I never thought I'd see the day, but I no longer like AFL football. I remember as a young kid reading the Herald (before it amalgamated with the Sun) on a Friday afternoon, checking through the stats and comparing our players with the opposotion players. I was no coaching genius, but I always looked to see if there was anywhere in our team that we were better than the opposition. It was also a bonus on the odd week to find the back page characiture devoted to a Tiger. For a couple of years, the Dale Weightman cartoon picture took pride of place on my wall...our true hero in the darkest years, the one that never left us...the Flea...but I digress.
My footballing life has, as it has panned out, been a tough one to endure. Born of Victorian parents, I spent the first 5 1/2 years of my life living in Sydney as my father forged a career with the Bank of Wales. My memories of this period are scant, but one thing I know for certain is I never followed football whilst living in Sydney - my parents are casual fans at best. Upon moving back to Melbourne in 1981, and still basically a child with no football bred into me, my parents enrolled both myself and my brother into Sunday morning footy clinic. I guess it filled two criteria: to start to play sport, and to forge friendships with what would become school friends for the next several years. We were brought some shorts, some boots, and a jumper each. I was given a Richmond jumper, my brother a Carlton one. Now as it turns out, these teams were the power teams of that time...I'm sure their merchandise was plentiful. My brother soon decided his allegiance was not to be with the Blues, but with the team my father loosely followed, and the one my uncle and cousins followed with a passion...Essendon. For me, Richmond, although not followed by any other close family member, would remain the team close to my heart. And so our paths went in varying directions. For the record though, my skills as a a player were never flash, although I resembled the characteristics of two distint players - I had the kicking style of Tony Shaw, and the shorts size of Tony Lockett.
Nearly twenty-six years have passed since then, and its sad to say I can still vividly remember all the good times...why? Because they have been so few and far between. At the same time, I take pride in knowing I have been there to enjoy each and everyone of the good times...the '95 Semi Final (Scotty Turners bump on Gary O'Donnell, Matty Knights' goals, Matty Rogers marking on the point of the square), 2001 against the Blues (Razors bump), the 1st quarter demolition of North in '95, Richo's triumphant return from the knee reco in round 1 of '96 against Essendon, the Mothers day Massacre in '91 where Hoggy bagged 10, and singing in the rain when losing to Geeling in '95 to name a few.
But these days of enjoyment have now dissapeared. Not because of Richmond either, I love the club with all my heart. But in years gone by, I could watch any game, any time and get enjoyment out of it. I would regularly win footy tipping, or be in the top 3 at the least. I would follow a second team, even a third (who didn't have a soft spot for the Roy Boys, or the Swans and Bears when they were hopeless?). I would watch the footy show, Talking Footy, the early incarnations of Optus Televisions footy shows with Ian Cover and Ron Barassi, Andy Maher and the infamous "Deep Throat". I made my parents change Pay TV providers when the AFL Channel moved to Fox. I was a football junkie. And it goes without saying that I used my 22 game concession membership, and in time, adult membership each and every week. I would go to VFL games with my brother to watch my cousin play. I would walk the dog and kick the footy down the park. I just loved out national game.
These days, I'm lucky to find the drive to go to the game. I run my own business, and still manipulate my roster to allow myself days off for the footy, but quite often leave it til the last minute to go, or sometimes even choose to watch it on Fox rather than go. I don't watch any non-Richmond games. I don't watch the Footy Show. I have never seen Footy Classified and never catch the various shows on Fox Sports either. I still read one or two internet footy boards and listen to SEN on the dirve to and from work, but thats it. I no longer have an affection with them game. Why? Because it is no longer the same game.
Every year, we tinker with the game. We feel the need to change something, target something, trial something, abolish something. Every year we trudge out to the first couple of praccy matches to watch the teams try and acclimatise to new rules, or new interpretations of rules. Each year we see the players struggle to come to grips with the changes. Each week, we see the umpires struggle to come to grips with the changes...hell, each quarter...even each "zone" of the ground we see this struggle for uniformity. And as a fan, a player, and even an umpire, we are confused. Yet we can't comment on the changes to the rules or the interpretations of the rules...we can't question the logic...we can't suggest an improvement...we are nobodies...we just put the dollars in the bank. We are merely the mushrooms of the AFL.
The clubs can't comment. They are laible to fines for hurting the feelings of the umpires. The captains can't question decisions or seek clarification unless they want to donate a fair portion of their income to the AFL's charity of their choice...themselves. The game is a joke. The rules committee take no responsibilty for the confusion...they blame it on umpire interpretations. The umpires take no responsibilty...they say any contentious decisions were correct "to the letter of the law", as they quietly demote an umpire for some match time in the lower ranks...and then wonder why we are confused.
Last nights game was no the sole reason for my frustration. It just brought it boiling to the top. Last nights result was not purely based on the Richo free kick decision. But last nights game did show us some pretty obvious and glaing deficiencies in our rulings and processes. Umpire will umpire "to the letter of the law" only on occasion, but whether they do or they don't, the public line from the AFL is that they were right. I sit in the Olympic Stand about 60m out from the Punt Road goals, and about 5 rows from the boundary. I see decisons close up at ground level. I saw the 50m penalties paid against Richmond for holding onto players, despite them clearly either moving off their line, or continuing to run and play on. What message does it send to the team if the Richmond player allows an opposition player to play on and run straight past them? I also saw Essendon players hold up Richmond players after they had already marked on a few occasions too. But I'm not Robinson Crusoe there...
In a stadium with more than 61,000 fans, scores level and five minutes of game time left, a player marked a ball and played on, as he would have any other week of any other year for the last 15 years he had played the game. He kicked a goal. But amid the frenetic atmosphere, a whistle blew. It was not heard by many. In fact, it almost appeared as though it had occured only in my imagination when the crowd errupted. Richo had goaled...we were back in front. But we weren't. In fact we were penalised the maximum penalty allowed within the rules because a player had "marked a ball and played on, as he would have any other week of any other year for the last 15 years he had played the game". Any momentum we had was gone, as was the game.
The AFL has me over a barrell. I love my club, the mighty Richmond Football Club. I will never surrender my love for them. I will pay my way for them as long as I can. I will support them, scream and cheer at the top of my voice, stand up for them in arguements, and support the players. I will go to as many games as I can. And as such, I will support the AFL.
But I don't want to support the AFL any more. It is not what it was, and will never be again. So can we please be relegated, I don't want to be there any more.
