Stupid AFL questions you wouldn't mind knowing the answers to?

[Howard Littlejohn]

Why can't we use cricket hot spot to determine if a player has touched the ball for goal reviews

(In addition to the above)
I imagine it is more unreliable when one of the objects (the human body) creates its own heat and has many things it may come in contact with. The hot spot on the ball from the kick is also presumably going to be larger, so a high chance that any touch will be in an already highlighted zone.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

View attachment 1430804

I'm a little bit of a history nerd

 

[Bunk Moreland]

If the player with the ball was surrounded by their 17 teammates in a close ring formation would they be able to walk the length of the field and kick an unimpeded goal?

Any attempt to disrupt the ring would be a holding the man free kick as the 17 teammates in the ring don't have the ball, and the player with the ball wouldn't be able to get tackled as they're protected from all sides

You're allowed to bump the opposition when they don't have the ball (within five metres of the ball). The opposition simply charge in and the ring would soon be broken / disrupted by somebody.

 

[Philth]

Why does a player get taken off after they've kicked a goal? It intrigues me.

This is a good one.
Bunk Moreland, got an answer for us, o wise one??

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Why does a player get taken off after they've kicked a goal? It intrigues me.

It does seem an odd one. I wonder if it is partly a matter of perspective. The focus is on the goalkicker, so we notice when they come off. Often, they may have been due to come off anyway, and nobody takes any note of the other rotations(s) that occur at the same time.
Its not like the 1980s where a player interchanged off was usually being "dragged".

 

[V_23]

If the player with the ball was surrounded by their 17 teammates in a close ring formation would they be able to walk the length of the field and kick an unimpeded goal?

Any attempt to disrupt the ring would be a holding the man free kick as the 17 teammates in the ring don't have the ball, and the player with the ball wouldn't be able to get tackled as they're protected from all sides

Wouldn't work. The opposition would just throw someone, most likely a small forward, over the formation, siege warfare style.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

This is a good one.
Bunk Moreland, got an answer for us, o wise one??

I think Howard Littlejohn has probably nailed it above.

All players (apart from the odd KPP) are coming on and off all the time. They pretty much run their guts out for 4 or 5 mins then rotate off for a minute or two of rest. A goal is a good time to get in a full rotation of four players as there's time for it. Plus we see them coming off as the camera is on them if they've just kicked a goal.

So it adds up to us thinking it's a "kick a goal, come straight off" regular strategy when really it's just part of the normal rotation, we just notice these ones more.

I've heard some people argue that you should stay on because you're "feeling it"... but I'd imagine that's the hot hand fallacy and clubs aren't interested in disrupting their intricately planned rotations for that.

 

[hilly]

I think Howard Littlejohn has probably nailed it above.

All players (apart from the odd KPP) are coming on and off all the time. They pretty much run their guts out for 4 or 5 mins then rotate off for a minute or two of rest. A goal is a good time to get in a full rotation of four players as there's time for it. Plus we see them coming off as the camera is on them if they've just kicked a goal.

So it adds up to us thinking it's a "kick a goal, come straight off" regular strategy when really it's just part of the normal rotation, we just notice these ones more.

I've heard some people argue that you should stay on because you're "feeling it"... but I'd imagine that's the hot hand fallacy and clubs aren't interested in disrupting their intricately planned rotations for that.

I've heard that the rationale is that a player's adrenaline spikes after a goal and focus is temporarily lost.

 

[spenze]

Has a players fart ever been picked up on the umpires mic?

 

[FlowersByIrene]

Does the league genuinely believe it’s long term viable to have so many teams based in 1 city or does it see it as a necessary evil to facilitate the maximum amount of games possible each week for television?

Why would it not be long term viable? Surely as population increases it will only become more sustainable?

 

[FlowersByIrene]

The "in the back" rule when applied to two players on the ground.

If one player is over the ball and the other player is behind them, hands and knees in most cases, the bottom player flops onto their stomach and the behind player follows them down drawing an in the back call.

Is this call suggesting that the player at the bottom is disadvantaged and has earnt the free kick? Almost as frustrating as when a player ducks and draws the free.

It's a stupid rule designed to stop someone breaking there back which i've never seen happen in real life and appears to be a highly unlikely theoretical risk.

 

[My_Username]

I don’t know if they’ve officially changed the rule or just how it’s paid, but when I was a kid in the early 90s I distinctly remember that about 3 or 4 times each season a player would have marked near the boundary line, been lining up for goal standing out of bounds, then run around to snap at goal and been called for play on + out of bounds.

You can imagine the excitement in the commentary box when it happened. Especially from Sandy Roberts

As I recall, it was OK to play on from outside the boundary so long as you (or more to the point, the ball) took a reasonably direct path back into the field of play.


After all, if you want to be absolutely literal about it, if you line up to kick for goal from outside the boundary then as soon as it hits the boot the game is considered to have resumed and so it would immediately be out of bounds.

 

[BarbieITFC]

As someone who has come from overseas in their 30s and wasn't born and raised on footy - I've always wondered how those who designed the game came up with the handball over a throw - would it make that much difference if you could throw the ball like Rugby? What was the reason for the handball being the means for using hands to propel the ball??

 

[My_Username]

Why can't we use cricket hot spot to determine if a player has touched the ball for goal reviews

The area covered by hotspot in cricket is pretty small.
Maybe 2M high, 3M wide, and 2M deep.
You also have to look around 15 people on the field (11 fielders, 2 batsmen, 2 umps) most of whom wont be in the way of the cameras, a very brief period where the ball could get 'touched', and a hard ball that will have both a fairly consistent temperature to start with, and a noticeable differential in temp after an impact with a solid object (AKA, a bat)

So you can set up a few high quality cameras focused on that small area and use them accordingly. Even with all that, it still takes time to render properly. (a few seconds, you don't really notice while watching, but there is a processing delay).



In AFL...The goals are 6.4M wide, it could be touched 3M high (maybe a bit more), and you need to cover at least 20M out from goal, you could easily have ~40 people potentially in the field of view and an extended time window of potential impact. Furthermore the relatively soft ball has been bounced around intermittently off all sorts of impacts (ground, hands, boots) for upto 30 minutes previously so would probably has a very inconsistent surface temp to start with.

So you'd need a LOT more cameras ($$$) and all the associated tech (more $$$), and even with a hefty array of computers (yet more $$$), you're probably looking at at least a minute for it to work out the entire path, and even then, there is a fair chance the result would be indeterminate due to the iffy temp variations.

So yeah, it probably could be done, but realistically, it just isn't feasible.

 

[My_Username]

As someone who has come from overseas in their 30s and wasn't born and raised on footy - I've always wondered how those who designed the game came up with the handball over a throw - would it make that much difference if you could throw the ball like Rugby? What was the reason for the handball being the means for using hands to propel the ball??

Just a guess, but it probably has to do with the lack of an 'offside'. Being able to throw forward would be a massive thing.

 

[spenze]

Why did they get rid of the "Behavioural Awareness Officers" those guys made us all feel safe. No wonder crowds have dropped, it's to unsafe now

 

[Philth]

As someone who has come from overseas in their 30s and wasn't born and raised on footy - I've always wondered how those who designed the game came up with the handball over a throw - would it make that much difference if you could throw the ball like Rugby? What was the reason for the handball being the means for using hands to propel the ball??

A lot of Aussie rules is based on Gaelic football, (I'm fairly sure) where you can handball. That's where I always thought the origin of handballing was from.
In rugby, you have to throw the ball backwards.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

As someone who has come from overseas in their 30s and wasn't born and raised on footy - I've always wondered how those who designed the game came up with the handball over a throw - would it make that much difference if you could throw the ball like Rugby? What was the reason for the handball being the means for using hands to propel the ball??

Speed. They wanted to move the ball quickly to prevent big packs forming. The ball travels faster with a handball than it does with a throw.

I believe the technique itself might have been introduced by Irish migrants, from gaelic footy.

 

[LightTower4]

Why can’t I get a Chiko Roll at the footy anymore, and if I could how much would it cost.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Why can’t I get a Chiko Roll at the footy anymore, and if I could how much would it cost.

If they were available, I'm guessing $13 at Docklands, $20 at the SCG.

 

[Aristotle Pickett]

How much do corporate sponsors like Telstra pay to the rights to run the AFL website which is the clunkiest joke of a website I've ever encounted.?

 

[terrybull]

How is the pressure gauge measured?

 

[BarbieITFC]

Just a guess, but it probably has to do with the lack of an 'offside'. Being able to throw forward would be a massive thing.

Probably can't throw it as far as you can kick it - but it would change the game hugely.

 

[PrinceCharles]

How much do corporate sponsors like Telstra pay to the rights to run the AFL website which is the clunkiest joke of a website I've ever encounted.?

Just be thankful it's not run by Optus, ever tried their website?

 

[terrybull]

Probably can't throw it as far as you can kick it - but it would change the game hugely.

I think the VFA introduced it for a period when the Association was shunned by the rest of Australia.

It was to make the game quicker and more scoring I read.