I certainly don't view our game in such a negative light, there a a few points I half agree with but I'm thinking you need to stick with watching soccerActually managed to watch the majority of the four games over the weekend and honestly I am at a loss with where the competition is going, I am generally an avid sports follower and really really struggle to understand how the AFL can continue without a sendoff rule. I follow football (soccer), NBA and NFL all of which have match day penalties or sendoff rules.
A few examples over the 4 finals that I found really frustrating.
Clash jumpers is beyond childish at this point. You have a club like Juventus who wear black and white stripes but also wear pink and blue as clash strips where required. Juventus generate more revenue than all the AFL clubs combined. The AFL need to grow a set here and say every club needs a minimum of 2 clash strips one predominately white for example (general away game jumper) and one NOT using your traditional colours/design. Time to grow up kids.
The Nic Nat incident, to me is another example of the AFL basing decisions on the outcome and not the action. Let's just say Nic Nat threw Merrett into the fence and cracked his head open. You would expect a suspension in the range of 6 plus weeks. In the NBA both Merrett for the hair pull and Nic Nat for retaliation would likely have been thrown out of the game. The same issue with the studs up in marking contests, now this is ok but what happens if a defender turns and gets kicked in the face? It isn't the players fault as that is an acceptable action, but you can almost guarantee the AFL in it's wisdom would issue a suspension in that scenario again because of the outcome. I am still seething that Setterfield got two weeks for a tackle you could debate wasn't a sling based on the outcome.
The Grimes dive, was disgusting. Again in football (soccer) yep this happens far too often but you can be red/yellow carded for staging. A nominal fine is not enough to stamp this out of the game and it is happening far too often. Same with the Joel Duckwood arm raise to slip the tackle high, he has been doing this for years and nothing is done about it. Players are taking advantage of the rules and the officials and it is a blight on the game.
The Bont treatment was truly sad to see, I want to see the best players play and the treatment he received was well and truly outside the rules. A suspension to Greene after the game means absolutely nothing, the umpires didn't protect the Bont at all on the day (see Patrick Cripps most games) but you can't expect everything to be picked up. With all the cameras and new ARC review system surely this can be relayed to the officials and a warning given. If it continues I would expect the player to be sent off.
Yes this is a bit of a rant but to me the state of the game is really poor at the moment, due to the fact the AFL have really poor governance. I also don't think its the umpires so much as the directions given which seem to change weekly! Just getting really difficult to enjoy a game I love