- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Roar Rookie
Joined March 2012
0
Views
0
Published
28
Comments
Published
Comments
Games of football in the AFL have the capacity to have 90,000 ‘active’ supporters partake in 120 minutes of continuous emotion and support… we don’t need to sing songs or undertake pyrotechnics to keep ourselves entertained.
Why is mainstream Australia scared of active fans?
You should never knock on in league – every single possession/disposal is basically uncontested!
No fumbles in league? I saw uncontested catches dropped even in the biggest game of them all (Slater, Barba)! Not to mention the amount of possession lost in tackles.
Also there has been a lot of criticism of game style in the past decade, happens all the time. Really just becomes more like league though where there are 20-odd players around the ball and few elsewhere.
Anyway don’t call it “AFL” – Australian Football League. How can you play Australian Football League?
Criticism of NRL relative to AFL distant to the truth
“Anyone can jump for a ball, it’s easy”? Could have fooled me, never seen more squibs than when a high ball is played in rugby league – should watch them all duck their heads and shy away from contact!
Criticism of NRL relative to AFL distant to the truth
Very few goals are due to lucky bounces, far more tries are in the hands of a lucky bounce than goals!
Criticism of NRL relative to AFL distant to the truth
Haha the bounce of the ball decides about half of rugby league’s tries through the sixth-tackle dribbler!
Criticism of NRL relative to AFL distant to the truth
You need to appreciate it for what it is.
You are used to seeing a line of players, completely separated from their opposition, able to throw three metre passes backwards, and rightfully expect clean possession. Of course.
Now remove the separation between teams. Now allow 360 degree ball movement. Now give the capacity for the ball to travel over great distances.
I found it ironic that Cronk’s 15 metre drop punt to set up a Storm try was described as the most skillful play of the match – that is a standard move in Australian Football. So much skill required, far more than chain of uncontested, backwards passes.
Criticism of NRL relative to AFL distant to the truth
Rugby isn’t my code of choice, but wasn’t its initial objective to kick goals? You crossed the line with ball in hand to get a ‘try’ or an attempt at goal.
Has rugby outgrown its scoring system?
What? Richmond has arguably the largest and most loyal fanbase for any team with three decades of struggle in the history of sport!
I’d say Essendon has far more fairweathers.
Five great bandwagons in Australian sports
Nice article, only thing I’d change is having the ‘window’ widest open at 12PM (top) and furthest shut at 6PM (bottom)!
Premiership Window Clock about to tick out of sync
That’s right, there is a mixed bag. Basically the further you go up the more ‘complete’ the footballer is across the board. If they are at AFL level they will be elite in at least one area, and very good in most others.
Desperation makes an AFL footballer
Almost as good as one from Australia’s longest serving Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies: “I make no apology for my firm belief that Australian Football is the greatest winter game devised by mortal man.”
The Hunter Valley footballer who revolutionised rugby
Haven’t quite hit the mark here.
Firstly you state “An AFL footballer cannot be differentiated from a section one footballer purely on skill alone” – this trait is not true of just Australian Football, but all codes. You will find in every league the player with 10% less skill but 10% more determination will be the better performer. However sometimes it is true – you can find pretty determined players in the lower leagues, arguably more desperate than some AFL comrades – and the only difference here is natural skill set.
Also to say Richmond’s “skill level had nothing to do with winning that game” is completely untrue, they have a stack of young skillful players in that team and would not have won without them, period.
Desperation and determination is a huge part of Australian Football (and often the difference between two teams on the day), however skill set and other factors are also vital.
Desperation makes an AFL footballer
Actually I agree with you there – allegiance is where the other type of rivalry is born and bred. But I still don’t buy the argument that NSW-Queensland is “Australian sport’s last rivalry” because it’s the “last bastion for gratuitous violence” between opponents.
State of Origin: The only true rivalry left
Origin is popular because of the NSW/Queensland rivalry, rather than because of the sport of rugby league itself.
Millions of Cockroaches and Cane Toads will watch it yet they don’t watch rugby league the rest of the year.
It’s the equivalent to not giving a damn about archery… except at the Olympic Games when Australia wins a gold medal.
At the end of the day it is more about an allegiance than a sport.
Do you really 'get' State of Origin?
Gosh. “Brett White threw and unprovoked punch and later in the fight laid Price out cold.”
If this is what defines a true “rivalry” then I wouldn’t want to be a part of it. Acting like animals does not make a rivalry.
True sporting rivalries grow from the very best giving their very best – within the rules.
State of Origin: The only true rivalry left
The personnel may change slightly but the relative strength of states won’t change much over three years.
Keeping at every two-four years is the best way for it to retain interest and the player participation of the elite.
Almost every elite player played in the 2008 Hall of Fame game as it was a once-off game. If that was played every year half of them would not have showed up the next year. Same thing happens in the International Rules, most elite players have a go once (to get the Australian guernsey/go on the trip) and then won’t bother twice.
Keeping the games rare means players would be lucky to wear their state guernseys more than a few times in their career and so there is much more of an incentive to play.
The players are right: bring back AFL State of Origin
Good call.
Only tweaks I’d make is possibly make the games even more scarce, say once every three or four years (if a player has only a couple of chances to play in his career he is almost certain to play), and maybe combine Queensland with NT.
The players are right: bring back AFL State of Origin
Nice article. Geelong Football Club supporters know how a 44-year drought feels.
This final matchday, spare a thought for those real Manchester City fans
Again, using AFL Dream Team/SuperCoach fantasy figures it seems as though West Coast supporters outnumber Fremantle 2:1. That’s nothing to sneezed at though for Dockers fans.
Who is the most supported NRL club in Sydney?
Please note I am not stating that these absolute figures give any indication of total support figures.
What I am saying that they are very useful to compare the rank of club support or proportion of supporters.
When comparing ‘like’ clubs there is consitency across the competitions (however not when comparing unlike clubs, for example New Zealand very high in NRL DT but very low in News Ltd. SC) which can give a very good indication of support.
Who is the most supported NRL club in Sydney?
http://nrlfantasy.dailytelegraph.com.au/topcoaches
http://dreamteam.nrl.com/topcoaches
Canterbury seems to be just behind the Dragons.
Who is the most supported NRL club in Sydney?
Some people may think it is a simplistic and rudimentary method however I believe looking at SuperCoach/Dream Team entrant numbers can give a very good indication of true club support (rather than absolute figures), when comparing ‘like-for-like’ teams (such as Sydney clubs).
It is not unreasonable to assume that supporters of comparable clubs would have similar participation rates in fantasy games. So, for example, since NRL SuperCoach is a News Limited competition and heavily promoted by its newspapers, it would not be reasonable to compare Eels figures with Warriors figures, however a Eels-Tigers comparison is valid.
Using NRL Dream Team figures alongside these, some pretty reliable numbers come out when comparing ‘like’ clubs.
Of the Sydney clubs, it seems Paramatta, Wests and St George-Illawarra are the three most supported with all three figuring in the top three in terms of entrants to both fantasy competitions. At the bottom end we find Penrith, Cronulla and South Sydney.
Who is the most supported NRL club in Sydney?
It is sad that more free kicks seem to be ‘induced’ by the victim these days then are actually the fault of the perpetrator.
The problem is that the alternative you offer is flawed; “The best advice for Clarkson and the Hawks is to tackle the opposition mid-section”. You do this and you will lose, as the most important part of the tackle is to stop the tacklee freeing his arms to get the handball away. It is very hard to do this via the mid-section and this is why players aim to tackle between the shoulder and elbow.
Hawthorn, here's how to avoid tackles
No but it does matter if my life is put in danger as a result.
Why is mainstream Australia scared of active fans?