AussieRulesBlog

Strap in for the long haul

2012-01-29T22:49:00.001+11:00

If you were at all perturbed by the season-long preoccupation with Tom Scully in 2011, stand by for more of the same — this time on steroids. The end of the 2012 season will see the AFL’s first flirtation with free agency since the famous ten year rule of the early seventies. Just so readers are properly acquainted, here are the regulations for free agency qualification for 2012. A player

End of the Phoney War

2012-01-29T22:15:00.001+11:00

The end of the Australian Open tennis tonight marks the start of southern Australia’s eight-month-long obsession with Aussie Rules for 2012. There have been hints in the media as there have been fewer tennis matches to cover. Brendan Fevola, it seems, may line up for Yarrawonga Pigeons in the Ovens and Murray League — but only for home games, because, he says, he’s getting old. This is the

Peaks and troughs

2012-01-17T17:49:00.001+11:00

For most of those of us writing about football, the euphoria of being named on an AFL list, even as a rookie, can only be guessed at. To succeed to the extent of playing at the highest level is the stuff of dreams. Two stories in the media this week piqued our interest. One reported Mick Malthouse’s thoughts on Ben Cousins’ rumoured regression, and the other dealt with efforts to avoid such

Wagers of sin

2012-01-08T22:59:00.001+11:00

AussieRulesBlog is staggered by a report in The Age of a punter wagering $18,000 on the Sydney Swans missing the final eight in 2012. Let’s not beat around the bush — this issue of gambling on AFL is becoming a more and more significant one. We’re not wowsers here at AussieRulesBlog Central, but the punt simply isn’t one of our vices. We don’t understand why someone would wager more than 20% of

Video technology bares its fangs

2011-12-27T10:36:00.001+11:00

The controversy of the first day of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG is only a controversy because Channel Nein insisted on deploying its technology despite it not being available to either teams or umpires. Test cricket has survived for more than 100 years without high technology assistance. Sure, there were dodgy decisions from time to time, but that was part and parcel of the process.

Early gong for Tiger

2011-12-22T12:40:00.001+11:00

AussieRulesBlog was quite surprised to see a small additional item at the end of an unrelated story mentioning that Richmond had awarded life membership to 24-year-old, 150-game player, Brett Deledio. We have nothing against Deledio. In fact, we’re sure he’s a most estimable chap. But life membership? At twenty-four? One wonders what the Tigers’ board are smoking. We could countenance

Tribunal weasel words

2011-12-11T17:32:00.001+11:00

Each year at this time, the AFL makes its announcement of changes for the following season. The changes for the Tribunal and Match Review Panel for 2012 are remarkable not so much for the “changes” as for the language used. For example: any striking action with a raised forearm or elbow will be classified as intentional, unless there is clear evidence the strike was not intentional;

The air up there

2011-12-07T22:51:00.001+11:00

Can we just quietly mention that we’re mightily pissed off at the Cats? Having given Chris Scott and Ron Cook a congratulatory mention for ignoring the herd-like stampede to high-altitude training camps, we discover the Cats have been in Falls Creek. Thanks for nothing, guys.

Big Yellow Taxi

2011-12-07T22:30:00.001+11:00

Despite everything, AussieRulesBlog can’t help but feel sorry for Brendan Fevola. The lyrics of Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi are, we think, appropriate to Fevola’s situation. Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got Till it's gone Through season after season, his on-field talent had got him out of tight off-field scrapes. Kicking goals was a cure

Minor change in ruck experiment

2011-11-25T11:51:00.001+11:00

The announcement of experimental rules for the 2012 pre-season games carries no surprises. We were alerted to these changes weeks ago, but it’s interesting to see the final implementation. AussieRulesBlog has made no secret of our enthusiasm for any change that removes ugly wrestling from ruck contests. The explanatory notes make for some intriguing consideration. Ruckmen will not be

Value for money?

2011-11-24T18:18:00.001+11:00

It’s heartening to see that the Giants have secured a major sponsor with the new advertisements plastered all over the AFL website this afternoon. Only one question guys: who decided your logo was going to work on an AFL guernsey? I guess the association with the Giants, and especially The Promised Land, will carry the bulk of the load along with advertising like this above, but it’s

Stay away, he’s ours (even if he’s yours)

2011-11-17T16:55:00.001+11:00

As usual, Aussie rules’ biggest club will want to have its cake, and eat it too! Barcodes President Eddie McGuire’s threats over the Giants’ potential interest in Scott Pendlebury need to be balanced with the thought of, arguably, Australia’s most powerful sporting club being itself let loose in the free agency china shop from 2013. And in a curiously serendipitous coincidence, the

Cricket’s loss

2011-11-14T21:33:00.001+11:00

It’s not often that AussieRulesBlog strays from the path of Aussie rules, but we find ourselves deeply affected by the sudden and untimely death of Peter Roebuck. We won’t attempt to eulogise the man. Others far more gifted with the language have already done so and there’s nothing we could legitimately add. That said, there are few in the media scrum that these days pervades every

Attitude v Altitude*

2011-11-09T12:42:00.001+11:00

For both AFL clubs and the AFL-focussed media, pre-Christmas is a very, very positive time of year. Ageing stars are having “their best pre-season for years”, last year’s draftees and rookies are shaping up as potential superstars and everyone is aiming for “finals footy”. While the Barcodes continue to talk up their Arizona training camps and the Kangaroos, Tigers and Suns follow their lead

Recycling gamble

2011-10-29T19:28:00.001+11:00

News today that the Saints have delisted Ryan Gamble after just one season — yielding eleven games — along with teammates Zac Dawson, Brett Peake, Farren Ray and Dean Polo remaining out of contract as the deadline for final list lodgement looms. What’s remarkable about this story is that all five arrived at the Saints from other clubs. Crucial in this story is the departure of coach Ross

2012 fixture balance

2011-10-28T12:07:00.001+11:00

Rohan Connolly’s analysis of the 2012 fixture, in The Age today, is a thing of beauty! Covering all of the important elements that, all other things being equal, make games more or less likely to be advantageous, Connolly shows that the Barcodes have one of the hardest assignments next year. And why not? Two Grand Finals in two years (well, three, strictly speaking, but you know what we mean

Ruck changes welcome

2011-10-27T15:36:00.001+11:00

AFL Operations Manager Adrian Anderson is reported in The Age to have spoken about proposals for experimental rules for the 2012 pre-season competition. Among the possibilities are 12 points for a torpedo goal from outside the fifty-metre arc, which we regard as populist nonsense, despite the obvious difficulties in defining whether a torpedo that’s not quite right is a torpedo or not.

International rules farce

2011-10-21T17:52:00.001+11:00

Pardon us for breaking through the wall of publicity encouraging all sports fans to get in early to get their fill of Gaelic-Australian football. [Do we hear the sound of yawning?] Mike Sheahan makes a couple of quite valid points in his column yesterday. Who knows which AFL players are in the squad for the Irish series? Or where the “Tests” will be played and when? And we’ll add our own

In search of the next Jim Stynes

2011-10-18T18:16:00.001+11:00

It is reported today that Carlton have delisted Setanta O’hAilpin. The decision was forced on the Blues by the AFL’s rules requiring all clubs to free up places on their lists each year leading up to the national draft. Carlton had apparently indicated they were happy to keep O’hAilpin on their list, and could, were O’hAilpin to nominate, draft him again. There are two issues: Forced turnover

Coaching ‘genealogy’ evolution

2011-10-17T16:28:00.001+11:00

In the 80s, it seemed like Tom Hafey’s players dominated the ranks of senior coaches. In the 90s, there were a crop of Allan Jeans’ acolytes followed by a gaggle of Sheedy disciples. Leigh Matthews, Mark Thompson and Mick Malthouse have recently had their mark stamped on the game with a rash of former players taking the reins at AFL clubs. Spot the common thread? Winning culture. Time

Senior-experienced assistants now more than a pattern

2011-10-17T12:13:00.001+11:00

James Hird and Mark Thompson. Mark Neeld and Neil Craig. Brenton Sanderson and Dean Bailey. Nathan Buckley and Rodney Eade. And now it seems the Saints are chasing Dean Laidley to assist the newly-appointed Scott Watters. Thus far, only Brendan McCartney is soloing in his debutante year. For what it’s worth, AussieRulesBlog thinks the Saints’ strategy is the right one, and Laidley ticks a lot

AussieRulesBlog on the move

2011-10-13T09:37:00.001+11:00

Thanks to the kind folks at Blogger, AussieRulesBlog now has a layout for mobile devices that means you can easily keep up with our pontifications on your web-enabled mobile device. To make things easier, here’s a QR barcode to scan.

Process, not technology, the answer to scoring misses

2011-10-12T13:09:00.001+11:00

Another Grand Final scoring blunder and the football community has to, yet again, endure the nonsense proposition that technology must be used to assist umpires in scoring decisions. Let’s start by getting the situation straight on the Wellingham “goal”. This was not a goal umpiring error per se. It was an error of process in that the goal umpire was too influenced by a field umpire. The

No advantage in this decision

2011-10-12T12:31:00.001+11:00

AFL football operations boss Adrian Anderson has announced only minor changes to the open sore that was player-initiated advantage. Anderson said the slight modification was made after feedback from clubs, players and fans. Well, that may be strictly true, but AussieRulesBlog finds it difficult to imagine that any of the mentioned groups would have agreed to the rule remaining in any form.

Success is cyclical — for most

2011-10-06T14:36:00.001+11:00

Toward the end of the 2011 home and away rounds, when there was the seemingly usual speculation about whether Richmond would finish ninth — again — we began thinking about looking at trends of teams’ home and away rounds finishing positions. The following charts covering the past quarter century are presented as much for information and casual glancing as for any hard-nosed analysis. We’ve