Any AFL Fans?

[CaptainHook]

This is a genuine question: Does anyone here support AFL or follow it?

I'd love to get your opinion on the contrast between the coverage of both codes.

I'll admit I know nothing about AFL.

I'm an NRL man, born and bred, and I also no longer give a **** about who wins or loses Origin these days. IMO, it's a pantomime and a blight on the competition. While I'm glad whenever a Broncos player makes either side I hope they don't get injured and derail our chances for the season... and make no mistake the Broncos are in with a real shot at winning the competition this year.

Tuning into Nine's coverage of the Eels-Warriors game the other night and I was immediately annoyed. They're still talking about the Origin game. Despite the fact we had a post-game wrap-up on Wednesday night, we also had The Footy Show and whatever god awful show is on the League Pay TV channel.

Forgive me for wanting to hear about the NRL before an actual NRL match...not fucking Origin.

I'm channeling Doctor Ian Malcolm..."Yes you do plan to have dinosaurs on your dinosaur tour..hello..is this thing on?"

How the NRL can say with a straight face this is a legitimate competition and that "the integrity of the game has never been stronger" is an out and out joke. I guess that statement only applies to match fixing allegations and drug scandals.

Anyone interested solely in the NRL is shit outta luck for the next few weeks.

Anyways, bringing it back to AFL, I was instantly bored with Joey Johns and Gould wanking themselves over NSW and flicked it over to the Adelaide-Geelong game.

Utterly amazing. So much positivity. They interview coaches on the field against a backdrop of a healthy crowd building up, the game is well underway compared to when I cut back to Nine and I see empty seats and the Warriors still in the sheds warming up...also in the southern code I hope some of you will be happy to know ...no checking in with Joel Caine from fucking Sportsbet!!!

Are there any AFL fans here that are more knowledgeable than me? What's your take on the current state of the two codes? Purely on the surface it seems one game is growing every week and the other one is wilting.

I know Rugby League is quite content to whore itself out for the highest price but it was so rare to see the difference in a game I love and a game I'm supposed to hate.

 

[Big Pete]

I thought this deserved it's own thread since it would likely get buried in the Round 13 discussion thread.

I've tried giving AFL a fair chance but the game is just too sloppy and frustrating for my liking. I'm sure if I consistently watched one of the top flight teams go around I'd get something out of it, but there's only so many hours in the day.

But in terms of television coverage, the NRL has been following the AFL's lead for quite sometime and they're usually ahead of the NRL presentation.

I'd really like to get @Sproj's opinion on the matter. As somebody who lives down south, I'm sure he'd be able to talk at length about the media's relationship with the clubs and the general impression surrounding the presentation of the sport.

 

[Sproj]

Oh ho you'd be giving me a chance to bang on about NRL as being completely incompetent and amateurish once again. Love it!

The AFL leaves the NRL for dead in every single department except for product. I'll go one more about this later after a bike ride. :)

 

[ZTop]

I thought this deserved it's own thread since it would likely get buried in the Round 13 discussion thread.

I've tried giving AFL a fair chance but the game is just too sloppy and frustrating for my liking. I'm sure if I consistently watched one of the top flight teams go around I'd get something out of it, but there's only so many hours in the day.

But in terms of television coverage, the NRL has been following the AFL's lead for quite sometime and they're usually ahead of the NRL presentation.

I'd really like to get @Sproj's opinion on the matter. As somebody who lives down south, I'm sure he'd be able to talk at length about the media's relationship with the clubs and the general impression surrounding the presentation of the sport.

I started following AFL when Folau left Broncos and GWS had just started. I have now followed the Giants for a couple years now and they have just started to play good, and that has really helped me like the game. My crap team turned it a seriously awesome team.

 

[tommy]

I used to follow it a bit being from Melbourne but my team Carlton have been hopeless for a few years now so I haven't even watched it in a couple of years bar the GF, I wouldn't know what has been going on.

It is a very scrappy game which is why I prefer league but my main problem with it is that alot of it's rules are very open to interpretation. AFL is an absolute religion down there. Even every grandma has a team that they follow. It turns mild mannered people into animals frothing at the mouth. I love how they focus on members of the crowd going off their tits when the umpire makes a bad call, we need some of that on our coverage. The sports sections of their newspaper have at least the first 10 pages dedicated to AFL while RL gets a half a page, if that , usually about the Storm's game buried at the very end of the sports section somewhere.

 

[Sproj]

AFL is the model that the NRL should be looking at and trying to imitate. 90% of what the AFL does is just pure professionalism, the other 10% is channel 9's Footy Show. Coincidence?

They are run by a truly independent commission and don't have old boys club guys trying to influence every decision with an us against them mentality and a tribalism at board level. Tribalism is fine for supporters, not management.

Channel 7 has done such a wonderful service to the AFL as they play live games every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Yes you have your popular teams like Richmond and Hawthorn who feature almost every week bad teams like the Lions get like one game a year on tv down here but they suck anyway. More on that later.

In Brisbane itself though, as far as I'm aware you still get most Lions games live on 7? Down here, the Storm are rarely featured on 9's coverage and even the NRL is not on the main channel anyway. Channel 9 is one of the worst thing a about league in general.

Channel 7 has selected good commentators who try really hard to leave their biases out of the coverage and simply commentate what is in front of them. They have Victorians, Nswelshmen, Qlders, WAians as all part of their coverage and they work really well together. AFL players both past and present are far more articulate in general anyway.

If an umpire's decision is blatantly wrong, they comment on it and quickly move on. As a result the stand of officiating seems far better in general as the umpires are not scared of being crucified for every 50/50 call. The NRL and specifically Channel 9 and the newspapers could learn a lot from that.

Gould is the equivalent of one or two blokes down here on the Footy Show but those two guys are not usually part of the commentary team for games and DEFINITELY not the main callers like Gould, Johns or Fittler. There is no balance in the NRL commentary and it just comes across like a bunch of old bogans having a rant.

There are also other free to air footy shows that are actually serious and have good analysis and discussion, etc. the NRL has Beau Ryan, enough said.

The draft system is another big plus for the AFL...unless you are the Lions because they can't seem to keep any good kids and their facilities are garbage. QLD doesn't need two AFL teams BUT at least the AFL is committed to them and support them. Thy also don't hold successful clubs like Hawthorn and popular clubs like Richmond back simply to prop up clubs like the Lions who are simply poorly run and poorly supported.

The AFL pours money into expansion, even into China for what will probably amount to little return in the long run but at least they are forward thinking and committed to growth. The NRL is committed to propping up useless, poorly supported clubs simply because. Rugby league is ka far better product and even people in Melbourne enjoy it but they have such little access to it. Ask anyone if they know the Australian and NZ CAPTAINS play for their club side and most of them would have no idea. Why? Because the NRL doesn't even bother promoting the game down here.

If the NRL could get a CEO who isn't club affiliated, a board that is truly independent, a TV station with a plan (which they had in the last tv rights negotiation!!) and think forward as opposed to the here and now by outing money back into the game and not struggling clubs, this great game could leave the AFL in the shade, unfortunately they are 20 years too late.

 

[bb_gun]

Great post @Sproj!

 

[Broncoman]

My thoughts on AFL:

I've been to a few games at the Gabba and have watched in on TV a few times as well, I honestly just don't enjoy it or find it interesting. At the games I went to I just didn't care at all found it pretty boring. Just seemed like whoever won the bounce kicked the goal and it all started again, the goals were dull compared to the amazing tries you see in Rugby (both codes). The tackling looks like something schools girl do and it was just funny seeing 10 blokes on the ground wrestling for a ball dropping it non stop.

Some of the people who watch it are also insular towards people who don't watch it. Some dude on the Gold Coast back in 2014 saw me in a League shirt and told me Rugby League was for criminals and bogans and that it was bullshit and garbage and AFL was morally superior. Not to mention the commentators on the cricket who are obsessed with it and talk about it non stop instead of the cricket game.

It is very well run from what I know and hear although that is only minimal knowledge and I would much rather read a brilliant post like Sprojs then go on an uninformed tangent.

 

[CaptainHook]

Thanks for everyone replying.

I'll admit I was a bit miffed that my post got bumped to its own thread as I was mainly just thinking out loud about the Warriors-Eels pre-match coverage and how shit it was. I probably would've been just as impressed with a re-run of Kingswood Country than the drivel that comes put of Gould, Johns etc.

@Sproj I commend you on a wonderful post. You have summed up what I was trying to say with so much more precision, knowledge and experience than I could muster.

There is so much to unpack in what you wrote. I would love to pick your brain for hours about AFL and NRL and what the code's get wrong and right.

You much pretty confirmed what I was suspecting for a while...that the NRL are simply not in the fight with expansion and growing the game. We are a sport that is popular in NSW and QLD...and that's pretty much it. Yay.

One question I do have is about Origin. A lot of League fans trumpet the fact that other codes would kill to have something like State of Origin. I'm not so convinced.

Obviously they would love the massive financial boon that comes with it but would fans of AFL (or any code) tolerate the biggest three games of the year being refereed differently? Cecchin never officiates a game like that at all at NRL level. Would our AFL brethren tolerate it?

I don't think so, but again, I don't know much about AFL.

 

[tommy]

Thanks for everyone replying.

I'll admit I was a bit miffed that my post got bumped to its own thread as I was mainly just thinking out loud about the Warriors-Eels pre-match coverage and how shit it was. I probably would've been just as impressed with a re-run of Kingswood Country than the drivel that comes put of Gould, Johns etc.

@Sproj I commend you on a wonderful post. You have summed up what I was trying to say with so much more precision, knowledge and experience than I could muster.

There is so much to unpack in what you wrote. I would love to pick your brain for hours about AFL and NRL and what the code's get wrong and right.

You much pretty confirmed what I was suspecting for a while...that the NRL are simply not in the fight with expansion and growing the game. We are a sport that is popular in NSW and QLD...and that's pretty much it. Yay.

One question I do have is about Origin. A lot of League fans trumpet the fact that other codes would kill to have something like State of Origin. I'm not so convinced.

Obviously they would love the massive financial boon that comes with it but would fans of AFL (or any code) tolerate the biggest three games of the year being refereed differently? Cecchin never officiates a game like that at all at NRL level. Would our AFL brethren tolerate it?

I don't think so, but again, I don't know much about AFL.

AFL tried to replicate State of Origin quite a while ago but it just didn't work. It was a dud. Can't for the life of me remember why but it was just a massive failure.

 

[mrslong]

Afl state of origin was a failure because the players and clubs didn't want to get injured, so it was more leek the NFL pro-bowl and was a waste of everyone's time and money.

The nrl needs to look at how the League channel and Foxtel are running a more professional program and be rid of the old boys at nine and start following suit. Obviously this won't happen because they've just signed dabs up for 5 more years.

The nrl needs to step in and take ownership of their product from the top down, at the moment they're still letting everyone from the commentators to the sponsors run the show. The afl don't let this happen anymore.

I'm a fair weather hawks fan. I'd watch afl a lot more if my husband liked it.

 

[Porthoz]

I tried to follow the Lions, but just couldn't get into the game, even at a time they were kings of the code.

 

[Broncoman]

Aussie Rules actually did State of Origin before Rugby League did, McCaullife liked the concept and asked if Rugby League could do the same thing. Ours is a lot more successful than theirs was.

 

[Allo]

I'm a fair weather Lions fan. The club and playing group is so unstable atm and I was very surprised when Beams came here.

Due to being shit, they've gotten some decent kids in the draft - Hipwood this season for example, but for the past 5 years or so they haven't seemed to stay or come good.

The off-field stuff however is very good from what I can tell. NRL is still stuck in 90's (and that may be generous)

The main issue I find with AFL is that it's similar to Yawnion in a way. It's fantastic when it's fluid, running and executed well, but when it isn't, it's garbage stacks-on nonsense. Also you score a point for missing. And how do you miss set shots? What are you practicing at training?

 

[Big Pete]

Aussie Rules actually did State of Origin before Rugby League did, McCaullife liked the concept and asked if Rugby League could do the same thing. Ours is a lot more successful than theirs was.

1978

West Australia vs Victoria at Subiaco

40 000 crowd

Barry Maranta was in attendance and arranged a meeting with Ron McAullife not long after.

McAullife originally didn't like the idea, Wayne Reid had to propose the idea to Kevin Humphreys (NSWRL Preisdent) who was on board from the get go who then talked McAullife into it.

 

[Renegade]

Not really a fan, I can sit there and watch a game but it doesn't interest me greatly.

I usually always watch the grand final though, not sure why to be honest... but it's normally a good game.

The lions will be toast as long as they don't receive cap concessions. It was the only reason they were good in the early 2000's and as soon as they came back to the pack, they dropped pretty quickly.

 

[mitch222]

Not really a fan, I can sit there and watch a game but it doesn't interest me greatly.

I usually always watch the grand final though, not sure why to be honest... but it's normally a good game.

The lions will be toast as long as they don't receive cap concessions. It was the only reason they were good in the early 2000's and as soon as they came back to the pack, they dropped pretty quickly.

This is pretty much spot on. NSW & QLD states are always going to be well behind the ball because players don't want to play away from their home states and if they do, they expect to be well paid for doing so. The Swans are already starting to struggle without COLA and GWS will be next when they scrap theirs. 95% of their squads don't from the state so they will take less money to go back home. Look how much it took for the Gold Coast to get Ablett. They had to pay massive overs to get him there

 

[Renegade]

95% of their squads don't from the state so they will take less money to go back home. Look how much it took for the Gold Coast to get Ablett. They had to pay massive overs to get him there

plus, you can say it's all well and good getting good kids in their draft, but they have them for a year or two, the kids develop but the team remains utterly uncompetitive and always near the foot of the ladder, they request a trade/don't re-sign, cycle repeats.