Oppo Camp Non Geelong football (AFL) discussion 2024, Part I

[CatToTheFuture]

This is easily Cornes' best take ever

Pole vaulting over the lowest bar imaginable

 

[4quarter_cat]

This is easily Cornes' best take ever, and I respect him for going against the prevailing "avoiding any risk of injury is all that matters" narrative on this. Every word he says here is on point.

Anyone able to un pay wall this one?

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Anyone able to un pay wall this one?

OPINION​

No bumping, tackling, smothers or speccies. Is this footy’s future?​

Kane Cornes​

AFL columnist
March 7, 2024 — 11.30am

Take yourself forward to an AFL game in 2034. How will it be played – and who will be more influential: the coaches with their tactics or the AFL executives with their legal headaches?
Will you enjoy watching the game you have loved for years?

Every bump, collision, and tackle already is scrutinised for potential long-term health concerns, and on Wednesday, the AFL released its revised protocols for concussion, focusing below the elite level. In a decade, the very essence of the game loved by the fans – the collisions, the tackles, the high marks, players running at full speed and diving full length on a boot to force a smother and the last-gasp desperate spoil to prevent an easy opposition mark – could be lost to the natural instinctive player.
The AFL is now instructing its players to slow down, corral the ball carrier and always think about a duty of care to the opposition.

It is too risky – by the threat of suspension – to play the game as we knew it.
In time, it will be impossible for the game to retain its raw, combative nature. The brutal attributes that made Australian football admired from afar is on a path to look more like a combination of flag football, AFL 9s and Gaelic football.
No one wants to watch modified, compromised football.
New league boss Andrew Dillon and his fresh head of football Laura Kane are walking a tightrope between safety and tradition. They are also becoming overwhelmed by the growing concern for concussion and the costly legal action from former players. While acknowledging the imperative of player safety, Dillon and Kane must recognise the game is a collision sport with accidents and injuries simply inevitable.

Lawyers and governments are already challenging the AFL to modify rules to make the game safer. The AFL chief medical officer is forecasting tackling will be limited or banned at training.
But no ink in any rule book will eliminate every head knock and injury.

Tackling and bumping were once fair features of the game. Coaches told players to “hurt” opponents with their tackles. What does a coach say now when an ill-timed bump will cost a player at least a month on the sidelines?
St Kilda defender Jimmy Webster was hit with a game-changing seven-match ban for his brutal bump on North Melbourne captain Jy Simpkin at the weekend. Last season, a similar high hit would have led to a three-match suspension.

Collingwood’s Jordan De Goey was suspended for three matches for knocking out West Coast’s Elijah Hewitt, Melbourne’s Kysaiah Pickett copped two for a spear-like bump to Western Bulldogs midfielder Bailey Smith and former Adelaide forward Shane McAdam sat out three games for a dangerous head-high bump that concussed Giants youngster Jacob Weir.
A year later, the AFL has doubled the pain for those making a head-high bump.

Imagine copping a speeding fine of $500 in September and finding it has become $1200 less than six months later ... all out of fear for legal threats to the game.
The AFL has made it too risky for players to bump. Coaches, once demanding physical force, now caution against such a show of strength. This is a dramatic shift in the sport’s ethos.

Melbourne premiership coach Simon Goodwin instructed his players last year not to bump. “There’s no element in the game where we should be bumping, and that’s the message I’ve given to our playing group, that it just puts you in a situation you don’t want to be in,” he said.
Fans who love a fierce tackle would have groaned when Western Bulldogs AFLW player Britney Gutknecht was referred directly to the tribunal for rough conduct after a perfectly executed tackle on Sydney’s Paige Sheppard. The AFL sought a three-match ban.

Fortunately, the case was thrown out. The AFL did not appeal the tribunal’s decision despite its displeasure, but it vowed to closely examine the case at the end of the season to consider rule changes designed to deter forceful head-high contact and to further reduce the risk of concussion in the game.
The AFL has come after the bump. Now it is after the tackle.

Gutknecht’s effort was everything the supporters love about our game. A finely tuned athlete, running at high speed and desperately lunging at full length to pin her oblivious opponent’s arms, causing the ball to spill, is for the highlights reel not a three-hour tribunal hearing. The fans in the stand were ecstatic in their cries of “baaaall” – and the umpire did not hesitate to reward the play with a free kick.
Like the bump, how long will it be before coaches such as Goodwin instruct his players to not tackle?
What’s next on the AFL agenda? Will it outlaw the smother?
The fallout from Brayden Maynard’s attempted smother that concussed Angus Brayshaw is a raw nerve at AFL House. More so when Brayshaw has been medically instructed to retire after repeated and persistent concussions.

The AFL rewrote its rule book in response and says any player who now chooses to leave the ground in an attempt to smother and makes any high contact to an opponent will face a report, with the incident to be deemed careless at a minimum.
No bumping. No tackling. No smothering.

And ultimately the AFL will have no option but to outlaw knees to the head in marking contests. Those who argue a player choosing to bump has a duty of care to his opponent are hypocrites if they do not recognise a player going for a mark also has a duty of care to his opponent, particularly those running back with the flight of the ball. His head is exposed. Raising the knee poses a major risk to the safety of the opposition player.
No bumping. No tackling. No smothering. And soon no spectacular, high-flying marks.

The AFL’s relentless pursuit of safety and the mounting legal cases threatens to strip the very essence of the game. Fans can ponder a future devoid of collisions, contests, big smothers and high-flying heroics that once defined it.
If the AFL continues down this path without pushback it will lose many fans. And then what will the AFL do?

 

[Baudolino]

Pole vaulting over the lowest bar imaginable

People say that about pretty much every AFL pundit though to be fair. Is there a single "BigFooty/general public approved" AFL media personality?

 

[cats_09]

Mod Note

I'm temporarily locking this thread - please note that no one has done anything wrong

I'm currently on my way home after work and trying to catch up on a couple of things - I want to ensure that myself & the mod group are on top of things and we'll get this reopened shortly

Thanks for your understanding all

 

[cats_09]

MOD NOTE

Good evening all,

Earlier today the police arrested and have charged an individual with the murder of Samantha Murphy

This afternoon there was a court suppression order on naming the individual who's been charged - we know that there may be some who wish to comment on this situation, but if you do:

• please ensure you refrain from using or alluding to any names including the father's name
• please refrain from posting links to articles or images mentioning or alluding to names

If you're unsure, it may be best to not post it

We don't want to see our users potentially getting themselves in trouble

Thankyou for your understanding

 

[Catman]

Melbourne currently just as impotent going forward as they have been for the past two years.

 

[BotsMaster]

Swans on top tonight

 

[BotsMaster]

Melbourne currently just as impotent going forward as they have been for the past two years.

They can't hit the side of a barn door.

 

[cats_09]

I know what they're getting at - but it comes across as a bit cringe & it's been pretty heavily mocked online

 

[catstorm]

I know what they're getting at - but it comes across as a bit cringe & it's been pretty heavily mocked online

It's performative at best, why is it in the hall in front of the cameras? Because they want the media to see and praise them for it.

Cheap nonsense.

 

[Vdubs]

Windsor very impressive

 

[Catman]

They can't hit the side of a barn door.

I know it's the start of the season, but it isn't a new thing for them.

 

[Vdubs]

They can't hit the side of a barn door.

will be reversed in second half

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Melbourne currently just as impotent going forward as they have been for the past two years.

I actually think they look worse going forward, but that could be the dewy conditions.

Why is schache still a professional footballer?

 

[CatToTheFuture]

It's performative at best, why is it in the hall in front of the cameras? Because they want the media to see and praise them for it.

Cheap nonsense.

Maybe they want Maynard to see it

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Windsor very impressive

He is very good. Going to be elite one day I think

 

[Vdubs]

He is very good. Going to be elite one day I think

Will not take long. He is handling the heat of this game remarkably well.

 

[catstorm]

I actually think they look worse going forward, but that could be the dewy conditions.

Why is schache still a professional footballer?

Because he is tall and pretty athletic.

Clubs will keep giving him a go because he has the physical attributes and they believe they can train the 'Shitness' out of him.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

One side I think Holmes at half back is going to stack up really well against is Melbourne.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Because he is tall and pretty athletic.

Clubs will keep giving him a go because he has the physical attributes and they believe they can train the 'Shitness' out of him.

You can't teach 2m tall I guess

 

[cats_09]

Maybe they want Maynard to see it

Someone suggested they would have been better off with a picture of Maynard

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Someone suggested they would have been better off with a picture of Maynard

A Maynard bobblehead that they all slap around on the way out

 

[And_ROOS]

Demons awful, I assume its because I tipped them.

Didn't realise Pickett was missing, their forwardline is utterly toothless.

Also hate the fact that in the murder case they are putting so much into the "fathers profession" as if him being an ex-AFL football has anything to do with the case.

 

[And_ROOS]

Sack Goodwin.