Topend Sports

Rob's Blog

Entries Tagged as 'AFL'

Brownlow Countdown

September 26th, 2006 · No Comments · AFL

Last night was the vote for the fairest and best AFL player of the year. It is one for the die hard footy fan – reading out the votes round by round has never excited me very much. Even in the media, it seems like more of the interest was on what the female partners of the players were wearing. This year the AFL enforced their black tie dress code for the players. Apparently this requirement has been around for a couple of years, but this year they were going to enforce it. The whole thing backfired anyway, as the winner was not present, and was in Sydney at their own function, wearing a red and white tie! For the players, it appears like a good party night out, as every time the camera went on them they were swigging from a bottle of beer. It became a good advertisement for Crown Lager. By the end of the night, many of them probably did not remember if they polled any votes.

Related Pages: AFL, Brownlow Medal

Tags:

Searching for Grand Final tickets

September 24th, 2006 · No Comments · AFL

Tickets to the AFL Grand Final are hard to come by. Although the MCG has a capacity of nearly 100,000 people, in this footy-mad city many more than that are eager to go to the game. Even though I have connections to the Richmond Football Club, there were no tickets allocated to the general staff, as all of their tickets go into corporate packages available at thousands of dollars each.

The AFL administration had blocked anyone selling them on eBay, though there were plenty of people asking for tickets there. Our only hope was obtaining one through the extra tickets allocated to the Grand Final participating teams. Both Fremantle and Eagles were chances for the final, and through members that we knew in Perth we were able to put our names down for tickets in case either team made it into the final.

The Dockers failed in their preliminary final, thankfully the Eagles won theirs, and our tickets for the big one came through the following day. We are going to the Final!

Related Pages: AFL, Fremantle Dockers, West Coast Eagles

Tags:

Interstate Domination

September 2nd, 2006 · No Comments · AFL

The Australian Rules Football home-and-away season is over and it looks like it is going to be another finals campaign dominated by the interstate teams. It is an interesting term, ‘interstate teams’, as it is supposed to be a nationwide competition, yet any team that is not based in Victoria is classified as such.

This year, there are only four Victorian teams in the final eight, and after the first week of finals there will only be two left, and they face an uphill battle to reach the Grand Final. In addition, there is only going to be three final matches played in Victoria, with the Grand Final one of them.

It is great for the competition and for the spread of the game, but in the home of football, it is another disappointment for the armies of supporters.

Related Pages: AFL

Tags:

Protecting the Umpire

July 19th, 2006 · No Comments · AFL, Umpires & Referees

On the weekend, an AFL player playing down in the VFL, accidentally ran into the field umpire and knocked him over. It looked pretty funny on TV, but in recent years there have been a few of these incidents and the players have been penalized for it.

Last night this player was given a week’s break by the tribunal, which he probably thinks is a little unfair. However, it is important to protect the umpire or referee in any sport. To do their job properly, they have to be close to the play without getting involved in it. The players and umpires alike need to do whatever it takes to keep that barrier.

Long kick

Another AFL umpiring incident this week had the field umpire apparently swearing at a player. Even though the umpire denies it, if swearing at the player was required to get his point across then I have no problems with it. If an umpire does a good job, no one notices.

So I guess that means in both of these incidents some of the blame must go to the umpire.

Related Pages: AFL

Tags:

Gold Coast Roos

July 14th, 2006 · No Comments · AFL

North Melbourne Football Club, the Kangaroos, have announced that they may be relocating from Melbourne to the Gold Coast in Queensland, which is somewhat of a surprise as they had been pushing into the Canberra market.

I am sure Queensland could handle another team, but there must also be a place for one in Canberra. If the expansion of the Melbourne teams continues as expected, I can see a team in Canberra eventually, and one in Tassie too, it is just a matter of time.

I always feel sorry for the fans of a club that gets up and moves interstate, it must be tough losing a local link to your team and not being able to go to watch a game every other week.

For the Kangaroo players, the Gold Coast is a great place to go to and I don’t think they will complain too much. The fans too may enjoy an occasional trip up to sunny Queensland to see their team.

Related Pages: Australian Rules Football, North Melbourne Kangaroos

Tags:

Respect the Rule Makers

June 20th, 2006 · No Comments · AFL, Umpires & Referees

In the news from last weekend’s AFL round is the decision by Essendon to wear yellow armbands as a sign of support for a teammate with cancer. Traditionally an armband is worn by a team when someone close to the club has died. Essendon sought approval from the AFL to do it, was told that they could not, but decided to go ahead anyway. Of course, the AFL have to uphold their ruling, so Essendon was fined, and they complain about it!

Why are they surprised and angered that they are fined? For a team involved in sport, they should know that when the umpire has made a ruling, even if you don’t agree with it, you take it on the chin and get on with the game.

Although the sentiment by Essendon is great, I can see where the AFL is coming from – these things can get out of hand. There is a story that one player wore a black armband when his dog died. That’s just going too far.

Speaking of AFL, what’s the deal with the split round – six games played last week, and only two this week – wouldn’t four each week make more sense? Maybe there is something I am missing.

Related Pages: AFL, Essendon Football Club

Tags:

Real Football

June 16th, 2006 · No Comments · AFL, FIFA World Cup, Football (Soccer)

With the recent success of the Australian Soccer team the debate has raged in Melbourne about the future of each game. In the home of Australian Rules, the World Game of Football has hijacked the sporting news.

However, although it is hard to see now, I am sure the staunch local AFL support will hold strong and given a few weeks after the World Cup has come and gone the AFL will be back into the headlines.

Rob at the MCG, a passionate football supporter

In the background through, Soccer will have been given a kick start, and the seed that is planted may take a few years but the world popularity of the game, the high ethnic population in Melbourne, and the high participation rate of soccer at the junior level, will all combine to make soccer and real challenger to the AFL.

Related Pages: soccer, Football World Cup, AFL

Tags:

Sport is in the Air

June 7th, 2006 · No Comments · AFL, Spectators

One of the unexpected pleasures of moving to Melbourne, the self-proclaimed sports capital of Australia, is listening to the sports radio station (SEN). Nowhere else in Australia have I come across a radio station that is solely about sports.

Radio
Radio

As expected, it has a high proportion of AFL content, but a 24/7 sports station still has plenty of time to cover other sports, and they do so in an entertaining and informed way.

Related Pages: AFL

Tags:

Football Luxury

June 4th, 2006 · No Comments · AFL, Spectators

I was lucky enough to get invited to the Carlton v Port Adelaide AFL game today at the Telstra Dome, and had seats in ‘The Medallion Club’ with comfy seats with their own TV screen. The roof was open and some sun shone down on parts of the ground. My team Carlton did not do too well (as expected). Fortunately, there were other channels to watch on the telly – French Open tennis and a movie too – when the action on the ground was a little hard to bear. The constant replay channel is also handy to see what you missed while flicking channels or reading the Record. A tip for anyone else who is lucky enough to get to this part of the ground – take along a headset to also hear the commentary and soundtrack to the other channels.

Related Pages: AFL, Telstra Dome, Carlton FC, Port Adelaide FC

Tags:

Deaf Umpires

May 4th, 2006 · No Comments · AFL, Umpires & Referees

I think the right decision has been made for the disputed AFL game between St Kilda and Fremantle last weekend. Freo was eventually awarded the points, even though the rules have always been that the game is over only when the umpire hears the siren and signals the end of the game. If it takes a few seconds for the sound of the siren to register with the umpire before he blows time, and during this time a team scores, then that score has always counted.

There have been many instances of this in the past, usually as a ball is kicked in the dying seconds of a game. In this case, the siren blower was in error and did not continue to blow the siren until the umpire signals the end of the game. The game went on, and Fremantle scored a behind to put them in front.

Everyone who knows the full story should acknowledge that Fremantle deserved to win and rightly the powers that be agreed. Too many times we look to the rules and regulations to decide on right and wrong – maybe we should be doing what we think is right, even if the rules don’t always agree with what we think.

My opinion has nothing to do with the fact that I was once a Fremantle supporter!

Related Pages: Australian Rules Football

Tags:

Search This Site

Categories

 → How to Cite