By watching both AFL and Rugby League in a short timeframe, I got a unique opportunity to compare both codes.
Last week I attended the Swans/Giants elimination final at the SCG. I then travelled to my son’s house and watched the Roosters/Sharks qualifying final on Fox. I came to some really surprising conclusions. These comments are purely from the average fan’s view.
The pattern of play
AFL is fundamentally a run, gather, tackle and kick game played at breakneck speed with a large number of points scored over four quarters of about 30 minutes each.
When played at its best, there are highlights every minute. These can be spectacular marks, brilliant collecting of a rolling funny shaped ball or kicking this ball through the tall sticks.
When it is not being played so well there are hardly any contested marks and many scrambled periods of play where players fumble and miss their targets with kicks or handballs. On these occasions, the tall sticks seem to have a force field between them to repel major scores.
If two sides are equally matched in aggression and endeavour, often there is a stalemate. Not many points, a lot of stoppages and major scrambling.
(AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy)
Rugby League has a different structure. It is a run, pass and tackle game. Compared to AFL its not as crazy, there is fewer spectacular moments and much lower scores over two halves of 40 minutes each.
There are bad games when sides drop the ball (unlike AFL, dropping the ball in Rugby League is a sin) resulting in stoppages. Often, when tackles are missed tries are scored and the defence lovers mutter “in my day they never would have missed that tackle”.
Rugby league is far more structured; hold the ball for five tackles then kick it away. That bit was borrowed from gridiron when the unlimited tackle rule was sounding the death knell of Rugby League.
A game can be boring when five tackles and kick goes on forever and nothing exciting happens. The difference is that there are two main types of kicks. One is kicking a punt as far away as you can and then rush up to tackle the person running the ball back.
(Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
The second type of kicking is when attacking the defender’s goal line. These kicks can be high, so the attacker can regain possession and score a try, or along the ground so the defender cannot gather the ball and the attacker falls on it over the goal line: Try time!
Effect of injuries
In AFL, because there are 18 men on a team, an injury to one player rarely dictates the result. There are exceptions, however.
Several weeks ago Phil Davis of the GWS Giants was injured while marking Lance Franklin. The scores at the time were close. The Giants sent a young untested player to mark Franklin, who then dominated the match and kicked a match-winning total. This is not common.
It’s different in Rugby League, an injury to your best player can determine the result of a match.
Last week the Cronulla Sharks and Sydney Roosters were engaged in a close battle. Wade Graham, the Sharks playmaker, suffered a knee injury which ended his season. The Shark’s attack suffered, and the Roosters ended up winning by nine points.
(AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
The weekend games as a spectacle
Most games of AFL start with both sides going helter-skelter at each other. One side will gradually gain momentum with more disposals and then gradually one side gains ascendancy gathers more balls and disposes of them more accurately. The other side tries to pick up the slack but often it’s too late. The game’s gone.
This game was a fairly typical Swans/Giants clash with both teams showing great endeavour and heart. The Giants got on top and stayed there. Big win, few highlights generally a boring game. Maybe the purists loved it but I must not be one of those. I gave it a 4 out of 10.
Rugby League: This game had remarkably few errors and six excellently created tries. There was also first-class defence and examples of greatness from two well-coached teams with competent athletic players. This was a solid 8 out of 10 from me.
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