Has Professionalism Ruined AFL?

As a Melbournian I’ve been a fan of Aussie Rules Football for as long as I can remember. My allegiance to the game has been tested over the years, in part, because of my undying support for the Richmond Tigers who haven’t won a Premiership in over 30 years.

However my allegiance to the game in more recent times has been tested further as the game continues to ‘evolve’. As a kid I remember the novelty in the occasional physical education class where the teacher would introduce a bunch of  AFL and Netball types to the game of soccer.

What resulted did not much resemble the ‘beautiful game’. Instead it could be likened to twenty odd kids standing around in pack trying to literally kick the living shit out of a three quarters filled soccer boy. Occasionally someone would lay a clean sneaker on the ball in question forcing the ball 15 to 20 meters down the pitch only to chased down by a stampede of pubescent teenagers to result once again in a scrum of kicking and wrestling.

I’m sad to say that the modern version of AFL, in a lot of instances, resembles those phys ed soccer matches of all those years ago.  Over the past 10 to 15 years the level of professionalism in the sport has risen beyond all recognition. The fitness of the players and the strategising of an army of coaches, medical professionals, runners etc to maximise the stamina and performance of the athletes has, in my view, has made AFL worse as a spectator’s sport.

The incredible physical fitness of the modern day player now means that the traditional positions of the game have gone out the window, meaning that packs of players can now gather around the ball, very much akin to the packs of my Year 9 phys ed class.

Back in the day Aussie Rules was marked by its physical one on one marking contests, gun players breaking packs open, strong physical contests and a general more open and free flowing game.

Sure there are still elements of all this in the modern day game but they are becoming few and far between. There’s no doubt the AFL player of the 21^st century is more skilful and fitter than players of the past, but the game has devolved to such a state where these talents can’t be displayed in all their glory.

So how to improve the current state of the game? Well I don’t have solution for this question.  The game now generates too much money for so many commercial interests, that a return to the semi-professional days of the past simply won’t happen. For instance it is expected that the next TV rights deal will net the AFL $1 billion, an unprecedented amount for any Australian sport.

More rule changes? No. It seems that every year the game is tinkered with multiple rule changes that have done very little to open up the game.

Sadly it looks like that status quo will remain for the foreseeable future and the only thing that will keep many of us interested in the game will be our historical allegiances to our teams. Go Tiges!