The game itself is boring as ■■■■ to watch.
Watching two-three goals kicked a quarter is just ■■■■■■■ ■■■■ footy to watch.
I'm 31. I used to be so incredibly passionate about this game, up until a couple of years ago. Hanging out for a Friday night to watch whoever was on, and looking forward to going to watch Essendon play with childlike enthusiasm. But I'm starting to lose that enthusiasm and I fear that it will not be coming back.
There are so many things that grate me about the game at the moment that I can summarise them all. However, I'll have a crack.
1. The game itself. I used to always enjoy watching neutral games. I very very rarely get that feeling any more. Every time I'm in front of the TV when a neutral game is on I try to watch it, but quickly lose interest. I will normally only be watching at the end of a game when the match is close and in the balance but even then, I'm not super excited any more. The game has become a giant game of keepings off, with no high marks, very few long runs, and not a lot of contact. Its not an ascetically pleasing game at the moment, and for the first time I think that some rule changes restricting some players to certain zones on the ground might be the answer. Even our win against Carlton, while enjoyable, was some of the most boring football I have seen in years. When you're breaking possession records on a regular basis you know that something is wrong with the game.
2. The management of the game has been extraordinarily misguided. The AFL for years has been obsessed with dominating the sporting and news landscapes all year round, as they have been afraid of other games and codes getting any air. They are wrong about that on so many levels. The way you increase interest in your product is by having less games, not more. Rather than basing themselves off the NBA or the MLB, they should look at the most successful domestic sport in the world, the NFL, which play substantially less games a season. Less games means bigger crowds and more intense interest - as every game is worth more, and there would be less dead games a round and a season. Reduce the competition to a 17 round season with an extra week of finals and everyone would be satisfied. And while you're at it, stop with the insane scheduling of twilight games and Monday nights and Thursday nights and Wednesday mornings and whatever the fark else you think is a good idea. It isn't. People want a break during the week, and to look forward to enjoying the football as a highlight on the weekend. They do not want to be saturated 24-7. Which leads me to...
3. The media. There are more people reporting on the game than playing it. This leads to more content. And by definition, the more content there is, the worse it will be. The standard of reporting these days is at an all time low. I used to be obsessed with football media as a young teenager. I would listen to the radio constantly, noting who was calling and where, and really enjoyed the robust discussions about footy issues that took place. Now, we barely have football journalists any more, we have football 'affairs' journalists, who only report on what happens off field and never watch a game. We have self serving parasites who try and manufacture stories at every turn to keep the wheel spinning. I remember watching TFS in Round 1 and Damien Barrett was reporting on the 'controversy' whether or not Carlton were going to re-sign Gibbs. My response, was WHO GIVES A ****, ITS ROUND FARKING ONE. This sort of coverage irritates me so much that I can't watch or listen to a lot of football shows any more. I had a long drive last Saturday and around midday I was looking for a football show to listen to, like I always used to do as a kid every week on a Saturday. I turned on 3AW and got Brian Taylor and Wilson. Pass. I switched to MMM and got Barrett. Pass. Switched to SEN and got Robinson and Maher. Pass. Finally tried the ABC and got Maclure. I switched off and drove in silence.
4. The umpiring. This season whistles have been going off and the majority of times I have no idea who the free kick is to until its signalled. Its just completely infuriating and has officially got to the point where it really detracts from my enjoyment of watching the game. And its not the umpires' fault, rather its the increasingly technical nature of the rules which require umpires to make decisions about intent and degree and who a player had his eyes on at any given moment etc etc. The rule book has grown too large and too complicated, and we genuinely need to throw it out and start again with the simple rules that every local comp in the country is governed by.
And then of course there's the ASADA crap which has been so disheartening on so many levels.
Overall I'm just very sad for myself, I'm sad for the game, and if I'm lucky enough to have kids one day I wonder whether or not my love for the game will be something I can genuinely and honestly pass down to them, like my father did for me and his father for him.
@ SMJ - you forgot Mark Stevens and his half-time "breaking news".
You seem to have got everything else right though :)
You are right SMJ about saturation. You wait for the season to start then its just endless crap with so many meaningless games and meaningless media. Less is more.
I'm ok with the footy at the moment. But I agree that certain things need to change over the next few weeks and months ....
- perhaps a rule change is needed but keepings-off footy is getting dull. I'd recommend that passing backwards should NOT result in a mark
- the ASADA crap has to end. Obviously.
- EFC need to start playing better footy
Looking forward to the Swans game.
I'm ok with the footy at the moment. But I agree that certain things need to change over the next few weeks and months ....
- perhaps a rule change is needed but keepings-off footy is getting dull. I'd recommend that passing backwards should NOT result in a mark
- the ASADA crap has to end. Obviously.
- EFC need to start playing better footy
Looking forward to the Swans game.
I don't agree we need more rule changes to counteract rule changes. In fact I think we should be looking at going back and reversing some of the changes that have had unintended flow on consequences. Back to the future if you will.
Last year took a lot out of me. When Essendon was banned from playing finals and Hird was suspended- my love of footy as a whole pretty much died. My love of Essendon is still as strong as ever.
Some reasons why I have so much lack of energy this season:
* The umpiring is beyond bad this year (especially towards us)- too many umpires are now "personalities" and want to impose themselves on the game.
* I rarely watch other teams play, if i do i can only handle listening to a few minutes of commentary before i mute the tv. They are just soooo bad now
* Way too many journo's who want to impose their opinions on everyone. Saturation is out of control.
*The MRP is just terrible.
* The AFL boys club disgusts me
* Essendon has turned to rubbish. Our style of play is just average.
* Our coach doesn't seem to have the same intensity as he used to. Has pretty much ruined one of our biggest positives from last year (Carlisle) through his own ego. Just have no confidence in him at all.
* I miss Hirdy
* ASADA is STILL going on 18 months later..... sigh
* The game in general is just terrible to watch
*I have no interest in talking to non Essendon supporters abut footy- as you get the whole drugs talk etc
If there was only 2 or 3 of the above happening I could handle it. When you put all that together happening at the same time. Makes you not want to give a stuff anymore!!
If any of our players were to cop bans, i would just walk away from the game forever.
I want to see an Essendon player tackle someone like they want to kill them, that’s the urgency we are lacking this year… I want to see the look on our players faces that tells me the guy he’s about to tackle is our enemy and If I’ ts the last thing we do before we die, we will crunch him in a tackle… With all the crap going on last year, this is what got me through without being jaded…
This year I haven’t seen it, hopefully it comes before I stop caring (pretty sure I will never get to that point, but god the last few games have been hard to watch).
Yep, boring and manufactured.The game itself is boring as fark to watch.
Watching two-three goals kicked a quarter is just ******* **** footy to watch.
The administration of this game is like an incestuous politburo.
Decisions are not being made for the good of the game they are being made for the good of the dollar and look.
I want to see an Essendon player tackle someone like they want to kill them, that's the urgency we are lacking this year... I want to see the look on our players faces that tells me the guy he's about to tackle is our enemy and If I' ts the last thing we do before we die, we will crunch him in a tackle... With all the crap going on last year, this is what got me through without being jaded...
This year I haven't seen it, hopefully it comes before I stop caring (pretty sure I will never get to that point, but god the last few games have been hard to watch).
Howlett and Watson.
Alas, that's the end of that list.
You are right SMJ about saturation. You wait for the season to start then its just endless crap with so many meaningless games and meaningless media. Less is more.
Oh yeah, meaningless games? But every game is special! Last week it was women's round, the week before we were playing for the EJ Whitten Cup, The week before that it was Anzac Day, this week it's for Cancer, after the bye it's Dreamtime... It never ends...
And the media is just so disposable. Everything is such a beat-up. Watch any given episode of one of those shows from say 2012, look at how big they make whatever the big issue is, and 9 times out of 10, it all came to nothing.
I want to see an Essendon player tackle someone like they want to kill them, that's the urgency we are lacking this year... I want to see the look on our players faces that tells me the guy he's about to tackle is our enemy and If I' ts the last thing we do before we die, we will crunch him in a tackle... With all the crap going on last year, this is what got me through without being jaded...
This year I haven't seen it, hopefully it comes before I stop caring (pretty sure I will never get to that point, but god the last few games have been hard to watch).Howlett and Watson.
Alas, that's the end of that list.
Carlisle. (ok so the ball was 50 metres away)
Would this also have been at the height of the saga last year? i.e. Lots of us, and some outsiders trying to work out what the *** was going on with he whole thing. There must have been a lot of traffic trying to keep up and make sense of things back then, or going around in circles, endlessly refreshing ASADA thread no. 68. What was it like at this time the year before, (if those records exist)?
in the old days, the talk was more about a players great performance, highlighting the amazing execution of his skills and command of the game.
then it changed, and the talk became about the players not producing - this highly irritated me.
the talk now is not even of the game anymore which is even worse - because i don't care.
I will say, and I'd love others who have young kids to comment - I grew up loving the game to bits. I'd love to see my children grow up loving the game (and EFC - which they do, as they are currently to young to understand alot of this crap) but I myself don't particular have the care factor for the game that I used to.
And forgetting about the media and politics for a moment - the way the style of game is going, I believe it won't even capture the imagination of future generations like it did (etc in the 80s&90s). But at least the corporate boxes will be full and players will not have to find employment outside the game when the retire as they'll be able to hang on like leaches, and at least we'll have amazing tv deals that prop up the code, because more people will be watching the game outside Australia than actually live in Australia.
I didn’t bother watching last weeks game, if thats anything to go by!
Rather than basing themselves off the NBA or the MLB, they should look at the most successful domestic sport in the world, the NFL, which play substantially less games a season. Less games means bigger crowds and more intense interest - as every game is worth more, and there would be less dead games a round and a season. Reduce the competition to a 17 round season with an extra week of finals and everyone would be satisfied. And while you're at it, stop with the insane scheduling of twilight games and Monday nights and Thursday nights and Wednesday mornings and whatever the fark else you think is a good idea. It isn't. People want a break during the week, and to look forward to enjoying the football as a highlight on the weekend. They do not want to be saturated 24-7. Which leads me to...
I agree with the sentiment, but using the NFL is a poor comparison. An NFL season has 256 games, AFL has 198. It seems like less because all bar two games are played on the same day. This works because of two main reasons - one team per city (with a couple of exceptions) with larger populations and strict coverage blackout rules means attendance is almost always top shelf. And you have college football on Friday nights and all of Saturday, satiating demand for live sport in those timeslots.
What the AFL want, and what is possible in a country of this population just isn't possible. Nine professional teams in a city of a couple of million is far too saturated to guarantee bulk attendance week to week. Even London, a city of 8.3 million only has 13 professional soccer teams (plus another 20-ish semi professional). The AFL are trying to stretch the existing interest as thin as possible by spreading games out over the whole weekend (sometimes longer) and pursuing gimmicky stuff to entice people to the stadiums. For all the trying they are doing, they will never, ever get 9 sellouts in a single round.
Would this also have been at the height of the saga last year? i.e. Lots of us, and some outsiders trying to work out what the *** was going on with he whole thing. There must have been a lot of traffic trying to keep up and make sense of things back then, or going around in circles, endlessly refreshing ASADA thread no. 68. What was it like at this time the year before, (if those records exist)?
Good point, I went back and the lines comparing 2014 to 2012 are actually much similar. Up some days and down some others.
There's no doubting the sorry saga drove page views to this site (and The Age and Herald Sun and The Australian and...) but there was also good football to be excited about.
I'm 100% in the boat that saturation and thinning out of football is the biggest problem. The sooner we have a 17 game season with designated game-days with no 'fixture experiments' and a 5-year ban on rule changes the better. Also shut down Fox Footy, or at the least just sack David King.
Rather than basing themselves off the NBA or the MLB, they should look at the most successful domestic sport in the world, the NFL, which play substantially less games a season. Less games means bigger crowds and more intense interest - as every game is worth more, and there would be less dead games a round and a season. Reduce the competition to a 17 round season with an extra week of finals and everyone would be satisfied. And while you're at it, stop with the insane scheduling of twilight games and Monday nights and Thursday nights and Wednesday mornings and whatever the fark else you think is a good idea. It isn't. People want a break during the week, and to look forward to enjoying the football as a highlight on the weekend. They do not want to be saturated 24-7. Which leads me to...
I agree with the sentiment, but using the NFL is a poor comparison. An NFL season has 256 games, AFL has 198. It seems like less because all bar two games are played on the same day.
I understand your point, but what I was trying to get at was the fact that each NFL team only plays 16 games per regular season. Yes there are more games in total due to the fact that there are more teams than the AFL, but the amount of weeks that the season goes for is shorter, which I think has the effect of increasing interest to fever pitch during those weeks.
I always just thought it wase getting older and realising life is more than footy.
I love us winning and watch us whenever I can. But if Iiss our game I’m meh will just watch next week.
Love the local footy though
I don't understand about the 'saturation' of the media with football. You don't have to watch it or read it. I came to bomberblitz in the first place to be saturated by Essendon football media. Being an Essendon website it filters out the other crap and found me all the fluff articles I required.
Once ASADA clears or charges us, this is where everyone steps back to relax and we really start to be disengaged. Even when cleared it will feel like we are just starting from scratch again anyway or are further behind then scheduled.
I feel like someone who is working in a job only to be told that we don't know if you will still be working next week, next month, next year. Hard to be committed to that or to take the effort to cheer if it was all for nothing. Just like last year was in a way. Working towards a bonus only to achieve the bonus and find out the company has folded and is bankrupt. No one got paid and now in 2014 we are asked to go through it all again knowing it may happen again.
Bomba to me has really understood this as he is consistently trying to keep the fans engaged. It's not a surprise to me the consistency of the newsletters / videos / press conferences etc... has really been smartened up.