THE CLUBROOMS
Dylan Cleaver
It’s always been a challenge to explain the attraction of AFL. After watching first rugby and then Aussie rules back-to-back this weekend, however, it’s easier to understand how one has seemingly cracked the code while the leaders of the 15-man game are still trying to work out what their sport should look like.
It’s about more than tribalism, although that plays a huge part in AFL’S enduring popularity.
The sport was founded in Melbourne’s working-class inner suburbs and although those enclaves have changed dramatically and been slowly gentrified over the decades, the supporter base is passed down through families.
Expansion, too, has been handled in a logical fashion, not the helter-skelter strategy that killed Super Rugby. The AFL has gone into cities where the sport had an established fan base and in the case of Port Adelaide and Fremantle, created professional franchises out of existing clubs.
In other expansion moves that have turned out to be masterstrokes, the Sydney Swans and Brisbane Lions, were formed out of the shells of struggling Melbourne clubs the Fitzroy Lions and South Melbourne Swans, handing them a heritage that could not be created out of thin air.
Since then clubs have been formed in highpopulation areas of western Sydney and the Gold Coast, while the Footscray Bulldogs expended its interests to become the Western Bulldogs, taking ownership of Melbourne’s rapid westward sprawl.
Not all the moves have been massive successes — every Gold Coast club whether AFL, NBL or NRL seems doomed to mediocrity — while there are still arguments as to whether there is at least one too many Melbourne clubs, but generally speaking the competition is a costeffective, money-making machine that has never felt the inclination to look offshore for commercial “opportunities”.
That’s a massive advantage it has over the Southern Hemisphere franchise rugby competition/s but there’s something more fundamental than that.
The biggest difference is this: you can know stuff all about AFL and you already know enough to enjoy it. It’s remarkably user-friendly.
Both rugby and AFL have the “advantage” over league in that they have genuine contests for possession. Whereas rugby’s contests are regulated to within an inch of their lives, the referees have minimal impact in the AFL.
This is the beauty of this strange and idiosyncratic sport. The ball keeps moving and, when it doesn’t, the combatants are quickly separated and a simple ball toss or bounce restarts play.
Contrast this to rugby. On Friday night the Blues were able to bleed nearly two minutes off the clock at one scrum after they lost Hoskins Sotutu to the bin. That is impossible to justify at any level.
To retain its integrity rugby must remain a game for all shapes and sizes and the scrum is an important part of that picture, but we are surely long past the point where clock-stoppage is required from the moment a scrum is called to the moment it is under the No 8’s feet.
Rugby will never have the laissez-faire freedom of AFL and nor would you necessarily want it to, but watching both games back to back highlights what a better deal the paying customers of the latter get.
WINNERS⇑
Tony Brown
It wasn’t so much the well-constructed win over the Blues that sealed this slot, but the work of a fortnight earlier in demonstrating how to neuter the Crusaders. The other coaches have picked up that particular ball and run with it, including the Chiefs’ impressive placeholder Clayton Mcmillan.
The effectiveness of Brown’s imprint has probably come too late to save the Highlanders’ Super Rugby Aotearoa campaign, but it has certainly breathed a bit of life into a tournament that seemed moribund compared to last season. Nathan Brown
Like many I suspect, the prospect of the Warriors being mentored by another “hardnosed Australian” filled me with as much
enthusiasm as a holiday in Kabul but credit where it’s due, the Warriors do seem to be made of sterner stuff.
Given the obstacles they’re already facing due to Covid restrictions, I expected the dreadful loss to Manly a week earlier to be the catalyst for a month-long funk, but the way they toughed out a win against St George was mighty impressive. It’s hard to imagine the Warriors pushing for the playoffs this year but despite the prospect of losing their best player next season, there is some reason for optimism once they can start playing half their games at home.
Lydia Ko
Just keep doing what you’re doing Lydia — don’t change a single thing.
Motorsport fans
Two wheels, four wheels, open wheels, tin tops — what a weekend.
In the blue riband F1 class, the battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton should be one for the ages.
Meanwhile, another race, another podium for Scott Dixon, who might struggle to hold on to top-dog status at Chip Ganassi judging by Spaniard Alex Palou’s mighty start.