves ahead of the game, disloyalty, exploitations & relentless media negativity. Those things certainly existed before, but they don't seem to be improving and seem to be getting worse.

While many aspects are far superior to pre-AFL days, the game seems to have lost its soul. Money changes everything I guess.

 

[JackFlash]

Is anyone else like me and just about done ? These last 6 months have really made me question why I follow the sport and if half the things you hear are true we follow a corrupt sport (I'm not only including the REDnBLACK in that statement) that we only thought existed overseas. If clubs are to pigheaded to admit guilt when caught I just don't see the point anymore.

I am fed up with the Essendon saga, they have brought the game into disrepute and if fans like yourself feel this way then they are guilty. I feel the same as you and i'm beginning not to care anymore. Nobody is talking about the footy, we are 2 weeks away from the finals and my passion for it is waning. To be honest i can't wait for the season to be over and that annoys me, because i have grown up loving this game, i feel lost in October, it's a horrible month! October can't come quick enough now.

The Essendon issue needs to be resolved and the fact that they now stand defiant has me believing that the Essendon Football Club is in serious danger of being wiped from this competition. If you think that is an impossibility then you are very naive, it has gone on way too long and you have people involved who now consider themselves bigger than the game itself. The biggest shocks are yet to come, but will any of us care anymore?

 

[Partridge]

Interesting that those not interested are those following struggling teams...

I'd probably lose interest too if the Cats were struggling

I am a Geelong supporter and I've lost a great deal of interest. I used to watch just about every game by any team. I only watch Geelong games now and really couldn't give a shit about other results.

 

[.Shotties.]

Seems like a lot of you just burn yourselves out. Maybe growing up in Sydney where there was a Swans game, sometimes delayed and one other on usually delayed until past 11 means that I couldn't watch all the games all the time means I haven't reached my limit.

I also don't really get people complaining about the media saturation of one topic or another. I live in Sydney and I haven't been aware of anything going on in League for years, let alone anything to do with Essendon or other melodrama. It's pretty easy to tune out whatever you're not interested in.

 

[manureid]

Three letters M R P. Is killing the game.

 

[Partridge]

I wouldnt call it the best sport in the world, thats just sounding like an American, great yes but hardly best in the world.

I am just about done, the only thing keeping me interested is our chance for back to back, which will be a great way to bow out.

I could write a book about the things I despise about the game now, but a short summation would be:

- The blatant rigging of the draw to favour certain teams
- The constant changes in rules and/or interpretations
- The overexposure of absolutely every aspect of the game
- The treating of commentators/media presenters as bigger than the game
- The absolutely contemptible and pathetic standard of football journalism
- The blatant protection of players with drug infringements
- The total lack of steel when players are caught transgressing (I'll pick one of my own here. When Stokes was found with coke, it was considered a tough call to suspend him from the senior side for a few games. I would have sacked him on the spot).
- The softening of the game so much that tackling is actually considered the tough part.
- The softening of the game so that receivers are now revered instead of despised.
- Brian Taylor.
- Negotiating with a club about their punishment, as the AFL are doing with Essendon. (I'd love the real world to work like that. Commit a murder and then go and have a beer with the judge to work out how little time you'll serve.)
- The deification of certain ex-players and coaches like they are above the law (and we're seeing the consequences of that right now).

 

[TriX78]

Can't disagree with any of that.

The way the AFL has managed to turn it into a retirment village for the boys who were popular when they played makes me sick.

And Sam Newman, seriously this guy is way past his used by date. The last straw was his "Sammy" persona sticking up for Hird and calling the rest of us idiots.

Sometimes i wonder with John Newman if really is an act or does he cross over and sometimes it is his personality that comes out.