# How We Play Football in OZ



## Diwundrin (Aug 14, 2013)

Your footy season is starting, ours is in it's last weeks.  The majority here find US football totally incomprehensible, slow and boring, :stirthepot:  so I thought you might like to puzzle over ours.
  Some may be familiar with it,  a coach from here has formed some teams in US to spread the word.  'My' team has a Canadian ex rugby player doing wonders for it's win rate so it's getting almost 'international'.        I think he joined the Swans because their colours are red and white. 



Other than a player recovering from a head injury, they don't wear any padding or protective gear at all. Just bandages.     In fact, in the AFL (Aust. Rules Football) code the less worn the better seems the go.  Those shorts and tight vests!  Woohooo.   ( They used to be even shorter and tighter, damn PCness. 

)

Ahem, sorry....  It's a fast and furious game and the injury rate equates to carnage but it's usually busted knees and shoulders and ripped groins.  Ouch.  AFL is the only football code I can stand to watch more than a few minutes, mainly for the sheer athleticism of the players. 
It's played in 4 20minute quarters and other than some lazier 'defenders', they run, flat out, the whole time.  GPS trackers show midfielders average around 16kms of travel over the 80 minutes.  Impressive, to me anyway.

I don't bother with Rugby, either League or Union.  They're just bulky Neanderthals by comparison and their game goes at treacle speed compared to AFL.   Prepare for dissent to that statement, especially from the Kiwi contingent. 



This is a short video to show there are no padded up wooses playing AFL.  
 (Most of the 'hits' are within the rules, except for that classic left hook of course.

)







Here's a short video of some of the best AFL marks (aerial catches) of one season, the all time best is a bit long. 






Here's a short one of how they kick goals here.  On the run!


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## Warrigal (Aug 14, 2013)

Good compilations. Even I am impressed.

Are we now going to have a general show and tell of great sporting moments?
I wouldn't mind that. It's watching a whole game that bores me to tears.


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## Diwundrin (Aug 14, 2013)

I don't watch any other sports other than politics so that's it from me.


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## SifuPhil (Aug 14, 2013)

I find it hard to believe these guys don't use mouth-guards, let alone cups. Is there something in their breeding that gives them a disdain for life?

I loved the left hook, but even more the classic "Whut?" immediately afterwards. layful:

Great use of elbow strikes in the game as well.


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## JustBonee (Aug 14, 2013)

Those videos are hard to watch! ... What is the percentage of concussions per game?


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## Diwundrin (Aug 14, 2013)

They do wear mouth guards, forgot about them sorry. 
Not a great percentage of concussions, that we hear about anyway.  
The team doc sits them down, asks them their name and if their eyes aren't actually crossed they get sent back out to play. 

 
They're footballers, not rocket scientists so maybe it isn't noticeable.  (Joking, of course, but surprisingly few serious head injuries occur.)

They have a 'blood rule' now since Aids posed a problem so they get wads stuffed up their noses, plaster over their cuts, torn ears wrapped up in a bandage and sent back out.  Pre the 80's it looked like a battlefield and anyone not dripping blood was considered to be skiving off the job.  The oldies are bemoaning that the game's 'gorn soft' now.  Who needs the Colosseum eh?? 



Some play over 250 (up to 300!) games at that top level over 20 or so years, the oldest I remember retired in his mid 40s.  As long as they can stay the pace they stay in the team.  They will be sore and sorry old men I'd warrant considering very few survive long without torn up knees and smashed bones that will send reminders to them for the rest of their lives,  but the money's good and they love the game.


Phil, that left hook was thrown by one of the better known thugs of the game who was an amateur, then later failed pro, boxer.  Now he's commentating and passing judgement on present player's 'legalities' of hits.   Ain't life's quirks wunnaful? 

He played for my team for a while but cost us more points than he won in penalties.  He was 'ours' when he threw that one and got binned for 6 weeks and left 'us' without a big 'full forward' goal kicker and we got creamed the rest of the season.   Grrrrrrr.  It was a pearler though wasn't it?  




It's easy to see why older Australians who grew up with that are somewhat contemptuous of Soccer isn't it?  Soccer injuries/dives?  They're kidding right?


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## dbeyat45 (Aug 14, 2013)

There is a concussion rule now too .... some players don't get to go back out - sometimes the next week as well - after a heavy knock.

Speaking of marks, there has not been many better than this (I was at the ground):


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## Diwundrin (Aug 14, 2013)

I missed the old greats of the game, didn't get into watching it until the 90's. 
 You'd be run out of NSW if you watched AFL before Edelstein bought the Swans.  It was strictly for 'Mexicans' (Victorians) only.


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## JustBonee (Aug 15, 2013)

An old article a few years back, about our brand of football ...  it's a billion dollar business in the states. 


http://web.archive.org/liveweb/http://voices.yahoo.com/american-football-little-known-facts-about-376537.html



> *Reducing the Risks in American Football*
> According to PubMed.gov, since records were started in 1931, "brain injuries
> are the most common direct cause of death among football players." Part of the reason for the brain injuries is probably due to the fact that helmets weren't mandatory for football players until 1939. Still, tackling another player or being tackled is risky business that can easily result in a variety of injuries.
> Safety improvements made in American football by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE) have contributed greatly to a decline in brain injuries.




Star players getting injured is a concern every game, and injuries are too numerous even with all the protection.. 
The helmets are weapons in their own right  .. they are constantly trying to think of ways to better that situation, especially when a player tries to take an opponent out with a head hit.


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## Diwundrin (Aug 15, 2013)

A lot of new safety rules have been brought in to AFL in recent years which has slowed the game a bit and probably reduced the toll a lot.  They can still use the 'hip and shoulder' charge but contact above shoulder level results in an instant penalty so that has stopped the 'coat hanger' tackles and head butts and reduced broken necks and concussions drastically.  If they start padding up it would reduce their ability to play the game as it is meant to be played as it would reduce their speed and agility too much.

It's such a totally different type of football that the only Country we can play 'internationals' with is Ireland.  They compromise the rules of both AFL and Gaelic football and come up with a hybrid which combines a bit a both codes and it makes an interesting enough game but really suits neither us or the Irish.

I'm not a footy freak really, only watch my own team play usually but thought some might be interested to know something other than NFL and Soccer was being played.

(Oh, and Rugby Union in NZ where it is a religion.)


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## SifuPhil (Aug 15, 2013)

I'm not much of a fan of American football myself, having played in high school as a middle linebacker and having both clavicles (collarbones) snapped at once by a dual hit - one guy went low going South, the other high going North. 

I lost interest in the game after that incident (it kept me from my martial arts classes for a loooong time), but I _have_ noted how it seems that the safety gear has become more and more high-tech, offering more protection, so it seems that truly life-threatening injuries like they had in the bad old days of leather helmets are just not probable. Now it seems that when a player twists his ankle a little he's sidelined for the rest of the season, still drawing that great salary and partying with the cheerleaders.

Too much juice being used, too much squabbling over money and too much pomp and circumstance involved in the games now, not to mention the blood-lust and hero-worship of the fans.


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## Diwundrin (Aug 15, 2013)

The blood lust still plays a fair part in it I think, judging by the number of replays of 'deckings' we get shown.

One last 'brag' about the toughness of these fellas.  One twisted his knee and sat there with his kneecap sticking out of the side of his knee.  While they were running over with the stretcher he gave it a bash with the heel of his hand and got up!  He tried it out, it held, so he then took off in a jog to get back into position.  
He finished playing the quarter.  Reeeespect!

It only extended to his toughness on the field though, he didn't do too well after he retired.

quote:



*Wednesday, 14 January 2009* 
 Former Sydney Swan Daryn Cresswell has been appointed playing coach of an AFL club in New South Wales. 



*Wednesday, 8 July 2009* 
 Former Sydney Swan Daryn Cresswell has been refused bail on six fraud charges and will be extradited to Queensland.Cresswell,   38, appeared in Manly Local Court today after being arrested at North   Sydney police station on Monday and charged on outstanding warrants. 

*Wednesday, 2 December 2009* 

 Former Sydney Swans star Daryn Cresswell will appear in a Maroochydore court next March on fraud and forgery charges. 








 


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## JustBonee (Aug 15, 2013)

Diwundrin said:


> One last 'brag' about the toughness of these fellas.  One twisted his knee and sat there with his kneecap sticking out of the side of his knee.  While they were running over with the stretcher he gave it a bash with the heel of his hand and got up!  He tried it out, it held, so he then took off in a jog to get back into position.
> He finished playing the quarter.  Reeeespect!



There's toughness, then there is crazy!


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## That Guy (Aug 15, 2013)

I love the game and still trying to learn all the fine points.  I do love American football, though, and find baseball extremely boring.


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## SifuPhil (Aug 15, 2013)

Diwundrin said:


> *Wednesday, 8 July 2009*
> Former Sydney Swan Daryn Cresswell has been refused bail on six fraud charges and will be extradited to Queensland.Cresswell,   38, appeared in *Manly Local Court* today after being arrested at North   Sydney police station on Monday and charged on outstanding warrants.
> 
> 
> ...




I'm guessing that _this_ is what a Manly Local Court looks like?


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## That Guy (Aug 15, 2013)

SifuPhil said:


> I'm guessing that _this_ is what a Manly Local Court looks like?
> 
> View attachment 2122[
> 
> ...


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## dbeyat45 (Aug 15, 2013)

SifuPhil said:


> I'm guessing that _this_ is what a Manly Local Court looks like?
> 
> View attachment 2122[
> 
> It's all in the bow tie . . .



Could be former Rugby Union great (another Queenslander), Michael Lynagh:







 .... or maybe one of my old promotional pictures?


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