Have the events of the last four years impacted your love of Aussie rules?

[jiphoc]

Think some of these 'issues' are being blown out of proportion. If multicultural round or indigenous round get you upset and impacting your love of the game, you need a reality check. Its the world we live in, every organisation, every sport, every business etc have pubilc expectations that they need to adhere to. (see: CSR)

In saying that, there are 2 things that frustrate me:

1. The relentless gambling promotion (mind you, again an unfortunate reflection of society)

2. Main Stream Media. Not necessarily the fault of the AFL, but has a big impact on how it is run. 'Journalists' shooting from the hip with no fear of repercussions, creating narratives, swaying public/AFL opinion.

Eliminate the first and keep the second honest and Keith will be a much happier man

I pretty much agree with everything in this post.

Didn't mind the EFC saga. They bought it on themselves, not the AFL. I simply hate the EFC more. The AFL is fine.

Af for people complaining about ticket and food prices.... My god get the hell over it. Almost every sport of the AFL's size is like this. In fact feel glad we are not the EPL. Also food prices have NOTHING TO DO WITH THE AFL.

 

[ferrisb]

The AFL has done many things to piss me off over the years, but I'm a simple man...

Oh footy, I can't stay mad at you...

 

[Blackas87]

Last 4 years? I've been following Melbourne longer than that.

 

[LT Smash]

I agree with you're post. And I didn't even watch the game. But I think the poster might be regarding the fact that Richmond of late nearly always beat Port in the home and away season, and therefore the embarrassing loss took its toll.

So if we apply that same logic to North Melbourne and Richmond...

 

[Randy Campbell]

The more people you try to please, the less people you will please.

 

[DrEvil_]

Oh yeah, and Mark Robinson. How does that moron get a job?

 

[Severe]

So if we apply that same logic to North Melbourne and Richmond...

Like the first, I'm playing devils advocate. Richmond finished higher on the ladder and the thought of losing three ef in a row seemed impossible, against NM should have been easy.

 

[Furn2]

Seems that the worse you're team is going the worse state the game is in.

 

[tek87]

no doubt the game has become devoid of personalities and unpredictability. great athletes but the strategics have made it less appealing.

 

[Tigersman]

As a result of the game becoming so focused on squeezing every dollar possible, I've become a lot more involved/interested in local footy instead.

What should be concerning to those who love the game is how little the afl is actually doing for grass roots local football ,yet it has taken over the game at state and local level ( in Vic anyway). There is no independent voice for local football anymore. Many local clubs are seriously struggling yet get no support while the money being thrown around at the top end keeps growing.

Have we all forgotten that ultimately the AFL is supposed to be a "NOT FOR PROFIT" organization?

It's sole purpose should be to promote and grow the game, not just at the top end.

 

[jatz14]

As a result of the game becoming so focused on squeezing every dollar possible, I've become a lot more involved in local footy.

What should be concerning to those who love the game is how little the afl is actually doing for grass roots local football ,yet it has taken over the game at state and local level ( in Vic anyway). There is no independent voice for local football anymore. Many local clubs are seriously struggling yet get no support while the money being thrown around at the top end keeps growing.

Have we all forgotten that ultimately the AFL is supposed to be a "NOT FOR PROFIT" organization?

It's sole purpose should be to promote and grow the game, not just at the top end.

Why should the AFL do anything for grass roots footy? The AFL is the premier professional football league in Australia, it is the league itself that is the responsibility of the AFL. That is its sole `offical` purpose. That it is involved as heavily as it is in community sports is due entirely to the fact that it became the gorilla in the room, so for many things, if the AFL does not do it, it doesn't get done.

That the AFL does as little as it does is not strange, that it does ANYTHING is strange. Similar leagues in sports overseas do not fulfil this role, and no one has formally given this role to the AFL, they do it because they feel they have to.

 

[Tigersman]

Why should the AFL do anything for grass roots footy? The AFL is the premier professional football league in Australia, it is the league itself that is the responsibility of the AFL. That is its sole `offical` purpose. That it is involved as heavily as it is in community sports is due entirely to the fact that it became the gorilla in the room, so for many things, if the AFL does not do it, it doesn't get done.

That the AFL does as little as it does is not strange, that it does ANYTHING is strange. Similar leagues in sports overseas do not fulfil this role, and no one has formally given this role to the AFL, they do it because they feel they have to.

The afl are the governing body of the game, not just the league. They are in charge of football in Victoria. There is no independent body looking after local football these days. The whole game is their responsibility, not just the 18 sides in the top competition. The afl themselves have structured it that way.

Generally speaking, the fact that they serve this role, providing a service to the community allows them to not pay tax.

 

[jatz14]

The afl are the governing body of the game, not just the league. They are in charge of football in Victoria. There is no independent body looking after local football these days. The whole game is their responsibility, not just the 18 sides in the top competition. The afl themselves have structured it that way.

Generally speaking, the fact that they serve this role, providing a service to the community allows them to not pay tax.

They do not perform that role in WA, the WAFC does, and at grassroots, there is little obvious sign of WAFC involvement. Does not mean they are not involved though.

 

[Tigersman]

They do not perform that role in WA, the WAFC does, and at grassroots, there is little obvious sign of WAFC involvement. Does not mean they are not involved though.

Yeah, I'm referring more to Victoria and I think tassie are set up the same.

 

[Gysberts2Bate]

Seems that the worse you're team is going the worse state the game is in.

Eh. If anything the Dees' lack of success has made me even hungrier for the game.

Of course I didn't expect to reach a point of malnourishment, but nonetheless...

 

[mattymac]

There's a fairly strong nostalgic theme running through this thread. Footy doesn't seem to hold quite the golden glow for many of us that it used to.

Perhaps we're all growing up.

Nah. It's changed. The game has eaten itself and shat out a corporate monster with all the corruption, estrangement from stakeholders and drift from its roots that entails. In the quest to be the biggest we've forgotten what made us the best.

 

[footyfan1978]

Does anyone feel similarly to me?

Nope. Nothing about the last four years really impacts me much. I still like the game but lots has happened in last twenty years to change what it is for me. As a league it is not as exciting but the game itself is still my favourite sport by a long way. Just not as good since the expansion of interchange bench to 3 and then 4 which has in a way reduced the sport as a spectacle on what it was before that. It is closer to other sports than it has been in my life time of watching which is not a good thing but it is what it is. Still basically the same game but more a tackling and congested game of zones than I grew up with.
In time if they realize the mess the interchange expansion to 4 has done the cycle will change again, just as it did as a result of making the interchange a massive difference to the way game plans dominated.

Essendon's mess is simply one club mucking up. It is only one of eighteen clubs. Not the end of the world. Could be a lot worse and you lose your club which has not happened as happened for most Fitzroy fans.
My own club mucked up more than Essendon in terms of hurting our own club deeply but in a different way to Essendon and we are still a decade and a half later and the dark days are still here but the worst has passed. I look forward to knowing I've seen the darkness before the dawn with all the changes in last twelve months. Essendon won't be as hurt as bad but in the short term their brand as a club will take a hit. That is to be expected and deal with. They still got the club and colours and training grounds. They fully back in draft after relatively minor draft picks lost and after this season a fresh start with no staff remaining that caused the mess to linger on.

I still look forward to my favourite sport knowing my club will take a good five or six years just to be in any serious contender situation but in that time I can watch and enjoy the development of our younger players and also enjoy seeing the journey of other wonderful young players like Hogan of Dees, Stringer of Dogs and Cameron of Giants strut their stuff and maybe bring their clubs into grand finals whilst I await my own club get up there. Just got to accept a bit of pain will be felt to get to the glory of success again. What does not kill you, makes you stronger.

 

[SBYM]

out of all the incidents that have occurred, you pick this one out

wtf

My thoughts exactly.

 

[SBYM]

I thought sad-sacks who just wanna whinge about how s**t their life is took to Twitter?

 

[Kwality]

Why should the AFL do anything for grass roots footy? The AFL is the premier professional football league in Australia, it is the league itself that is the responsibility of the AFL. That is its sole `offical` purpose. That it is involved as heavily as it is in community sports is due entirely to the fact that it became the gorilla in the room, so for many things, if the AFL does not do it, it doesn't get done.

That the AFL does as little as it does is not strange, that it does ANYTHING is strange. Similar leagues in sports overseas do not fulfil this role, and no one has formally given this role to the AFL, they do it because they feel they have to.

Was the OP pointing to the structure of Vic footy? The WAFC/SANFL equivalent body is a desk in the AFLs admin, seemingly at the behest of the Vic AFL clubs, a revolving door of teams/alignments.
http://www.aflvic.com.au/

Jatz, do you believe the AFL sees itself as you do? Is your definition of its sole `offical` purpose yours or the AFLs? With respect, how sport overseas organises is of little relevance, if at all.

 

[Suma Magic]

3 years.

Don't blame the AFL for the impact of your cheating and attempts to avoid and delay penalty.

 

[Bloods]

Not one bit.

 

[The Gong]

Think some of these 'issues' are being blown out of proportion. If multicultural round or indigenous round get you upset and impacting your love of the game, you need a reality check. Its the world we live in, every organisation, every sport, every business etc have pubilc expectations that they need to adhere to. (see: CSR)

In saying that, there are 2 things that frustrate me:

1. The relentless gambling promotion (mind you, again an unfortunate reflection of society)

2. Main Stream Media. Not necessarily the fault of the AFL, but has a big impact on how it is run. 'Journalists' shooting from the hip with no fear of repercussions, creating narratives, swaying public/AFL opinion.

Eliminate the first and keep the second honest and Keith will be a much happier man

Keith speaks the truth.

I don't envy anyone being an Essendon fan at the moment but the club needs to take it on the chin and move on. If you really love the game then I don't see why you would let what the club did and the administrators' mishandling of it sour you on the sport itself. This, like all things, will pass and the game and EFC will endure and evolve.

I also understand that congestion is the bane of the sport but take a look at some of the highlights just from 2015 alone. The athleticism and skill of the players is constantly improving and the bar is always being raised. To keep looking at the 90s as some sort of golden age and to say that skills are not showcased in today's game is a fairly outrageous statement in my opinion (and yes I've been around long enough to have followed the game in the 80s and 90s).

 

[Roylion]

Nup. The events involving Essendon over the last four years have had no impact on my interest in following the AFL. In fact it's been quite fascinating watching the twists and turns in the saga.

I've also quite enjoyed watching the AFL wriggle on a hook. It's been a long time coming.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

I love football but I ******* hate the AFL. The Essendon saga was really the final straw for me as far as supporting the AFL as an entity.

3 years.

Don't blame the AFL for the impact of your cheating and attempts to avoid and delay penalty.

I wouldn't blame the AFL for Essendon's doping but I do blame them for the way they tried to rig the investigation in their favour. Right throughout proceedings the AFL has only ever been interested in protecting it's public image no matter the cost to their integrity or the rest of the competition. It's been nothing short of appalling.