AFL - What's your thoughts?

Pisco Sour

Massive sports fan, which was the main reason I chose Melbourne. For the most part it hasn't disappointed. But to be honest I really thought I would get into the AFL a lot more than I have. I have been to a few games and caught a great one between Carlton and Essendon which was a draw. But quite often the sport lacks any sort of interesting atmospehere. There's no real chants, no real difference between different sets of supporters, and the games are dreadfully one sided half the time, which sucks any sort of atmosphere away.

In addition half the games being played at the MCG doesn't help this, as the stadium is usually half empty as a result (much like Croke Park). 9 Melbourne teams using just 2 grounds. It makes the whole thing very generic, and very few teams in the league have a true "home ground" anymore.

Worst of all is the amount of press coverage it gets. Granted it is the biggest sport in Victoria so you would expect a lot of attention, but the coverage in the newspapers is completely OTT and is really offputting. 20 pages dedicated to the AFL? Madness. 2 pages dedicated to some muppet who gets done for drink driving/ drugs/ beating his wife/ cheating on his wife/ *insert clown-type activity here*. Really, are people interested in this stuff? Is it more worthy of newspaper space than Sally Pearson winning World Championship gold for Australia in the hurdles, or Sam Stosur winning the US Open?

Also I can't help but notice that the vast majority of people who play the sport are a bunch of macho clowns who think the sun shines out of their rear end. I see it every day at the Tan when I am training.

All in all, AFL hasn't been what I expected. I genuinely thought I would love it, but I find myself dreading the fact it is all going to start up again.

Feel free to agree or disagree. What are other peoples thoughts on the sport?

Xavi6

Absolutely love it, my second favourite sport after soccer. I'm a West Coast Eagles member and go to pretty much every home game.

Of course there are plenty of negatives, and you've outlined some quite fairly in your OP. In the west it's even worse in terms of there being zero away support pretty much but that can't really be helped. However the atmosphere at the Western Derby is sensational and I make sure I get along to both every year.

I'm delighted that there's going to be a dedicated Fox Sports AFL channel this year, and programmes like The Footy Show are brilliant viewing.

The sport itself is fantastic imo. Speed, endurance and bravery are all strong, admirable traits you see across the country in players and I'd love to be able to play it. Sure there's dickheads, but no more so than other sports where lads have orange boots and colour in their hair.

It's easy to pick faults in any sport so if you can see past them then I think you're on to a winner with AFL, but that's just a personal opinion.

Doc

It’s though to avoid the AFL if you live in Melbourne. I’ve been to a good few games and by and large the only real atmosphere is behind the posts on either end of the ground where the hardcore fans sit. (Although honestly I don’t see why if you’re that big a fan you would sit I what I see as the worst location to see a game from.)
I like it enough to go if friends ask me to but not enough to go other then that. The stop start nature of the marks, the way you can miss and still get a point and the fact that the games seem to go on forever make it a bit boring for me.

I’m more a fan of rugby so I’m happy that the Melbourne Rebels now exists and went to a few of their games (Even if they have that cock Danny Cipriani playing for them). But yea it seams like despite the fact there is such a huge amount of choice here for sports to follow nobody including the media cares about anything but AFL.

Pisco Sour

Another thing I find is that the AFL fans are so blind when it comes to other sports and for many of these people it is AFL and nothing but AFL.

One of the officials at my track and field meets was watching the Geelong semi final match (or reliminary super-final or whatever crap they call it) in the club house, and I asked him did he know what the score was in the rugby by any chance (the Rugby World Cup was on at the time), and his response was “ah, ya like the bum-sniffing? Not into the old bum sniffing myself”

Granted certain sports aren’t for everybody. Nothing wrong with that. But is there really a need to just insult a sport like that? Seems at times that AFL fans get very defensive about their sport, and hurl insults at other sports that are seen as competition. In Ireland many GAA fans support soccer and rugby. Over here, this would be a minority.

The day Ireland beat Australia in the Rugby World Cup one of my mates was on a huge high with the result and I overheard him getting talking to some random Aussies in a bar later that evening. He said something along the lines of “ah we beat ya today lad” or something friendly like that” and the Aussies guys sarcastic response was “oh really. Ah sh1t, that sucks. Hey John we lost the match today”. His mate John (or whatever his name was) shouts back “oh damn, that sucks”. These guys didn’t even know their country was playing in the world cup, didn’t care that they had been beaten, and were too wrapped up in their AFL to care one bit.

I’d bet a significant amount of money that if you walked into an AFL ground and asked 100 people who Sally Pearson is, I’d say no more than 10-15 of them would know, even though she is World Champion, 4th fastest in history, and won the World Athlete of the Year award last year.

Lots (not all) of AFL fans are stuck in their little AFL world and don’t know about other stuff that goes on.

Suppose it is the same with some GAA fans in Ireland, but to be honest, it seems a lot worse over here in this regard.

jackbhoy

I enjoy it and always kept an eye on it on TG4 back home. Rugby and GAA are by far my favorite sports but AFL is up there, certainly way ahead of soccer.

You can find entertainment in even the dullest matches as well. I like sitting on upper levels in MCG/Etihad as you can see so much of movement and stuff off the ball that you totally miss on TV. They are seriously tough guys and great athletes as well so even if some of them act like d1cks still gotta respect the job they do.

Atmospere is a bit lacking in a lot of games but that's true for most sports in run of the mill league games, certainly in GAA league, Pro 12 rugby and EPL etc. If you get a good, close game you can have great atmospehere though.

The coverage in Vic is a bit OTT alright but I suppose that's what readers/viewers want and it sells papers.

Xavi6

04072511 wrote: »

The day Ireland beat Australia in the Rugby World Cup one of my mates was on a huge high with the result and I overheard him getting talking to some random Aussies in a bar later that evening. He said something along the lines of “ah we beat ya today lad” or something friendly like that” and the Aussies guys sarcastic response was “oh really. Ah sh1t, that sucks. Hey John we lost the match today”. His mate John (or whatever his name was) shouts back “oh damn, that sucks”. These guys didn’t even know their country was playing in the world cup, didn’t care that they had been beaten, and were too wrapped up in their AFL to care one bit.

I'd have done the exact same thing if it had been someone telling me about Ireland's defeat to Wales in the World Cup. I'm a fan of a sport before I'm a patriot, and these lads sound the exact same, i.e. they couldn't give a flying one about a result from a sport they aren't interested in. Not sure what the problem is with that.

Pisco Sour

Xavi6 wrote: »

I'd have done the exact same thing if it had been someone telling me about Ireland's defeat to Wales in the World Cup. I'm a fan of a sport before I'm a patriot, and these lads sound the exact same, i.e. they couldn't give a flying one about a result from a sport they aren't interested in. Not sure what the problem is with that.

Yes but many AFL fans are not a “fan of sport” they are a “fan of A sport”.

Following one sport and one sport only does not make somebody a sportfan IMO. I am a sportsfan, and follow a wide variety of different sports. Your Ford Super Sunday punter who cares about nothing but Premier League Football is not a sports fan IMHO. Lots of AFL fans are like this I’m afraid. Nothing else matters to them. Melbournians go on about them being lovers of sport, but are they really? Look at the attendances at events other than AFL and it shows that maybe this sporting passion is exaggerated.

Xavi6

04072511 wrote: »

Yes but many AFL fans are not a “fan of sport” they are a “fan of A sport”.

Following one sport and one sport only does not make somebody a sportfan IMO. I am a sportsfan, and follow a wide variety of different sports. Your Ford Super Sunday punter who cares about nothing but Premier League Football is not a sports fan IMHO. Lots of AFL fans are like this I’m afraid. Nothing else matters to them. Melbournians go on about them being lovers of sport, but are they really? Look at the attendances at events other than AFL and it shows that maybe this sporting passion is exaggerated.

Again, what's the problem with liking just one sport? If you're a sports fan how many sports do you need to watch to fall into the category?

As for having a go at Melbourne for not being sports lovers, attendances for both A-League matches and the Australia Open tennis have been up this year so that's two different codes that are benefitting from increased numbers. What events have had declining numbers to back up your point that the passion is exaggerated?

Aussies ARE massive sports fans, but if some prefer to just watch one sport that they love and have a passion for then so what?

Pisco Sour

Xavi6 wrote: »

Again, what's the problem with liking just one sport? If you're a sports fan how many sports do you need to watch to fall into the category?

As for having a go at Melbourne for not being sports lovers, attendances for both A-League matches and the Australia Open tennis have been up this year so that's two different codes that are benefitting from increased numbers. What events have had declining numbers to back up your point that the passion is exaggerated?

Aussies ARE massive sports fans, but if some prefer to just watch one sport that they love and have a passion for then so what?

If they want to watch just one sport, that’s fine, doesn’t make them sports fans IMO, but whatever. But as I said above, is there really a need to unprovokingly slate other rivals sports by using terminology such as “bum-sniffing”?

With regards you question, certainly a great deal more than one sport

myflipflops

Xavi6 wrote: »

As for having a go at Melbourne for not being sports lovers, attendances for both A-League matches and the Australia Open tennis have been up this year so that's two different codes that are benefitting from increased numbers.

And 80000 at the MCG religiously for the 'Boxing Day' test match. The first Melbourne Stars Big bash game got about 25000 this year and that was deemed to be a terrible crowd. That was the opening game of a domestic competition that was also live on TV.

They love their sport, it's just AFL or NRL centric depending on where you are with cricket following up.

The union teams popularity in Victoria would be the equivalent of the Irish cricket team at home.

Pisco Sour

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that Aussies don’t enjoy their sport. What I am saying is that I think this so called sporting passion that Melbournians go on about, saying they are the world’s capital sporting city, might be a bit exaggerated. They certainly are passionate about AFL, but with regards sport in general are they really that much different to somewhere like Chicago, which has 2 MLB, 1 NFL, 1 (or is it 2?) NBA and 1 NHL team?

Traq

I'm sure the world's capital sporting city may be a bit of an exaggeration but they do have:

9 AFL teams
2 A-League teams
2 Twenty20 teams
1 NRL team
1 Super 15s team
Host the Australian grand prix
Host the Australian Open
Host a cricket test match each year

on top of a few things I'm probably forgetting about or don't know much about such as netball, hockey and the like.

That's a pretty substantial amount of sport by any standard.

As for the AFL, have to say I love it myself. Can't wait for the season to get started again.

Tigerandahalf

And a rather big horse race called The Melbourne Cup. I think Melbourne is like Ireland, great options to choose from. In Ireland throughout the year you can watch a wide variety.

jank

Thank God that I live in Sydney as I can avoid most of the AFL $hite. Has to be the most boring, longest, pointless, stupid team sport in the world. Went to a few matches to give it a go, thought to myself "Christ, will this match ever end"
It is worse than Gaelic football imo (which is pretty bad).

So, ya AFL sucks donkey balls. I generally watch anything. Been watching me a lot of American football lately, really getting into it.

seipeal1

I am an Adelaide Crows member. Very similar to Xavi in that I absolutely love the AFL and love the Adelaide rivalry between the Port and the Crows. They love beating Victorian teams here even though hard times are here on that score at the moment! It is a fantastic family day out and long may it continue. Yeah, it does not have the glamour of the Premiership but it is entertaining and if you give it a fair go, it is well woth while? Come on the Crows!

Tigerandahalf

Id imagine the derbies are good craic. If GWS take off in sydney the derby there should be some entertainment. However GWS is hard rugby league country and it may be hard for them to build up a core base. Where are they playing their games and is stadium big or small?
The games can be long but sure American Football is the same with a lot more stoppages. I didnt like that constant hooter at the start of quarters. Christ it would deafen you.