Things you wish they'd bring back to the footy

[nthblood]

Dearly love to go back in time and watch the reserves before the seniors and see all the old suburban grounds like Windy Hill, Junction oval, Lake Oval full to capacity one more time.

 

[Ron The Bear]

Any Hawthorn supporters recall a membership jingle from a 1978 or 79 TV ad that went

See the Hawks, see 'em fly
See the men soaring high
Hear the screams, hear the roars
See the Hawks show their claws

Fly Hawks fly, Hawks can fly...

Kinda catchy, and better than the dirges that pass for theme songs at some of the newer clubs.

 

[Bennett.]

 

[Bennett.]

 

[Bennett.]

sorry about the DP

 

[Polecat]

A few not mentioned yet:

- The 'torp'
- The "holding the ball out with one hand" to baulk past an opponent (think Wayne Harmes, Keith Greig)
- Handpassing out in front & holding your arms out appealing for holding the man (a'la Kevin Bartlett)
- The staged dummy spit (Jacko, Ronnie Andrews, Crackers)
- Players having a smoke or steamed dimmy at 3/4 time (well, maybe not this one!)

 

[Happy_Neale]

LH, that is one of the things I miss most, from the media side of things at least. IIRC Played it right before the game, and really built anticipation to the first bounce.

Yeah I remember as a young guy trying to sing all the teams in order, always got at least one wrong. Plus I think one of the current teams wasn't in it yet...

 

[Air_Chester]

Watch anything from the 80's and even right up to about 2000 and you'll see about a dozen things you miss.

I still remember when Ch. 7 would sign off, one last time, after the Greand Final, and in the background of the coaches box, fans on the ground kicking the footy... one last time til next year.

My personal favourite: The race to the centre square/circle after the second siren. And the automatic thought of "What a knob" to the guy who got there first and celebrated... even though you're just jealous he beat you.

 

[Shell]

That 3aw song:

"It's a game for the game
Not for the faint of heart
It's a game that you'll love
Right from the very start
Stirs passion and blood
When you hear the call
You've gotta be game to play this game
And give it your all

It's Carlton, Collingwood...."

(It goes on to name all the teams except for one but I can't remember the order)

Anybody else remember that song? Loved it. Back in the 1278 days

I do! So did I! Loved it that is...

I'm gonna have a go at the order: "Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Fremantle, North Melbourne, St Kilda, Western Bulldogs..."

Eh yeah I cant remember!

Other things I want back at the footy:
- Gary Ablett Snr.

That is all.

 

[Johnson#26]

It goes 'Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Sydney, Hawthorn, Adelaide, Richmond, Melbourne, Geelong-West Coast, St Kilda-Fremantle, North Melbourne, Brisbane, Western Bulldogs'.

Absolutely awesome song, I love it. I might have it floating around somewhere, I'll have a look.

Would love 3AW to return to this song, used to get me so pumped up. And remember that music 'DA dadadadadadadada DADA dadadadadadadada' that they'd play as they introduced all the regional stations (3SH Swan Hill, etc)? Used to get my heart RACING and I'd feel so nervous and pumped, and the anticipation in the voices of Rex and Huddo/Clinton/Leonard. So, so good.

3AW had the BEST team going around circa 1997-1999. Rex, Huddo, Sam, Bondy and Wallsy when sacked from the Tiges, and then the likes of the Galloping Gourmet (Al Martello) and the Barrel (Gary Brice) doing the benches and around the grounds, with Daics, Tony Leonard and Barrassi doing the Friday/Saturday night games (and Peter McKenna the Friday nights in 2000 - also the Monday night fixtures of that year, Pies/Freo R8 and Melb/Bris of about round 12).

So quality. Clinton was just terrific as soon as he came on the scene, too.

It went really down hill when Hutchy came on board, and it's been good ever since with Commetti and Bucks, but it needs one of Huddo/Clinton and then Sam to spice things up.

Rex with his nicknames was so good when he had free reign (seemingly) - NottaWellman, Oooh Mr Hardwick, the Hound in Bassett, WhaddayameanWasley, Heaverbrick, the Crainium and the Cranium MkII, the Acress and the Bishop, etc, etc. Brilliant.

 

[legend166]

That Goal Percentage thing. Didn't cost anything and did no harm. And would always provide with fun guessing games at the %age of the goal's kickableness. If that's a word.

YES!

I think this was a Channel 9 thing and I loved it. I have no idea why no other station got rid of it. I think it's a much more interesting stat than some of the other crap they talk about.

 

[im_a_lazy_sod]

The regional grounds would be awesome.. especially if every team had its own home ground

afl would hate it but like it's been said, the fans would love it

but then the gf wouldn't be played at a neutral ground

also the butcher coats for the goal umps =)

and afl coaches wearing suits rather than tracksuits... a nice shirt and tie on a rainy day during 1/4 time or 3/4 time huddle hahahah

the afl is so corporate now, it's sad

 

[Asgardian]

The reserves game

The shirtfront

The hip & shoulder except for the hit to the top of a players head (we don't want any spinal or neck injuries)

The melee

The toe to toe confrontation

The 'natural' footballer, not all of them have to be athletes

The kids having a kick of the footy on the oval

Mixed crowds

More high flying marks

Less soccer style crap

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

Hats that clap when you pull the little strings. How did these ever get old? Giant foam hands too.

The crowd chant when the goal umpire is about to signal a goal. "How long's your ____?" The umpire signals. "Bull___!" I don't care what anyone says, that was funny every time.

And the crowd build up when the opposition FB is about to kick off from a point. "Whhhhhooooooaaaaaa P____ta!!!!" Oh yeah, and when the full backs actually did the kick off rather than a midfielder running down there and chipping it to himself for the stat.

Funk squads.

Also the banners the players run through are too well constructed, safe and sturdy nowadays. There was nothing better than the giant, poorly made spinnaker that came to grief on a windy day and ripped in half with fat cheersquad members frantically trying to hold on to the ropes and keep it together until the players arrived.

The mini league having to play on the full field and needing to string together 14 quality passages of play to score. Scores at the end, Adel 0.1 to Carl 0.0

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Hats that clap when you pull the little strings. How did these ever get old? Giant foam hands too.

The crowd chant when the goal umpire is about to signal a goal. "How long's your ____?" The umpire signals. "Bull___!" I don't care what anyone says, that was funny every time.

And the crowd build up when the opposition FB is about to kick off from a point. "Whhhhhooooooaaaaaa P____ta!!!!" Oh yeah, and when the full backs actually did the kick off rather than a midfielder running down there and chipping it to himself for the stat.

Funk squads.

Also the banners the players run through are too well constructed, safe and sturdy nowadays. There was nothing better than the giant, poorly made spinnaker that came to grief on a windy day and ripped in half with fat cheersquad members frantically trying to hold on to the ropes and keep it together until the players arrived.

Tell that to John Mossop. Geelong had a new banner in either the very late 70s or start of the 80s. One of the major sponsors was Alcoa. The banner was flanked on either side by big Alcoa advertising panels. The first time they used it John tried to run through one of them instead of going through the actual crepe paper in the middle. He injured himself.

The mini league having to play on the full field and needing to string together 14 quality passages of play to score. Scores at the end, Adel 0.1 to Carl 0.0

I played in it in '77 and '78 it had just changed from the Staminade Little League to the Big M Little League. '77 was out at VFL Park against Collingwood and '78 was against Carlton at Princess Park. We were U/10 level and had to play the whole ground.
I vividly remember the '77 game. There was about 75,000 people there and I started on the bench wearing number 3 (Ken Newland). I came on in the second half onto the wing and got one kick, it went straight up and then straight down again. In those days Sandy Roberts or Uncle Doug used to do a segment on World of Sport about the little league with vision. There I was getting my kick
We won the game 1.0 to nil. We were running a victory lap and the ground was so bloody big that we got half way around and the seniors were waiting to run back out. We had to cut across the ground. The bus trip home took about 4 hours in the days before the Westgate Bridge had been rebuilt.

 

[BigBadCam]

Also the banners the players run through are too well constructed, safe and sturdy nowadays. There was nothing better than the giant, poorly made spinnaker that came to grief on a windy day and ripped in half with fat cheersquad members frantically trying to hold on to the ropes and keep it together until the players arrived.

It'd be good if the players still actually ran through the banners. Now they just lift it up and run underneath. This is probably because they're so well made now. Players don't want to risk hurting themselves running through the banner and they probably think that poor old Auntie Di or whoever has had a hand in making it has gone to so much effort, that they couldn't possibly tear it up.

 

[Philth]

I'd love to be in standing room, pipe in one hand, tinny in the other, like our Grandads used to.