As somebody who actively follows both Aussie Rules and Football, it constantly staggers me when I tune into an AFL game only to see the two teams in action wearing similar colours. Friday night’s Melbourne-umpires farce took that to the extreme.
Therefore, you can understand my astonishment when I attended the footy the day after the drama on Friday night to witness West Coast and Hawthorn trundle round for a few hours both wearing predominantly yellow and white uniforms.
It left me pondering who makes these decisions?
People in AFL circles often laugh off uniform clashes as a non-issue.
And Eddie Maguire and Collingwood’s stance a few years back on clash uniforms really made a farce out of the concept.
But such suggestions often leave me perplexed.
From my own experience of watching footy games, I often find it difficult to differentiate team from team. It certainly doesn’t enhance the experience of going to the footy.
On the weekend at Subiaco Oval, I overheard numerous onlookers around me confess their confusion at the similar playing strips.
As well, from my own personal experience of playing footy in country WA, I know often – like Clint Bartram did on Friday – you handball or kick to your colours when under pressure.
It’s obvious, these colour clashes create confusion.
So therefore it is hard to fathom why more common sense isn’t used by those in charge of these decisions.
As well, some of these ‘clash’ strips which clubs have are ridiculous as they simply don’t do their job.
Monday night’s Carlton-St Kilda was a great example of someone getting their clash strip right.
Carlton’s white uniform was the polar opposite of the Saints’ predominantly black outfit, whilst the Blues managed to retain a bit of tradition in their strip.
It made for ideal viewing.
So you wonder why more clubs aren’t able to offer such ideal clash strips?
Why can’t clubs and the AFL sit down at the start of the season and work all this out and apply a bit of common sense?
It’s something which continues to perplex me, but maybe the events of last Friday night will force the AFL take it all a bit more seriously.
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