There is no accounting for Gill’s brilliance, we are just trying to pre-empt him.
Really whatever the AFL do, most of us probably won’t be happy with.
Thinking about this topic of “ugly” football on a rainy Sunday morning.
There are two aspects; congestion & low scoring.
Leaving congestion alone, and focusing on scoring, there’s an issue that’s outside (possibly) the AFL & rules that’s the elephant in the room.
That’s the lack of good to great key forwards in the game at the moment.
I mean how do you really expect consistently higher scoring when you’ve got sides that line up like the following?
Cox & Mihocek
Casboult & a lesser McGovern
Tom MacDonald (a key back) & no one?
Lewis & O’Brien.
Tex Walker & who?
Or at most one very good tall forward- Stringer Brown, Cameron, Bruce.
Only a handful of sides have two very good tall forwards actually playing.
And contemporary very good tall forwards seem to be missing through injuries as often as they play.
Daniher Buddy Naughton Patton Curnow McKay Hogan.
In case you’re saying, but it’s always been like this, let’s just list some tall forwards from 2000.
Lloyd Lucas Carey Modra Fevola two Roccas, Loewe, Schwarz, Lynch Bradshaw Whitnall, Tredrea Grant Mensch etc etc.
That’s not listing the medium tall Stringer size forwards.
And most of that list played the majority of games that year.
So what I’m going to put forward is that more good to great key forwards also helps higher scoring.
Which leaves the questions;
Where have they gone? All other positions haven’t seen such a drop off. There’s just as many great mids, goal sneaks, KPD’s today as in 2000.
Is it to other sports?
Is there something wrong with our junior pathways, that sees tall forwards spud it up at the top level more often than not?
Do potential great KPF’s not get drafted or actually played?
Why seemingly so many injuries to those we have on lists?
Apologies for the length of this post. I don’t have simple answers. But I wanted to think outside the intricacies of tactics & rule changes, to the other compelling reason for lower scores in AFL.
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Interesting, but is this chicken or egg?
Are we seeing less goals out of KPFs because of lower overall scoring, or lower overall scoring because of KPFs?
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Possibly. I guess that’s why they got rid of it. I was just thinking that maybe sometimes a short kick for a Mark might then spread everyone out
One idea I wouldn’t mind being trialled would be dropping the min. distance overall if it’s an intercept.
Might lead to more defenders gambling on an intercept mark rather than a spoil - and that’s when you will see players spread out, if everyone’s gone the other way.
You’d need to have a look at it in pre-season though, to see how it goes IRL.
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I’m positing that the current KPF’s generally aren’t anywhere near as good or as numerous.
And those that are good, seemingly miss more games injured.
As a small cameo - in 2000 Norf had a very good McKernan in the forward line, alongside Carey.
In 2020 Rd 6 we’ll have a not as good younger McKernan as our sole KPF. With maybe a tall back moved forward.
Or compared to a forward line of Lloyd Lucas & Alessio plus Hird.
The same applies to almost every team currently.
As I said, whether it’s drafting, or being able to get these talls on the park together, but I argue strongly that a forward line including Joey & Stringer would score more than one without.
As would a FarkCarlton lineup with McKay, Curnow and McGovern.
Granted, but it’s not like we’ve seen KPFs being replaced by smaller forwards kicking bags: compared to the 90s/2000, nobody’s kicking goals.
Not big guys, not little guys, not medium guys.
10 guys kicked 40+ goals in 2019, vs 20 in 2000
6 guys kicked 50+ vs 12
Etc etc.
Are you positing that the KPFs are having that big of a flow-on effect?
I would say it’s more the case that the defensive and stifling footy played these days is preventing the KPFs from developing and improving their forward craft, so it seems like there’s less of them.
If midfielders were able to deliver the ball quicker and better into the forwardline and the KPFs had more room to lead into, you will see more goals.
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In short yes.
Good KPF’s don’t just kick goals themselves, they seem to open up the scoring for others.
Note, I’m not saying that tactics & rule changes haven’t had some effect on reducing scoring, but ignoring the relative lack of these types is skirting the issue.
I’d match modern players up against their positional equivalents everywhere else on the ground quite happily.
But tall forwards who are good or better?
Kennedy Darling Hipwood Hawkins Brown Lynch Riewoldt Cameron
Plus the perpetually injured Daniher Buddy & Hogan.
That’s less than 1 per team.
Even if you count the emerging Naughton, 2 Kings, McKay, plus the smaller Stringer & Curnow.
Compared to twice that number in season 2020 where every team had at least 2.
Roy and HG have an ABC show on the radio on Saturdays called ‘Bludging on the blindside’. It’s quite funny & they get stuck into eddie a lot. When talking about AFL they often refer to ‘The Murderer’ which is their name for Gil.
- Does anyone else listen to this show?
- Does anyone want to rush to gil’s defence re his naming as The Murderer?
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The 9 point super goal - they’ve had this as a feature of the pre season competition for a
Number of years and have never even considered bringing it in. Not sure why?? What’s the point of the trial? It either works or it doesn’t?
It’s a ■■■■ idea, that’s why.
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P.S. It’s also available as a podcast.
Should never make a rule change that affects the integrity of the scoring
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Yeah., but, score review has totally increased integrity…
Different issue. I’m saying a goal should be 6 points, a behind is 1 point.
Cricket has made plenty of changes but a boundary is still 4 runs, over the boundary is 6 runs etc etc
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How does this idea hold up against your philosophy?
Hitting the post should be played on, if it goes through the goal it’s 6 points, if it goes through behind it’s 1 point, if it comes back into the field it’s play on
Last touch rule works a treat in the SANFL after initially copping a stack of heat
Not really.
Their teams are more uneven which causes a few high scoring games for one side.
They had a 4.4 to 2.16 draw last year.
Wouldn’t have that either. Hits the post then it stays as one behind
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