Opinion Is the game dead?

Feb 28, 2007
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I still think Clarkson's idea of team prior opportunity when it comes to handballs is a good idea. Where player A has the ball and handballs it to player B, player B loses all prior opportunity and the moment he is tackled it is awarded a free kick, stopping players doing tiny handballs in packs that are almost certainly going to result in more stoppages.

A team prior opportunity when it comes to handballs would force players to try and get the ball out of tight congested packs really quickly, rather than trying to methodically and slowly do 5 or 6 handballs to find one player who has space.
 
Sep 13, 2015
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I still think Clarkson's idea of team prior opportunity when it comes to handballs is a good idea. Where player A has the ball and handballs it to player B, player B loses all prior opportunity and the moment he is tackled it is awarded a free kick, stopping players doing tiny handballs in packs that are almost certainly going to result in more stoppages.

A team prior opportunity when it comes to handballs would force players to try and get the ball out of tight congested packs really quickly, rather than trying to methodically and slowly do 5 or 6 handballs to find one player who has space.
If you do your handballs slowly, you get caught HTB. Players want to find teammates in space with handballs. It’s not that easy though.
 
Feb 28, 2007
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Hardwick likes it too

"I really like the 'team prior'," Hardwick told Channel Seven's Talking Footy.

"The guy who is winning the ball on the ground absolutely deserves every prior opportunity in the rule book.

"But as soon as I handball that ball 30cm to you, your prior's gone. You get rid of the ball.

"Then, all of a sudden, what will happen is ... they won't handball to you, they'll handball to space (and) that also opens up the game."

 
Feb 28, 2007
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If you do your handballs slowly, you get caught HTB. Players want to find teammates in space with handballs. It’s not that easy though.

Not always. There are a tonne of hospital handpasses where player A handballs it to player B despite player B having an opponent right on him who instantly tackles player B, but because player B has only had the ball for half a second it is not called as a prior opportunity. I think it should be, as we should be discouraging player A from handballing it to a teammate who is about to be tackled. We should be creating a situation where player A tries to get the ball out of the pack and out of congestion as fast as possible.
 
Jul 28, 2012
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The constant tinkering with the rules and the overly precious AFL have ruined it by sanitising the game to the point where it is barely recognisable to the game that was played in the "Golden Era'. Sorry millenials you don't know what the sensational seventies, electryfying 80's and 90's were like....it was real football, played by real footballers with their socks up who didn't complain about the length of the pre season and who booed who.....the team i follow is on top currently, but they must surely be the worst top of the table team in the history of the game?
 
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TheWeapon

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May 20, 2012
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Too many short kicks being allowed by the umpires is allowing teams to try and maintain possession at all costs like soccer. Scared of turnovers so corridor is rarely used.

Make kicks be 20 metres for a mark plus umpires actually enforce it. If that is not enough make kicks that go backwards do not count as a mark.

Illegal disposal should include the ball falling out if has had prior opportunity even if it happens in the tackle - up to the ball carrier to prevent it spilling out imo
 

Marc_Remillard

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Jan 4, 2015
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The game is just different, but with each generation that comes along that's all they will know so no, not dead at all.

My personal opinion is that modern footy lacks a lot of what made the game great (high marking, one on one duels, gun key forwards, hip and shoulder) but then comparing game plans to back then they now look extremely archaic. Having said all that I still think the increased interchange is the worst thing to have happened to the game ever.
 

Crusty Demon

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Sep 20, 2009
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I honestly would rather watch NRL atm. I cancelled my Foxtel subscription for the first time in years. The game is horrible and boring to watch now. 4 goals to 5 goals at 3 quarter time for most games!? What a joke! I don't watch any other game now really except for my team. And they blow, so I'm watching virtually no footy now. I check scores etc for tipping purposes, but I've lost interest in the game and find myself tuning in to other sports much more now. I feel bringing in the expansion teams have diluted the quality of players to a point where blokes are getting a game who would be struggling in the VFL. And to think they want to bring in more teams??! The top 8 is a joke! We potentially are going to reward a team with finals footy this year who has a losing record! The rules are confusing, the changes to the game have made it less enjoyable to watch, we can't even boo at the footy anymore in fear of getting kicked out. It really has become a joke. Until the board running the game are kicked out and wholesale changes are made, I'm not putting anymore $$ into this game. I'll watch from afar and become one of those fair weathered supporters. It's a shame because I have two kids who love sport. But they are more interested in basketball and soccer than AFL mainly because of my lack of interest. Next year will be the first year I don't buy a team membership since 1993...
 

mxett

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Jul 1, 2007
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I still think Clarkson's idea of team prior opportunity when it comes to handballs is a good idea. Where player A has the ball and handballs it to player B, player B loses all prior opportunity and the moment he is tackled it is awarded a free kick, stopping players doing tiny handballs in packs that are almost certainly going to result in more stoppages.

A team prior opportunity when it comes to handballs would force players to try and get the ball out of tight congested packs really quickly, rather than trying to methodically and slowly do 5 or 6 handballs to find one player who has space.
I think team prior would make an already difficult and subjective rule even more difficult to adjudicate. I'd rather go to no prior than team prior
 
Oct 8, 2009
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Skills are rubbish. Don’t know what is causing it but they are the worst they’ve ever been.

Yes coaches want to limit scoring but I also think they’re frightened to play fast attacking footy because their players will commit horrible errors far too often.
 
Oct 3, 2007
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It's not dead, it is just being run by morons. The game is so easy to fix and it doesn't need a competition committee.

1. Get rid of prior opp - all the congestion, stoppage and low scoring problems have evolved from this crap rule about 20 years ago. Why should a player have a god given right to just hatch it because he got to the ball first?

2. Get rid of ruck nominations - it wastes time and creates additional numbers around the ball. Umps should just throw it up immediately there is a ball up.

3. Reduce rotations down to 10 per qtr. Tired legs will promote more positional play.

4. Last possession out of bounds is a free to the opposition. Make the rule black and white. It will promote corridor footy and less throw ins will reduce stoppages and congestion.

Constant ball movement is the key. Remove all obstacles that allow coaches to block the game up and slow it down.

On SM-G930F using BigFooty.com mobile app

So in your view removing prior opportunities then every time anyone has the ball and it doesn’t move on the player with the ball is penalised? Nothing wrong with prior opportunity but the problem is that they are given to long to get rid of it.

Agree with point 2, in fact I would just return it as it was, nothing wrong with a third man going up.

I don’t think reducing rotations will change anything.

And point 4 I strongly disagree with, the deliberate out of bounds is now way over adjudicated. Just leave it as it is and relax a bit on these deliberately out of bounds call.

I will add one, pay high contact free kicks and stop thinking the bloke with the ball causes it. Other than ducking if it’s high it’s high. Make the coaches and players change to tackling lower. Head high contact is rife in the game yet the head is apparently sacrosanct??
 

Blue1980

Brownlow Medallist
Jun 9, 2011
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I honestly would rather watch NRL atm. I cancelled my Foxtel subscription for the first time in years. The game is horrible and boring to watch now. 4 goals to 5 goals at 3 quarter time for most games!? What a joke! I don't watch any other game now really except for my team. And they blow, so I'm watching virtually no footy now. I check scores etc for tipping purposes, but I've lost interest in the game and find myself tuning in to other sports much more now. I feel bringing in the expansion teams have diluted the quality of players to a point where blokes are getting a game who would be struggling in the VFL. And to think they want to bring in more teams??! The top 8 is a joke! We potentially are going to reward a team with finals footy this year who has a losing record! The rules are confusing, the changes to the game have made it less enjoyable to watch, we can't even boo at the footy anymore in fear of getting kicked out. It really has become a joke. Until the board running the game are kicked out and wholesale changes are made, I'm not putting anymore $$ into this game. I'll watch from afar and become one of those fair weathered supporters. It's a shame because I have two kids who love sport. But they are more interested in basketball and soccer than AFL mainly because of my lack of interest. Next year will be the first year I don't buy a team membership since 1993...

This has happened a fair bit before with a side in the 8 with a losing record.

This won’t be one of those years.

This just looks like you are salty because your team has been so far short of expectations this year.

I’d like a bit more higher scoring overall but this is just a stupid rant.
 

sandeano

Premiership Player
Oct 7, 2001
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Basically, the AFL needs to stop mucking around with onfield rule changes and instead, modify the training and dietary routines of the players.

From now on, breakfast should be bacon and eggs (or a 4am kebab if out on the turps, which is highly recommended), lunch to be a Four 'n' Twenty pie plus a Mars Bar for energy and for dinner a parma and chips. No less than half a dozen beers a day and at least half a pack of Winnie Blues.

The perfect specimen.

705259


Seriously, let's face it - this game was designed to keep fat cricketers fit in the off-season and no matter how much we remember the late 80s - early 90s as a golden age (and it was) the players of today would run rings around those past champs in terms of fitness and stamina. The players of today are simply too fit and have evolved far past the point for which the game was designed to accommodate them. As someone said earlier, reduce the rotations and the even the number on the ground to sixteen.
 
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