The Gaelic boys come over with incredible kicking skills! The different ball doesn’t seem to bother them at all.
If you want to classify some guys as footballers and other guys as not footballers, he fairly indisputably falls into the “not footballers” group. And he is an elite athlete.
I don’t think the point is about having skills that could transfer. Otherwise it’d be even less of a point than it is now.
didn’t know gaelic footballers weren’t footballers.
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Yep, he was a footballer alright.
And a very good one from the only code in the world similar to ours.
HAP is straw clutching here.
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If he’s not a footballer, I wonder how his running times compare to other “elite athletes”.
So running ability is athleticism, but hand eye coordination isn’t. You people are dim
Given the Gaelic players seem to always be better than average if not absolute elite kicks of the oval ball, I actually think it wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world to start kids off with a round gaelic type ball at primary school level.
You could then put time into the transition to the oval ball, kids could see it as a right of passage graduating to the oval ball at high school and little kids could engage in our game more easily at primary school level like they do with soccer.
Primary school kids would love a feral round ball version of Aussie Rules, and evidence suggests the basic kicking skills of a Gaelic type ball transfers well to the oval ball at an older age.
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It’s a really interesting idea. I wonder how it would sit with the traditionalists. Let’s roll it out in 10 primary schools and test their progress against the standard footy kids. Then report immediately back to Gill.
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A sculpture commemorates the first game of Australian Rules football played in August 1858 (Brunton Ave outside MCG).
Competitors surge towards the ball in the annual Marngrook match
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Haha, well there you go.
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They would never do that.
Would steer to many kids into soccer.
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Maybe if we make the primary school soccer kids kick an oval shaped ball then AFL will become the most popular sport in the world?
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They probably won’t, but soccer is already getting more kids at the primary school level.
For kids who want to be more physical I think they would be attracted to Aussie rules.
My son wasn’t exposed to Aussie Rules at the school he went to, but liked physicality, and ironically the sanitised Auskick version of Aussie Rules he did get to play was much less interesting to him than playing under 9’s soccer which was a lot more competitive and physical.
I think a feral round ball aussie rules game which could be played competitively with less skill at a younger age might appeal to more kids, who want to mark or punch and force the ball down the ground with less rules than soccer.
It is actually a thing, that if you force kids to try to learn too complex skills at too earlier an age, it can hinder the development of the skill.
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Those aren’t “traditional” forms of the game though. What you have is the historical beginnings and a possible relation. I doubt anyone who had watched the game in the last century and considered themselves a “traditionalist” would buy that argument.
But as reboot said it would never happen anyway.
There you go. Now you have a plan.
There is a real flaw in your logic here.
There’s maybe 3 gaelic kids picked each year. They are picked BECAUSE they can all kick the ball well, amongst other things.
They are not all good kicks, because all Gaelic players are good kicks.
Nobody said they were all good kicks i don’t think? We commented that the ones who came over are great kicks and they don’t seem to mind the different shaped ball. But yeah that’s why they’re here, we’re not stealing the average players. This Francis thread has really been derailed.
Isn’t this what SCarey is saying here?
But yep, happy to stop tarnishing the great man’s thread and get back to worshipping him.
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What’s this about him leaving the track early today?