No Oppo Supporters General AFL discussion and other club’s news - Part 10

[JZedd]

I just don’t get the argument that players are risking themselves in a state of origin match.. Players risk injury at training, should we stop that too.. You can’t wrap athletes in cotton wool on the off chance they get injured, that’s their risk to take..If I was a player I’d love to play against the best of the best and something that happened in a state match nearly 40 years ago wouldn’t put me off in the slightest..

Tony Hall
Edit: still have flash backs

 

[danielG]

In the AFL? No.

It works really well in the NRL as they use it to feed into the national team to go play against England et al.

AFL doesn't have that. Maybe it should be the AA squad(s) playing so they can't just select 14 midfielders and have a muppet as captain.

It's meaningless in AFL, always has been.

AFL would do better taking a different direction, how about unders vs overs? Pick an arbitrary age like 25 and select the best under 25 team to play against the best over 25s. Could even make it so the youngest and oldest have to be selected as captain respectively.

My opinion, state of origin if set up correctly can be the way players can test themselves against the best and play with their best peers. In AFL the greatest individual award (aside from Brownlow) is All Australian selection and that doesn’t lead to anything more as there is no one to compete against. If players at the end of their career can reflect on state selection and compete at a higher level than the regular competition I can’t see how that can be a negative..It just needs to be set up the right way and for players, clubs and supporters to embrace it.. Time will tell if it will evolve into anything meaningful, but I see the point of giving it a go..

 

[Ka Norkers]

state of origin is, was, and always will be a bore-fest.
works in the NRL, where there are essentially only two states that play the code, but not in the AFL.
it's not about the injuries, its about the fact that nobody cares.
like the all-stars NBA games, it is watched and attended cause there is nothing else on.
put it this way, if Victoria was playing SA at 7.30pm on a Friday night, and at the same time, Hawthorn were playing Collingwood, which match would you watch??

 

[play2win]

When they introduce the bye prior to the GF, the all Australian team can play the all stars selected from the remaining playing group. Of course the GF players are exempt from selection.

 

[I got the outside word]

It’s coming home.

 

[kazzooka]

I just don’t get the argument that players are risking themselves in a state of origin match.. Players risk injury at training, should we stop that too.. You can’t wrap athletes in cotton wool on the off chance they get injured, that’s their risk to take..If I was a player I’d love to play against the best of the best and something that happened in a state match nearly 40 years ago wouldn’t put me off in the slightest..

It you get injured at training or in a pre-season game that's a risk you take in your preparation. If you get injured playing in another activity separate to your employment at Hawthorn FC that's reckless and a huge issue.

How would you feel if they went and played with their country footy side in February for a practice match and get belted by a brick layer? Or take up MMA and break their leg?

You absolutely can wrap athletes in cotton wool to prevent them from getting injured, I went to school with a ballet dancer and she wasn't allowed to play netball or participate in the athletics carnival.

 

[danielG]

It you get injured at training or in a pre-season game that's a risk you take in your preparation. If you get injured playing in another activity separate to your employment at Hawthorn FC that's reckless and a huge issue.

How would you feel if they went and played with their country footy side in February for a practice match and get belted by a brick layer? Or take up MMA and break their leg?

You absolutely can wrap athletes in cotton wool to prevent them from getting injured, I went to school with a ballet dancer and she wasn't allowed to play netball or participate in the athletics carnival.

Seriously, you’re comparing competing in MMA and a state of origin match.. The clubs sign off on their players competing in these games.. The players are also paid to compete in these games.. The players aren’t sneaking out to compete without the clubs authorising it..

 

[Dewnior]

My opinion, state of origin if set up correctly can be the way players can test themselves against the best and play with their best peers. In AFL the greatest individual award (aside from Brownlow) is All Australian selection

Respectfully disagree.

 

[I got the outside word]

Seriously, you’re comparing competing in MMA and a state of origin match.. The clubs sign off on their players competing in these games.. The players are also paid to compete in these games.. The players aren’t sneaking out to compete without the clubs authorising it..

I don’t think they were comparing State of Origin with MMA as similar sports, more so that we would be furious with someone getting injured competing, as you say, in MMA, which I don’t think an AFL player would (compete in MMA). Players may get some run in their legs from it but they play a different plan, style, game and couldn’t have much to do with anything from their own clubs goals. Add a potential injury to that, it’s a waste of time. Clubs approved or AFL narrative for money? I honestly wouldn’t know.

 

[flinchfree]

Does anyone here actually want to see the state of origin?

 

[Elhawko]

I'm no fan of SoO, either here (or on the NRL come to that). To me this is just an exhibition game and carries no great weight. I didn't mind the original SoO matches when it was SANFL, vs WAFL vs VFL and the players largely played their weekly footy in their own state league so the SoO were a chance to test which league was strongest (allowing that in any given game at least 1/3 of the best players in the land wouldn't be playing). But all the players going around in this match play in the same league nowadays and a significant number will play for and have been developed by AFL team outside of their home state. Given that I'm not sure what the outcome even tells us. I think of someone like Lachie Neale

9

Lachie Neale

Age

32

Ht

177cm

Wt

84kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

27.0

5star

K

11.5

4star

HB

15.5

5star

M

4.0

4star

T

3.7

5star

CL

5.9

5star

D

28.3

5star

K

13.9

5star

HB

14.4

5star

M

4.6

4star

T

4.0

5star

CL

5.9

5star

D

12.0

3star

K

4.6

2star

HB

7.4

5star

M

2.0

3star

T

1.0

3star

CL

0.4

3star

, who could represent SA but who actually plays for a team based in QLD and who owes a lot of his attributes to the training and experience he has had through the Lions. If he played and was BoG, what does that say about the strength of SA football? I'd say not much! Kids drafted into teams outside their home state are even less representative of their SoO side if we're honest about it.

I just can't see how this is anything more than an exhibition game with pretty much nothing riding on it other than the potential to wreck some unlucky clubs season.

 

[flinchfree]

state of origin is, was, and always will be a bore-fest.

That's just nonsense.

 

[triangulation_squared]

Tony Hall being run down by Andy Collins and doing his knee was enough of the SOO format for me as well.

Not sure how many Victorians plan on sticking around as it is!

 

[bigmaxi]

I would love to see a proper (but renamed: NFL maybe!!??) VFL carnival, where we could do a real national competition. The young guys playing would benefit, and add a bit of colour and spice to the seconds comp. College Football is massive in the USA, it would be giving the community a second, albeit cheaper and community/state based alternative to AFL. It could be held over a weekend in capital cities on a rotation basis. I would definitely go and see this!!

 

[Atch]

I would love to see a proper (but renamed: NFL maybe!!??) VFL carnival, where we could do a real national competition. The young guys playing would benefit, and add a bit of colour and spice to the seconds comp. College Football is massive in the USA, it would be giving the community a second, albeit cheaper and community/state based alternative to AFL. It could be held over a weekend in capital cities on a rotation basis. I would definitely go and see this!!

A competition that would greatly benefit grassroots footy? No way the AFL would sign off on that! There only after that cash money

 

[The Gulden Child]

Prefer All Stars games to S.O.O. Premierships or bust.

 

[LegendLewis]

Im surprised that now we are expanding as a comp and needing more players and also the amount of good mature prospects being picked up in the seconds that we don't do a state of origin clash as a best of the rest and maybe the future draft class played during the finals byes period. I know I’d watch it! Maybe VIC v SA and then WA v All stars during the first bye and the winners play off in the pre GF bye.
Would be a great chance for mature agers and potential draftees to stake a claim and for the public to get excited about potential draftees. Win win for me.

 

[wahawk]

It’s coming home.

S

 

[Big Hotdog]

As if anyone would pick anyone other than Leigh Matthews.
They'd have to be joking surely.

Barney's biggest concern would be how he deals with the modern day tribunal. Not sure a lot of his game would transfer to today's standards.

 

[Mojo]

Leigh Matthews








Next best Hawthorn mid-fielder (Mitchell IMO, but you could argue many others, including Platten, Hodge, Burgoyne, Crawford)
Matthews light-years ahead of any other. Also the best player I've ever seen, by a mile. In true tall-poppy Aussie tradition, pundits throw up Wayne Carey, but those same poppy haters throw up the idiotic idea that Kingston Heath is somehow better than Royal Melbourne. Carey not fit to shine Barney's boots.

I might be a little off-centre with this take, but I've always thought Sam Mitchell would not be out of place in discussions of best of all-time (by position). I can't remember a player with a better skill-set to extract the ball and dispose of it to the same degree. Sam was also the only player, along with Cyril Rioli, I had absolute confidence with ball-in-hand; regardless of pressure, the ball was always going to be, not just effective, but the best option available.

 

[The Chad and I]

I might be a little off-centre with this take, but I've always thought Sam Mitchell would not be out of place in discussions of best of all-time (by position). I can't remember a player with a better skill-set to extract the ball and dispose of it to the same degree. Sam was also the only player, along with Cyril Rioli, I had absolute confidence with ball-in-hand; regardless of pressure, the ball was always going to be, not just effective, but the best option available.

Not a Hawk, but Greg Williams was the best distributor of the ball from stoppages/congestion that i have seen play.
Nobody comes close.

 

[Simon Crawshay]

Not a Hawk, but Greg Williams was the best distributor of the ball from stoppages/congestion that i have seen play.
Nobody comes close.

Was thinking the same thing myself.

In terms of pure distributors of the ball from a contest it's Greg Williams first, then Sam Mitchell second and daylight third.

Very similar players in a lot of ways Williams and Mitchell. Short, not quick by foot but with minds that were running that fraction quicker than everyone else on the field and ultra tough campaigners as well.

 

[The Chad and I]

Was thinking the same thing myself.

In terms of pure distributors of the ball from a contest it's Greg Williams first, then Sam Mitchell second and daylight third.

Very similar players in a lot of ways Williams and Mitchell. Short, not quick by foot but with minds that were running that fraction quicker than everyone else on the field and ultra tough campaigners as well.

I loved Mitchell, but I also think there's a fair bit of daylight between Williams and Mitchell.
While Sam was highly effective, there was something magical about Williams' use of the handball, and he'd hit options literally behind him without turning back.

I have never seen one player change the midfield of a team as quickly and as profoundly as Williams did to Carlton's.

 

[extractasam]

I might be a little off-centre with this take, but I've always thought Sam Mitchell would not be out of place in discussions of best of all-time (by position). I can't remember a player with a better skill-set to extract the ball and dispose of it to the same degree. Sam was also the only player, along with Cyril Rioli, I had absolute confidence with ball-in-hand; regardless of pressure, the ball was always going to be, not just effective, but the best option available.

Our wingmen used to love playing around Sam in congestion. How often would you see the ball bobbling around a pack and then Sam just wrestle his way into a pocket of space to get his arms free and flick a handball out to advantage.

I guess if Ollie is as good as everyone’s saying ball in hand we’re going to quickly find out what the coaches value more - aerobic capacity or sheer skill

 

[Sprint Artisan]

Our wingmen used to love playing around Sam in congestion. How often would you see the ball bobbling around a pack and then Sam just wrestle his way into a pocket of space to get his arms free and flick a handball out to advantage.

I guess if Ollie is as good as everyone’s saying ball in hand we’re going to quickly find out what the coaches value more - aerobic capacity or sheer skill

I was always in awe of Sam's foot passes into dangerous places inside forward 50. Most players would take an easy option in wide open spaces near the boundary, but Sam would place it into the hands of a teammate right in front of goal, even though there were defenders all around them...