The Top 5 issues the AFL must address...

[Sttew]

1. mid strength beer is not beer. bring back real beer
2. plastic cups for beer is not a real beer container. bring in beer glasses with handles, preferably steins
3. limiting beer to two or four beers per customer is not responsible alcohol service. It's cruel and unusual punishment.
4. having to walk to get beer is so last century. All seats should be fitted with their own tap.
5. something else about beer

Bring back BYO eskies!! I can remember going to VFL Park with Uni mates in the late 1970's, lugging an esky filled with cans of Melbourne Bitter. The only inconvenience was having to walk to the loo

 

[TheOptimum18]

4. Who is rucking at a boundary throw in or ball up around the field? Who cares. Just throw the ball in or bounce it. Don’t ask who is rucking; it slows the game down.

This is the easiest one to fix, yet I don't know why it hasn't been implemented yet:

Ump ball it up/throws it in. If one player from each team jumps to compete, play on. If one or more players from the same team jump up, free kick against. Unintentionally held or obstructed trying to compete for the ball? Bad luck.

 

[Viceregal]

Have separate and independent entities in charge of running/developing Aussie Rules Football** and running the Australian Football League.

Insofar as possible remove all grey areas from adjudication ... atm the fans, the players and the other upmpires on the field need to wait to see who gets the free and for what when esteemed omnipotent umpire #3 blows the whistle.


** and if we were serious about eventually developing an international product we might need to rebrand the code to something less parochial (eg if it had been AFL not VFL back in the day Qld would be an Aussie Rules state ...)

 

[Heaps of fun]

1. Racism
2. Sexism
3. Homophobia
4. Transphobia
5. Islamophobia

 

[Lets Roar like '44]

1. mid strength beer is not beer. bring back real beer
2. plastic cups for beer is not a real beer container. bring in beer glasses with handles, preferably steins
3. limiting beer to two or four beers per customer is not responsible alcohol service. It's cruel and unusual punishment.
4. having to walk to get beer is so last century. All seats should be fitted with their own tap.
5. something else about beer

Whatever happened to “hot pies, cold drinks, chocolate bars”? Don’t even remember them vanishing they just sort of did.

 

[Toump Ass]

3. The 50m penalty - keep it for serious on field transgressions but for things like lifting your hands when a spurious ump decision is made, and other trivial things like accidentally stepping off the mark, we need a 15m penalty.

Why not just stop awarding free kicks for trivial things.
Stopping play and counting out 15m sounds more like a hinderance than an advantage.

 

[99cents]

I still think the competition needs 14 teams and 26 games a year so every team plays every team twice.

We need to spend a year looking at the rules and come up with empirical ways of judging things, not the horribly subjective interpretations we have now. We need to stop the chopping and changing every year and through the year.

Also no matching for 1st round picks. F/S is wonderful, but the competition comes 1st.

I'm worried the Melbourne hawks would be too strong...

 

[HairyO]

I'm worried the Melbourne hawks would be too strong...

Narrm Hawks, thanks.

 

[Back One Out]

5. Commit to a team in Tasmania. Should be a no brainer, IMO

I still don't understand why non-Tassie footy fans are so pumped about having a Hobart-based team that will draw crowds in the region of of 19k-25k

It's not going to be a big interstate team like West Coast, Adelaide, Fremantle or Sydney
It's not going to add any value to the AFL competition

It's just one more dodgy away fixture. One more s**t home game with zero opposition fans. One less chance to watch your Catters here in Melbourne. One more Tassie fixture for Freo and Port fans to complain about (Well, they already complain about Tassie games. This will just reinforce it every season)

 

[Sttew]

I still don't understand why non-Tassie footy fans are so pumped about having Hobart-based team that will draw crowds in the region of of 19,,000 to 25,000

It's not going to be a big interstate team like West Coast, Adelaide, Fremantle or Sydney
It's not going to add any value to the AFL competition

It's just one more dodgy away fixture. One more s**t home game with zero opposition fans. One less chance to watch your Catters here in Melbourne. One more Tassie fixture for Freo and Port fans to complain about (Well, they already complain about Tassie games. This will just reinforce it every season)

For a state that is die-hard Australian Rules, that has successfully embraced Sheffield Shield and NBL, why not? Instead of propping up teams in Sydney that attract suburban grounds crowds and Gold Coast, the focus should be on the forgotten state. It is, after all, meant to be a "national" competition

 

[theyellowsash]

1 - richmond fans
2 - richmond players
3 - damien hardwick
4 - richmond not being 9th
5 - brendan gale

 

[jim boy]

5. something else about beer

5 QR code on your seat, order and pay for a beer - it gets brought to you

 

[thedank]

1. give the viewer on fox/kayo the option to mute the commentators and still have the crowd noise, i would pay 2x my kayo fee for that option
2. thursday night games every round, i dont care if its a rubbish matchup, just give me something
3. lower the cost of tickets to games, especially in the nosebleeds
4. umpire dissent and 50m penalties need tinkering as outlined in other posts here
5. make sure that kath loughnan wears those leather pants every time she is hosting fox footy

 

[Power Raid]

5 QR code on your seat, order and pay for a beer - it gets brought to you

pay for beer?

1. mid strength beer is not beer. bring back real beer
2. plastic cups for beer is not a real beer container. bring in beer glasses with handles, preferably steins
3. limiting beer to two or four beers per customer is not responsible alcohol service. It's cruel and unusual punishment.
4. having to walk to get beer is so last century. All seats should be fitted with their own tap.
5. Free beer. If the AFL believes in world peace, beer would be free!

 

[Trent the flight Steward]

I don't disagree. If looking at mergers, those two states would be easy moves, but I think we'd also need to look at reducing the number of Victorian teams by at least 3. Using my own club as an example, you'd potentially look at merging Dogs/Cats with the aim of the club representing Western Melbourne / country Victoria.

Problem is, so many people advocate for reducing teams but never seen to include their own club as candidates. It's easy to say we relocate North or merge Saints (the two most common targets brought up) but imo, that's not enough

Why do we need less teams? Our population in Australia has grown? The perception there's not enough talent out there is fanciful, teams used to have 50+ on a list and they could all play a bit. We can easily accommodate a 20 team comp, and have a 19 round season, with a best of three grand final.

The draft needs an overhaul, under age tac cup footy needs a monster overhaul, clubs trading players needs an overhaul, and bring back the biff

 

[Virgin Dog]

Why do we need less teams? Our population in Australia has grown? The perception there's not enough talent out there is fanciful, teams used to have 50+ on a list and they could all play a bit. We can easily accommodate a 20 team comp, and have a 19 round season, with a best of three grand final.

The draft needs an overhaul, under age tac cup footy needs a monster overhaul, clubs trading players needs an overhaul, and bring back the biff

I wasn't the one who suggested downsizing, I just said if we did, merging the QLD/NSW teams is probably the way to go. I don't think that ever happens, more likely we hit 20 teams and settle there for a long time

 

[ChookMFC]

Whatever happened to “hot pies, cold drinks, chocolate bars”? Don’t even remember them vanishing they just sort of did.

Like a spectral voice echoing from the past I hear that pimply kid like it was yesterday. Where are you pimply kid? My pies are cold, my drinks consumed, my bars depleted...

 

[Wallaby]

pay for beer?

1. mid strength beer is not beer. bring back real beer
2. plastic cups for beer is not a real beer container. bring in beer glasses with handles, preferably steins
3. limiting beer to two or four beers per customer is not responsible alcohol service. It's cruel and unusual punishment.
4. having to walk to get beer is so last century. All seats should be fitted with their own tap.
5. Free beer. If the AFL believes in world peace, beer would be free!

Well, I voted for the Marijuana Party in the election, but if you have a policy platform next time, you'll have my support.

 

[RonnieRaven]

1. give the viewer on fox/kayo the option to mute the commentators and still have the crowd noise, i would pay 2x my kayo fee for that option
2. thursday night games every round, i dont care if its a rubbish matchup, just give me something
3. lower the cost of tickets to games, especially in the nosebleeds
4. umpire dissent and 50m penalties need tinkering as outlined in other posts here
5. make sure that kath loughnan wears those leather pants every time she is hosting fox footy

No commentating option with kayo is an awesome idea!
I second the motion.

 

[gbatman]

1. Grass roots. Get kids playing football again. Work with schools to get footy back in schools, help parents realise the importants and value of playing sport.

2. Umpiring. Start paying them better. If you want more umpires, money talks. There are players at all levels getting paid too much money to play, some of the pie needs to go to the umpires. The AFL could surely subsidies umpire wages. If you want people to do it, they will do it if it's worthwhile. Forget the decent stuff, people will do it for money.

3. Game day experience. Round one at the MCG. No Parking, could not get a beer or food due to huge lines and nowhere near enough vendors. The quality of the food and drink are out dated. People are used to eating better. A watered down beer and overpriced servo food is not for everyone. Better quality food and beverages, more vendors selling food and drink more variety, faster lines, better parking etc.

4. Rules. Some of the new rules are good, some are not, it's time to make adjustments to those which are not. The dissent rule is ok but gone too far. Some of the rules around tackling aren't much good, incorrectly disposing or allowing it to appear knocked out etc. Not the biggest issue to be honest but some of the rules are out of tune.

5. TV. It's great that if you have Foxtel/Kayo you can watch any game you like. But what about those who don't? Bring back replays, even if during the week or the next day. Kids not getting to watch their team, even adults not getting to watch their team is really bad for the game itself. Footy needs to be everywhere all the time kinds of thing. Best way to promote it.

 

[maskmcgee]

This already is back in Melbourne.

Not for all games

There it is, Geelong fan confesses Geelong is part of Melbourne and should play all 11 home games at Docklands.

 

[Billy ray]

1. Fix the inconsistency whereby if a player is tackled (perfectly) but goes across the boundary line at the same time, sometimes its paid HTB and other times its a throw-in (as it went out of play).
Cant believe this doesnt get more scrutiny.

2. Either no countdown clock for tv/coaches/benches or countdown clock at the ground for everyone to see. Choose one. Dont be half pregnant.

3. No white shorts for away teams if they dont have white in their team colours. Navy blue shorts can be worn against royal blue for example.

4. Connect siren to led lights which are at every ground to light up when siren goes.

5. Umpires wear white by default (unless team jumpers have one white team eg geelong) and goal umpires wear coats.

 

[JackFlash]

1) 20 teams and 19 round fixture with Top 10 finals series
2) Scrap dissent 50-metre penalty and make it 15 metres only.
3) Return Curtain raisers to the game
4) Friday night start times at 7.20 or 7.30 pm
5) Scrap white away strips and put goal Umpires back in white coats and hats

 

[Daka]

Nothing to address the game is already ruined you can't fix the game it's absolutely stuffed and I'm never going to another game again live.

 

[footyfan1978]

Here’s my top 5 burning issues the AFL must address to avoid the game heading down the toilet:

1. Bring back curtain raisers.
2. Ticketing - if I want to go to the footy with a group of friends it is nigh impossible to be seated together because of the ‘Covid ticketing’ system. Just open it up to walk ups.
3. The 50m penalty - keep it for serious on field transgressions but for things like lifting your hands when a spurious ump decision is made, and other trivial things like accidentally stepping off the mark, we need a 15m penalty.
4. Who is rucking at a boundary throw in or ball up around the field? Who cares. Just throw the ball in or bounce it. Don’t ask who is rucking; it slows the game down.
5. Commit to a team in Tasmania. Should be a no brainer, IMO

What are yours?

Love your contribution.
On your 1) I think we have to concede that grounds like mcg used to have just Melbourne or Richmond playing a home game there a week and then reserves and probably under 19's too, so had three matches a weekend on the oval. When four or five clubs play home games there it means if everyone had a curtain raiser each round at that ground you may end up with too much footy on oval for good of ground condition so I think we need a compromise.
If it is a day game have the reserves teams play before it. If it night game the reserves play Punt Road oval, Princes Park, the paddock over road for Pies reserves games etc earlier in the day.

As for 3) I like the idea of 15 metre penalty or 50 metre penalty.
We do not need 50 metre penalties for stupid transgression.

They also need to fix up the stand rule and 6, 6, 6 situation. They would be ok if adjusted to some common sense.
Stand rule should only apply between the two 50 metre arcs. Inside 50 metre with players able to have shot for goal, than man on mark should not be forced to stand still.
For 6, 6, 6 after every goal the half forward line of each team should not be forced to start from within the 50 metre arc. You should be able to have your half forwards be up to the line of centre circle but only wings on the side of centre circle. It not hard to apply common sense AFL...

Your 2, 4 and 5, totally endorse.
My 6) would be abolish the medical sub and use the 4 interchange spots to cover for injuries as that what they originally intended for.
No more rotation abuse of interchange. Either cap the interchange use to 36 maximum which puts in more in line with what it was more rotation abuse or make the restriction no more than one free interchange of a player in a match whilst play is in process. Change as much as you like at quarter time and half time breaks with no restrictions but during play none of this mass rotation bullshit. Players running off after a goal shows how ridiculous it is for fans at ground.

I'd add a 7th but that would be abuse of your wonderful thread like rotation abuse of interchange is by coaches.