Has AFL morphed into WWF?

Not the individual matches but the overall competition is manipulated to supposedly even things out. We no longer have a draw where everyone plays everyone twice but a fixture and how it is determined no one knows. The end result is that if you are a top team you generally play the lowly teams once and the other top teams twice. Expansion teams and those at the bottom of the ladder get priority picks in the draft, Sydney team gets extra money on the salary cap for a supposed extra cost of living expense and on it goes. The whole thing is run on socialist principles

I still enjoy the individual matches but I am one eyed about my team so get a ridiculous amount of pleasure from seeing them win no matter how crappy the match is. Some of the umpiring decisions mind you do make it look like it's rigged at times

 

Nothing unusual about screaming at the footy on the telly, I do it all the time Husband and dog can't stand it though so they have to go to another room (my dog always thought I was yelling at him of course, poor sweet dumb thing ).

 

Demetriou is trying to use the AFL to save the World unfortunately. He and his not-for-profit World savers take themselves far too seriously, what with the women's round, multicultural round, indigenous round, and in the future a gay round. The worst part is the highjacking of Anzac Day as a marketing tool. If someone wants to attend Anzac Day memorial service, it's on the 25th April and it's at the Shrine at dawn, not at the footy on every other day surrounding the 25th where they make people stand for the whole fake rigmarole, and try liken soldiers to football players in order to promote their game. AFL has nothing to do with war.

They are also tinkering with the rules too much.

Alright, that's me done. I still watch. Still the best game. A new CEO would be good. One who does not try to be all thing to all people. One who is just about the game.

 

Back in the early 80's my dad used to tell me that the cricket was rigged when I was watching it on the TV. I just thought it was yet another one of his crack pot ideas at the time but I had to tip my hat in his direction when the scandals came out.

 

I highly doubt it is rigged.

Having played at an amateur level for over a decade i know it would be just about impossible to rig a game unless you had the entire team in on it. Even 4 or 5 players probably wouldnt be enough to swing games

 

It would be highly surprising if individual games are rigged as in a fixing conspiracy among the players / coaches. However, as Miss Hale points out it is incredibly manipulated and manufactured by the people in charge - as are many professional sports competitions. The main reason this is the case is because supporters are so fickle and need their team to have a turn at the top or they vanish.

 

It is so commercial, so much money involved (teams are businesses first and foremost.....) that I find it difficult to believe there wouldn't be some level of manipulation of the outcome. Probably not at the individual match level, but overall I'd expect there is.

I have no proof, but logic and commonsense says that there would be manipulation. It's just too commercialised for there not to be.

 

Just a reminder of how fair bump footy used to be:

 

Soccer is so brutal:

 

That is one huge can of worms spT!

Plenty think it is, but mostly not at ground level. The list is long. Tanking for draft picks (that's what I'm doing in the Full Year 2016 Stock Picking thread) ; special draft concessions (Brisbane, Swans, GWS over the years); sometimes bizarre fixturing ; erratic rule changes (rushed behinds, deliberate out-of-bounds), and so forth.

The AFL let's a club get a flag or two, then you have to go down (WCE, Brisbane, Port, Swans). Equalization in action.

 

Gee whizz, you're giving the suits who run the AFL way too much credit if you believe they are capable of systematically rigging the sport.

It's pretty much logistically impossible. The amount of people who would need to be secretly involved to fix the result of the league year in and year out would be many in number.

Yet, not one single whistle blower in all of these years in a modern era where the mainstream mass media pays buckets of cash for anyone willing to spill the beans and create major "proven conspiracy" headlines.

Occam's razor; the more people involved in a cover-up the less feasible it becomes, especially when long time frames are involved.

The AFL certainly has and still does hand out concessions for the QLD / NSW teams, but out of these only Sydney has made the finals, let alone won a flag, since 2009.

I'm sure there are also under-the-table dealings, cover-ups, but I'd highly doubt they involve scripting ladder positions.

 

I couldn't imagine it either. The players themslves are so hell bent on match/career success, it would eclipse any other motive. Plus, as you say, organizing such a scheme would be incredibly difficult. In soccer it's much easier because of the scoring and a few other .. ahem... factors.

 

We need to consider the effects of gambling including spot betting on all sports.

Imo along with drugs it's one of the biggest threats to genuine competition in virtually any game/sport you can think of.

Cricket, tennis, soccer, cycling have all been affected. It's time to consider banning betting on sport (if possible), or at least banning advertising for it.

 

Big game tonight between Sydney and Hawthorn.

As a Sydney fan I'd like to extend my good wishes to Jarrod Roughead, his family and team mates at a difficult time. I hope it works out OK for him.

Come on Sydney though !

 

yeah, go Sydney, woop woop!!

 

As a Hawks fan I find that attitude mildly offensive

 

Good job Sydney.

Hardly an inspiring game, but a win is a win...