How The AFL Is Stealing Our Game

We are the passionate Aussie rules fans, we watch a lot of footy on TV, attend our teams’ games and we seriously love our footy. But this year, the AFL is whittling away our passion.

It's time we, the fans, had a voice. So hit the share buttons on this article, tweet it at Mark Robinson or print it out and go staple it to the back of Gillon McLachlan's suit.

We are the average Joe fans, so we don't have access to all the fancy stats the AFL uses to skew an argument, but we don't need numbers to see what's happening with our game.

The Congestion

Blues blasted, by Adelaide and coach / Via theage.com.au

The hottest on-field topic in the AFL is the rolling mauls of congestion. We can all agree that in the last couple of years this part of the game has gotten worse. Wasn't the interchange meant to ease congestion? So before the AFL go introduce more rules to try and fix other shit rules that have been added to our game, here are two sure-fire ways to ease congestion:

1. You know what eases congestion? When someone kicks the ball away 30 or 40 metres. So AFL, listen to Paul 'Boring' Roos and pay the free kick when it's there and pay it quickly, because the more you wait the more players come to the contest.

2. Remove the interchange cap and substitute. Pendlebury said it back in April. Tired players can't run and spread, and they prefer to hold up. They'll run a spread if a free kick is paid (especially for dropping the ball, remember that rule?). AFL spent 10 years speeding up the game and we like our quick game.

Sidenote: If the AFL introduce zones to our game, we aren't buying memberships.

The Scheduling

AFL Fixture / Via dreamteamtalk.com

A split opening round was a terrible way to open the season; the AFL just made us wait more. We don't know what was worse, waiting for a week before your team was on, or seeing your team first up and waiting 2 weeks to see them again. Killed it before it started. Three weeks of byes; why do you have to taint three of our weekends? The fear of scheduling two games at the same time? We would like a choice of who to watch on a Saturday afternoon. And Monday night, yeah you can get rid of that.

Cater less to TV and focus on bringing us back to the game.

The Cost

Footy Pie Day / Via raybrookman.global2.vic.edu.au

Every aspect of match day has gotten more expensive; parking, train tickets, petrol, match tickets, food and drink have all gone up in price. So when a game is at 4.40 and we have to fork out money for dinner while out why not watch it at home on Foxtel? Which we're also paying a lot for.

The Goal Reviews

Either get serious about it or get rid of it. Have you seen the goal line technology the World Cup has? The referee get's the result transmitted to his watch within a second.

The Dropping the Ball Rule

Via theage.com.au

Isn't this the most easy-to-understand rule in our game? So where has it gone and why isn't it awarded anymore? Again another reason why congestion has gone up, because the ball "spills" out in a tackle and 4 players come in to pick it up. Reward the tackler.

The Noise

Via crossmancommunications.com.au

Why is the footy so noisy now? No, not fan noise, we love that. We don't love advertising noise and crappy half time entertainment, we need to put a stop to this before music is playing during the game and we're chanting "DEFENCE, DEFENCE".

Horrible mentions

- Runners - They're always on the field now because there is only one of them and they have to stay on there longer to deliver all the messages. Put it back up to two.

- No State of Origin - We want it, players want it. End of discussion.

- Footy in Canberra - They don't appreciate it - Country Victoria / South Australia and Western Australia would.

- The throw ins - Why have the umpires stuffed up so many this year? It's not that hard.

So if you're apart of this collective 'we' and believe this is our game and not the AFL's, share this and make our voice heard. Our game isn't hard to fix, because it wasn't broken in the first place.