It has now been a week since the now even more controversial Australian rules football figure Mark Jackson ferociously attacked not only the renowned journalist Mike Sheahan but also the AFL and its current players.
Sports losing their proverbial souls is an issue facing almost every major sport. Be it football, basketball or even boxing, veterans of the major sports and lifelong fans have now for years been urging their sports to stray from the path of commercialisation.
But like many of its international counterparts has Australia’s own game also lost its soul?
In recent years the AFL has controversially made a variety of rule changes to the way the game is played. These changes have fuelled heated debates between fans, analysts and coaches.
They have turned the game into a more polished and refined sport, one where according to Mark Jackson athletic ability and statistical analysis are viewed as more valuable rather than playing with raw passion and talent.
Many of the game’s now veteran supporters and former players also feel that the current state of the game is one of softness and shamanism. Jackson also claimed that many of the players today and in particular the forwards are “imposters and should be charged with fraud” due to the way they play the game.
A bold and distastefully blunt statement no doubt, but it is hard to fully disagree with the statement given the poor shooting ability of many forwards today. The manner in which they hand the ball off from 40 or sometimes less metres out from goal does make one question their ability.
What is in need of urgent attention are the claims from Mark Jackson and Sam Kekovich that the AFL is too “city centric”.
Has the AFL lost touch with Australia’s rural areas, places that have produced many of the game’s stars and represent what it is truly about? Results from a recent fan survey showed that it is perceived by many fans that the AFL is now being operated like a “profit centre for shareholders”.
If this perception is not swiftly subdued then the ramifications could greatly impact the future of the game. To make matters worse for the AFL, concerns that the game is becoming too Americanised and solely focused generating the greatest profits have spread to the league’s most struggling clubs.
Tension has arisen between these clubs and the AFL’s hierarchy over disputes involving who should fund player payments and the clubs desires to eradicate the controversial wealth tax.
Given that the AFL, like the community, has recognised that there are issues in that area makes the recent ventures into international nations a controversial issue.
It is clear to see that there was genuine concern that Jacko’s game, our game and Australia’s traditional game is in need of a serious review.
No sport in Australia’s history optimises what it means to be an Australian more than Australian rules football, but is the game currently on a path to becoming less Australian? If so something must be done as it would be a travesty of the greatest proportions to formally admit and acknowledge that the AFL lacks integrity and has lost its soul.
JR Salazar
Guest
You folks don't need Trump, you already have Turnbull.
JR Salazar
Guest
Welcome to 2016. Times have changed, mate.
Mike Huber
Roar Pro
DC You are a better man than me - I tried the drop kick a few times , I am bloody hopeless at it ! I find it very difficult to get distance and accuracy . Are you taking PED'S ??
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
I have experimented and that's how I came to that conclusion. When I nail the droppy it goes about the same distance wise as maybe the upper end of my usual range, but I found they go as straight as a die. And that's just with some casual practice. I'd imagine doing them regularly at training, in games etc it would hone that skill just nicely. Still less errors and faster (less cognitively demanding) execution with the drop punt is the key into how the drop kick became obsolete.
Republican
Guest
.......depends on your interpretation of 'fun' I suppose. I dont enjoy stand up comedy. I expect you stand at dinner parties Penster - life of the party hey? That said, I didn't realise this was a satirical article of whimsy.
Republican
Guest
.......club colours and gurneys are a case in point - I mean how many does one 'club' need. That's all about merchandising, branding, consumerism and complete dependency on television. Ironically this overkill of product compromises respective club identities and hertitage.
Mike Huber
Roar Pro
DC "it does actually lead to more accurate kicks over distances, thus making threading the needle easier" Where on earth did you discover this premise from ? The drop kick was made obsolete for the completely opposite reason - it was too hard on the run to execute accurately. Go down to your local oval and experiment . You will easily be more successful kicking at goal with a drop punt, not a drop kick - AND that's without anyone on the mark !
Mike Huber
Roar Pro
PB "Sit with me and watch the ’77 GF and GF replay and get a reminder of how poor the kicking skills actually were back then " No thanks , i am already taken !
Samuel Laffy
Roar Guru
If you check the goal-kicking stats of previous years, you'll find some obvious stand-outs! Alan Noonan once kicked 77.81 one year, Ablett kicked 122.85 in 1995, Sumich kicked 111.89 in 1991, McKenna kicked 80 behinds in 1970, Wade 75 in a year, Dunstall kicked 145.84 in in 1992. Sure, there's a of goals, but there's a hell of a lot of misses too!
Jon Kau
Guest
Don't want to be a pain but: "No sport in Australia's history optimises (epitomises) what it means to be an Australian..." I didn't watch or hear the interview with Jacko. It most likely would have bugged me. He seems rather irrelevant now and people my age and younger wouldn't think twice about hearing his opinion (born in the 80s here). I feel that the rule changes haven't been successful for one reason: the rules committee have to justify their position so they have to tweak the rules to ensure they are working. We don't need yearly rule changes! The "interpretation" of the rules is off too. There are too many grey areas and some rules are decisions are based on conditions and how they are seen: if this, then that. I understand that some decisions will look different to all but perhaps the AFL umpires committee should release in depth videos on each rule with in game examples of a right and wrong decision. It might help to add some clarity around the wording and what it looks like in real life.
Tim Holt
Roar Guru
I have watched since coming here in 1971 As a Hawks fans, one would think that it is a great time for I to watch the game But, while I enjoy the club doing so well I cannot associate with the game with it being a shadow of the one I fell in love with back in the day.
JVGO
Guest
Just rename it squabbleball
AR
Guest
"The AFL are first and foremost a business, their supporters only consumers." The AFL is certainly a very well-run business, as most sports strive to be. But the supporters - or at least members - are far less consumers tha those from other sports. In soccer or rugby league clubs are largely privately owned and the 'members' have no means by which to change the board, change the club colours, change the location of the club, have a say in its very existence. On that score, AFL members belong to a club, as opposed to being mere consumers of a franschise product.
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
Let's make AFL great again.
Perry Bridge
Guest
#Liam -- re the movement of the game - this is where I hope we don't move to a free kick for the ball going out of bounds (as we seem headed towards). Simply - we need to retain the boundary throw in, the stoppages around the ground - they provide the need for inside players, for ruckmen, for Caleb Daniel and Sam Mitchell types. The notion that constant movement is a goal seems pointless to me. However - the improvement in surface and removal of centre wicket areas (and that's a good thing, because a chopped up sticky muddy centre wicket that starts drying was a menace, ask Tony Hall, and when fully dry was a really hard menace) - have allowed players to move more freely across the field. That's the biggest impact. Call it AFL strategy if you wish. Reality though is the AFL don't own the MCG, or Etihad. The AFL is a tenant. Providing flat fields was for Olympic soccer. Improving drainage very much focussed on for cricket as well as footy. Running drop in pitches allows a far quicker switch from footy to cricket without groundsmen struggling to bring the pitch up to standard after the GF finishes. But - it's easy to just blame the AFL. (nothing happens in a vacuum - not even 'selling out to television' - the market place was moving on and the AFL had to move with it or, agitate the market to suit itself - doing any less would have been far less appealing.)
Perry Bridge
Guest
The NRL goalkicker gets a whole lot more time to set up, has no one on the mark, and actually didn't have to make 4 fake leads before finally finding the gap and space to mark - only to then spend the next 10-15 seconds getting up off the ground and to the top of his 'run' only to have about 5 seconds to regain his breath and set up his 'routine' to come in and kick. Now - compare to a golfer spending how long preparing for a putt.....
Perry Bridge
Guest
Marking is still an evident skill - I saw Drew Petrie taking a speccie right in front of me this week, a few other ripper marks both up forward and back, and last week Majak Daw took a neat little grab. Ben Brown's been marking almost everything - probably deserves a few more frees because defenders can only stop him generally by holding on or chopping arms. I'm not sure who you've been watching.....a Richmond supporter perhaps?
Perry Bridge
Guest
Sit with me and watch the '77 GF and GF replay and get a reminder of how poor the kicking skills actually were back then.
Dalgety Carrington
Roar Guru
I guarantee you the kicking skills would, as a whole, be light years ahead in the modern game than almost any other era. Partly due to it being a fully professional game and that's just the way things work in sports. Sure there will be those with freakish skills who could hold their own in any era, but the tide has risen and taken the boats along with it. The drop kick doesn't get used, not so much because it's difficult per se (it does actually lead to more accurate kicks over distances, thus making threading the needle easier), but I'd say because it's slightly slower in the execution and harder to do under pressure.
mds1970
Roar Guru
The Wookie is alive and well. On the Footy Industry site: "Apologies for the couple of weeks away, back and updating now." And furiously posting catch-up stats for the last couple of weeks. Maybe been away on holidays or something.