AFL great Kevin Bartlett concerned by state of game, calls for less interchange to save footy as a spectacle
Premiership coaches are turning on the game. If that doesn’t set off alarm bells at AFL House, nothing will. How can footy be saved as a spectacle? Legend Kevin Bartlett believes it will only take one change.
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Footy legend Kevin Bartlett says premiership coaches turning on the game should trigger alarm bells at AFL House.
The Tigers great and long-time interchange rotations critic said Sunday’s Richmond-Sydney stinker was the wake-up call footy needed.
“When you start getting a four-time premiership coach in Alastair Clarkson and a two-time premiership coach in Damian Hardwick coming in after games and telling us how bad the game is, surely there are alarm bells for the AFL to say, ‘look — enough’s enough’,” Bartlett said.
“That is a bonus because all of sudden we are getting coaches who are starting to look at the games from a spectacle point of view — not a coaching point of view — like a theatre goer and saying, ‘Well, that was a complete waste of time. That was horrible’.”
My head is exploding listening to TV footy shows who have just discovered something is wrong with our game of football as a spectacle 200 tired players coming off the ground replaced by 200 fresh interchange players coming onto the ground is not footy. Ah the mystery is solved kb
— Kevin Bartlett (@KevinBartlett29) July 13, 2020
Bartlett blames the tactical hijacking of the interchange bench by coaches for the game’s rapidly declining spectacle.
“The game of Australian Rules football was invented by someone who was very, very smart,” he said.
“They invented it on a ground that was big and there would be 36 players — 18 per team — and with the fatigue factor, it would be a positional game.
“But the game has changed and it is no longer a positional game. It’s a game of fresh legs coming on and off the field, taking out the fatigue factor.
“And people wonder how you get so much density and congestion around the ball — 32 players all in one area of the ground and if someone gets a break the 32 players all sprint down the other end of the ground.
“Fatigue governs the game but unfortunately the interchange went from being something for injured players to a tactic. And once it went to being a tactic it started to destroy the game and the fabric of Australian Rules football.”
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The AFL Hall of Fame Legend and former Laws of the Game committee member called the Tigers-Sydney match on radio — the second lowest-scoring game in 36 years
“Throughout the course of the game on 3AW we said it was horrendous and when the game finished I said, ‘The only good thing that can happen to this game is that Aliens come out of Mars, land in Australia, get the master tape and destroy it’,” Bartlett said.
Chirpy head of the cocky commission has called in his feathered friend Eddie to help save the game as a spectacle. Kb pic.twitter.com/d8PtAEZvD6
— Kevin Bartlett (@KevinBartlett29) June 29, 2020
“They (the AFL) know there are problems. Steven (Hocking) knows that and so does Gill (McLachlan) and Richard (Goyder) as head of the commission would know that, too.
“And the reason they know it is that they’ve tried to bring in aspects of the game such as 6-6-6, they’ve changed the ruck rules, they’ve changed the kick-in rules and the protected zones rules … all these things are being mentioned and implemented because they know there is a problem with the game.
“The only problem is, they have refused to concede that the interchange is the one catalyst that is destroying it.
“If you’ve got a jigsaw puzzle of Australian Rules football, the biggest part goes right in the middle — and that’s interchange. It’s the one thing that has created the game we have today.
“I love the game and for nearly 90 years we said that football is the greatest game on earth, but we have aspects of the game that are disappearing. Contested marking is disappearing, people kicking big bags of goals have disappeared.
“The biggest names and the most historic names in the history of the game — the position of full-forward — has disappeared.
“There was a time once when even if you didn’t barrack for a club you’d want to know — how many did Hudson kick because you knew he was on his way to 100? How many did McKenna kick or Jezza or Roach or Dunstall kick?
“It was a part of the fabric of the game, which gave us tremendous excitement and enthusiasm. But what we get now are just boring defensive games.
“I get very disappointed watching the game. I don’t think we are seeing the modern day player play the game to the best of their capabilities.
“It’s hard to kill off Australian Rules football because every now and then something will happen where you say, ‘Oh, isn’t it a great game’. Eddie Betts will kick a miracle goal from the boundary line or Jeremy Howe will jump up and take an absolute screamer of a mark.
“But it’s becoming few and far between.”
AFL RISKS FANS TURNING OFF IF UGLY FOOTY CONTINUES
– Chris Cavanagh
It’s time to end the blame game.
As Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson said recently, football is in a “dreadful space” – and the AFL cannot sit back and continue to let it get worse.
Sunday’s clash between Richmond and Sydney at the Gabba was as good an illustration as you’ll get of how broken modern football is.
It was the second-lowest scoring game in the AFL era — and oh so ugly.
There were four goals kicked in the first 14 minutes of the first quarter.
There were only three goals kicked – combined – for the rest of the game from there.
If you were not a Richmond or Sydney supporter and sat through the whole match, you deserve a medal.
Flooding backlines is strangling scoring and every team is doing it.
The AFL introduced starting positions for each centre bounce last year, but that makes little difference when the goals aren’t flowing.
Two of Richmond’s first three goals came quickly from centre-bounce in the opening term – before the Swans had a chance to flood back.
An inside-50 simply isn’t worth much in the AFL anymore.
Richmond had 53 forward entries against the Swans for just four goals – and it’s a similar story across the league.
Last Thursday night, Brisbane 43 inside-50s against Geelong for six goals.
On Saturday night, North Melbourne had 47 inside-50s against Essendon for seven goals and on Sunday night the Western Bulldogs had 53 inside-50s against Carlton for seven goals.
Former St Kilda champion and Fox Footy commentator Leigh Montagna agrees footy has got “ugly”.
“It’s not so much the congestion for me, it’s how slow teams are with the ball and how good teams are defensively behind the ball,” Montagna said.
“The biggest change is the scores per inside-50. In 2010, the whole competition was scoring at 46 per cent when they were going inside 50. So basically one in two times teams went inside-50, they’d score. Last year, the best team in the completion (Brisbane) went at 45 per cent.”
This year, Melbourne is scoring from 34 per cent of its inside-50s and 15 of the 18 teams are scoring goals from 24 per cent or less of their inside-50s.
After Round 6, the Coleman Medal leader is 177cm Sydney small forward Tom Papley with 13 goals.
Greater Western Sydney’s Jeremy Cameron averaged 3.4 goals a game in 2019 to edge out North Melbourne’s Ben Brown (2.9 goals a game) and win the Coleman Medal.
The pair are averaging 1.8 and 1.2 goals a game respectively this season.
“It’s much harder to score or find a mark when you go inside-50 because teams are zoning, guarding space, have players coming across intercepting,” Montagna said.
“It’s no longer about playing behind your opponent one-on-one. There’s so many numbers back there.”
Sports radio host Mark Allen tweeted on Sunday he watched the first quarter of the Richmond’s clash with Sydney and “thought this game is not for me today”.
Instead, “Netflix did the trick”.
Hardwick described it as a “horrible game of football” but claimed there was “not much I can do” about it.
Sydney counterpart John Longmire also handballed the blame, claiming his side held six defenders and only had Callum Mills playing loose because Richmond pushed its sixth forward up onto the ball.
Clarkson has blamed umpires for not paying enough holding the ball free kicks, but a tightening of that interpretation over the past two weeks has failed to deliver any significantly better football.
Brownlow medallist Gerard Healy has long campaigned for starting positions at each stoppage.
“Maybe he’s onto something,” former Western Bulldogs champion Brad Johnson said recently.
“Because ultimately that’s the one thing you can do. You can’t otherwise change what the players can do within the realms of the field, except now after goal has been scored.”
Whatever the solution is, the AFL needs to find it and act – fast.
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Originally published as AFL great Kevin Bartlett concerned by state of game, calls for less interchange to save footy as a spectacle