TOPIC:

Who actually enjoys watching modern day football?
I was having a conversation with another old football tragic like myself who grew up in the 70s, 80s, 90s footy and both of us were in total agreement that our love of the game we grew up with in those eras has almost completely diminished.
The loss of traditional positional play and the one on one battles all day between the Full Forward/Full Back, CHF/CHB, Rover vs Rover etc it is now a mish mash of 36 players in the one half, constant interchanging of players all day long, the complete and utter over use of handball to rack up just pointless, meaningless stats, the lack of basic 1%ers like tackling, shepherding, blocking for team mates as there is no stat in it, the backwards, sideways, anywhere but forward keepys off where no one wants to back there team mates in one on one with a long kick forward.
I honestly believe this game we all love is now currently a shadow of the sport that was and watching a few old tapes from the 80s leaves me in no doubt that is the case.
Thank you to all the defensive minded coaches of the modern era who have almost completely destroyed this former great game as they were more intent in keeping there high paid coaching gigs than providing an aesthetically pleasing viewing to the paying public who ultimately pay their high paid wages!

Beasley Hutton wrote: Who actually enjoys watching modern day football?
I was having a conversation with another old football tragic like myself who grew up in the 70s, 80s, 90s footy and both of us were in total agreement that our love of the game we grew up with in those eras has almost completely diminished.
The loss of traditional positional play and the one on one battles all day between the Full Forward/Full Back,. CHF/CHB, Rover vs Rover etc it is now a mish mash of 36 players in the one half, constant interchanging of players all day long, the complete and utter over use of handball to rack up just pointless, meaningless stats, the lack of basic 1%ers like tackling, shepherding, blocking for team mates as there is no stat in it, the backwards, sideways, anywhere but forward keepys off where no one wants to back there team mates in one on one with a long kick forward.
I honestly believe this game we all love is now currently a shadow of the sport that was and watching a few old tapes from the 80s leaves me in no doubt that is the case.
Thank you to all the defensive minded coaches of the modern era who have almost completely destroyed this former great game as they were more intent in keeping there high paid coaching gigs than providing an aesthetically pleasing viewing to the paying public who ultimately pay their high paid wages!

BH let's not forget the wise men who feel a compulsion to change the rules year by year in a never ending quest to make it the worst spectacle and a hybrid of rugby, league and soccer. Finally, credit should also go to the modern day commentators for such appalling foreign phrases suck as quarterback, catch etc. Master commentators like Frank Sparrow would be spinning in their graves.

Well said BH. Sadly, our once great game has gone backwards.

BH all correct of course. As I said on another thread, the sad thing is that both St Kilda and Fremantle probably would have won flags had Ross Lyon coached in a more aggressive way. All defensive coaching is about is making ordinary sides competitive, it is not designed to enhance the skills of the code.

It is nothing more than a Hamburger mass made for general consumption , every single ingredient looks the same tastes the same
One on one contests that formed part of the game itself are long gone - along with the magic of the game

Like this Beas

thewest.com.au/sport/wafl/wafl-retro---1...und-bc-5528587860001

Even by the 90s it was getting ordinary.
Nothing like 70s or 80s, as for the Afl product now, well we keep hearing its faster and more exciting than ever, its faster but the man on man stuff is gone, positions a mystery, rotations madness, didnt Lyon try something new yesterday? That worked out well...lol

Beasley Hutton wrote: Who actually enjoys watching modern day football?
I was having a conversation with another old football tragic like myself who grew up in the 70s, 80s, 90s footy and both of us were in total agreement that our love of the game we grew up with in those eras has almost completely diminished.
The loss of traditional positional play and the one on one battles all day between the Full Forward/Full Back, CHF/CHB, Rover vs Rover etc it is now a mish mash of 36 players in the one half, constant interchanging of players all day long, the complete and utter over use of handball to rack up just pointless, meaningless stats, the lack of basic 1%ers like tackling, shepherding, blocking for team mates as there is no stat in it, the backwards, sideways, anywhere but forward keepys off where no one wants to back there team mates in one on one with a long kick forward.
I honestly believe this game we all love is now currently a shadow of the sport that was and watching a few old tapes from the 80s leaves me in no doubt that is the case.
Thank you to all the defensive minded coaches of the modern era who have almost completely destroyed this former great game as they were more intent in keeping there high paid coaching gigs than providing an aesthetically pleasing viewing to the paying public who ultimately pay their high paid wages!

It is a totally bad look on the TV like last night when 2 thirds of the ground didn't have a player in site shown from one end behind the goals. Is it really the look we want to see when a side wins the footy and the commentators say "they are out here Essendon" and bang bang bang ball goes from one end to the other because one side got a lucky break a handpass or kick over the top and one player has a 40m break on the rest of the field to stroll in for an easy goal.

Looks more like rugby and it's a foot race to the try line. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect 3 players from each side to have to stay inside 50 but would it just complicate the game further and create even more controversy trying to enforce it?

Grassy wrote: Funny how such a thing is imposed on Colts footy,but not at Elite Level,DD.

I wonder why a Rule changes Obsessed AFL won't try that on?Probably because they know,it smacks of Little League stuff and they know this time,the masses wouldn't cop it,short of tearing AFL House down.

Is it Grassy? I better start going to the 9.30am start games then although next year??

Reality is though BH the old - timers say the same thing about 70s 80s 90s footy since the death of the drop kick generations of footy. Games will always evolve until their eventual demise...law of nature right? Will actually be very interesting to know which sports are around in a hundred more years. History tells us nothing stays the same except maybe some of the athletics events.