Even as an innocent bystander, football is implicated

You have to research all the way back to the 1980's to find something to try and bring down another sport.

As soon as I saw the footage of the AFL brawl I knew full well that it would be compared to "soccer" by the more sycophantic members of the AFL press. They are nothing if not predictable.

Quick. Look, over there, sokka hoolicans . . . Look away. This does not happen at Victorian Rules venues: https://web.archive.org/web/20160929153218/http://fearofaroundball.com:80/things-you-just-dont-see-at-the-afl/

chris, most AFL fans go to AFL games, & can only comment on what they have experienced, or seen on game coverage they have watched. Some (many) are also "A"League fans, & again can only comment on what they have experienced. I have gone to many AFL games at Subiaco Oval & the number of violent incidents I have encountered could be counted on the fingers of one hand, with some left over. These mostly were some sozzled bloke jumping up & screaming abuse at all & sundry, & being quietly taken away by Security. There were occasional scuffles, with again, the participants being taken away quietly. The most serious was some idiot throwing a bottle.---again apprehended & removed. I have enjoyed many Football games at NIB stadium, most in "the Shed", as an "active" supporter. The crowd was of mixed age, from mid-20s, up to my own age at the time, 60 plus. Our team was crap, but we didn't care, we chanted & sung, &, yes, abused the Referee, but it was all in good fun. There was no snobbery, nobody looked askance if I wore a Fremantle Dockers jacket ( purple is purple), or if someone wore an Eels top. Slowly, a younger, less tolerant element filtered into the group, who wanted to "do their own thing", chant out of step on purpose, fire off flares & so on. Eventually many of the old group moved to the seated part of the stadium (It was a relief in a way, as my ancient knees were starting to give under the strain) What I didn't see was any violence, just dangerous behaviour with the flares. I need to finish here, with my point unresolved, as when trying to express a more balanced narrative, it's easy to go on too long, & the "TLDR" merchants ignore it, & go to something that more immediately satisfies their bias.

Its still saying look how great Basketball is, but the irony with the memes from October is that there is flopping in Basketball all the time, not called out by refs like diving in football. The one from Basketball Writers is sort of a pot shot as they are saying Football is not a real sport, come and follow ours.

Hardly counts as a pot shot.

Stuart, it is not only AFL that take shots at times against A-League/Socceroos. NBL on their twitter account had a meme last October. During the World Cup Campaign, Wildcats had a meme against football. Within hours of Socceroos playing their last game against Peru, basketball writers sent a tweet out stating "For anyone upset about the Socceroos, just remember, the real World Cup is now just 14 months away and we're a legit medal chance. After all, we have these guys .... and more!" It's not only from the AFL but NBL is taking potshots at Football

I think we definitely need to acknowledge and embrace the ethnic nature of our football history and in a way that enhances it and grows the appreciation for it. Take the world cup for example and the positive vibes about the ethnicity and diversity of the countries, their varied temperment and style of play. There were no Croatian slurs about the Croatians in the Croatia team nor racest comments about the Africans in the French team, but put them in a Sydney Croatia team or a Sydney Nigerian team and it will be negative, racest and hateful. The history, endurance and stamina of our “ethnic” state leagues and NSL clubs in times that were much more difficult and much less tolerant than ours, shows that they have a rightful place at the Australian football table. The reason that the old NSL and now A-League bosses tried to remove that ethnicity was because of the disgraceful negative reporting of the sport, with back pages filled with racest hate mail about sokka huuligans. Its the public’s perception that was distorted and not the reality. Is the public going to keep believing that rubbesh or move on? There's more violence at AFL and cricket matches and no-one makes a huge fuss about it. I think the takeover of the SMH by Channel 9 is not a good thing for Australian football and the A-League. The SMH was a good supporter of football and always tried to be unbiased and supportive where it could. Channel Nine is not a football supporter and is not interested in the truth. They worship money, ratings, website clicks and media sales. They will put the boot into the A-League if a fan so much as furts in their general direction, as long as it gets media attention and makes them money.

Wow Rick. You really are an Uber wowser aren't you? Is it illegal to carry a drum? Is it illegal to fly a paper plane? Is it illegal to stand up? Is it illegal to sing a song? Is it illegal to carry food or drink on your person? I could go on. None of these things are illegal, but a stadium can kick you out for any of those things if they want. I'm not sure why this is difficult for you to understand. You have a right to be there - as long as the stadium lets you. Talking about the right of a patron as if it's something sacrosanct is silly, especially when one group actually makes the effort to clarify their "rights", but then has these flipped. I'm sure "the authorities" will be very pleased with your valuable information. I'll expect a knock at the door any day now. Maybe the roar people will take away your right to post for personal abuse, but I don't care myself as by coming here I know what I'm in for and at am not going to go running because I can't deal with people .

BTW - I've also reported you to the mods. Not for breaching their terms and conditions, but to supply the appropriate authorities with your IP address.

"They can decide what acceptable behaviour is or isn’t, regardless of legality. These are the rights you surrender – the stadium reserves the right to do this because, well,,it’s theirs." Nope. That is now the d^umbest thing I have ever read.... ever! You truly are a m0r0n if you believe that. And if you do.... I hope someone throws you in jail before it is too late. These proceedings are closed.

I forgot you're the only one allowed to make sweeping generalisations! A bit of qualified hyperbole Rick, thought you'd lap it up. Except words like "for the most part". And the rest of what I wrote. You dont have a "right" to a certain ideal experience is the point. You don't have a right to be free of other people around you that are doing things allowed by the stadium but that you happen not to like. All you can do is enter, if they let you, (and are not carrying anything like something that eould stop you having to purchase stadium things (some water, maybe)), have access to your seat, and consume. You are videoed, and, if the stadium deems it appropriate, don't have the right to stay if they don't want you to. Because lets not forget Ts and Cs Rick, Ts and Cs. They can decide whether or not you can stay in the stadium. They can decide what acceptable behaviour is or isn't, regardless of legality. These are the rights you surrender - the stadium reserves the right to do this because, well,,it's theirs. They gave these fans the right to stand and drum and then took it away. upon which the fans left (far from anti social behaviour really!)

"When you enter a stadium you surrender your rights." This is quite possibly the d^mbest comment I've ever read on this site. "You are on private property and the stadium can do what they like with you" No... this is the d^mbest comment I've ever read. Go to bed marron and sleep it off.

The police sticking their personnel on does not equate to incidents Perry. There may well be 16 or more incidents, or whatever number you like, but that's not evidence of incidents occuring. That's evidence of a longterm police policy with regards to perceived problems. The police decide those numbers are required - but on what basis? There have been studies in the European context - you know, where it's supposedly really bad and everything - that show that increase presence of police in uniform and at the ready lead to increased incidents! The most serious incidents have occured well away from grounds, OR when police themselves have inflamed situations. Guerin says "imagine if we had to seperate cheersquads on their way to the ground". Well, imagine it. IT kind of highlights a few things too, that comment. Because, as he well would know, part of the police presence is required because of those marches. This is policy - when there is road closure for a mass gathering, police are required. THey are not required because of football incidents. They are required because that is the policy - there are people using the streets (as is their right, if the proper channels have been used to have their demonstration) - and so police are required. That's it. Does Guerin explain this aspect? Does he f. He is more interested in painting a picture of lawlessness, which does not exist. Why? Because he, like the the media, has either bought the narrative, or has an interest in continuing it. If cheersquads wanted to march on the streets, the police presence would go up by a large amount. And maybe, I don't know, there'd be police there to react when there were fights in the stands, or actually deal with hate speech at grounds, or take the details of people so they could go on a lengthy ban list instead of letting people walk out and not be dealt with.

Having trouble reading aren't we Rick. Have a sit down maybe. Nothing described in that article (which is based on an un-named source, never confirmed in any sort of statement - we may just as easily assume that NRMA decided that they'd got their moneys worth and it was time to move on, as the article also suggests could be a reason) - is HOOLIGANISM. The continuing use of the word is part of the longstanding issue. It paints a picture which is not true. Dodgy banners and extremely poor behaviour by fans are not things restricted to WSW, or football as a code. I am not condoning it in any place. But it's not hooliganism. Calling it this of course helps justify the different treatment that poor behaviour receives. Human rights now? Give me a break. When you enter a stadium you surrender your rights. You are on private property and the stadium can do what they like with you for the most part. In this case, the stadium had agreed to let the Glory fans do what they do, and what thousands of football fans do all over the world. They then changed their mind (or, at least, security did, which is just as likely). But that attitude - sit down, shut up, consume only - reflects a great deal about the way that these things are not understood, and the kind of culture we live in. And they WILL be missed, because football - and I include all codes in this - is about more than a few players kicking a ball about. It is the totality of the crowd, community, club, team, events, the interaction between it all. Every bit of shutting down individuality and cultural expression helps to kill all of that. Grow the game my backside.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/wanderers-lose-biggest-sponsor-after-rbb-misbehaviour-20180323-p4z5w6.html Be thankful I’m not the one running the FFA. You’d be the first person gone. I don’t tolerate this behaviour, nor anyone who condones it. I don’t tolerate selfish people like you, Stuart and the Glory fans. The simple fact is: a bunch of simpletons decided to walkout, instead of sitting down and respecting the rights of those who are sitting in a SEATED area. If they wanted to be there for the football they would have stayed. No... they wanted to play their little drums instead whilst annoying those around. When they couldn’t get their way, they threw their toys out of the cot. They won’t be missed. When you grow up you’ll realise just how wrong you are in every facet of this argument. You’ll also start to realise why we need to rid the likes of you and Stuart to grow the elite game.

Nope, not poor form. You want perfect vision and anodynity? Watch the box from your couch. You want something a bit more lively and visceral? Go to the ground, and embrace the atmosphere. But take it all in, for god's sake. Chalk it up to experience. Live football is a living thing. If people don't understand that, i question what they are doing there. And if they even know what a blue flag is, they can do what many opponents of Chelsea often advise and do something impolite with it for all I care. WSWs sponsorship was not affected by hooliganism Rick. It just plain wasn't. It might - might! have been affected by negative press. It might -might! even have been affected by people mistakenly attributing banners to "hooliganism". But no matter how much you call it so, it doesn't make it hooliganism. Because I'm afraid if those terrible terrible things that occur at aleague matches is hooliganism, you are wrong, and the AFL is full of it.

The FFA is spineless in sticking up for football and the sooner this current mob is removed and replaced by genuine football people the better it will be for the game.

"This indicates a lot about your understanding of the a-league and your expectations about spectator sport" A vast majority of fans at A-League matches sit. It's why those little things called seats are there. End of discussion. "And what did happen was people with no understanding of football culture bought cheap tickets in an area near active support and then complained like yuppies next to a live music venue" It's not up to yuppies to know if their line of sight is going to be blocked by a bunch of drum-wielding fans. At the very least, blame Optus, but don't bring the yuppies into it as Stewy has. Poor form! "And that perception is ill founded." Tell that to the WSW who lost $1M in major sponsorship last year due to hooliganism. "You are right that the AFL doesn’t have it." I'm always right.

So you keep talking about 1 incident, and then escorts, WHICH ARE NOT INCIDENTS, so like I said I remember 2 from last year, AFL has had 13 or 14 in past 9-10 weeks. So the fact that you dismiss this as occasional yet keep talking about an incident that happened (you claim) in 2013 Which you don't even understand what happened. I was at that game, the people were not outside at half time for a smoke, you can't leave the ground for a smoke. So Perry, it appears you have abandoned any notion that you are anything other than an AFL troll, you are only looking to cause trouble on this tab, noted.