What would it take for you to stop watching AFL?

[JayJ20]

I just came here to say this. I haven't seen a finals win. I've seen nothing but scandal and mediocrity and I keep renewing my membership

That's arguably the only reason why I've lasted this long. I've seen nothing but mediocrity for the 15 or so years I've followed Essendon.

I'll be finished when we win a premiership. Hopefully before Carlton and Collingwood so we have the most premierships when I retire from following football.

 

[Evolved1]

I'd stop supporting Essendon if we merged with one of the scummier Melbourne clubs, but I can't think of anything that would stop me from watching AFL.

 

[Scotland]

I haven't watched for months at a time when overseas. Still kept an eye on things though. Pretty easy to stream games overseas now, just a matter of time zones and whether you can be bothered watching something live at 4am.

Not sure what it would take for me to be living in Perth (or Melb/Adel) during winter and just not watch the AFL altogether out of lack of interest or frustration/boycott. Can see if I lived in NSW/Qld I'd watch less as it's not a big part of the day to day chat etc. but I'd still want to know what's happening. I hate Rugby Australia and the Wallabies stink but I still watched the World Cup. If they start calling it "AFL mens" it would be infuriating but I'd still watch.

 

[Coach_Required]

AFL Grand Final being played at Optus stadium

 

[JoondalupJ]

So I'd say on BigFooty we are some of the most rusted on fans there are.

So what would it honestly take for you to completely stop watching your team or any games?

Winning the spoon ten times in a row? Your club folding? A rule change that was so perverse it no longer looked like footy? Could it ever feasibly become too expensive to attend or even watch footy in the future?

I'd say some people may have walked away from the AFL but still watched local footy, so could anything happen that would stop you attending that as well?

Give some ceeative answers

I already have a couple of sons in Melbourne that never saw a game last year, one was a member, one still is a member, at Hawthorn, a club which looks like it could have a good year coming.
So my point is that the game has started to have episodes where it looks same old, we have no characters left, there is only blind side collision which is worse than a good shirt front, we have so many areas of the rules that can be interpreted in several different ways, hwether its the angle an ump sees it or his iea odf how a rule is described to him the mind boggles, the game is laughable sometimes, and we have an administration at AFL house who are on the wrong track towards improving and making or should I say keeping our game the best foot and field sport on earth at its best. Our premium game last September was a disastrous joke , of annihilation , now I wrote the same thing to my President today, why don't a few members who see our game slowly becoming something else , like AFLX on smaller grounds and less players, its a trAGedy and a DISASTER, followed all my life, and I am on a precipice I could fall off soon , if any more ruining of Australian Rules by people who care not a thing about what it actually is and more about who they can sell it too. I say drain the AFL SWAMP!

 

[Bastyy]

it'd have to be very extreme. If one team goes on a 5+ year winning streak that might get me.

 

[1980GFVideo]

it'd have to be very extreme. If one team goes on a 5+ year winning streak that might get me.

one in eighteen chance you would watch it more.

 

[LB#16]

it'd have to be very extreme. If one team goes on a 5+ year winning streak that might get me.

What if it were your own team?

...oh, Freo supporter. Never mind.

 

[carloss]

If the game went back to 'Roos ball'.
Or the players started acting like total flogs off the field.

 

[WilloTree]

I am getting close now to be honest.

The self-serving criminals at AFL House have systematically killed the game over at least a decade of deliberate mismanagement. This is no longer a sport, it is corporate entertainment and not much more.

It is very nearly time to take myself back to suburban or country football where the game is still somewhat authentic.

I'm exactly this. I went to a couple of WAFL games this year and found it a pretty good standard. You can also drive right up to the ground (which is closer to my house), get out of your car and walk in without it costing your kid's college fund. It was a very enjoyable experience.

The next week I went to an AFL game. Drove to the train station so I could catch a train to the ground (there's no parking at Optus), lined up for 20 minutes to use my expensive plastic ticket (of which about 1 in 5 didn't work) and pretty much spent the rest of the evening lining up for beer in plastic cups and watching security tell people off...

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

I'll be honest, it wouldn't take much. My only interest is how the Hawks are going, even then I don't always watch.

 

[Evolved1]

I'll be honest, it wouldn't take much. My only interest is how the Hawks are going, even then I don't always watch.

Many fans have been disenchanted because of the national governing body aka the AFL.

A more interesting question would be to exchange AFL for Aussie rules football in the OP.

 

[Steven Gerrard]

I find myself watching it less and less as it is now. Two reasons.

First, I am gripped by the premier league.

Secondly and more importantly, I find the AFL a little one dimensional. It's the same thing year in year out. All the excitement is at the top end of the ladder. In leagues around the world there is almost as much excitement at the bottom end because of relegation. It's just the same old tired concept. Long off season, 22 rounds, finals, a premiership winner, followed by long off season, and so on, and so on. Every time I turn on the tv to watch a Saturday night game, the game is more often than not played in a half empty stadium. Love the game, but I think the AFL as a competition needs a shakeup. One of my teams, Liverpool, is playing in four different competitions this December, it has a match in England on one day, and a match in Qatar in the World Club Cup literally the next, it has to field two separate teams, one in each continent, a day apart, it's just nuts. But it's brilliant. On average, a game every 3 days this month, including one on boxing day, honestly how good is that, a blockbuster on boxing day. Yet here we are as AFL fans, waiting for the loooooooong off season, which we are not yet half way through, to hurry up and finish. It's a bit ho hum to be honest.

 

[The Cryptkeeper]

I find myself watching it less and less as it is now. Two reasons.

First, I am gripped by the premier league.

Secondly and more importantly, I find the AFL a little one dimensional. It's the same thing year in year out. All the excitement is at the top end of the ladder. In leagues around the world there is almost as much excitement at the bottom end because of relegation. It's just the same old tired concept. Long off season, 22 rounds, finals, a premiership winner, followed by long off season, and so on, and so on. Every time I turn on the tv to watch a Saturday night game, the game is more often than not played in a half empty stadium. Love the game, but I think the AFL as a competition needs a shakeup. One of my teams, Liverpool, is playing in four different competitions this December, it has a match in England on one day, and a match in Qatar in the World Club Cup literally the next, it has to field two separate teams, one in each continent, a day apart, it's just nuts. But it's brilliant. On average, a game every 3 days this month, including one on boxing day, honestly how good is that, a blockbuster on boxing day. Yet here we are as AFL fans, waiting for the loooooooong off season, which we are not yet half way through, to hurry up and finish. It's a bit ho hum to be honest.

Yep, the EPL is the best sporting league on the planet.

I become an insomniac between August and May. I never miss a Spurs game and will watch the early game and then Goal Rush every Saturday night, regardless of who is playing. Plus, the EPL Fantasy League actually makes sense, unlike Supercoach. So I play that too.

The EPL is so addictive.

 

[le dominateur]

If it starts becoming too much like soccer which is a really s**t sport.

 

[Blackhawk42]

A mid season trade period where a star like Patty Cripps or James Sicily could play for their own team one week and a different one the next. My unconditional love of footy would take a massive hit to the chest if this day comes.

 

[RonnieRaven]

Already have stop watching neutral games only watch the anchors games,prelims and gf
The bias over sell commentary standard and style of football has drove me away

 

[juss]

If my club completely folded it would probably be a long time before I cared to watch again. I might have it on in the background and watch the GF, but I would probably just lose a lot of passion for the game and increase my watching of other sports like the NRL.

Either that, or if they completely and severely stuffed up the rules and changed the game, I'm talking extreme it would have to be creating some sort of touch footy AFL-X sudden change.

I have to admit though, I am watching less and less neutral footy each year and enjoying other sports more and more, so apart from my own team I have already started tuning out of the AFL.

 

[Yoey]

AFL Grand Final being played at Optus stadium

Unicorns.

 

[Clems Knee]

If it starts becoming too much like soccer which is a really s**t sport.

I had a bad concussion this year. Started watching soccer.

Now I understand why so many people like soccer, and at the same time so many doctors are worried about the long term effects of concussion. And why people voted for the three clowns in US, Aus and UK. So many brain damaged people...

 

[Bastyy]

one in eighteen chance you would watch it more.

Nah, I'd get bored even if it was the dockers winning each time. If one team dominates each year whats the point?

 

[Engimal v3]

Not much more. If the Roos folded/relocated/merged, I wouldn't watch the AFL again. Love the sport, love my team, dislike the governing body.

 

[Supercoach Bargain]

If I stopped watching AFL, i'd be watching state or regional footy.

Any attempt at zones, offside or rectangular grounds would probably do it.

 

[Coaster2012]

Nothing tbh. Some people on here just take everything too damn seriously and personally. I still love the game.

 

[ThatsjustDappa]

A big post Guinness drinking session dump usually wipes me out for quarter of the game at least.....