Should the AFL provide clocks that players can easily see?

[basashi]

You just can't beat the tension and excitement of being able to see a live countdown clock.

 

[Ichabod Noodle]

And how many time-outs does each team get?

Clock management is all about strategy and knowing you only have six seconds left is only useful if you can set up to do something with it. To stop the clock, gather your resources, and implement. Both games mentioned by the OP have the luxury of set up because they can stop the clock and maintain possession. But it is all stop and start.

Our game flows. So does the clock.

Players and fans know that from the 20 minute mark you are into time on, from the 28 minute it's almost the end and from the 31 minute mark you're on borrowed time (unless there's been a major injury). And you play or hold your breath accordingly.

It is part of the live experience that makes the live game so much better than the TV. If you can have press red for Ed, you should be allowed a button to press if you want the game clock not the broadcast clock.

The not knowing how long is left is unique to our game among the top tier sports and no less tense and exciting as a countdown clock. Soccer gets it a bit but only by 2 or 3 minutes and they let everybody know.

Leave it the way it is.

 

[Dammit]

no it doesnt. It will just encourage more time wasting, and playing for the siren and yes it will definately spoil some of hte excitment of being at the ground and not knowing when the siren will go. Dont even like it on TV. Our game is meant to be free , spontaneous, unpredictable. Every little thing we add that 'defines', herds and narrows the range of possibilites is a cancer... things like 50m lines that take's player judgement of distances out of the equation, like throwing the ball up and not having a variation from the bounce, like not know when the siren goes... these are not decorations to our game, they are part of its fabric. The more you seek to close down the unexpected the more you play into the hands of coaches and tacticians who win games not on skill, speed, judgement and daring, but the dark, yet truly drab arts of defensive, numerical tactics that turn players into mere chess pieces, with no individual creativity.

In this sense, Gridiron, (for example) and Football could not be more opposite in philosphy.
Equally, if we want more predicatblity in our sport, hey, why not stop using an oval ball that bounces funny (that must cause injuries!), and lets not play on an oval field that doesnt have straight lines, lests make it rectangle so that the field is nice and regular, and sometimes we're not 100% on a goal so lets put a net at the back of the goal and not worry if anyone touched it on the way in. If you really want to go down that path theres tonnes of ways to 'straighten out' our game and bring it up to (cough) "international standards." But poor ol' backwards me will still prefer the game that embodied the true Australian spirit, or at least our aspiration of it.. free, wide ranging, without silly rules on where you can go and room for any man big or small to make their mark, and play and play, until the final siren goes (whenever that might be)

This post truly does embody the 'sky is falling in' tin hat theory.

Making something visible that is ALREADY THERE doesn't mess with the fabric of the game.

HOLY HELL I wouldn't have wanted to hear what you thought about the sliding/contact below the knees rule.

 

[AstroboyUK]

This post truly does embody the 'sky is falling in' tin hat theory.

Making something visible that is ALREADY THERE doesn't mess with the fabric of the game.

HOLY HELL I wouldn't have wanted to hear what you thought about the sliding/contact below the knees rule.

dont agree with that rule either: it penalises the man putting his body on the line and rewards those unwilling to. Got a problem with that opinion? or perhaps you've just got a problem with people having opinions at all.

I didnt say the sky was falling in, I was discussing why a time clock on the field isnt consistent with the nature, culture or history of the game. Probably a bit deep for you I guess, tosser.

 

[Dammit]

dont agree with that rule either: it penalises the man putting his body on the line and rewards those unwilling to. Got a problem with that opinion? or perhaps you've just got a problem with people having opinions at all.

I didnt say the sky was falling in, I was discussing why a time clock on the field isnt consistent with the nature, culture or history of the game. Probably a bit deep for you I guess, tosser.

Why would you think I had a problem with it?

The only reason I responded to you was because you quoted my one line post with an essay about 'how good it used to be'. Carry on.

 

[Crawb]

I miss Channel 10's "Five Minute Warning"...so much suspense!

 

[Silgni]

If players could see the countdown clock, kangas would have won the North v Adel game. North players would have presented to Petrie, he would have chipped it, clocked would have been milked, game over.

 

[hcd199]

But poor ol' backwards me will still prefer the game that embodied the true Australian spirit, or at least our aspiration of it.. free, wide ranging, without silly rules on where you can go and room for any man big or small to make their mark, and play and play, until the final siren goes (whenever that might be)

This is, I think, one of the important points here. It's the same reason that there are very few restrictions on where players can go, what role they can play, etc. - no offside rule being one of the best examples of this, there is no requirement of a forward that they have a defender behind them when the ball is passed to them, the forward has every right to be there.

Would love to see what OP suggested, it's logical and could only add the the excitement to the game.

Could only add? How? One major part of the excitement is the tension of not knowing when the game will end, and having a countdown clock at the ground, even if the TV was doing a count-up, would lose that aspect from the game. Players can still try and run down the clock without knowing when the game will end, but their uncertainty over how long is left makes it much more dangerous for them to do so.

 

[AstroboyUK]

Why would you think I had a problem with it?

why? why? are you serious? read your post!...
"HOLY HELL I wouldn't have wanted to hear what you thought about the sliding/contact below the knees rule."

thats you saying that boyo. To any normal person that would pretty much sound like you have a problem with my opinion.

So i'll give it another go and repeat the underlying point I was making: Not knowing how long is left on the clock is not just a decoration on the game thats there to be changed with fashion. Its part of the fabric of the game itself.... and in my first post I gave some other examples of some other elements of the game that are similar to his... things people think they can tinker with without effect, but are actually significant changes to the underlying nature and ethos and history of our game.

 

[Dammit]

why? why? are you serious? read your post!...
"HOLY HELL I wouldn't have wanted to hear what you thought about the sliding/contact below the knees rule."

thats you saying that boyo. To any normal person that would pretty much sound like you have a problem with my opinion.

So i'll give it another go and repeat the underlying point I was making: Not knowing how long is left on the clock is not just a decoration on the game thats there to be changed with fashion. Its part of the fabric of the game itself.... and in my first post I gave some other examples of some other elements of the game that are similar to his... things people think they can tinker with without effect, but are actually significant changes to the underlying nature and ethos and history of our game.

I don't have a problem with it haha. I just think its ludicrous! Do you have a problem with people who wear tin foil hats and go UFO chasing? Or do you just think they are crazy?

I think you're overreacting.

 

[Spirit Level]

Nope, leave it as it is.

Nothing better then that sudden rush of joy, or despair when you're at a close game and your team has either scraped through for a point, or just fallen short.

Do not change.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

They have the clock on the interchange bench and in the coaches box. Only people who don't know the time are the crowd, which is stupid.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

No it would put Nick Maxwell out of a job.