The AFL will just say that people are turning up in record numbers so the game is in good shape. Then they’ll lock themselves in the boardroom and pat themselves on the back for the next 12 months.
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I’d get rid Of the “ball spilling free in a tackle” Has to be the most ridiculous examples of call what you want.
Prior opportunity was bad enough but it can at least be measured in terms of time, but ball spilling free in a tackle just allows players to drop it.
Deliberate out of bounds never needed to happen. They took a perfectly good tactic out of the game because their broadcasters wanted to speed it up.
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it worked for Spartacus
Last touch is a terrible rule on a ground that size. Hard enough to determine in basketball let alone at the MCG with the boundary umpire 15 metres away.
Weren’t they all crucified /spoileralert?
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Only when they played the Lions.
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Sounds like we want more security guards like the one you have described.
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Works fine on the SANFL
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Did you get her number?
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To be honest I went as nuts as I normally do at Essendon games. Gave the umps both barrels, gave flogs like Stratton , Smith, Puopolo etc both barrels.
If I get thrown out, then I get thrown out. No way I”m changing the way I support because of a corrupt organisation like the AFL tells me to
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Hopefully the air will run out in the room…
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This past week has seen me use the the word “flog” and variants thereof a record number of times. Good work AFL.
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Doesn’t have to be last touch. Could be last kicked or handballed. If if the ball is touched by any other player after the kick or handball then it becomes a throw-in. If not touched,
a free to opposition.
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And at the cricket you have half the ground chanting someone’s a wanker
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For years we’ve been told that the stadiums at Perth and Adelaide have a huge advantage to the home team due to the crowd atmosphere. Those teams statistically get a home ground advantage with the umpiring, largely due to intimidation by the crowd. This has been held up in the media as a positive part of the game, something special about those stadiums.
My view is a lot of the recent shifts in crowd atmosphere in Melbourne are trying to mimic this home ground advantage. The crowds are becoming more vocal at the opposition and umpires to give the home team a leg up over the opposition. If I see a chance for my voice to subtly influence the game, I make as much noise as I can.
Add to this the frustration with rule changes and poor consistency of umpiring. The only option the crowd has to respond to poor umpiring is through noise.
The crowd SMS reporting line was a great idea. If the crowd thinks someone has gone too far, it’s really easy to anonymously report that troublemaker. We can self police with that support. I’ve never felt the need to use it, but 100% would contact that number if something was getting out of hand. Why we suddenly need hi vis patrols focusing of monitoring the behavior of the stadium is beyond me.
At the end of the day, seeing a “crowd behavior awareness” patrol doesn’t make me feel safer as a patron. If we need all these patrols to keep the crowd under control, do I really want to be sitting with these people? I’ve never had a problem in nearly 30 years going to the football, but if they are putting so many resources at this, it makes it feel like the crowd is a threat.
The fact that AFL crowds intermingle safely is something the fans love and value. Throwing constant behavior patrols into that environment changes the dynamic from the crowd naturally doing the right thing to the authorities owning the peace.
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I’m far more concerned they are ■■■■■■■ up the game with ■■■■ rules, ■■■■ umpiring, ■■■■ expansion teams, ■■■■ gimmicks than I am about this.
I find people who get annoyed by this sort of thing a bit one dimensional. Is it annoying? Yes. No one likes being told how to behave. If I get kicked out of a game for calling an umpire a testicle I’d be hacked off, but I probably know that going in now. But this sort of thing is only slightly more concerning than hot chip prices in the grander scheme of what is ■■■■■■ with the game right now
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We don’t need more rules, or more changes to rules. We need less rles. we don’t need a rules committee, and we certainly don’t need the AFaiL constantly interferring with the game.
The chumps are only human and make mistakes. Only thy can never be seen to be fallible, so the AFaiL makes them look even more ridiculous by claiming they never make mistakes.
This latest issue, unruly crowd control is nothing more than a deflection. Now we have the pinch gate controversy to deflect even more. What is next? The fans have spoken, but Gill is incapable of hearing what they are saying.
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Yea CJ you’re right. Better if they don’t stuff around with the rules and leave the game alone. They could have left the out of bounds rule as it was. There was never any discrepancy before and so what if the players used it as a defence option. It made the game exciting and relied on a certain skill to execute as the player was under pressure most of the time.
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I bet you Gills mates run the security company employed by the AFaiL.
Jobs for mates again!
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