AFL is on the decline - the younger generation is just not that into you

[Shane Heard]

yeah I'm still watching (not as much as I use to admittedly) i'm still invested and love the sport doesn't mean everything needs to be sunshine and rainbows through my eyes. I'm concerned where the game is heading their needs to be a philosophy back to a more attacking style and hopefully a return of key positional players. I like the way Melbourne and Brisbane play Carlton to an extend too they are more direct and daring but it is still played at a stagnate pace unless the game is on the line.

btw I still watch F1 too even through I find it boring as batshit these days.

It’s the evolution of the game mate.

Defence is paramount.

NBA, NFL, Hockey, the round ball game..all zone team sports that have focused primarily on defence in the last 20 years.

The AFL 666 gives more opportunities to attack quickly ..the play on from kick-outs allows teams to drive the ball further away from the opponent’s goals. Everyone is trying to counteract it.


NBA brought in the shot clock so teams didn’t just hold the ball and waste time ..NFL focus on covering receivers and developing elite corner backs etc etc

It’s just the way sport evolved

 

[Tackle Bag]

It’s the evolution of the game mate.

Defence is paramount.

NBA, NFL, Hockey, the round ball game..all zone team sports that have focused primarily on defence in the last 20 years.

The 666 gives more opportunities to attack quickly ..NBA brought in the shot clock so teams didn’t just hold the ball and waste time ..NFL focus on covering receivers and developing elite corner backs etc etc

It’s just the way sport evolved

Yes but they are all sports played on smaller playing fields and with less live playing time. If we can just reduce the interchange significantly to bring back fatigue then our players simply cannot cover the ground with zone defence so positional play would return. The bench was never intended for the way it is used these days.

 

[Bjo187]

Yes but they are all sports played on smaller playing fields and with less live playing time. If we can just reduce the interchange significantly to bring back fatigue then our players simply cannot cover the ground with zone defence so positional play would return. The bench was never intended for the way it is used these days.

Go to 16 a side then, that amount won't allow for zoning as effectively. It's why teams won't use a tagger because you need a full 18 man team defence for zones to work effectively. Plus you have less players on a list saving money and increasing the quality of players in the AFL.

 

[Partridge]

It's a massive point. The idea 80s and 90s footy was better is not supported by the numbers. Attendance, membership and viewing has all exploded since then.

So they should. For a good chunk of the 1980s all the games were played in one city, on the same day, at the same time. Those things should all be much higher considering how staggered the games are (and there are more of them each week too).

 

[Trent the flight Steward]

It’s the evolution of the game mate.

Defence is paramount.

NBA, NFL, Hockey, the round ball game..all zone team sports that have focused primarily on defence in the last 20 years.

The AFL 666 gives more opportunities to attack quickly ..the play on from kick-outs allows teams to drive the ball further away from the opponent’s goals. Everyone is trying to counteract it.


NBA brought in the shot clock so teams didn’t just hold the ball and waste time ..NFL focus on covering receivers and developing elite corner backs etc etc

It’s just the way sport evolved

The NBA has evolved with the three ball it's impossible to defend, Kerr changed it up, here we don't even practice goalkicking, fwds should be automatic from 45 out in a professional environment to stretch the zone and create more gaps. Why aren't AFL fwds taking 1000 shots at goal a week from areas they actually kick from in games, they should be 75% accuracy

 

[Billy ray]

$2 pies
$1 chips
$1 water/$2 soft drink

 

[Ed_Gein]

I was born in the 70s and I lived for footy.

I played as often as I could, and I listened to games on the radio, watched highlights and was generally engaged with my club, obsessed even. I was in the majority as well, most kids my age, most people I knew, even older where the same.

Nowadays, with kids, even adults under say 25, that level of commitment and engagement is the exception, not the rule.

Most people take it or leave it as far as the AFL goes, some have a passing interest, I would put it to you that most people do not really care.

I feel like the glory days of the AFL are over. Crowds when you compare apples with apples over time will decline, and ratings will continue to go down as well. This is especially true with these two things when you adjust for population growth.

The AFL is in trouble, maybe not now, but in the future this comp will be battling, and the reason is that rusted on supporters are a dying breed. Plastic corporates like Gil running the show do not help either just quietly.

I think technology plays a huge part of this? What else did you have to engage with prior to the mid-90's? You didn't hear of much else beyond what was given to you via radio and TV (with only a few channels and no pay-tv etc), so AFL was all people had for the majority. Kids these days are growing up with a phone and an internet connection in their hand, opening them up to niche interests or other popular stuff like gaming etc... Different eras really. So AFL has a lot of competition compared to yesteryear - even other sports like NRL which barely got a mention in Melbourne prior to the Storm. So it's understandable that we lived and breathed AFL in those days.

 

[Scotland]

I think technology plays a huge part of this? What else did you have to engage with prior to the mid-90's? You didn't hear of much else beyond what was given to you via radio and TV (with only a few channels and no pay-tv etc), so AFL was all people had for the majority. Kids these days are growing up with a phone and an internet connection in their hand, opening them up to niche interests or other popular stuff like gaming etc... Different eras really. So AFL has a lot of competition compared to yesteryear - even other sports like NRL which barely got a mention in Melbourne prior to the Storm. So it's understandable that we lived and breathed AFL in those days.

I followed NBA and EPL in the 90s. When it was the absolute heyday with Jordan, Barkley, Shaq etc. there still wasn't that much TV coverage. The odd highlights show on Channel 10, wearing singlets and trading basketball cards for the most part. EPL had Monday night highlights on SBS and scores in the paper. Once the internet started taking off you could find news and results and listen to the odd game online. Even tennis and cricket that have been popular for decades had heaps of TV coverage over December and January (tests, ODIs, Australian Open and the odd lead up tournament) and then bugger all else all year besides Wimbledon which was on Channel 9 late at night. Meanwhile during footy season 8 games a round were on Channel 7 (not all live) and it was the back 10 pages of the paper for 6 months.

These days you can follow an NBA team and watch all 82 of their games if you are that keen. If you are a T20 fiend you can jump from BBL to IPL to CPL to BPL etc. like the gun for hire players do. So much sporting content available.

 

[Ed_Gein]

I followed NBA and EPL in the 90s. When it was the absolute heyday with Jordan, Barkley, Shaq etc. there still wasn't that much TV coverage. The odd highlights show on Channel 10, wearing singlets and trading basketball cards for the most part. EPL had Monday night highlights on SBS and scores in the paper. Once the internet started taking off you could find news and results and listen to the odd game online. Even tennis and cricket that have been popular for decades had heaps of TV coverage over December and January (tests, ODIs, Australian Open and the odd lead up tournament) and then bugger all else all year besides Wimbledon which was on Channel 9 late at night. Meanwhile during footy season 8 games a round were on Channel 7 (not all live) and it was the back 10 pages of the paper for 6 months.

These days you can follow an NBA team and watch all 82 of their games if you are that keen. If you are a T20 fiend you can jump from BBL to IPL to CPL to BPL etc. like the gun for hire players do. So much sporting content available.

Yeah that's true. I was huge on the basketball too and lived for that one game they showed on the weekend with a 30 minute show with top-10 plays hosted by Bill Woods. EPL on the rare occasions before school as well if they showed midweek games. You're right about the content these days, but it's the ease of access to it on top of that, like you touched on. You had to wait for your moments to consume anything other than AFL in days gone by. You can access highlights on YouTube or everything is replayed frequently or recorded with ease on TV today, opening current generations up to much more sport.

 

[Scotland]

Yeah that's true. I was huge on the basketball too and lived for that one game they showed on the weekend with a 30 minute show with top-10 plays hosted by Bill Woods. EPL on the rare occasions before school as well if they showed midweek games. You're right about the content these days, but it's the ease of access to it on top of that, like you touched on. You had to wait for your moments to consume anything other than AFL in days gone by. You can access highlights on YouTube or everything is replayed frequently or recorded with ease on TV today, opening current generations up to much more sport.

Even with footy you can get all games live on your phone now. With the time difference I used to sometimes watch a bit of Friday night footy on the train on the way home from work. No need to rush home to watch, and it's not a choice between watching on TV/going to the game/listening to the radio or nothing. You can 'consume' footy content more like you would with the cricket, watching a bit here and there.

Personally I get a bit bored with the oversaturation of footy media. There's just as much actual footy (well 9/8ths of what there was in 1996) and what feels like 10 times as many people talking about it. Every Monday alone on Fox Footy Robbo, Gerard Whately, Garry Lyon, Nick Riewoldt, Jonathon Brown, David King, Leigh Montagna, Ben Dixon etc. all talk about the same s**t that most of them talked about before, during and after the games on the weekend.

 

[PetterdHoisted]

I actually see a decline in the interest in sport. As far as I am concerned AFL is in good shape, it's in a good place. We get so worried that people won't like a low scoring defensive game yet the most popular sport in the world, soccer, is the most defensive and lowest scoring sport.

Footy is a bit like music, it changes all the time. You get to an age where the modern music sucks and it's not as good as what was on in your day. Same with footy. There's nothing wrong with the game, it's just changed a little that we have become a little unfamiliar to us. Our good memories of the game in the past have held on while the bad ones have faded which gives us a false perception that the games was better in my day. Also helps if the team we followed was better and we were generally more interested in the game because we didn't live in a world where we could watch anything we wanted to whenever.

Where I live I have seen a dramatic drop in participation of sport, kids aren't playing footy or anything anymore and that's leading towards adults who aren't playing anymore. Comes from lack of interest being developed. Also the value of playing sport has been forgotten and parents working more and can't being bothered to get their kids to sport or don't value sport enough to make them play sport. It's a shame because you grow up playing sport, the value in that is enormous.

I as most of us on here grew up in a household where the only thing to watch was Free to air TV or maybe Foxtel and when the footy, cricket or tennis was on it was the best thing to watch so that was what was on the TV. As a Kid you would sit down and watch sport and gain interest in that because that was the only good thing on and there were only one or two screens in the house. Now everyone has a screen to watch whatever they want whenever they want. Kids are not growing up watching sport, hence not developing an interest or understanding of it.

There are other reasons too. Schools don't seem to value sport. You drive past schools and there is another building going up, a lot of schools don't offer the room for kids to play sport in recess. I am also assuming the cotton wool society probably doesn't want them playing sport anyway, they might get hurt if they move around or touch another kid.

I think the interest in sport is suffering because kids aren't watching it growing up anymore. Parents and schools don't value sport as much as they could so there is no push to get kids playing. This has been happening for over a decade now and the effects are showing IMO.

Covid has also taken a massive hit on junior participation and they psychology of kids when it comes to sport participation. A lot of unvaccinated people are unable to attend matches.

On the other side of the table there is a diminished experience of going to the footy. I went to a game, round 1 Richmond V Carlton. After a long drive I could not park at the ground so had to wing it and park in the suburbs. Then the ticketing system failed, so after waiting in a long slow moving line I had to walk out, get that sorted and line up again. Finally entered the ground where we were unable to get a beer because half the bars are closed and the service can't handle the massive line. Forget food. How was my experience so far? s**t. Who would want to go to the MCG after that again. Fortunately I thoroughly enjoyed what was happening out in the middle. Add the covid checks which many people find detracts from the experience and apart from the sport it's a dull day.

The experience of going to the football today sucks. So why go? Parking is a problem. People's idea of good food and drink have changed a lot from 20 years ago. Not everyone is happy to drink and eat what they have to offer. Long slow moving lines getting in. Long slow moving lines trying to get food and drink. I could avoid all that, stay at home in comfort, eat and drink what I like and watch the game on high definition until I get sick of it and switch on a streaming service and watch something else.

I don't know how you achieve this but the AFL need to work on getting participation of school aged kids up and going. They need to get kids playing and watching the sport again. In the past that was easy, they had no competition. Not sure how they do this.

I think the issue if far greater than what the game offers.

Seriously, it doesn’t require an essay, get rid of the stupid rules they have introduced since end-2017 that have destroyed viewing numbers

666, stand, dissent etc.

 

[Seeds]

Yes but they are all sports played on smaller playing fields and with less live playing time. If we can just reduce the interchange significantly to bring back fatigue then our players simply cannot cover the ground with zone defence so positional play would return. The bench was never intended for the way it is used these days.

You are on the right path. Afl can be more positional because of the length of the ground.

but the fatigue aspect only comes into play in the last qtr. making players tired wont fix the first half of the game. Plus you run the risk of pushing the exciting players with speed and strength but poor stamina out of the game even more then they have already as coaches may just find players with even higher stamina to replicate the current game.

other rules are needed. Banning marks from kicking backwards or extending the length of a kick that can be marked. Making grounds a bit longer but narrower. makes it hard to flood zones if you have to run 10-20 metres further to do it. changing the ground size isnt as hard as people think. Only the lower decks of stands need to be adjusted.

 

[Seeds]

And if none of my above rules work to make the game more positional then we fit players with gps trackers and mandate 6 players from each team, must always be in each half. impossible to umpire for men alone but if they all wear gps trackers then a buzzer will go off if the 6 player rule isnt satisfied making it incredibly easy to umpire.

problem solved.

 

[Rusty Brookes]

There may be some truth to what you say but the rusted on, supporters in the 70s/80s didn't necessarily translate into big crowds. Membership numbers were nowhere near what they are today. And just about every traditional VFL club faced a moment of near extinction.

My guess is the younger supporter becomes a rusted on supporter later in life. My son who is 11 this year is starting to show his first signs of being rusted on - doesn't want to miss games, interested in who is coming back from injury, etc. I don't think he'll ever as psychotic about is as I am (and with some self reflection that's probably a good thing) but I don't think he'll be lost to the game.

So three years later and he's as psychotic about it as I am now. Hates missing a game, is playing his first year of junior footy (pretty late to it but slowly starting to pick it up) and now delivers all the selection news to me.

 

[Lets Roar like '44]

I’ve never understood why the Home team supporters are to blame when a crowd is shite. I mean if your team is the “away” team at the MCG, do you suddenly not go because you have to find $20 for a ticket?

 

[Seeds]

I’ve never understood why the Home team supporters are to blame when a crowd is shite. I mean if your team is the “away” team at the MCG, do you suddenly not go because you have to find $20 for a ticket?

Ive never heard of home team supporters being blamed in victoria.

 

[gbatman]

Seriously, it doesn’t require an essay, get rid of the stupid rules they have introduced since end-2017 that have destroyed viewing numbers

666, stand, dissent etc.

To be honest I couldn't care about those rules, it's still footy to me and teams have adjusted defensively to counteract. The thing is it's achieved what the AFL wanted to, it's created more space for the players so I doubt we are going to see any changes to that anytime soon.

I think the only rule that really needs adjusting is the dissent rule. It's too sensitive. Crack down hard on dissent, that's fine, paying 50 for putting arms out is a bit much. Either way it won't be long and you won't see it, players will adjust.

666 rule, who cares, means teams don't get 30 points up then throw numbers back in defence. Means everyone starts in their position each bounce which is how footy was played all the time prior to 2000. No big deal. Teams can still throw numbers back if they are able to control the centre bounce.

Stand, meh. Working the mark had been something that had come in towards the late 90's go back prior to that the player on the mark hardly moved. It's encouraged teams to go up the middle more and around the boundary less, instigate more attacking plays and to go longer. It's broken up and shifted how teams zone up which is exactly what the AFL want.

Deliberate out of bounds rule. Love it. If you kick towards the boundary line part of your intention is that it will go out of bounds which means you put the ball out of bounds deliberately. You always have the option to kick up the ground. It's about time this was corrected. This rule has worked really well keeping the ball in play and keeping the play going.

Play on rule. I wasn't sure on this one but it has achieved what it was meant to achieve. It's pushed the defensive zones right back, encouraged play up the middle and opened things right up through the midfield.

To be honest I think the game looks pretty good. Some just don't like change. Some get old enough where the modern version sucks, like with music.

This situation of footy sucks is a lot like music and movies IMO. Ever heard a song or a band and weren't that taken with it at first but listened to it enough times you ended up kind of liking it? This doesn't happen much anymore because we can skip it, spotify etc. Same with the video store, you hired a movie, if you didn't like it at the start, stiff, you watch it all the way through and it ends up not being too bad, now you flick on netflix and if it doesn't hit you in the first 5 minutes you change to something else.

Footy is the same. "Back in the day" we were forced to watch footy over and over again and even when the games weren't that good we watched them anyway because there was nothing else on. We watched a lot of games all the way through and ended up enjoying it. It's the same thing as for what Movies and Music was. We don't learn to like things because we have too many options and don't have the patience and will to give things a chance anymore because we don't have to.

Then there is another issue, where you get to a point where something you like changes and you don't like it anymore. I think modern music sucks. But there are a lot of people who don't and the music charts reflect. That's because in my mid 30's you get old and you want things to be more of the same and as they were in our day. I get that, maybe footy has changed and we are at that age where that sucks for us but not for a lot of other people. Same as music.

Example, old rule changes. The ball has to go 15m instead of 10m. The inner circle in the ruck. All criticised at the time. I was cool with it, I bet a lot here were too. It's no different to the mentioned rule changes. Why were we ok with those changes and not these. IMO it says more about our age than anything.

The new rules of the game are actually fine. Perhaps it's us who don't like to see it change. Perhaps it's a nostalgia thing. It's still footy with some very small changes.

 

[Cuzz09]

Yeah if say Port get 25000 at AO it is the end of the world but its all good to get 19000 for Stk v Melb @ Marvel for example

On SM-G925I using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[Lets Roar like '44]

Ive never heard of home team supporters being blamed in victoria.

Happy to pass on as much knowledge as I can. You only have to read BF.

 

[blueboy25]

How many kids are not playing the sport or any sport because of the cost involved and AFL is a lot cheaper than sports like soccer.

Registration fees, boots, mouth guards all add up and a lot of parents may not be able to afford it. You should be able to claim a tax deduction on kids sports registration fees.

 

[RJK Tiger]

Seeing a decline in sport by the younger generation is not hat surprising really when you see the changes in their community and COVID era.

In lockdowns more got into gaming than ever before - why follow a game when you can be the star of your own game?

The next generation appear to be a lot less combative in nature. They are more about passiveness than competitive sports, more interested in social issues or being social (at least online, nite sure if true in person). Also far more distractions as they get seduced by Tik Tok, Instagram influences etc.

Also the accessibility of oversea's sports now provides far more attention. NBA fans can subscribe to an annual pass for a few hundred dollars & watch multiple games, per day - for several months, live & on demand.

 

[HavUEvaSeenTheRain]

Yeah if say Port get 25000 at AO it is the end of the world but its all good to get 19000 for Stk v Melb @ Marvel for example

On SM-G925I using BigFooty.com mobile app

supply and demand I guess. Victorian’s can probably watch their side 16 times a season so can pick and choose more.

The problem when you bring in more sides is that you don’t seem to get any more good/contending sides you only get more crap sides. This makes for not only more crap games but a higher % of crap games.
ATM with Melbourne being so far ahead it really has a feeling that only two sides are contenders, that being Melbourne and Brisbane who aren’t looking anything special. It takes the sting out of the season abit. In saying that it’s a long season and things can change quickly and the AFL would be hoping it does.

 

[Cuzz09]

True.

I went to a Melb v Rich game in 1993 and there was 21k @ the G.

But that game now gets 80k

Ebbs n flows... every one likes a winner etc

But I agree that more teams makes increase in worse games... get rid of GC and bring in Tassie.

stay at 18 teams.

Raise draft age to 20.



On SM-G925I using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[blaisee]

I think technology plays a huge part of this? What else did you have to engage with prior to the mid-90's? You didn't hear of much else beyond what was given to you via radio and TV (with only a few channels and no pay-tv etc), so AFL was all people had for the majority. Kids these days are growing up with a phone and an internet connection in their hand, opening them up to niche interests or other popular stuff like gaming etc... Different eras really. So AFL has a lot of competition compared to yesteryear - even other sports like NRL which barely got a mention in Melbourne prior to the Storm. So it's understandable that we lived and breathed AFL in those days.

Hard to argue against this.

In the end, the AFL is in the entertainment business, due to technology demand is easily scalable up and down,

Afl is experienced this as a downside

 

[PetterdHoisted]

To be honest I couldn't care about those rules, it's still footy to me and teams have adjusted defensively to counteract. The thing is it's achieved what the AFL wanted to, it's created more space for the players so I doubt we are going to see any changes to that anytime soon.

I think the only rule that really needs adjusting is the dissent rule. It's too sensitive. Crack down hard on dissent, that's fine, paying 50 for putting arms out is a bit much. Either way it won't be long and you won't see it, players will adjust.

666 rule, who cares, means teams don't get 30 points up then throw numbers back in defence. Means everyone starts in their position each bounce which is how footy was played all the time prior to 2000. No big deal. Teams can still throw numbers back if they are able to control the centre bounce.

Stand, meh. Working the mark had been something that had come in towards the late 90's go back prior to that the player on the mark hardly moved. It's encouraged teams to go up the middle more and around the boundary less, instigate more attacking plays and to go longer. It's broken up and shifted how teams zone up which is exactly what the AFL want.

Deliberate out of bounds rule. Love it. If you kick towards the boundary line part of your intention is that it will go out of bounds which means you put the ball out of bounds deliberately. You always have the option to kick up the ground. It's about time this was corrected. This rule has worked really well keeping the ball in play and keeping the play going.

Play on rule. I wasn't sure on this one but it has achieved what it was meant to achieve. It's pushed the defensive zones right back, encouraged play up the middle and opened things right up through the midfield.

To be honest I think the game looks pretty good. Some just don't like change. Some get old enough where the modern version sucks, like with music.

This situation of footy sucks is a lot like music and movies IMO. Ever heard a song or a band and weren't that taken with it at first but listened to it enough times you ended up kind of liking it? This doesn't happen much anymore because we can skip it, spotify etc. Same with the video store, you hired a movie, if you didn't like it at the start, stiff, you watch it all the way through and it ends up not being too bad, now you flick on netflix and if it doesn't hit you in the first 5 minutes you change to something else.

Footy is the same. "Back in the day" we were forced to watch footy over and over again and even when the games weren't that good we watched them anyway because there was nothing else on. We watched a lot of games all the way through and ended up enjoying it. It's the same thing as for what Movies and Music was. We don't learn to like things because we have too many options and don't have the patience and will to give things a chance anymore because we don't have to.

Then there is another issue, where you get to a point where something you like changes and you don't like it anymore. I think modern music sucks. But there are a lot of people who don't and the music charts reflect. That's because in my mid 30's you get old and you want things to be more of the same and as they were in our day. I get that, maybe footy has changed and we are at that age where that sucks for us but not for a lot of other people. Same as music.

Example, old rule changes. The ball has to go 15m instead of 10m. The inner circle in the ruck. All criticised at the time. I was cool with it, I bet a lot here were too. It's no different to the mentioned rule changes. Why were we ok with those changes and not these. IMO it says more about our age than anything.

The new rules of the game are actually fine. Perhaps it's us who don't like to see it change. Perhaps it's a nostalgia thing. It's still footy with some very small changes.

I'm glad you prefer it, but clearly the current game looks terrible to the majority and they have voted with their feet, and switched off the telly also.

Pretty damning way for Gil to sign off his tenure, doesn't matter what you do elsewhere in the game, your number 1 priority is to at least maintain crowds and FTA TV numbers.

They have cooked the golden goose with an AFLX rule book.

The crowds will be back when they bring our game back.