Sadly, yesterday’s match just reiterated what I felt after the grand final…that Richmond’s rise reflects a decay of the spectacle that is AFL football.
It’s a contact sport, but Richmond have exploited that by taking their defensive scragging and body-spoiling to the limit. Compare the free kick against Brown in the goal square for an inconsequential hand, versus the play on call when Long is in a full length body spoil sandwich. That’s what defence has become, off-the-ball body checking, but we’re nowhere near doing this.
And offensively, Richmond do nothing spectacular, other than run, pressure, tackle. Just maintain higher tempo than your opponent. It leads to turnovers and overlapping waves of players. Not sophisticated, but effective. They barely carry any high marking tall forwards. Even Riewoldt has reduced this part of his game…Meanwhile, our list is not set up for this.
I’m going to finish on a tangent…but the more I ponder it these days, I am feeling that top level soccer is overtaking AFL in terms of entertainment. The speed and attacking and scoring in soccer has increased over the last 20 years. And the rules allow the skilful players the space with the ball to show off their skills. The display of soccer is getting better. AFL is deteriorating, as the marking player is bullocked out of the game etc.