VFL Jurno tells it like it is

[Raiderdave]

its about time someone told vlad to F off & tell it like it is =D> =D> =D> ... good on this respected VFL jurno for telling the truth
the only bit I've seen from this sordid ... lying scumbag sport all year
the VFL is woeful ... boring ... tedious .. uninteresting ... not entertaining at all


http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sout ... 6473684265

What made former sports journalist Andrew Ramsey give up watching AFL entirely?

Andrew Ramsey
adelaidenow
September 13, 2012 9:30PM

LIKE most who went to the recent AFL qualifying final between Adelaide and Sydney, I arrived at AAMI Stadium carrying high hopes.

Not through any slavish allegiance to either side.

Instead, I imagined a sunny Saturday footy match between the Australia's second and third-best teams might rekindle my flickering interest in AFL.

An appetite that had waned so badly, I had watched just three matches during the previous five years.

It was not even half-time when I swore never to add to that tally. After 45 minutes of elite level football on a flawless spring afternoon, Sydney led Adelaide by five goals to one. A scoreline not unthinkable in soccer's A-League.

Around me, children rustled through bags and pockets in search of smart phones or game consoles to combat the tedium.
Packing neither, I filled the entertainment vacuum by analysing what had become of a sport that once claimed (if only to itself) to be the world's most spectacular.

As a Melbourne-based sports journalist for a decade, I attended upwards of 50 AFL matches a year. A vast majority were erased from my memory within a day, but fragments of some remain.

Like round 21 in 2000, when Western Bulldogs coach Terry Wallace unveiled his "super flood" to inflict Essendon's only loss of that season.

It was the night the AFL jumped the shark.

By cramming most of his players into Essendon's forward line, Wallace flagged the moment at which the game was snatched from its fan base to be held hostage by a crazed group of strategy-drunk zealots (aka coaching staff).

Like the sport itself, match day planning used to be fairly basic. Select your best available players, drill them to win the ball and kick it to pre-determined targets, and back your guys to do it better and more often than your opponents. Today's strategy is hewn from an opposite, negative premise. Strangle the life out of the other mob, and then somehow winkle a handful of goals yourself.

Advocates of this philosophy claim that lower scores create tighter finishes.

But a narrow margin does not necessarily equate to interest. Witness any America's Cup race. Besides, if watching a team ceaselessly frustrate and harass its opponent without creating something meaningful itself qualified as a spectator sport, parliamentary question time would routinely sell out.

Even the modern game's vernacular has been hijacked by fanatics. Traditional Australian football terms like "screamer", "quagmire" and "lairising" have gone the way of the pack mark.

Instead, barbecue chat is littered with the gibberish peddled by those who shuffle names on magnetic boards for a living - "contested footy" (getting the ball), "transition" (kicking it) and "stoppage work" (no idea - possibly a collective bargaining term).

Apart from occasionally musing if Adelaide might sneak more than one goal per quarter, I passed the rest of that afternoon pondering whether Australian football could ever recapture its high watermark of the early 1990s.

The days before Tony Liberatore turned the role of tagger into Australian Rules' second-most famous blight. Seasons like 1993, when Tony Modra, Gary Ablett and Jason Dunstall kicked more goals between them than Collingwood has managed this year.

While the era of the century goalkicker has sadly passed, around 40 players laid 100 tackles or more in 2012.

Back in 1993, only one reached that milestone - Liberatore. Consequently, as its players kick less goals and get tackled infinitely more, the indigenous game is surrendering its point of difference to the rugby codes that it spends billions trying to supplant.

That might help explain why the AFL's home and away attendances this year fell almost 10 per cent to the lowest season aggregate since 2006 - despite tacking an extra 22 matches on to its fixture.

What doesn't add up is why - if AFL is the people's game as its marketers keep telling us - the people don't rise up and demand it be returned to them.
And in a form they fondly remember, when its innate flair could regularly lift fans out of their seats.

Why don't short-changed crowds insist games be freed up by restricting on-field numbers to 15 per team?
Or call for the abandonment of the nonsensical interchange system that allows "gut running" midfielders to take a breather more regularly than public servants duck out for a smoke.

The answer, obviously, is that sport isn't like other forms of commercial entertainment. It doesn't rely on positive customer reviews to stay in business because the product is immaterial. People buy it for the packaging. Doesn't matter if the whole event looks as ugly as a carbuncle, provided the shirt you barrack for ends up in front.Boutique consumers who enjoy the game for its aesthetics rather than its tribalism are therefore inconsequential to its bottom line. We'll never buy a season ticket or a club membership, so we can just make do with our old VHS highlights tapes and memories of matches gone by.

As a result, my estrangement from the AFL is now absolute.
And, in one of sport's few glorious certainties, I know that neither affected party will lose a wink of sleep because of it.

__________________

[pookus]

There will be 45000 going to the footy tonight who disagree.

[TLPG]

Link goes to a page that doesn't exist. Surprise, surprise........

[Raiderdave]

There will be 45000 going to the footy tonight who disagree.

but the 260,000 who didn't attend games this year agree with this jurno
watch another 260,000 call it quits next year too

the VFL is in trouble
hugggge trouble

[Raiderdave]

Link goes to a page that doesn't exist. Surprise, surprise........

works fine for me ............. so its
lies ... more lies

marcus .. ban this lying scumbag ..
now !!

[Xman]

There will be 45000 going to the footy tonight who disagree.

but the 260,000 who didn't attend games this year agree with this jurno
watch another 260,000 call it quits next year too

the VFL is in trouble
hugggge trouble

In so much trouble they have record memberships, revenue and ratings.

[Raiderdave]

There will be 45000 going to the footy tonight who disagree.

but the 260,000 who didn't attend games this year agree with this jurno
watch another 260,000 call it quits next year too

the VFL is in trouble
hugggge trouble

In so much trouble they have record memberships, revenue

lemme guess .. these figures came from the same people who compiled the ratings this year...
when will this VFL stop telling lies

[Xman]

but the 260,000 who didn't attend games this year agree with this jurno
watch another 260,000 call it quits next year too

the VFL is in trouble
hugggge trouble

In so much trouble they have record memberships, revenue

lemme guess .. these figures came from the same people who compiled the ratings this year...
when will this VFL stop telling lies

Why bother when you don't even believe official figures?

Seriously when you claim everything is fudged you just look like you're giving up completely.

I know it's overwhelming Dave, but at least have a go mate.

[Raiderdave]

In so much trouble they have record memberships, revenue

lemme guess .. these figures came from the same people who compiled the ratings this year...
when will this VFL stop telling lies

Why bother when you don't even believe official figures?

Seriously when you claim everything is fudged you just look like you're giving up completely.

I know it's overwhelming Dave, but at least have a go mate.

oh

official figures like the regional TV ratings ?
that singletballers have said for years can't be trusted.. official like those marcus ?


oh ... believe us please [-o< [-o< [-o<


lying scum... have more cred then the VFL & these figures

[Beaussie]

Meanwhile in the boring NRL.

On Wednesday, rugby league Immortal Bob Fulton said that he'd "seen some of the worst games I've ever seen in my life this year".

"My grandson said it to me recently, he's nine. "I said, 'Mate, come and watch the footy with me'.

"Anyway, one of the teams was coming out of their own end and the other was defending. He looked at me and said, 'Hey coach, give me a yell when they get down the other end of the field, when they look like scoring a try'.

"And he picked up his ball and went outside. I mean, these are the people we are trying to attract.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/league/nrl- ... 6332860695

[TLPG]

Link goes to a page that doesn't exist. Surprise, surprise........

works fine for me ............. so its
lies ... more lies

marcus .. ban this lying scumbag ..
now !!

Nope, you are lying. The link does not work.

Provide it again, and this time get it right.

[MarkZZZ]

Link goes to a page that doesn't exist. Surprise, surprise........

works fine for me ............. so its
lies ... more lies

marcus .. ban this lying scumbag ..
now !!

Nope, you are lying. The link does not work.

Provide it again, and this time get it right.

Works fine for me, get your computer checked TLPG or don't you know that you have to click on it

[TLPG]

"Last edited by Raiderdave on Fri Sep 14, 2012 6:11 pm, edited 1 time in total."

One minute after he claimed the link worked. Sprung bad, Raider!! NOW it works!

[TLPG]

Now after reflecting on this article, first things first. He's choosing a poor game to run off the back of. It is still possible to have free flowing footy. Another game last weekend fitted the bill - Hawthorn and Collingwood.

But he touches on some matters that do have a solution, and I think I've mentioned this in the past or seen it mentioned.

First he has a go at the MRP. Whilst the actual process has been the subject of criticism, it is the MRP that has played a role in catching out the behind the play BS that in the old days was being missed. Take what happened with Nick Maxwell. It got it's right whack. SO taking it out is a bad move.

Second is the rule changes. There he has a point - some of the rule changes have been ridiculous, but the bigger issue is that there are rule changes almost every season. That's been happening since the three umpire system was first introduced, and as a result it has never settled down. The umpires as a result are having a lot more trouble being consistent. How can you when the powers that be change the rules every year? The Victorian Country Football League didn't always follow the AFL changes, and that was a good thing.

Third is the supposed abolition of lairising. That's the clubs doing that, not the AFL. They don't want things like the Akermanis handstand et al. Why? It gives the game extra character - not that it needs it that badly. Lairs are the sort of thing that alleviates the boredom if there's a thumping going on.

Fourth is the comparison to soccer and thugby. On the former I agree in context. This defensive nonsense has to be nipped in the bud. The AFL has been changing the rules thinking that an increase in pace will solve that problem. It won't. I believe that bonus points a la the Super 15 should be introduced. That will get teams scoring and eliminate this offside attitude. On the latter, I don't know what game he thinks he's watching!! Scrums include scragging, and if I saw scragging I'd penalise it like a shot! I saw one game at Football Park a few years ago where the umpires were allowing it and I was fuming!! And it was a final as well (SANFL Second Semi)!!

The last point is the one that he missed, and I know I've spoken about this. Treating the game like we're all playing Under 10's. Treating the players like children. All because they are trying to stop the kids from copying their heroes. It's definitely a problem because they do it - I had to pull some Under 9's into line for harassing their opponents. The coaches thanked me for doing that, because they can't stop them without us umps to wield the whistle - and that's fair enough. Between us we can stop it. And that's where it should be done. The AFL is not Under 10's. It's played by adults.

[Xman]

lemme guess .. these figures came from the same people who compiled the ratings this year...
when will this VFL stop telling lies

Why bother when you don't even believe official figures?

Seriously when you claim everything is fudged you just look like you're giving up completely.

I know it's overwhelming Dave, but at least have a go mate.

oh

official figures like the regional TV ratings ?
that singletballers have said for years can't be trusted.. official like those marcus ?


oh ... believe us please [-o< [-o< [-o<


lying scum... have more cred then the VFL & these figures

You fool! The regional ratings aren't fudged or a conspiracy! They do exactly what their designed to do, count ratings for specific areas only. It just that these areas are predominantly in the NRL heartland which is clearly explained on their websites.

Your answer to any figures or stories that are against your sport or for the AFL is they are fudged.

You truly are pathetic and that excuse is a loud and clear admission you have no explanation and youve just given up entirely.

Thanks Dave :D =D>