AFL 2016
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I'm a little underwhelmed by the teams left.
Cats v Swans
Giants v BulldogsPart of me would love to see an all Sydney final just to piss the Vics off
But fuck the Swans for beating the Crows, and the Giants have this manufactured synthetic feeling about them. Sure you've got to start somewhere but .. you know ... there's no 90 yo supporters who have been living their footy club awaiting an outside chance at a Premiership.
Geelong sorted their demons a couple of years ago ... and have had more success since.
Sydney have settled South Melbourne's woes.
So I'm leaning Bulldogs.
Which fucks them.
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@booboo I've sort if had the cats as my 2nd team since the Lions stopped playing finals, and Geelong were great to watch at a time when the Swsns and Eagles were playing anti-footy.
So even though it would be on the back of a huge purchase I will be backing them.
Of course if the Swans get up I'll be hoping for the underdogs from the other prelim in the GF
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Just finished Bomber Thompson's book. It's pretty good, reads like how he speaks. Incomplete sentences you know?
Lots of ground to cover, from his playing days through to the coaching. Lots of pages given to the Essendon saga.
If you saw his interview on "Open Mike" you know he's not afraid to share his opinions, and this is quite open, his opinions on Essendon, and what happened at Geelong after he left. Last chapter is just his musings on the current game, with a couple of pages on how to beat Hawthorn, which seemed funny when i read them a couple of days after the 'dogs knocked them out.
Pretty handy footy read, i mostly enjoyed his opinions and philosophies on coaching, especially in the pro era
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@mariner4life do you reckon people just can't help getting into AFL if they live in Oz ? I lived in Sydney for 9 months but during that time the Warriors got into the NRL final and the 2003 RWC happened in their own backyard then there was all the hooplah about Steve Waugh retiring so in amongst all that I can safely say I never watched a game in my life.
My cousins and a few other mates live in Melbourne and they are serious fans now. One mate of mine who is Brazilian freely admitted to hating rugby when he lived here ( fair enough, it's not for everyone ) but fucken LOVES AFL cos it's "so exciting, so fast moving, the guys are such better athletes than Rugby players" etcetc.
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@MN5 i don't know if "can't help it" is the right term, i have plenty of mates who fucking hate the game. They are all die-hard rugby code blokes though. Maybe if you move here it's different? And if you are in Melbourne you could never escape it.
I didn't have much time for the game when i first got here, and for a relatively simple game, it actually takes a little while to wrap your head around it. But i love it now, and over the past couple of years i have watched more AFL than any other code (that said, i reckon this has been the best NRL season for a while, and i have watched a bit more of it having gone right away over the past few years).
I like the skill involved, especially the ability to drop a 50m kick on the exact spot to advantage your player, while on the run, and under pressure from all directions. The running is very impressive as well, fucking fit those blokes. And i don't know if their is a sport that does a grandstand finish like AFL, if the game is within a goal with 20 seconds to go, no matter where the ball is on the field, anyone can still win it. And the crowds are great.
It's a great product, and the media coverage is excellent as well.
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Part of me would love to see an all Sydney final just to piss the Vics off
But fuck the Swans for beating the Crows, and the Giants have this manufactured synthetic feeling about them. Sure you've got to start somewhere but .. you know ... there's no 90 yo supporters who have been living their footy club awaiting an outside chance at a Premiership.
So the tradition generally is the winning team has the cup presented to them by a legendary ex-player.
For GWS there is really only one candidate... Israel Folau!
But seriously, if they win it will probably be presented by Kevin Sheedy, which would be weird in and of itself.
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@mariner4life said in AFL 2016:
I like the skill involved, especially the ability to drop a 50m kick on the exact spot to advantage your player, while on the run, and under pressure from all directions. The running is very impressive as well, fucking fit those blokes. And i don't know if their is a sport that does a grandstand finish like AFL, if the game is within a goal with 20 seconds to go, no matter where the ball is on the field, anyone can still win it. And the crowds are great.
It's a great product, and the media coverage is excellent as well.
And being at the ground is awesomeness squared. The only rugby game I've ever been to that came close for atmosphere was the Lions Third Test in 2013, and that wasn't due to Wallabies fans.
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Did you ever live in an AFL state? My mates who that spent time in Melbourne love the game.
But I just can't get into it. Tried to watch the final before, but gave up. I believe it's great to watch live, but meh.
They do a bloody excellent job of promoting it though. It's also much cheaper to play and the kids even get free Lions tickets.
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@Rancid-Schnitzel nah mate, FNQ only. Don't really know how i got into it to be honest, I've only been to half a dozen live games in various cities, and make sure i go to the annual Suns game up here every year.
The junior Auskick program is head and shoulders over every other junior sport program in the country. The AFL know what's up
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@mariner4life said in AFL 2016:
@Rancid-Schnitzel nah mate, FNQ only. Don't really know how i got into it to be honest, I've only been to half a dozen live games in various cities, and make sure i go to the annual Suns game up here every year.
The junior Auskick program is head and shoulders over every other junior sport program in the country. The AFL know what's up
Maybe the Lions were killing it at the time you moved? They obviously suck now but they made 4 finals in a row didn't they. I remember when they were the Brisbane Bears but played nowhere near Brisbane in Carrara.
I think a huge growth factor here is the massive number of Mexicans from down south. They've obviously sustained that with (as you mentioned) a junior programme that shits down the necks of anything any other code has to offer.
Fair play to them. Unlike league back in the 90s they didn't have delusions of grandeur and have been careful and focussed with their expansion tactics. As I said I don't like the game but for a code that has absolutely no international season or any kind of world competition they've done astonishingly well in a very crowded market place.
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@Rancid-Schnitzel yep, the first game i ever watched was the middle of the Lions 3-peat. It was a handy introduction, which has made the following 12-odd season harder to take.
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A brilliantly run and promoted game with a real willingness to foster grassroots and full participation for all the family.
Amazing spectator numbers, (and at trainings) and atmosphere. Probably too hyped for the off field stuff (skanks on the Brownlow red carpet) but that's part of the territory.
Great game to watch live and superb skills an fitness levels on display
but (there had to be one
)the preponderance of cheap shots will always be a question mark for me. Nothin tough in taking someone out who's looking the other way
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@barbarian The swans are not hated in melbourne as such , many of the die hards still see the South Melbourne connection , the bloods and all that stuff,
But GWS are seen as something of an AFL project rather than a real club , but the shit hasnt really hit the fan yet, wait till they start playing in GF after GF with all that talent they were given.
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@kiwiinmelb said in AFL 2016:
@barbarian The swans are not hated in melbourne as such , many of the die hards still see the South Melbourne connection , the bloods and all that stuff,
But GWS are seen as something of an AFL project rather than a real club , but the shit hasnt really hit the fan yet, wait till they start playing in GF after GF with all that talent they
were givenstole from Richmond.Fixed.
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The one thing with the AFL is the Victorians fucking hate it when other teams take what they think is theirs by right.
They hates the Lions (wll, not now that we suck). They whinged about the Swans and their cost of living allowance. They begrudgingly accept SA and WA as they are at least AFL states, but they hate the rugby states having success.
And so we come to the GWS, a team put together by the AFL in an emerging market, who are a win from a GF. And predictably, the calls have started about "tainted", and being "handed a flag". Ignoring of course the basket case on the Gold Coast given the same concessions, and having the games best player, but never even threatening a finals run, let alone a tilt at the flag.
Sheedy deserves a lot of credit for the ethic and culture he built in to that place from day one. They have used their draft concessions really well, to bring in talent, or trade for wise heads to lead their kids around. Then they pick up Stevie J because no one wanted a punt on him, and of course he's been awesome. It's a smartly run organisation who are well ahead of their expected development curve (anyone who says they saw them in a GF in their first 5 years is fucking lying). I reckon AFL house will be quietly chuffed with this one.
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@mariner4life said in AFL 2016:
(anyone who says they saw them in a GF in their first 5 years is fucking lying).
Or even a top 4 appearance.
Really, you can have a bunch of shit handed to you, but its what you do with it that matters. Look at the Waratahs - should be the best-resourced rugby franchise in just about the world but just 1 title in 20 years? Fark...
Victorians can suck ALL the dicks.
