Rohan Connolly - perfect storm article

[Tim 3,472]

I'd rather watch a CONTEST than watch pairs of fat bastards around the ground attack and pretend to defend.

I'd rather be 15 and happy than 75 and sour.

Good call, Bray. Everything is crap these days, except nostalgia, it would seem. I too like hard contested footy, where players have to execute their skills under constant extreme pressure.

Anyway, it's what made our species great - the punters are never happy with anything. Just imagine how ecstatic the cave man must have been - no golden past to compare the present with. It's been all downhill since the invention of the wheel.

Edited July 23, 2015 by Tim

[Chook 15,022]

“Indigenous code."

“Glorification"

“Bastardised rugby"

I stopped there.

How about a bit of respect?

[Roger Mellie 4,103]

I love 2015 footy. It's great.

Clearly you missed the Melb v Brisbane game.

Yes, a win's a win but it wasn't pretty by any stretch of the imagination.

[45HG 1,559]

People have probably interest and passion after what his mob have put the game through over the past 2 years and onwards.

[Adam The God 30,421]

We'd be in trouble if they try to enforce some new rules in this area. Our contested style keeps us in games that we would otherwise be blown out of the water in, due to our below standard skills.

[old dee 23,872]

The look of the game at present is terrible I only watch games that envolve the MFC.

It is no accident that it has degenarated to this position since the introduction of the interchange and 24 players.

Unless we return to the things that made the game great to watch it will be overtaken by Soccer by the end of the next decade.

Sadly it is being run by a dill at a critical time I fear for its future.

[special robert 438]

I ilke the game now. Have a look at the 1964 GF.....the football is awful...skills are bad...no passes to anyone....just get it and boof it down your end...the whole game is like that. In the 50s and 60s the grounds were a quaqmire, so the games were a total slog where you would just kick the ball off the ground to get it forward. Now every ground , even the suburban ones are well drained and no one can remember that it was very wet every winter in Melbourne and the ground were a mess.

The golden age of footy...what about 1878? The captains decided how long the match went for and a lot of the rules. Sometimes days.....no positions a huge rolling maul.......the mark was used a lot...often only a metre or two. Tom Wills our first great leader was roundly crticised in this period for playing a game down Geelong way and putting all his team on the backline to prevent the other stronger side from scoring. Flooding was invented in the 1800s.

The free flowing high scoring shoot outs of the 20th century were a brief period of our games evolution where the grounds had improved and the skills were improving but coaches had not yet developed tactics.

Today we have highly developed tactics...good grounds, high level of skill...much more athleticism.

I think Tom wills would absolutely love the game today. I've watched the Hawthorn games this year. Fast ball movement, running, highly skilled.....great to watch. I was at the game last week.......both sides aren't much good....just can't match Hawthorns skill level so you get a low level scrap. Terry Wallace has some very informed views I think on the current evolution of the game.

[dee-luded 2,959]

I'm surprised no one has commented on this article in the age today - apologies if I have missed the thread.

Perfect storm engulfing the AFL's heartland

There are a lot of comments appended to the article which indicates manyf people are not happy, or at least those who are not happy are pretty fired-up about it.

He's right about the effect of players around the ball. Even on TV the spectator often has no idea what is happening - and no chance as a spectator at the match on the other side of the field. I don't know how the flashing advertisements affect spectators since I can only go Manuka, but the spruikers at the GWS games drive me crazy.

Yes Sue good topic, but I'll think about what I'm going to say first....

yes I can't even sit & watch the game anymore, unless I treat it as a study session.

I find it tiresome & un-pleasurable.

--------------------------------------------------

... the only thing now left to me, is the challenge to help us get that bloody flag; finally, it will happen, even if it kills me in the process.

I'll will try my best to steer in the right direction, IF they want to listen, the ideas will be out there, for them to heed. then its up to them, & to change the club from within.

Edited July 23, 2015 by dee-luded

[daisycutter 29,743]

yeah, games in great shape

really looking forward to tomorrow night's game of whorethorn v carlscum. should be rivetting

[dee-luded 2,959]

I ilke the game now. Have a look at the 1964 GF.....the football is awful...skills are bad...no passes to anyone....just get it and boof it down your end...the whole game is like that. In the 50s and 60s the grounds were a quaqmire, so the games were a total slog where you would just kick the ball off the ground to get it forward. Now every ground , even the suburban ones are well drained and no one can remember that it was very wet every winter in Melbourne and the ground were a mess.

The golden age of footy...what about 1878? The captains decided how long the match went for and a lot of the rules. Sometimes days.....no positions a huge rolling maul.......the mark was used a lot...often only a metre or two. Tom Wills our first great leader was roundly crticised in this period for playing a game down Geelong way and putting all his team on the backline to prevent the other stronger side from scoring. Flooding was invented in the 1800s.

The free flowing high scoring shoot outs of the 20th century were a brief period of our games evolution where the grounds had improved and the skills were improving but coaches had not yet developed tactics.

Today we have highly developed tactics...good grounds, high level of skill...much more athleticism.

I think Tom wills would absolutely love the game today. I've watched the Hawthorn games this year. Fast ball movement, running, highly skilled.....great to watch. I was at the game last week.......both sides aren't much good....just can't match Hawthorns skill level so you get a low level scrap. Terry Wallace has some very informed views I think on the current evolution of the game.

we're not talking about '64 sr...

were are talking about compared to the 80's, or even up to 2003,, & anywhere in-between those 2 points, for me at least.

[dee-luded 2,959]

Are the crowds leaving the game because of the way the game is being run or the game itself. I tend to think the former rather than the latter.

There will and should always be tinkering done. However poor visual TV angle coverage and favouring certain teams over others does nothing to

help perceptions in the public domain.

Finally I would think that The MCC and Australian Sports Commissions, even the Minister, are worried about the AFL's piecemeal dithering.

they are listening to All the wrong Stake Holders; except the ones who count the most...

the punters in the outer.

its them, the punters who tred wearily home after making all the noise the atmosppere, if they like what they see. & its this noise that attracts veiwers to the TV like moths to a bright night light.

......the excitement is the moths attraction.

so the punters are not amused,,,,,,, & so the moths aren't either.

& eventually, there will be no event! ....... so then when that day arrives, the players will scream they can't get payed enough.

[special robert 438]

'The free flowing high scoring shoot outs of the 20th C'...by that I mean the80's....yes ok up to about 2003. 1964 and circa were not like that one bit. So I reckon the 23 years we are talking about was the brief bit of our evolution where the skills were high, the grounds good....but no real tactics had been developed. 23 years out of 150.

[beelzebub 23,383]

I reckon place kicks for all set shots within the 50 is a start

[special robert 438]

You know the record longest kick for our game was a place kick. It is still permitted under the rules. Kicking for goal outside 50 is so bad why don'y they practice the place kick? No ball drop to stuff up. I can see Razor ray giving Jessie the '15 seconds' as he receives the small tin of dirt from the Melb runner ....makes a neat mound for the ball and begins to carefully place the sherrin on it. Sorry no time for that etc etc

[KingDingAling 3,758]

I think it is a relevant article. Sports that obtain longevity and a consistent appreciation - are those that remain pure.

Sports like AFL that continue to change the rules by the week, do not remain pure, they essentially change into something that does not remotely represent it's historical starting point. Not only have the rules been hijacked, but the game itself has been hijacked. The people making the big decisions and directing the outcome - run football like a business, it has became an entertainment spectacle. It is something that fans just switch off now, like when I see the Kardashians on TV, that is where I see football heading.

Edited July 23, 2015 by KingDingAling

[Nasher 33,617]

You know the record longest kick for our game was a place kick. It is still permitted under the rules. Kicking for goal outside 50 is so bad why don'y they practice the place kick? No ball drop to stuff up. I can see Razor ray giving Jessie the '15 seconds' as he receives the small tin of dirt from the Melb runner ....makes a neat mound for the ball and begins to carefully place the sherrin on it. Sorry no time for that etc etc

I have to say I'd love to see someone decide to be a smartarse and take a place kick after the siren from half forward one day.

[special robert 438]

How about this. Get your time machine. The Melbournje side of 2015 transported back to 2000. We would have thrashed Essendon in the GF. Despite Essendon being the best side of 2000...our [censored] fight defensive style would have totally befuddled them.

[Bitter but optimistic 22,249]

How about this. Get your time machine. The Melbournje side of 2015 transported back to 2000. We would have thrashed Essendon in the GF. Despite Essendon being the best side of 2000...our [censored] fight defensive style would have totally befuddled them.

[censored] time machines! You got a car yet special? No car car , I'm not reading your [censored]!

[special robert 438]

I'm still trying to get my license. I've failed the test 92 times since I first tried to get it when I was 19. That's 3 times a year for the last 30 years. Anyway i don't care .....none of youse are going to be allowed a ride when i get my time machine....so there.

[Bitter but optimistic 22,249]

I'm still trying to get my license. I've failed the test 92 times since I first tried to get it when I was 19. That's 3 times a year for the last 30 years. Anyway i don't care .....none of youse are going to be allowed a ride when i get my time machine....so there.

Well at least now we know Special. You are yet another fully fledged weirdo who will fit perfectly with all the other Dland ferckups!.

Edited July 23, 2015 by Bitter but optimistic

[rjay 25,093]

Good call, Bray. Everything is crap these days, except nostalgia, it would seem. I too like hard contested footy, where players have to execute their skills under constant extreme pressure.

Anyway, it's what made our species great - the punters are never happy with anything. Just imagine how ecstatic the cave man must have been - no golden past to compare the present with. It's been all downhill since the invention of the wheel.

https://youtu.be/Xe1a1wHxTyo

[Earl Hood 6,101]

I ilke the game now. Have a look at the 1964 GF.....the football is awful...skills are bad...no passes to anyone....just get it and boof it down your end...the whole game is like that. In the 50s and 60s the grounds were a quaqmire, so the games were a total slog where you would just kick the ball off the ground to get it forward. Now every ground , even the suburban ones are well drained and no one can remember that it was very wet every winter in Melbourne and the ground were a mess.

The golden age of footy...what about 1878? The captains decided how long the match went for and a lot of the rules. Sometimes days.....no positions a huge rolling maul.......the mark was used a lot...often only a metre or two. Tom Wills our first great leader was roundly crticised in this period for playing a game down Geelong way and putting all his team on the backline to prevent the other stronger side from scoring. Flooding was invented in the 1800s.

The free flowing high scoring shoot outs of the 20th century were a brief period of our games evolution where the grounds had improved and the skills were improving but coaches had not yet developed tactics.

Today we have highly developed tactics...good grounds, high level of skill...much more athleticism.

I think Tom wills would absolutely love the game today. I've watched the Hawthorn games this year. Fast ball movement, running, highly skilled.....great to watch. I was at the game last week.......both sides aren't much good....just can't match Hawthorns skill level so you get a low level scrap. Terry Wallace has some very informed views I think on the current evolution of the game.

Robert why stop at 1878 in your time machine? Think Mangrook footy pre 1788 played with a stuffed possum skin between tribes of men kicking and jumping over each other over unlimited distances with no strategies and no objectives. Now that was fast open footy at its best long before Tom Wills got his hands on it and introduced tactics that have now evolved into flooding then the ugly mauls we see today.

[dee-luded 2,959]

'The free flowing high scoring shoot outs of the 20th C'...by that I mean the80's....yes ok up to about 2003. 1964 and circa were not like that one bit. So I reckon the 23 years we are talking about was the brief bit of our evolution where the skills were high, the grounds good....but no real tactics had been developed. 23 years out of 150.

yes, you got it. I think its only with the advent of higher education, that (some) supporters, who may be bored sitting standing to watch men play a rugged brand of sport, fast flowing, but which will slow as they tire out, *& this is when the dinosaursus takes charge up forward.

yes it was a running game & it was tough, rugged, & InSpiring to the hilt. they were doing things we couldn't, or wouldn't... that Is the point.

some are just addicted to want to be so intellectual they want it to be this way at the sporting arena..... but the majority just want to go to see a basic, tough, rugged, inspiring game, that is easy to watch, & easy to cheer on, & to have some banter with those around them, on both sides of the divide.

tactics, well stop your opponent & belt him. get off your opponent & score goals. show a clean pair of heels, run rings around your opponent, & fly the flag for your teammates.

this is a communal, tribal thing, that people understand deep down. the US against THEM of our survival instincts.

[special robert 438]

Thanks BBO..By the way i just got back from Canberra a few days ago. I got picked up be a travelling catholic priest who dropped me off in Darwin by mistake. I decided to hop back to Melb to see how many hops it took to get down the Stuart hwy......364,212 !

(I changed legs at Adelaide.)

[dee-luded 2,959]

I think it is a relevant article. Sports that obtain longevity and a consistent appreciation - are those that remain pure.

Sports like AFL that continue to change the rules by the week, do not remain pure, they essentially change into something that does not remotely represent it's historical starting point. Not only have the rules been hijacked, but the game itself has been hijacked. The people making the big decisions and directing the outcome - run football like a business, it has became an entertainment spectable. It is something that fans just switch off now, like when I see the Kardashians on TV, that is where I see football heading.

thats right KDA

they have coporupted their own soft ware, & in so doing have softened the game, & its now not so important to symbolise our fight for existence. our tribe, our community, against THEM !

the TV rights is killing the Golden Goose, through their own greedy minds.