sav.09@live.com.au
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+x+xSo many afl players have mental health issues and go on leave so it’s not something I want to make fun of. Either the afl is ahead of all other sport organisations at addressing mental health or the players really are taking the piss a bit Take this with a grain of salt, but I know a reasonably high profile AFL player through friends, and he has confided in me that the level of recreational drug abuse within AFL circles is rampant. These 'mental health' breaks, whilst some may be genuine, are usually an elaborate cover for drug rehab. It's what happens when young bogans are given lots of cash with lots of free time - they tend to make poor decisions. It's no different to the NRL, except that the AFL PR machine seems much more efficient at covering up the scandals than the NRL. AFL flogs infest pretty much all the Strayan Msm whichnisthemost concentrated in developed world anyaway. .. and are cashed up enough to pay off withhush money those few mainstream outlets they dont. Ofcourse from their bubble they pretend they control online 'world' aswell. Reality football and its global footprint in all platforms eg gaming sh#tting all over them. Nfi .. Arent the ABC going out this week with a collingwood *yawn* "Exclusive behind the scenes " doco series ... moretaxpayers $$ hoofed up by AFL 'connections' for more blatant AFL PR and promo..
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Waz
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+x+xSo many afl players have mental health issues and go on leave so it’s not something I want to make fun of. Either the afl is ahead of all other sport organisations at addressing mental health or the players really are taking the piss a bit Take this with a grain of salt, but I know a reasonably high profile AFL player through friends, and he has co nfided in me that the level of recreational drug abuse within AFL circles is rampant. These 'mental health' breaks, whilst some may be genuine, are usually an elaborate cover for drug rehab. It's what happens when young bogans are given lots of cash with lots of free time - they tend to make poor decisions. It's no different to the NRL, except that the AFL PR machine seems much more efficient at covering up the scandals than the NRL. Same in the HAL
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Footballer
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+x+x+xSo many afl players have mental health issues and go on leave so it’s not something I want to make fun of. Either the afl is ahead of all other sport organisations at addressing mental health or the players really are taking the piss a bit Take this with a grain of salt, but I know a reasonably high profile AFL player through friends, and he has confided in me that the level of recreational drug abuse within AFL circles is rampant. These 'mental health' breaks, whilst some may be genuine, are usually an elaborate cover for drug rehab. It's what happens when young bogans are given lots of cash with lots of free time - they tend to make poor decisions. It's no different to the NRL, except that the AFL PR machine seems much more efficient at covering up the scandals than the NRL. AFL flogs infest pretty much all the Strayan Msm whichnisthemost concentrated in developed world anyaway. .. and are cashed up enough to pay off withhush money those few mainstream outlets they dont. Ofcourse from their bubble they pretend they control online 'world' aswell. Reality football and its global footprint in all platforms eg gaming sh#tting all over them. Nfi .. Arent the ABC going out this week with a collingwood *yawn* "Exclusive behind the scenes " doco series ... moretaxpayers $$ hoofed up by AFL 'connections' for more blatant AFL PR and promo.. Um...weren't we on SBS for 40 years?
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phutbol
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+x+x+x+x+x+x+xCup comp in Aussie rules would not work, because as much as they hate to admit it, AFL is not a game anymore based on skill. It’s athleticism. Nobody could go close to competing against full time professionals. Money just has to look at the skills of current players to see how poor marking and kicking for goal is. Correct. Soccer (Football) has an in-built advantage in it's low scoring nature in that it tends to throw up more upsets than other sports. In the 5 & 1/2 FFA cups that have been run, we've seen A-League sides get knocked out by state league teams 8 times (in 54 matches between an A-League side and a state league side). I dare say you could run 100 matches of Aussie Rules between an AFL side and a state league side and never have an upset. Related article (although it's comparing English football to US sports, not AFL): https://www.nature.com/news/2006/060102/full/060102-1.html Not just no upsets between an AFL side and a state league team, but you would get 100 point blow outs every game. Nobody would watch it. Feels like for this to work AFL clubs would have to be handicapped- like 15 v 18 or even 18 v 21. I'm not sure that'd be necessary. The best of the AFL were beaten regularly by Irish amateurs in the "International Rules" series. Last I remember the AFL professionals had to resort to thuggery to win and which resulted in the Irish calling off the series due to player welfare concerns. That's because the AFL players had no soccer skills. It was embarrassing to watch them. A bit of soccer skills is needed for international rules, and the Irish were ok. Yeah I remember watching one of these " international rules " things. I saw the Irish blokes dribbling and passing along the ground. They always shot into the net & worked the keeper. The AFL blokes just about always kicked it over and rarely at the keeper, moving him around. They always passed handball style and only got the ball off the Irish by using body charges, wrestling, etc. The Irish beat them, but if the entire Irish team were professional they would have thrashed them To be fair though if you put a Sherrin into the game, it would be a no-contest by an even greater margin. What the IR spectacle illustrates best is that regardless of how much cash you have, its dumb to try to make a new hybrid sport from 2 others just to create an international presence.
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Melbcityguy
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I loved those matches very entertaining when I was a kid
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miron mercedes
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+xI loved those matches very entertaining when I was a kid Yeah maybe tennis and golf should get together....makes so much sense...oh hang on... they don't need to ...they can exist in the world individually . In my opinion AFL will never ,ever ,ever gain any presence in any other country . AFL will always exist in Australia because Aussies need something to call their own ...that cultural cringe thing. I don't know why we even concern our selves with AFL. We should just concentrate on getting our game right and catering to the people who already love football. If we could get even a quarter of them to follow our A-League we would have full stadiums every week...and if we had full stadiums every week the media would be tripping over each other to get to us .
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bettega
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+x+xI loved those matches very entertaining when I was a kid Yeah maybe tennis and golf should get together....makes so much sense...oh hang on... they don't need to ...they can exist in the world individually . In my opinion AFL will never ,ever ,ever gain any presence in any other country . AFL will always exist in Australia because Aussies need something to call their own ...that cultural cringe thing. While you make some excellent points, what you describe is the exact opposite of what cultural cringe means. For example, in our football context, preferring to follow the Premier League over the A-League would be an example of cultural cringe: preferring the foreign offering over the local offering is what cultural cringe means.
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paulc
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+x+x+xI loved those matches very entertaining when I was a kid Yeah maybe tennis and golf should get together....makes so much sense...oh hang on... they don't need to ...they can exist in the world individually . In my opinion AFL will never ,ever ,ever gain any presence in any other country . AFL will always exist in Australia because Aussies need something to call their own ...that cultural cringe thing. While you make some excellent points, what you describe is the exact opposite of what cultural cringe means. For example, in our football context, preferring to follow the Premier League over the A-League would be an example of cultural cringe: preferring the foreign offering over the local offering is what cultural cringe means. You beat me to it. I was going to say similar. As much as I despise AFL there's nothing wrong with wanting to protect your own home grown game. Noticed how AFL is taking a stronghold in central QLD / North QLD too with lot's of air time given to Capricornia AFL.
In a resort somewhere
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Footballfirst
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+x+xI loved those matches very entertaining when I was a kid Yeah maybe tennis and golf should get together....makes so much sense...oh hang on... they don't need to ...they can exist in the world individually . In my opinion AFL will never ,ever ,ever gain any presence in any other country . AFL will always exist in Australia because Aussies need something to call their own ...that cultural cringe thing. I don't know why we even concern our selves with AFL. We should just concentrate on getting our game right and catering to the people who already love football. If we could get even a quarter of them to follow our A-League we would have full stadiums every week...and if we had full stadiums every week the media would be tripping over each other to get to us . We should just concentrate on getting our game right and catering to the people who already love football. If we could get even a quarter of them to follow our A-League we would have full stadiums every week...and if we had full stadiums every week the media would be tripping over each other to get to us .
Exactly, agree 100%.
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miron mercedes
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+x+x+xI loved those matches very entertaining when I was a kid Yeah maybe tennis and golf should get together....makes so much sense...oh hang on... they don't need to ...they can exist in the world individually . In my opinion AFL will never ,ever ,ever gain any presence in any other country . AFL will always exist in Australia because Aussies need something to call their own ...that cultural cringe thing. While you make some excellent points, what you describe is the exact opposite of what cultural cringe means. For example, in our football context, preferring to follow the Premier League over the A-League would be an example of cultural cringe: preferring the foreign offering over the local offering is what cultural cringe means. I know what you are saying ...just couldn't think of how to better express it....whilst Aussies do suffer "cultural cringe" ,as you define it , it also often goes hand in hand with a strange insular view that in some areas, anything Aussie is better . Did we learn this from the Yanks ?
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scott20won
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+x+x+x+xI loved those matches very entertaining when I was a kid Yeah maybe tennis and golf should get together....makes so much sense...oh hang on... they don't need to ...they can exist in the world individually . In my opinion AFL will never ,ever ,ever gain any presence in any other country . AFL will always exist in Australia because Aussies need something to call their own ...that cultural cringe thing. While you make some excellent points, what you describe is the exact opposite of what cultural cringe means. For example, in our football context, preferring to follow the Premier League over the A-League would be an example of cultural cringe: preferring the foreign offering over the local offering is what cultural cringe means. I know what you are saying ...just couldn't think of how to better express it....whilst Aussies do suffer "cultural cringe" ,as you define it , it also often goes hand in hand with a strange insular view that in some areas, anything Aussie is better . Did we learn this from the Yanks ? Italians immigrants? tbh I think the Swiss are the best at saying they’re the best.
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paladisious
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+x+x+x+x+xI loved those matches very entertaining when I was a kid Yeah maybe tennis and golf should get together....makes so much sense...oh hang on... they don't need to ...they can exist in the world individually . In my opinion AFL will never ,ever ,ever gain any presence in any other country . AFL will always exist in Australia because Aussies need something to call their own ...that cultural cringe thing. While you make some excellent points, what you describe is the exact opposite of what cultural cringe means. For example, in our football context, preferring to follow the Premier League over the A-League would be an example of cultural cringe: preferring the foreign offering over the local offering is what cultural cringe means. I know what you are saying ...just couldn't think of how to better express it....whilst Aussies do suffer "cultural cringe" ,as you define it , it also often goes hand in hand with a strange insular view that in some areas, anything Aussie is better . Did we learn this from the Yanks ? Italians immigrants? tbh I think the Swiss are the best at saying they’re the best. Their flag is a big plus.
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Muz
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+x+x+x+x+x+xI loved those matches very entertaining when I was a kid Yeah maybe tennis and golf should get together....makes so much sense...oh hang on... they don't need to ...they can exist in the world individually . In my opinion AFL will never ,ever ,ever gain any presence in any other country . AFL will always exist in Australia because Aussies need something to call their own ...that cultural cringe thing. While you make some excellent points, what you describe is the exact opposite of what cultural cringe means. For example, in our football context, preferring to follow the Premier League over the A-League would be an example of cultural cringe: preferring the foreign offering over the local offering is what cultural cringe means. I know what you are saying ...just couldn't think of how to better express it....whilst Aussies do suffer "cultural cringe" ,as you define it , it also often goes hand in hand with a strange insular view that in some areas, anything Aussie is better . Did we learn this from the Yanks ? Italians immigrants? tbh I think the Swiss are the best at saying they’re the best. Their flag is a big plus. onepersonslowhandclapinacrowdedroom.gif
Member since 2008.
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miron mercedes
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+x+x+x+x+x+xI loved those matches very entertaining when I was a kid Yeah maybe tennis and golf should get together....makes so much sense...oh hang on... they don't need to ...they can exist in the world individually . In my opinion AFL will never ,ever ,ever gain any presence in any other country . AFL will always exist in Australia because Aussies need something to call their own ...that cultural cringe thing. While you make some excellent points, what you describe is the exact opposite of what cultural cringe means. For example, in our football context, preferring to follow the Premier League over the A-League would be an example of cultural cringe: preferring the foreign offering over the local offering is what cultural cringe means. I know what you are saying ...just couldn't think of how to better express it....whilst Aussies do suffer "cultural cringe" ,as you define it , it also often goes hand in hand with a strange insular view that in some areas, anything Aussie is better . Did we learn this from the Yanks ? Italians immigrants? tbh I think the Swiss are the best at saying they’re the best. Their flag is a big plus. :D .....I'll pay that ...
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bettega
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+x+x+x+xI loved those matches very entertaining when I was a kid Yeah maybe tennis and golf should get together....makes so much sense...oh hang on... they don't need to ...they can exist in the world individually . In my opinion AFL will never ,ever ,ever gain any presence in any other country . AFL will always exist in Australia because Aussies need something to call their own ...that cultural cringe thing. While you make some excellent points, what you describe is the exact opposite of what cultural cringe means. For example, in our football context, preferring to follow the Premier League over the A-League would be an example of cultural cringe: preferring the foreign offering over the local offering is what cultural cringe means. I know what you are saying ...just couldn't think of how to better express it....whilst Aussies do suffer "cultural cringe" ,as you define it , it also often goes hand in hand with a strange insular view that in some areas, anything Aussie is better . Did we learn this from the Yanks ? Do we really suffer from thinking Aussie is always better? I would have thought for the most part, we are not like that at all, maybe it's easy to find examples of both extremes
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miron mercedes
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+x+x+x+x+xI loved those matches very entertaining when I was a kid Yeah maybe tennis and golf should get together....makes so much sense...oh hang on... they don't need to ...they can exist in the world individually . In my opinion AFL will never ,ever ,ever gain any presence in any other country . AFL will always exist in Australia because Aussies need something to call their own ...that cultural cringe thing. While you make some excellent points, what you describe is the exact opposite of what cultural cringe means. For example, in our football context, preferring to follow the Premier League over the A-League would be an example of cultural cringe: preferring the foreign offering over the local offering is what cultural cringe means. I know what you are saying ...just couldn't think of how to better express it....whilst Aussies do suffer "cultural cringe" ,as you define it , it also often goes hand in hand with a strange insular view that in some areas, anything Aussie is better . Did we learn this from the Yanks ? Do we really suffer from thinking Aussie is always better? I would have thought for the most part, we are not like that at all, maybe it's easy to find examples of both extremes If you re-read what I said you will see I said “in some areas “.
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Footballer
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+x+x+x+x+xI loved those matches very entertaining when I was a kid Yeah maybe tennis and golf should get together....makes so much sense...oh hang on... they don't need to ...they can exist in the world individually . In my opinion AFL will never ,ever ,ever gain any presence in any other country . AFL will always exist in Australia because Aussies need something to call their own ...that cultural cringe thing. While you make some excellent points, what you describe is the exact opposite of what cultural cringe means. For example, in our football context, preferring to follow the Premier League over the A-League would be an example of cultural cringe: preferring the foreign offering over the local offering is what cultural cringe means. I know what you are saying ...just couldn't think of how to better express it....whilst Aussies do suffer "cultural cringe" ,as you define it , it also often goes hand in hand with a strange insular view that in some areas, anything Aussie is better . Did we learn this from the Yanks ? Do we really suffer from thinking Aussie is always better? I would have thought for the most part, we are not like that at all, maybe it's easy to find examples of both extremes i think he still doesn't get the meaning of cultural cringe. it means that we don't rate ourselves and always look abroad for the proper standard. That's precisely what we do with football and probably the opposite of what they do in the afl.
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Melbcityguy
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What Chinese visitors to Melbourne really think of AFL Staff writer, Herald Sun an hour ago With teams now playing for premiership points in Shanghai, the AFL is pushing footy hard into China.
But what do Chinese students and visitors to Melbourne really think of our game?
Monash University Master of Journalism students Joyce Fung and Minyue Ding took to the streets of Melbourne to find out, asking students and visitors what they thought of the AFL (Watch the video below).
“This video is about how the Chinese community in Australia think of footy when AFL is promoting the games in China,” Ms Fung said.
“We want to explore their understanding of the game, the promotion in China, and address the stereotypical view that Chinese people can’t play footy.”
Ms Ding said footy encapsulated the spirit of Australia but many Chinese found it to be “strange”.
“But we found more and more Chinese start to know it and get interested in it.,” she said.
“This video shows that footy has no limitations for any community or anyone.”
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paladisious
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So I'm working on the basketball world cup in Shanghai, I just asked some of the Chinese people I'm working with if they knew of AFL and that they played one game per season in their city, not one had any clue, and these are English speaking young professional people who work on international sporting events lol
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phutbol
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+xWhat Chinese visitors to Melbourne really think of AFL Staff writer, Herald Sun an hour ago With teams now playing for premiership points in Shanghai, the AFL is pushing footy hard into China. But what do Chinese students and visitors to Melbourne really think of our game? Monash University Master of Journalism students Joyce Fung and Minyue Ding took to the streets of Melbourne to find out, asking students and visitors what they thought of the AFL (Watch the video below). “This video is about how the Chinese community in Australia think of footy when AFL is promoting the games in China,” Ms Fung said. “We want to explore their understanding of the game, the promotion in China, and address the stereotypical view that Chinese people can’t play footy.” Ms Ding said footy encapsulated the spirit of Australia but many Chinese found it to be “strange”. “But we found more and more Chinese start to know it and get interested in it.,” she said. “This video shows that footy has no limitations for any community or anyone.” Obvious puff-piece. Hun trying to convince readers its not an irrelevant sport internationally.
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NicCarBel
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All this AFL talk made me remember an article I found while researching a book I found the other day https://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/the-game-that-never-happened-20091014-ge856i.html'EIGHT-NIL,'' croaks an exasperated everyfan played by Michael Palin in Ripping Yarns. ''Eight-bloody-nil.'' So was that scoreline immortalised. But another 8-0 result, this one for real, has been so lost to memory that when it was exhumed from its unmarked grave this year by academic, author and soccer aficionado Ian Syson, he dubbed it ''the game that never happened''.But assuredly, it did. It was 45 years ago, on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Olympic Park. Twenty-five thousand people witnessed it, raising the then princely sum of £2600 for charity. It was between Slavia, the Dockerty Cup champion, and a team of VFL superstars, including Ron Barassi, Ted Whitten, Kevin Murray, Des Tuddenham and Gordon Collis, the newly invested Brownlow medallist. ''Was it really 8-0?'' asked Collis yesterday. ''Oh, dear.''It began when Jack Dyer, the infamous Captain Blood, went to the Dockerty Cup final as a guest of the Victorian Soccer Federation, but - the ingrate - wrote in ''Dyer 'ere'', his calculatedly shrill Truth column: ''I went, I saw, and I was sickened. It really is a girls' game - but only for big girls.'' It is the debate that never ends, merely changes forums.Hammy McMeechan, newly arrived from Scotland to play for Slavia, later Melbourne Croatia and the Socceroos, read Dyer's column. ''I had to,'' he said. ''When I first came out, I couldn't believe it; even the women talked football back home, the women didn't care about soccer. They went shopping. But if you want to talk to people here, you have to be interested in football.''On World of Sport, McMeecham's clubmate, Dave Meecham, issued a challenge. It was accepted. The Sporting Globe was ecstatic. ''We've been waiting for years for this, and it's here at last,'' it said. ''Soccer v footy. Captain Blood has already warned Slavia that it's going to be 'on', and this means one thing - it's going to be the roughest, toughest soccer match Victoria has ever seen.''The enmity was partly hyperbolic. In preparation, the teams trained together, convivially. ''They were good guys. We had a laugh with them,'' said McMeechan.''I was very taken with Kevin Murray: lovely guy. Paul Vinar [132 games for Geelong], he was quite good. Stuey Magee [216 games for Footscray and South Melbourne], he wasn't bad.''Compared to the rest of them, he was quite good. He'd no' have got a game with us, though.''In the city insurance office where he worked as a clerk, McMeechan's workmates noted in the paper that he was up against Collis. ''You won't get a kick,'' they said. ''He's the Brownlow medallist.'' Retorted McMeechan: ''It's no' Aussie rules we're playing, it's soccer.''Marching girls, a beauty contest and footraces set the festive scene. Some remember the contest as rugged. ''Not in the least,'' said McMeechan. ''They were trying to clatter in with their tackles, but they didn't know how to tackle.'' Collis, mildly but confessionally, begs to differ. ''It was a little spiteful in that we, with our technique [laughing], couldn't resist the opportunity of a hip and shoulder here and there,'' he said.''The other boys had tricks of their own. One of them was to put a foot over the ball as you were about to kick it, so your shins would make contact with the soles of their boots. That didn't improve relations. We didn't see it as very manly way of going about things. But it was effective. It was also effective in stirring us up!''It also led to what retrospectively might be seen as the game's most telling happening. Barassi launched at a Slavia player called John Auchie. ''If you know soccer,'' said McMeechan, ''if you go in and kick the ball and I put my foot behind it, it's like kicking a wall. That's all he did.''Barassi tripped, fell, limped off. He was about to embark on his bombshell transfer from Melbourne to become playing coach of Carlton, where he began to make his legendary coaching name, but did not again touch the heights as a player. Years later, when they crossed paths again in a King Street newsagency, Barassi told McMeechan that the injury he sustained that day eventually forced him to give football away.Elsetimes, McMeechan ran on to a through ball, but with Collis bearing down on him quickly and deftly backheeled it to a teammate. On a whim, he kept sprinting, towards the corner flag. ''He [Collis] kept chasing me,'' he said. ''The more he kept chasing me, the more I kept running. I don't think he realised I didn't have the ball.''At the flag, he turned to face Collis, making a gesture as if to ask: ''What will you do now?'' The crowd laughed roisterously. ''You should have seen the look he gave me,'' said McMeechan, adding ruefully: ''I should never have done it.'' Collis, coyly, said he could not remember it.At half-time, it was 3-0. Chastened, the VFL team asked if they might play Australian rules in the second half. Slavia coach Brian Birch, a Busby babe, demurred. ''Look at my players,'' he said. ''Hammy's the biggest, and he's 5'6'' [167 centimetres]. We could never beat you at your game.''So, honourably, they played it out, until it was eight-bloody-nil (in merely two, 25-minute halves, too). ''We had reasonable control of the ball during the game, but we didn't have much idea of how to score,'' said Collis. ''It was a reality check as far as the difficulty of scoring was concerned. That's pretty obvious to everyone when you see a match finish at 0-0. We weren't the only ones who had difficulty scoring.'' It is the aspect of soccer he dislikes still.McMeechan admired the VFL team for its sporting attitude. ''They must have realised after two or three training sessions that they couldn't play soccer,'' he said. ''Fair goes to them: I don't think I would have liked to try and play their game, not in front of all those people, and make a fool of myself. That was a big thing for them to do.''Between these co-existing codes, there is never quite war, never quite detente. Warlords on both sides continue to rattle their sabres, but once in a while, a little mutual enlightenment prevails. Looking back at Olympic Park, Syson concludes: ''The most important lesson is that for too long, many Australians failed utterly to understand the technical skill and artistry of the world game, and the physical qualities needed to play even at a moderate semi-professional level.''McMeechan framed it another way. Slavia played that day with an orthodox soccer structure, he said. The VFL team was ''a goalkeeper, and 10 ruck-rovers''. The result: eight-bloody-nil.The years have passed. Too many who played that day are dead. The football landscape has changed: it is more cluttered, but also more vibrant. ''Fifteen years ago, I said Australia would beat Scotland,'' said McMeechan. ''Some of the boys laughed at me, but they've since proven it.'' In the effort to popularise the game, McMeechan said televised European soccer had made all the difference: it had allowed the indifferent and the hostile to see what the fuss was all about.Collis finds soccer seeping into his consciousness. ''With Australia starting to exert some influence in the world, that's interesting,'' he said. ''And I've held the view for a long time that soccer is poised to take some bigger strides from a participation aspect. I can see that it's a very mother-friendly sort of game.'' From ''a girls' game'' to ''mother friendly''; so might soccer's changing status be charted.Collis adds more. ''With the way our game is played these days, I can see it falling into soccer's hands. Fellows going head-first into packs: it's difficult to look at, and I think dangerous. I can see a time coming when there's a serious head or neck injury that may make people think again. But players are just expected to do that these days. There's a lot I don't like about our game at the moment.''''The game that never happened'' won't ever happen again: professional stringencies preclude it. But thanks to Syson, it has happened this year, and in soccer's inimitable way, prolifically: on a soccer website (Das Libero), an AFL website (Footy Almanack), in Victoria University Bulletin of Sport and Culture, and in the Greek newspaper Neos Kosmos.''What do you want with Neos Kosmos?'' McMeechan's puzzled newsagent asked him. He could have replied: ''To make sure it happened.''
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Atlas
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Barassi tripped, fell, limped off. He was about to embark on his bombshell transfer from Melbourne to become playing coach of Carlton, where he began to make his legendary coaching name, but did not again touch the heights as a player.
Correction to this: Barassi did not limp off the field he was carried off an a stretcher!!!!
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sav.09@live.com.au
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+x+x+xI loved those matches very entertaining when I was a kid Yeah maybe tennis and golf should get together....makes so much sense...oh hang on... they don't need to ...they can exist in the world individually . In my opinion AFL will never ,ever ,ever gain any presence in any other country . AFL will always exist in Australia because Aussies need something to call their own ...that cultural cringe thing. While you make some excellent points, what you describe is the exact opposite of what cultural cringe means. For example, in our football context, preferring to follow the Premier League over the A-League would be an example of cultural cringe: preferring the foreign offering over the local offering is what cultural cringe means. The AFL boganatti types have confused culture with sport . AFL has always been a subliminal outlet for entrenched strayan xenophobia and a metaphor for white nationalist superiority aka 'real aussies' and 'real aussie kultcha ' etc as an expression of white aussie supremacy 'Culture by its nature is non-competive ..yet all the endless hyperbole by the AFL's media sycophants and cheersquad ..'our great game' our great aussie game etc is an endless pr campaign to prove beyond 'the aussie game' and the 'real aussies ' that play it is inherently superior to 'THAT efnic game played by THEM.' While reality is AFL has the international cred of left-handed junior mini lacrosse to the AFL types it only needs a few words from a 'sample' of foreign folk to say nothing more than 'umm..yeh we heard about this AFL thing' to legitimise their delusions of global importance of 'our great game' . AFL from aminute pool of just 24million inits delusion of superiority doesnt need to compete against other nations ...which is .morethan happy to play withitself and give itself 8 page liftouts on its 'australian all stars' . When your a 'cultural icon' ..who needs competition ..the very essence of sport.
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SUTHERLANDBEAR
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+xAll this AFL talk made me remember an article I found while researching a book I found the other day https://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/the-game-that-never-happened-20091014-ge856i.html'EIGHT-NIL,'' croaks an exasperated everyfan played by Michael Palin in Ripping Yarns. ''Eight-bloody-nil.'' So was that scoreline immortalised. But another 8-0 result, this one for real, has been so lost to memory that when it was exhumed from its unmarked grave this year by academic, author and soccer aficionado Ian Syson, he dubbed it ''the game that never happened''.But assuredly, it did. It was 45 years ago, on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Olympic Park. Twenty-five thousand people witnessed it, raising the then princely sum of £2600 for charity. It was between Slavia, the Dockerty Cup champion, and a team of VFL superstars, including Ron Barassi, Ted Whitten, Kevin Murray, Des Tuddenham and Gordon Collis, the newly invested Brownlow medallist. ''Was it really 8-0?'' asked Collis yesterday. ''Oh, dear.''It began when Jack Dyer, the infamous Captain Blood, went to the Dockerty Cup final as a guest of the Victorian Soccer Federation, but - the ingrate - wrote in ''Dyer 'ere'', his calculatedly shrill Truth column: ''I went, I saw, and I was sickened. It really is a girls' game - but only for big girls.'' It is the debate that never ends, merely changes forums.Hammy McMeechan, newly arrived from Scotland to play for Slavia, later Melbourne Croatia and the Socceroos, read Dyer's column. ''I had to,'' he said. ''When I first came out, I couldn't believe it; even the women talked football back home, the women didn't care about soccer. They went shopping. But if you want to talk to people here, you have to be interested in football.''On World of Sport, McMeecham's clubmate, Dave Meecham, issued a challenge. It was accepted. The Sporting Globe was ecstatic. ''We've been waiting for years for this, and it's here at last,'' it said. ''Soccer v footy. Captain Blood has already warned Slavia that it's going to be 'on', and this means one thing - it's going to be the roughest, toughest soccer match Victoria has ever seen.''The enmity was partly hyperbolic. In preparation, the teams trained together, convivially. ''They were good guys. We had a laugh with them,'' said McMeechan.''I was very taken with Kevin Murray: lovely guy. Paul Vinar [132 games for Geelong], he was quite good. Stuey Magee [216 games for Footscray and South Melbourne], he wasn't bad.''Compared to the rest of them, he was quite good. He'd no' have got a game with us, though.''In the city insurance office where he worked as a clerk, McMeechan's workmates noted in the paper that he was up against Collis. ''You won't get a kick,'' they said. ''He's the Brownlow medallist.'' Retorted McMeechan: ''It's no' Aussie rules we're playing, it's soccer.''Marching girls, a beauty contest and footraces set the festive scene. Some remember the contest as rugged. ''Not in the least,'' said McMeechan. ''They were trying to clatter in with their tackles, but they didn't know how to tackle.'' Collis, mildly but confessionally, begs to differ. ''It was a little spiteful in that we, with our technique [laughing], couldn't resist the opportunity of a hip and shoulder here and there,'' he said.''The other boys had tricks of their own. One of them was to put a foot over the ball as you were about to kick it, so your shins would make contact with the soles of their boots. That didn't improve relations. We didn't see it as very manly way of going about things. But it was effective. It was also effective in stirring us up!''It also led to what retrospectively might be seen as the game's most telling happening. Barassi launched at a Slavia player called John Auchie. ''If you know soccer,'' said McMeechan, ''if you go in and kick the ball and I put my foot behind it, it's like kicking a wall. That's all he did.''Barassi tripped, fell, limped off. He was about to embark on his bombshell transfer from Melbourne to become playing coach of Carlton, where he began to make his legendary coaching name, but did not again touch the heights as a player. Years later, when they crossed paths again in a King Street newsagency, Barassi told McMeechan that the injury he sustained that day eventually forced him to give football away.Elsetimes, McMeechan ran on to a through ball, but with Collis bearing down on him quickly and deftly backheeled it to a teammate. On a whim, he kept sprinting, towards the corner flag. ''He [Collis] kept chasing me,'' he said. ''The more he kept chasing me, the more I kept running. I don't think he realised I didn't have the ball.''At the flag, he turned to face Collis, making a gesture as if to ask: ''What will you do now?'' The crowd laughed roisterously. ''You should have seen the look he gave me,'' said McMeechan, adding ruefully: ''I should never have done it.'' Collis, coyly, said he could not remember it.At half-time, it was 3-0. Chastened, the VFL team asked if they might play Australian rules in the second half. Slavia coach Brian Birch, a Busby babe, demurred. ''Look at my players,'' he said. ''Hammy's the biggest, and he's 5'6'' [167 centimetres]. We could never beat you at your game.''So, honourably, they played it out, until it was eight-bloody-nil (in merely two, 25-minute halves, too). ''We had reasonable control of the ball during the game, but we didn't have much idea of how to score,'' said Collis. ''It was a reality check as far as the difficulty of scoring was concerned. That's pretty obvious to everyone when you see a match finish at 0-0. We weren't the only ones who had difficulty scoring.'' It is the aspect of soccer he dislikes still.McMeechan admired the VFL team for its sporting attitude. ''They must have realised after two or three training sessions that they couldn't play soccer,'' he said. ''Fair goes to them: I don't think I would have liked to try and play their game, not in front of all those people, and make a fool of myself. That was a big thing for them to do.''Between these co-existing codes, there is never quite war, never quite detente. Warlords on both sides continue to rattle their sabres, but once in a while, a little mutual enlightenment prevails. Looking back at Olympic Park, Syson concludes: ''The most important lesson is that for too long, many Australians failed utterly to understand the technical skill and artistry of the world game, and the physical qualities needed to play even at a moderate semi-professional level.''McMeechan framed it another way. Slavia played that day with an orthodox soccer structure, he said. The VFL team was ''a goalkeeper, and 10 ruck-rovers''. The result: eight-bloody-nil.The years have passed. Too many who played that day are dead. The football landscape has changed: it is more cluttered, but also more vibrant. ''Fifteen years ago, I said Australia would beat Scotland,'' said McMeechan. ''Some of the boys laughed at me, but they've since proven it.'' In the effort to popularise the game, McMeechan said televised European soccer had made all the difference: it had allowed the indifferent and the hostile to see what the fuss was all about.Collis finds soccer seeping into his consciousness. ''With Australia starting to exert some influence in the world, that's interesting,'' he said. ''And I've held the view for a long time that soccer is poised to take some bigger strides from a participation aspect. I can see that it's a very mother-friendly sort of game.'' From ''a girls' game'' to ''mother friendly''; so might soccer's changing status be charted.Collis adds more. ''With the way our game is played these days, I can see it falling into soccer's hands. Fellows going head-first into packs: it's difficult to look at, and I think dangerous. I can see a time coming when there's a serious head or neck injury that may make people think again. But players are just expected to do that these days. There's a lot I don't like about our game at the moment.''''The game that never happened'' won't ever happen again: professional stringencies preclude it. But thanks to Syson, it has happened this year, and in soccer's inimitable way, prolifically: on a soccer website (Das Libero), an AFL website (Footy Almanack), in Victoria University Bulletin of Sport and Culture, and in the Greek newspaper Neos Kosmos.''What do you want with Neos Kosmos?'' McMeechan's puzzled newsagent asked him. He could have replied: ''To make sure it happened.'' It was 8-1, eight bloody one .And Barnstoneworth United were the team thrashed.
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melbourne_terrace
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+xBarassi tripped, fell, limped off. He was about to embark on his bombshell transfer from Melbourne to become playing coach of Carlton, where he began to make his legendary coaching name, but did not again touch the heights as a player. Correction to this: Barassi did not limp off the field he was carried off an a stretcher!!!! This always makes me smile considering what a carnt he has been to our game.
Viennese Vuck
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Waz
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+xAll this AFL talk made me remember an article I found while researching a book I found the other day https://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/the-game-that-never-happened-20091014-ge856i.html'EIGHT-NIL,'' croaks an exasperated everyfan played by Michael Palin in Ripping Yarns. ''Eight-bloody-nil.'' So was that scoreline immortalised. But another 8-0 result, this one for real, has been so lost to memory that when it was exhumed from its unmarked grave this year by academic, author and soccer aficionado Ian Syson, he dubbed it ''the game that never happened''.But assuredly, it did. It was 45 years ago, on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Olympic Park. Twenty-five thousand people witnessed it, raising the then princely sum of £2600 for charity. It was between Slavia, the Dockerty Cup champion, and a team of VFL superstars, including Ron Barassi, Ted Whitten, Kevin Murray, Des Tuddenham and Gordon Collis, the newly invested Brownlow medallist. ''Was it really 8-0?'' asked Collis yesterday. ''Oh, dear.''It began when Jack Dyer, the infamous Captain Blood, went to the Dockerty Cup final as a guest of the Victorian Soccer Federation, but - the ingrate - wrote in ''Dyer 'ere'', his calculatedly shrill Truth column: ''I went, I saw, and I was sickened. It really is a girls' game - but only for big girls.'' It is the debate that never ends, merely changes forums.Hammy McMeechan, newly arrived from Scotland to play for Slavia, later Melbourne Croatia and the Socceroos, read Dyer's column. ''I had to,'' he said. ''When I first came out, I couldn't believe it; even the women talked football back home, the women didn't care about soccer. They went shopping. But if you want to talk to people here, you have to be interested in football.''On World of Sport, McMeecham's clubmate, Dave Meecham, issued a challenge. It was accepted. The Sporting Globe was ecstatic. ''We've been waiting for years for this, and it's here at last,'' it said. ''Soccer v footy. Captain Blood has already warned Slavia that it's going to be 'on', and this means one thing - it's going to be the roughest, toughest soccer match Victoria has ever seen.''The enmity was partly hyperbolic. In preparation, the teams trained together, convivially. ''They were good guys. We had a laugh with them,'' said McMeechan.''I was very taken with Kevin Murray: lovely guy. Paul Vinar [132 games for Geelong], he was quite good. Stuey Magee [216 games for Footscray and South Melbourne], he wasn't bad.''Compared to the rest of them, he was quite good. He'd no' have got a game with us, though.''In the city insurance office where he worked as a clerk, McMeechan's workmates noted in the paper that he was up against Collis. ''You won't get a kick,'' they said. ''He's the Brownlow medallist.'' Retorted McMeechan: ''It's no' Aussie rules we're playing, it's soccer.''Marching girls, a beauty contest and footraces set the festive scene. Some remember the contest as rugged. ''Not in the least,'' said McMeechan. ''They were trying to clatter in with their tackles, but they didn't know how to tackle.'' Collis, mildly but confessionally, begs to differ. ''It was a little spiteful in that we, with our technique [laughing], couldn't resist the opportunity of a hip and shoulder here and there,'' he said.''The other boys had tricks of their own. One of them was to put a foot over the ball as you were about to kick it, so your shins would make contact with the soles of their boots. That didn't improve relations. We didn't see it as very manly way of going about things. But it was effective. It was also effective in stirring us up!''It also led to what retrospectively might be seen as the game's most telling happening. Barassi launched at a Slavia player called John Auchie. ''If you know soccer,'' said McMeechan, ''if you go in and kick the ball and I put my foot behind it, it's like kicking a wall. That's all he did.''Barassi tripped, fell, limped off. He was about to embark on his bombshell transfer from Melbourne to become playing coach of Carlton, where he began to make his legendary coaching name, but did not again touch the heights as a player. Years later, when they crossed paths again in a King Street newsagency, Barassi told McMeechan that the injury he sustained that day eventually forced him to give football away.Elsetimes, McMeechan ran on to a through ball, but with Collis bearing down on him quickly and deftly backheeled it to a teammate. On a whim, he kept sprinting, towards the corner flag. ''He [Collis] kept chasing me,'' he said. ''The more he kept chasing me, the more I kept running. I don't think he realised I didn't have the ball.''At the flag, he turned to face Collis, making a gesture as if to ask: ''What will you do now?'' The crowd laughed roisterously. ''You should have seen the look he gave me,'' said McMeechan, adding ruefully: ''I should never have done it.'' Collis, coyly, said he could not remember it.At half-time, it was 3-0. Chastened, the VFL team asked if they might play Australian rules in the second half. Slavia coach Brian Birch, a Busby babe, demurred. ''Look at my players,'' he said. ''Hammy's the biggest, and he's 5'6'' [167 centimetres]. We could never beat you at your game.''So, honourably, they played it out, until it was eight-bloody-nil (in merely two, 25-minute halves, too). ''We had reasonable control of the ball during the game, but we didn't have much idea of how to score,'' said Collis. ''It was a reality check as far as the difficulty of scoring was concerned. That's pretty obvious to everyone when you see a match finish at 0-0. We weren't the only ones who had difficulty scoring.'' It is the aspect of soccer he dislikes still.McMeechan admired the VFL team for its sporting attitude. ''They must have realised after two or three training sessions that they couldn't play soccer,'' he said. ''Fair goes to them: I don't think I would have liked to try and play their game, not in front of all those people, and make a fool of myself. That was a big thing for them to do.''Between these co-existing codes, there is never quite war, never quite detente. Warlords on both sides continue to rattle their sabres, but once in a while, a little mutual enlightenment prevails. Looking back at Olympic Park, Syson concludes: ''The most important lesson is that for too long, many Australians failed utterly to understand the technical skill and artistry of the world game, and the physical qualities needed to play even at a moderate semi-professional level.''McMeechan framed it another way. Slavia played that day with an orthodox soccer structure, he said. The VFL team was ''a goalkeeper, and 10 ruck-rovers''. The result: eight-bloody-nil.The years have passed. Too many who played that day are dead. The football landscape has changed: it is more cluttered, but also more vibrant. ''Fifteen years ago, I said Australia would beat Scotland,'' said McMeechan. ''Some of the boys laughed at me, but they've since proven it.'' In the effort to popularise the game, McMeechan said televised European soccer had made all the difference: it had allowed the indifferent and the hostile to see what the fuss was all about.Collis finds soccer seeping into his consciousness. ''With Australia starting to exert some influence in the world, that's interesting,'' he said. ''And I've held the view for a long time that soccer is poised to take some bigger strides from a participation aspect. I can see that it's a very mother-friendly sort of game.'' From ''a girls' game'' to ''mother friendly''; so might soccer's changing status be charted.Collis adds more. ''With the way our game is played these days, I can see it falling into soccer's hands. Fellows going head-first into packs: it's difficult to look at, and I think dangerous. I can see a time coming when there's a serious head or neck injury that may make people think again. But players are just expected to do that these days. There's a lot I don't like about our game at the moment.''''The game that never happened'' won't ever happen again: professional stringencies preclude it. But thanks to Syson, it has happened this year, and in soccer's inimitable way, prolifically: on a soccer website (Das Libero), an AFL website (Footy Almanack), in Victoria University Bulletin of Sport and Culture, and in the Greek newspaper Neos Kosmos.''What do you want with Neos Kosmos?'' McMeechan's puzzled newsagent asked him. He could have replied: ''To make sure it happened.'' That is a great read. The basis for a film script right there 😂 and yes, it was eight-bloody-one though.
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Nachoman
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+xWhat Chinese visitors to Melbourne really think of AFL Staff writer, Herald Sun an hour ago With teams now playing for premiership points in Shanghai, the AFL is pushing footy hard into China. But what do Chinese students and visitors to Melbourne really think of our game? Monash University Master of Journalism students Joyce Fung and Minyue Ding took to the streets of Melbourne to find out, asking students and visitors what they thought of the AFL (Watch the video below). “This video is about how the Chinese community in Australia think of footy when AFL is promoting the games in China,” Ms Fung said. “We want to explore their understanding of the game, the promotion in China, and address the stereotypical view that Chinese people can’t play footy.” Ms Ding said footy encapsulated the spirit of Australia but many Chinese found it to be “strange”. “But we found more and more Chinese start to know it and get interested in it.,” she said. “This video shows that footy has no limitations for any community or anyone.” a report from the Herald Sun's " staff reporter " so effectively , no one wants to put their name to this Walkely nomination... and it's sponsored content by the AFL....
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Melbcityguy
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Chris 7 hours ago Who in their right mind would want to travel to Perth and play in front of a feral and for the best part football ignorant crowd ? Chardonnay sippers from north of the river who understand soccer better than Aussie Rules . Crowd frees and weak umpires compound it . The VFL brings back many pleasant memories , this current league is easy to walk away from
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Dodos Grand
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A lot of letters. But even without a full reading it is clear that things are not the best way.
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LiliBrown
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+xA lot of letters. But even without a full reading it is clear that things are not the best way. Yes, judging by the standings, things are really not very good https://777score.co.uk/ . I can say that the game at the moment in the performance of this team leaves much to be desired. Maybe something will change at the last moment but in miracles, too, do not believe.
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