Comments on: Is football getting softer, or just AFL?

By: Michael C

Michael C — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:48:41 +0000

It’s always that confusion of ‘Rough’ with ‘Tough’.

At times I still believe Rugby Union to be the legal roughest of the codes. I don’t necessarily know if that makes it the ‘technically’ toughest and whether that’s an attribute to be celebrated or managed.

By: Spiro Zavos

Spiro Zavos — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 01:37:16 +0000

The football contact sports are much harder and tougher today than they were in the past. The difference is that there is less foul play on and off the ball than in the past. I don’t call kicking someone’s head in, or punching someone, or smashing them without the ball tough play. It’s dirty play, which is something else again.
You only have to go somewhere near the sidelines of a rugby league or rugby union match to hear the tackles to understand that the game is very much tougher than in the past. In fact I was sitting with John Eales once at a game after he’d retired and we could hear the smacks from the tackles and so on, and he murmured to me: ‘How did I ever play this game?’
The players are bigger, fitter, faster and more powerful. It stands to reason that they’re tougher and tackle and run harder. It’s just that there are fewer cheap shots, which is a good thing.

By: Jarryd

Jarryd — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 06:17:49 +0000

Ok thats fair enough, i do agree with you that sometimes the effort and comitment isnt there, especially in some players. but certain teams like geelong, hawthorn, sydney have built a culture where players get frowned upon when the give up, and that is certainly why these tams are better. They commit to the footy.

I dont think the rugby league is a tough sport now. and i know alot of people will not like that comment. i do like watching rugby league but i think afl is a lot tougher than league. i have played both and although the hits are bigger in nrl players are able to brace themselves for the hits as they are just coming from front on. however in afl it is a 360 degree game. players can hit you from anywhere and it is harder to brace yourself and therefor hurts more…

By: Forgetmenot

Forgetmenot — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:18:18 +0000

By toughness i was trying to talk about how players seem to give up more easily and and get pushed out the way.
I have only seen videos of the 60′s to 80′s football. I agree that players are fitter and stronger and that a push may seem to weaker purely because both players have a large amount of muscle on them.
Yes all sports seem to be taking the professional non-violent approach, I hope that rugby league doesnt start going very soft as seems to have started happening in the last 3 years.

By: Jarryd

Jarryd — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:24:09 +0000

Forgetmenot, i dont believe that the games are less tough at all. I believe today it is ALOT harder than it was back in the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s. The players today are bigger, fitter, stronger and faster. The contact that a player recieves out on the field is now 10 times harder than it was back then.

When talking about toughness i think you are referring to all-in-brawls and other fights. But in my opinion, throwing a punch isn’t tough. Running back with the flight of the ball to take a mark when a pack of players each weighing 100 kilos are running towards you is tough.

The league trying to clean up its image was always a matter of time. All codes of football are doing it, rugby league is doing it, so is union. This, however was always going to occur because getting people to watch the game is what keeps it going. Also, you have to realise that players today are getting paid a hell of a lot more than what they were 30 years ago, the sport is more professional and players have more to lose by going up to a bloke and punching him in the back of the head. Team-mates can lose alot of respect for a bloke when he is letting them down by getting rubbed out for 7 weeks for hitting a bloke. Look at Tadhg Kennelly’s comments about barry hall.