I am an American who has enjoyed AFL for years, and the game seems different and I'm confused about a couple of minor points.
Do the refs often let players get away with not making a proper handball? Or am I just not seeing that it was batted? It seems sometimes they just fling it, but today watching a game the refs called it and I never noticed them calling it before!
Why would a player who has huge amount of open space just kick it toward the boundary? Why do they flirt with the boundary at all, I would think they would want to keep it as much in the middle of the oval as possible?
It seems like players really don't like to run and bounce the footy no matter how much room they have, I seem to remember times long ago where a guy would run and bounce it 4 or 5 times and they never seem to do that now.
What is the reason a player would not back up after a mark? I understand they might want to proceed if they see an opportunity but it often looks like they could take their time and get a better chance to do something. And why do the refs tell them to play on?
Those might seem like stupid questions, but I don't have a lifetime of being saturated with this sport like you lucky people do! It occurs to me that my confusion is probably because it is not convienient to watch many many games.
I tell everybody that this might be the coolest team sport and that no it is not like rugby!
They have a few amateur games in the states, I don't understand how they can have a final score of 19-0!!!!! It doesn't seem easy but it seems that a team would stumble into more point scoring than that.
Anyway, what a great sport.
Welcome Christdy1963. The first thing is to ask whether you have adopted a WAFL club yet? If you haven't let me suggest the mighty black and whites, Swan Districts.
We call them umpires rather than refs and from a personal point of view call it Aussie Rules rather than AFL. Yes most handpasses these days would have been called as throws in years gone by. Many supporters wonder why players choose to go sideways and backwards. In terms of the umpire calling "play on", players only have a certain amount of time after a free kick or mark to move the ball on.
Unfortunately for us who would like to see more attacking footy and more goals, coaches and players have a far more defensive mindset these days.
Don't worry about asking questions, I am sure you will get a reasonable answer.