What unpopular AFL opinions do you have? (Part 1 - cont in Part 2)

[UpForGrabs]

Geelong get favoured by the fixture every year. Non-Victorian teams get 10 home game, 10 away games and 2 neutral games a year. Melbourne teams get about 5/6 home games, 5/6 away games and 10/12 neutral games each year. By getting to play Melbourne teams at Skilled Stadium, Geelong are the only team to get more home games than away games. They shouldn't be allowed to play Melbourne teams at Skilled Stadium.

It's not Geelong's fault that they've refused to abandon their traditional home.

 

[Pres]

We would all be better served as a sporting nation if the AFL learned the word co-existence and ceased it's seemingly bloody minded goal to expand at every opportunity, be the dominant force in every sporting market in Australia and marginalise all other sports in the process.

 

[Bluelegs]

Geelong get favoured by the fixture every year. Non-Victorian teams get 10 home game, 10 away games and 2 neutral games a year. Melbourne teams get about 5/6 home games, 5/6 away games and 10/12 neutral games each year. By getting to play Melbourne teams at Skilled Stadium, Geelong are the only team to get more home games than away games. They shouldn't be allowed to play Melbourne teams at Skilled Stadium.

My issue with it is that the ground is not fit to play Victorian teams at. Especially this year. They allow about 100 opposition supporters in but behind the goals in the stands for $50 a seat. Even before this year the audience has been painfully one-sided. It's the only suburban sized ground left in a national competition this big. Even when the renovations are done it won't hold any more than 33k. The fact that they played Richmond over there, a club that now has over 50,000 members is an absolute joke. Geelong is an hour out of Melbourne and many footy fans would love to go to see their teams play over there but they can't because the ground is stuck in a pre-2000 time capsule

We would all be better served as a sporting nation if the AFL learned the word co-existence and ceased it's seemingly bloody minded goal to expand at every opportunity, be the dominant force in every sporting market in Australia and marginalise all other sports in the process.

The AFL are extremely capatalist. They don't care about being a sporting nation as much as they do a football nation.

 

[UpForGrabs]

Why should they worry about opposition supporters?

 

[Dwight Schrute]

I like Aker.
And I think that Arrogance and Cockiness in the game wouldnt do it bad, the drive to succeed and Self Proclaim that you are the best.

 

[Duskfire]

My issue with it is that the ground is not fit to play Victorian teams at. Especially this year. They allow about 100 opposition supporters in but behind the goals in the stands for $50 a seat. Even before this year the audience has been painfully one-sided. It's the only suburban sized ground left in a national competition this big. Even when the renovations are done it won't hold any more than 33k. The fact that they played Richmond over there, a club that now has over 50,000 members is an absolute joke. Geelong is an hour out of Melbourne and many footy fans would love to go to see their teams play over there but they can't because the ground is stuck in a pre-2000 time capsule

Geelong makes a crapton more money from games at Skilled then anywhere else. I agree to a certain extent they shouldnt play other Melbourne teams there, but at the same time Geelong are hardly going to care when they rake in the dough from a home game.

 

[Sector 7G]

North did the right thing rejecting the AFL's Gold Coast offer. If they go broke the supporters can start barracking for the Gold Coast anyway.

Channel 7 commentary team i so bad I am happy to have a game Dwayne Russell is covering.

Essendon's tall KPP's are over rated. Pears and Hurley in particular will be the next Courtney Johns/Jay Neagle (Maybe that's wishful thinking)

Melbourne and Hawthorn should be playing more games at Etihad stadium than Carlton and Essendon

AFL should get rid of the Medallion Club when they own the stadium and just have premium reserved seating. Nothing worse than going to a game at Etihad where level 1 and 3 are full and level 2 is empty.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

Great thread

1) The AFL season is too long. By about round 18 I'm ready to bring on the finals and hate all the dead rubbers at the end of the season. The draw should have everyone play each other once with no return matches and rotating H&A every second year. Each team plays in WA, SA, NSW & QLD once each year and has two byes a year with a 17 game regular season played over 19 weeks.

2) The NAB Cup should be kept. I'm unsure about the current format (worked best with a 16 team, knockout comp) but I think there needs to be a pre-season comp and like the knockout format and the opportunity for clubs to win another piece of (albeit relatively meaningless) silverware & prizemoney.

3) Umpires generally do an OK job but are coached to umpire too technically - there should be a greater "spirit of the game" in their interpretations so that incidental contact (for instance over the shoulder, hands in the back) should not be a free kick

4) Television commentators are pathetic and focus too much on trying to be "entertainers" rather than analysing and breaking down the game - the fans want more in-depth analysis of game plans, strategies, players movements, structures etc not who is dating whose sister or which players child has a birthday that day

5) Each team should have a traditional home ground for at least 6-7 games a season (like Geelong @ KP) - I know this will never happen but I would love to see Carlton at Princes Park, Footscray at Whitten Oval etc - a related one is Etihad tenants should play home games at Etihad regardless of expected crowd size - if Essendon and Carlton want to play out of Etihad then they need to wear the fact all their home games will be there even against big drawing sides. MCG tenants should not be forced to play home games at Etihad just to meet AFL contracts with the stadium

6) Ross Lyon is a good coach and his style can win premierships - he was unlucky not to win two let alone one flag with the Saints. Free flowing footy looks great and exciting in round 8 but come September it is hard contested footy that wins the big matches

7) Teams need to become more accommodating at the trade table and try to work win/win trades

8) Development is more important than drafting - teams in the US can top up with early picks in one draft and rebound back up the ladder due to the nature of their sports (only 5 starting players in NBA, specialised positions such as QB in NFL) - you cannot draft one junior gun player in the AFL and think this will turn your teams fortunes around - this is also true due to the fact that AFL draftees are underdeveloped due to coming in straight from high school/U18's whereas in the US players come through the college system first son are more mature and have bigger bodies so are able to impact immediately

 

[wce4premiership]

Cousins was better than Judd

Ballantyne isn't actually that good a player (C grade imo)

Johnathan Brown is very over-rated, did nothing much when young (to massive acclaim?) and is no Nick Reiwoldt.

Adam Goodes, whilst a modern great, didn't really deserve 2 Brownlows.

Umpires don't pay enough frees against taggers

Dennis Commetti is annoying and not the tiniest bit funny. He can call but his jokes are forced and old.

 

[Gasometer]

The old goal umpires uniform was cool.

 

[hawker11]

Melbourne and Hawthorn should be playing more games at Etihad stadium than Carlton and Essendon.

Realistically Cartlon should have had the foresight to hold onto princess park, they could have seen themselves in a similar position to Geelong. Hawthorn send home games to tassie to completely avoid playing games at the stadium that replaced their former home ground that the AFL sold against their wishes.

 

[Burzum]

Jobe Watson is the best player in the comp.

 

[nicky]

Adam Goodes, whilst a modern great, didn't really deserve 2 Brownlows.

.

Yeah he did. One of the best swan ever.

 

[Djcjdees]

Great thread.

Mine is that Harry O is way overrated. Also the kind of urban hippy who doesn't know what he's talking about

 

[Demonic Ascent]

Gold Coast should have been called the Sharks - I know about Southport etc but Sharks is way cooler than Suns.

Gold Coast is still on track to be a top 4 team in a few years time - next year they will get O'Meara & pick 1 or 2 and have a good group of tall/KPP players who will be very good in 3-4 years time. The pressure on McKenna as coach recently is downright ridiculous from people who have been around long enough to know better.

Matthew Lloyd & Dermot Brereton are two of the most insightful commentators around at the moment.

Eddie McGuire is a great commentator as long as he stays away from Collingwood games.

Port should be allowed to wear the old prison bars jumper except when they play Collingwood away. When they play Collingwood at home Collingwood should have to wear an alternate strip.

Teams should never be given names or mascots like Power (or Victory, Heart, Thunder etc) - the only exception is the Blues who it is too late to help now.

I see it the opposite way. Role players who give 100% but don't have much in the way of skill can win you games in the regular season, but come finals time when everybody is giving 100% then they'll lose out to more talented players.

Ross Lyon's style could possibly win flags if he took the time to drum it into better players, but he takes the easy option and stacks his sides with plodders who he knows will give 100% because they're not good enough to get by on anything less.

Guess we'll have to agree to disagree - Saints were a Scarlett toe-poke and a bounce to Milne away from back-to-back (OK they didn't win any but when you're still in the premiership race with less than 5 minutes to go in the GF two years running I think you can say your game plan holds up).

 

[chunkylover53]

Hurley is the best one-on-one mark in the comp, on par with Cloke.

 

[SS_Fury]

1) i like ballantyne
2) freo would have more supporters if they werent 'dockers', but labelled something else
3) crows will finish top, but will get pantsed if they make the gf
4) clarkson is a shit coach
5) pendles is way overated
6) hurley needs to lose weight
7) eddie bets is underated and a very dangerous small forward...i get nervous when the ball comes his way when playing the blues
8) gumbleton will make it
9) jordan lewis doesnt get enough love
10) Jay schulz can be a dangerous forward and takes a good mark
11) this years GF will be the pies vs cats and the cats will win
12) jack reiwoldt is a tosser and poison to a club. I wouldnt take him for free. His attitude reeks. Also while on the tigers, Maric, who looks like a twit by the way with the mullett, hasnt been *that* good this year either. Wouldnt be in my top 6 ruckmen. I dont think diledio is anything special either. I rate newman as a captain though.

 

[tonk]

I don't mind North Melbourne.

 

[Checkside35]

I see it the opposite way. Role players who give 100% but don't have much in the way of skill can win you games in the regular season, but come finals time when everybody is giving 100% then they'll lose out to more talented players.

Ross Lyon's style could possibly win flags if he took the time to drum it into better players, but he takes the easy option and stacks his sides with plodders who he knows will give 100% because they're not good enough to get by on anything less.

Entirely agree. 8 of the last 12 GF's have been won by sides that have kicked 15 goals or more. The better skilled sides won those flags.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

There's no explaining Raph Clarke.

 

[kazzooka]

There have been games played in the afl where the result was purposely influenced by the umpires. I cannot prove this obviously but I still believe it has happened. It may have been at the direction of the afl as well.

You remember the 2001 prelim final i see.

 

[hawkman]

This gets balanced out by the significant disadvantage WA sides have by having to travel the distances they do every second week. It's no coincidence that no WCE player has ever played past their 34th birthday or 276th game.

If Cousins wasn't on drugs he would have made 300

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

I have no problem with them playing at Skilled, I just think it should only be against non-Victorian teams.

Geelong basically hands its home ground advantage away when they play a team like Hawthorn or Collingwood at the MCG. If they play a home game against a team like Carlton or Essendon at Etihad, they're not going to have more than half the supporters at the game and they're playing home games at their opposition's home ground.

If they're only going to get 40-45k for a home game at the MCG against someone like North Melbourne, Melbourne, or the Western Bulldogs (only a matter of time before they have another home game against St Kilda at Simonds), they're going to make significantly more money for the club by playing the game in Geelong. Why should they not take advantage of that?

 

[Bluelegs]

Why should they worry about opposition supporters?

Because having your own ground where the audience is kept small with 90% of the crowd being your own supporters is an outdated vfl custom that is bad for modern football. It works with interstate sides because most of they're supporters can't travel that far. But if their ground doesn't have the accommodation for how big the game has become then it shouldn't be used against other Victorian sides. There is a reason that none of the other Victorian sides use the old suburban grounds, they're a relic of the past. If the renovations got the crowd to a 40-50k capacity then I wouldn't be complaining, but it's going to be 33k which is tiny

But yeah, this is a thread about unpopular opinions.

 

[DVD Player]

8) gumbleton will make it

Keep the faith people. Jesus came back after 3 days but if I've gotta wait 3 years for Gumby then so be it.