What do you think of thr āstructureā of the AFL championship? Would it work for GAA? It shouldnāt work but it does. Playing matches away all season to see who plays who in the knock outs. They seem to take every match seriously too no shadow boxing or training the morning of a match
It wouldnāt work for GAA. The AFL is a professional competition with redistributive mechanisms to make things more even. Itās like the NFL in that regard. Teams play 23 matches in the league stage. Of the 18 teams, probably nine of them would have some notion of winning the Grand Final this year.
In GAA each county can only rely on the resources and population it has. The GAA isnāt a professional competition and should never go the AFL route, going professional would destroy it because that would end the link between where you come from and who you play for, it would become a market. But there isnāt the population or the spending power or the television market to sustain a six months long league season. People in Australia follow teams in the same way people follow English Premier League teams. If youāre from rural Victoria even though you might be 200 miles from Melbourne youāll probably still follow one of the Melbourne teams. Whereas in Ireland a county team will only have people from that county as potential followers.
Even as it is, Waterford are finding it impossible to keep up in a four match round robin between five teams. If it went any longer it would be a total calamity of a system.
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He humiliated my beloved Dockers
But it would just mean making the league the championship? Two equal top divisions of 8 leading into knock outs. Top teams straight to semis others play preliminary finals, quarters etc. Same format then for the bottom 16. Thereās no point in talking about tradition etc either sure some of the teams didnāt even exist in AFL 20 or 30 years ago.
Hope the Bombers sew it into these low breed Pies.
6:20am start for the big one tomorrow. Itās a massive test for the Bombers and you have to to think itās one they will fail. 4-2 is a good start but thereās a real feeling that theyāve been been taking advantage of an easy enough fixture list. Collingwood have turned it around after a disastrous start to the season and last week they pissed all over Port Adelaide who were 3rd in the ladder last year.
Thereās a man I know from up my road whoās in Melbourne at the moment so Iāve been telling his wife (whoās at home) that he needs to get down to the MCG in the morning and see can he get himself into one of world sportās greatest events. Grand oulā week to be in Melbourne with Carlton playing Geelong on Saturday too which should pull 70k plus Iād say.
The Blues have a delegation over here at the moment. Anybody spot the great Greg āDieselā Williams at Parnell Park last night?
Disappointing to see Collingwoodās Nate Murphy has had to retire at just 24 after this injury suffered in last yearās Grand Final.
Richmond Dees a disappointing affair yday
Hopefully a better contest today
Will he be able to play with his club in Ireland when he comes home?
Bombers pushing aheadā¦ sounds a bit scrappy
Mihocek on fire for the 'Pies
Essendon 65 Collingwood 66 at three quarter-time. Iāve only seen about the last 10 minutes of the third quarter but things look a bit ominous for the Bombers. Harry Jones missed a great chance to put them in front after the siren there.
Looks like a broken nose for Jones. Ouch!
Josh Daicos puts Collingwood 72-65 up but Essendon are back to 72-72 with Kyle Langfordās goal.
And now Nicky Martin gets a beauty of a goal for 78-72. Then Martin sets up Langford for another!
Eseendon suddenly exploding. 84-72 Bombers and Kevin Sheedy is loving it.
Harvey Harrison goals for Collingwood. 84-79. This is an absolute belter of a final quarter so far. 14 minutes left.
Gerrard style slip by Nick Hind. Beau McCreery takes on the Demba Ba role. Pies lead 84-85.
This is epic.
Absolutely epicā¦ a pure armwrestle
Mihocekā¦ Ugly kick
And another one! Two of the worst kicks youāll ever see.
Pressureā¦ In front of 94K people
Bombers deserve something out of this. 84-85 just under 3 minutes left. Frantic stuff.
Langford!!! You beauty