tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/afl-grand-final-12495/articlesAFL Grand Final – The Conversation2023-09-28T19:59:05Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2143842023-09-28T19:59:05Z2023-09-28T19:59:05ZLions to roar or Magpies to soar? It’s a remarkable revival story either way on grand final day<p>Saturday’s premiership tussle between Collingwood and Brisbane features the two top-ranked teams from 2023. Hopefully, unlike last year’s final, it will be a gripping match. The 2023 finals series has so far featured edge-of-the-seat contests, as reflected in media audiences: some <a href="https://x.com/footyindustryAU/status/1706529550434521198?s=20">13.3 million</a> eyeballs tuning in, at an average of 1.66 million per game.</p>
<p>Perhaps most importantly, after lean years during COVID, there has also been bountiful spectator interest this season. The finals matches have attracted an average of <a href="https://afltables.com/afl/crowds/2023.html">70,595</a> fans, with an expected 100,000 set to attend on Saturday. </p>
<p>All this follows a bumper season for the AFL, with <a href="https://afltables.com/afl/crowds/summary.html">36,110</a> attendees per game, the league’s highest average since 2010.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/want-to-really-understand-football-culture-here-are-6-things-to-watch-out-for-on-grand-final-day-124088">Want to really understand football culture? Here are 6 things to watch out for on Grand Final Day</a>
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<h2>Rivals with September history</h2>
<p>The premiership contestants, Brisbane and Collingwood, are meeting for the third time since the AFL was formulated as a national competition in 1990. No other two clubs have faced each other <a href="https://x.com/maxlaughton/status/1705521166239285758?s=20">more</a> in an AFL grand final.</p>
<p>The Magpies lost to the Lions in 2002 and 2003, so they will be especially keen to soar against their Queensland rivals. Collingwood boasts <a href="https://forever.collingwoodfc.com.au/premierships/">15 VFA/VFL/AFL titles</a> since its inception in 1892, but only two have come in the past 65 years (1990 and 2010). </p>
<p>Despite a lack of recent success, the black and white Magpie “army” is the biggest fan base for a club in any Australian sport, with an average of <a href="https://afltables.com/afl/crowds/2023.html">63,723</a> fans attending home matches during the season and the two finals matches averaging <a href="https://afltables.com/afl/crowds/2023.html">95,151</a> fans. </p>
<p>As with last week’s preliminary final, Collingwood will have the advantage of playing in Melbourne against an interstate rival. This means greater familiarity with the hallowed turf of the Melbourne Cricket Ground and, without a doubt, a much larger fan base inside the stadium.</p>
<p>Brisbane, meanwhile, has not featured in a grand final for nearly 20 years. The Lions pulled off an incredible three premierships in a row from 2001-3, then fell to Port Adelaide in the 2004 final.</p>
<h2>The Lions are reborn</h2>
<p>Those three flags marked a rise from ignominy for a club that began in 1987 as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisbane_Bears">Brisbane Bears</a> but played at Carrara Stadium on the Gold Coast. The Bears finished regularly near the bottom of the ladder in these foundational years, capturing the wooden spoon in 1990 and 1991. Little wonder they averaged a modest 10,000 spectators per game.</p>
<p>In 1996, the Brisbane Bears were reinvented as the Brisbane Lions following an AFL-managed merger with the financially distraught Fitzroy Lions. For <a href="https://www.lions.com.au/news/1012034/25-years-on-the-day-that-changed-everything">Fitzroy players and fans</a>, the amalgamation with Brisbane was effectively a takeover. A move from the Gold Coast’s Carrara Stadium to Brisbane’s Gabba embedded the newly branded Lions in Queensland’s capital. <a href="https://x.com/footyindustryAU/status/1705055328638050652?s=20">Significant crowds</a> soon followed, buttressed by vastly improved on-field success.</p>
<p>That said, after the heady three-peat of 2000-3, the Lions endured some very lean years, making the finals only once between 2005 and 2018. </p>
<p>Since 2019, the club has been part of September action again, but until this year, not on grand final day.</p>
<p>In 2020, Brisbane superstar <a href="https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/afl-lachie-neale-won-the-brownlow-but-would-happily-swap-it-for-a-premiership-medallion/news-story/aa0594b3cb09c395515d230b2adff8b2">Lachie Neale</a> remarked that he “would gladly swap his Brownlow Medal for a premiership”. That year, the Lions were eliminated in the preliminary final, so it was a metaphorical opportunity lost. </p>
<p>This week, Neale claimed his <a href="https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/lachie-neale-surprised-but-adamant-he-got-the-brownlow-votes-he-deserved/news-story/62f6616eb115b0fd71b3fc0b027be0da">second Brownlow Medal</a>. And in keeping with his team-first approach, again said he would “gladly swap both of his Brownlow triumphs for premiership glory at the MCG this weekend”. </p>
<p>If only it were that easy. Since 1993, only six players have achieved the Brownlow/premiership double.</p>
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<h2>Collingwood’s transformation</h2>
<p>A common refrain among footy fans is that those who don’t support Collingwood inevitably “hate” them. This speaks largely to football rivalries, particularly Collingwood’s traditional foes like <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-21/why-carlton-and-collingwood-hate-each-other/101337686">Carlton</a> and <a href="https://www.sportingnews.com/au/afl/news/Anzac-day-game-history-results-medal-winners/nktcor6tavc5lury8ruawmwt">Essendon</a>. But sport is not simply about winning or losing; it’s also about how you play the game – both on and off the field.</p>
<p>In that respect, Collingwood is undergoing a renaissance that could not have been imagined just two years ago. Under fire from First Nations and other Black players, who claimed they experienced racism throughout their careers with the club, Collingwood was dragged into supporting an independent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/feb/08/collingwoods-past-has-finally-caught-up-with-its-present-and-its-president">investigation</a> of its culture. This led to the 2021 release of the “<a href="https://www.collingwoodfc.com.au/news/856470/collingwood-do-better-report-released">Do Better</a>” report, which found evidence of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-01/collingwood-is-guilty-of-systemic-racism-review-finds/13055816">systemic racism</a> at the club. </p>
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<p>Soon after, the club president, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-09/eddie-mcguires-collingwood-farewell-and-revisionist-history/13137864">Eddie McGuire</a>, stepped down – though, to critics, this ought to have happened years ago after several <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-10/collingwood-president-eddie-mcguire-finally-brought-down/13137360">unseemly incidents</a>. While <a href="https://www.afl.com.au/news/692647/collingwood-board-shake-up-jeff-browne-a-step-closer-to-presidency">governance</a> has remained challenging at Collingwood, and not all former players are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/may/18/releasing-the-burden-heritier-lumumba-says-he-is-walking-away-from-dispute-with-collingwood">satisfied</a> with how the club handled the racism allegations, the public relations disasters under McGuire have at least disappeared.</p>
<p>The other key change at Collingwood was a new coach. Club legend Nathan Buckley exited after ten years at the helm, having made the finals five times. He <a href="https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/collingwood-coach-nathan-buckley-reportedly-preparing-to-step-down/news-story/f89b19d9cec9a06f5356af05ec1dfb16">quit</a> midway through the 2021 season after which the Magpies stumbled to near the bottom of the ladder. </p>
<p>Enter the former Brisbane player <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-01/afl-collingwood-names-craig-mcrae-as-new-head-coach/100424756">Craig McRae</a> in 2022. Nicknamed “Fly”, McRae brought a brazen attacking game style to Collingwood, with stunning results. Midway through the 2022 season, the longtime AFL reporter <a href="https://www.afl.com.au/news/806702/barrett-craig-mcrae-the-man-who-made-most-hated-collingwood-magpies-likeable-again">Damien Barrett</a> reckoned that McRae had made the “hated” Magpies “likeable again” and provided compelling viewing. </p>
<p>The Pies eventually lost by a single point to the Swans in the 2022 preliminary final, but McRae was recognised as the AFL <a href="https://www.afl.com.au/news/847469/stunning-season-sees-mcrae-crowned-coach-of-the-year">coach of the year</a>.</p>
<p>Fast forward to 2023 and the “love affair” with Collingwood’s adventurous playing style has continued. The journalist <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/afl/collingwood-liked-its-all-there-in-black-and-white/news-story/da384d02e1640a4fe6d866cf90d6eb4b">John Stensholt</a> reported that, contrary to conventional wisdom, this Magpies team is no longer so polarising. </p>
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<p>It is now led by a “fly” with a <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/the-mcrae-way-how-new-coach-has-changed-collingwood-s-thinking-20220908-p5bgki.html">positive psychology</a> mindset, a captain (Darcy Moore) who speaks with <a href="https://au.sports.yahoo.com/darcy-moore-leaves-afl-world-speechless-incredible-anzac-day-moment-212244700.html">humility and grace</a>, and father-son greats in Josh and Nick Daicos. Even <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_De_Goey">Jordan De Goey</a>, a serial off-field offender in previous years, has seemingly discovered inner peace after <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/she-has-changed-my-life-how-jordan-de-goey-regained-collingwood-s-trust-20230925-p5e7h0.html">working</a> with a sports psychologist.</p>
<p>A premiership would cap a remarkable revival story for either club – and with another enormous grand final crowd, it will mark a continuing resurgence for the league itself from the lows of the pandemic years.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-the-2022-aflm-season-comes-to-a-close-the-game-must-ask-itself-some-difficult-questions-especially-on-racism-190847">As the 2022 AFLM season comes to a close, the game must ask itself some difficult questions – especially on racism</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214384/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daryl Adair does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s been over a decade since either club last won a premiership. Both teams have experienced plenty of lows since then.Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1914972022-10-31T19:02:23Z2022-10-31T19:02:23ZThis Melbourne Cup, alcohol and sport collide. We need to watch out for domestic violence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490762/original/file-20221020-25-1bq09z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C0%2C1914%2C1279&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-man-squeezing-a-woman-s-shoulder-4379914/">Karolina Grabowska/Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Not everyone looks forward to the Melbourne Cup. Domestic violence and emergency services ready themselves for a <a href="https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/%7E/media/resourcecentre/publicationsandresources/alcohol%20misuse/drinkingcultures-sportingevents/fullreport_drinkingcultures-sportingevents_vichealth-turningpoint.ashx">potential increase</a> in calls, call-outs and admissions.</p>
<p>But as our recent <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hsc.14028">review shows</a>, the Melbourne Cup isn’t the only major sporting event around the world linked to a rise in domestic violence. </p>
<p>Not everyone agrees on why this is happening. We show alcohol is just one factor.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-melbourne-cup-still-the-race-that-stops-the-nation-or-are-we-saying-nuptothecup-170801">Is the Melbourne Cup still the race that stops the nation – or are we saying #nuptothecup?</a>
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<h2>What’s going on?</h2>
<p>Police-recorded assaults and emergency department presentations for assault <a href="https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/%7E/media/resourcecentre/publicationsandresources/alcohol%20misuse/drinkingcultures-sportingevents/fullreport_drinkingcultures-sportingevents_vichealth-turningpoint.ashx">increase</a> on or around the major sporting events in Victoria – the AFL grand final, Melbourne Cup and Formula 1.</p>
<p>In particular, domestic violence assaults <a href="https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/%7E/media/resourcecentre/publicationsandresources/alcohol%20misuse/drinkingcultures-sportingevents/fullreport_drinkingcultures-sportingevents_vichealth-turningpoint.ashx">rise significantly</a> on the day of the Melbourne Cup.</p>
<p>In New South Wales, police data across six years shows domestic violence assaults increased <a href="http://fare.org.au/wp-content/uploads/The-association-between-State-of-Origin-and-assaults-in-two-Australian-states-noEM.pdf">by more than 40%</a> following State of Origin rugby league games compared with non-State of Origin nights.</p>
<p>Our review also shows domestic violence <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hsc.14028">increases</a> on days of, and around, major sporting events around the world. This includes major National Football League games in the United States and Canada, and soccer matches in Scotland.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whether-teams-win-or-lose-sporting-events-lead-to-spikes-in-violence-against-women-and-children-99686">Whether teams win or lose, sporting events lead to spikes in violence against women and children</a>
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<h2>Why is this happening?</h2>
<p>Not everyone agrees on why domestic violence is linked with major sporting events. We know perpetrators are more likely to use violence or become more violent <a href="https://web.archive.org.au/awa/20090129005223mp_/http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/93593/20090129-1148/Stakeholder+paper_2.pdf">during public holidays</a> in Australia. Both the AFL grand final and the Melbourne Cup receive a dedicated public holiday in Victoria on or around the event.</p>
<p>Alcohol is certainly a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/add.15485">risk factor</a> for increased frequency and severity of domestic violence. The use of alcohol during major sports events and over holidays is <a href="https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/%7E/media/resourcecentre/publicationsandresources/alcohol%20misuse/drinkingcultures-sportingevents/fullreport_drinkingcultures-sportingevents_vichealth-turningpoint.ashx">well documented</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="https://www.anrows.org.au/publication/the-relationship-between-gambling-and-intimate-partner-violence-against-women/">gambling</a> and stress over income loss is <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/1524838014561269">also linked to </a> the increased use and escalation of domestic violence. These too can occur around the time of events, such as the Melbourne Cup.</p>
<p>But focusing on alcohol and gambling alone runs the risk of such violence <a href="https://media-cdn.ourwatch.org.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/11/18101814/Change-the-story-Our-Watch-AA.pdf">being excused</a>. This focus can send the message that men cannot be held entirely responsible for their behaviour.</p>
<h2>A sport’s culture</h2>
<p>A sport’s culture can also be a <a href="https://xyonline.net/sites/xyonline.net/files/Flood%20Dyson%2C%20Sport%20and%20violence%20against%20women%2007.pdf">contributing factor</a> to domestic violence. Sport, violence, and what it means to be a man have long been recognised as <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29338922/">connected</a>. For instance, coaches <a href="https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/works/boys-will-be-boys-assessing-attitudes-of-athletic-officials-on-sexism-and-violence-against-women">promote aggression</a> for performance.</p>
<p>There’s also an <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hsc.14028">emotive connection</a> to sport. Sport fans display “irrational passions”, maintain “blind optimism”, have “highly charged” memories and passion that mimic “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.smr.2009.07.002">addiction</a>”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/toughen-up-snowflake-sports-coaches-can-be-emotionally-abusive-heres-how-to-recognise-it-110267">Toughen up snowflake! Sports coaches can be emotionally abusive – here's how to recognise it</a>
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<p>However, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hsc.14028">our review</a> also showed that not all sports or their events are associated with domestic violence. Each sits within a culture that differs from sport to sport and country to country. </p>
<p>Some studies we reviewed showed that contact sports, such as <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/126/1/103/1903433?login=true">American football</a>, were associated with increases in domestic violence. Meanwhile, other contact sports, for instance, rugby union in the United Kingdom, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953620306766?via%3Dihub">were not</a>. </p>
<p>Soccer is a non-contact sport but was linked to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022427813494843">increased rates</a> of domestic violence in the UK. Traditional rivalry between opposing soccer teams had a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/obes.12105">significant impact</a> on domestic violence rates.</p>
<p>Perhaps emotionally charged games may best indicate whether an increased rate in domestic violence is likely. Examples include finals, or when a team is close to winning or losing a league. Frustrating or controversial outcomes, such as poor play or refereeing decisions, may also predict a rise in domestic violence.</p>
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<img alt="Soccer fan raising fist while watching soccer match" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490823/original/file-20221020-18-n71vxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490823/original/file-20221020-18-n71vxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490823/original/file-20221020-18-n71vxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490823/original/file-20221020-18-n71vxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490823/original/file-20221020-18-n71vxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490823/original/file-20221020-18-n71vxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490823/original/file-20221020-18-n71vxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Frustrating or controversial outcomes, such as poor play or refereeing decisions, may also predict a rise in domestic violence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-in-red-and-blue-top-raising-left-hand-54308/">Pixabay</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>An unexpected loss, for example, is connected with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjr001">increased domestic violence</a> rates, more so if that game is also considered important, for example during finals or potentially exiting a World Cup. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953620306766?via%3Dihub">a UK study</a> found that alcohol-related domestic violence significantly increased only when England won, not when they lost or drew. So losing is not necessarily the key factor.</p>
<p>Drinking motives may come into play here, with different supporters drinking (more) <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-four-types-of-drinker-which-one-are-you-89377">to celebrate or to cope</a>.</p>
<p>When taken together, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/add.15485?af=R">we can conclude</a> it’s the culture of a particular sport in a particular country, exaggerated by keen rivalry, how emotionally charged a game might be, and when the game is played, that can predict a rise in domestic violence. That’s in addition to increased gambling or alcohol use linked to these events.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-sport-can-tackle-violence-against-women-and-girls-107886">How sport can tackle violence against women and girls</a>
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<h2>What can we do about it?</h2>
<p>Policies to address domestic violence associated with sport need to be tailored to the places where an event is taking place and how a country’s, or even state’s, culture influences sporting fans’ behaviour. </p>
<p>We need to think about:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>when major sporting events are scheduled (ideally away from public holidays)</p></li>
<li><p>limiting alcohol availability and increased prices, particularly during major events</p></li>
<li><p>joint planning across police, health and specialist domestic violence services ahead of major sporting events</p></li>
<li><p>developing social marketing campaigns for fans to coincide with
with sporting events, such as the AFL grand final’s #liftyourgame. Such campaigns need to be free of alcohol and gambling sponsorship.</p></li>
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<p>Initiatives need to be developed with support from policy makers, state, and national sports organisations, as well as specialist domestic violence and emergency services. </p>
<p>They need to be effectively tailored to the sport, its fans, and the cultural context being targeted. They need to happen now and be evaluated.</p>
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<p><em>If this article raises issues for you or someone you know, contact: <a href="https://1800respect.org.au">1800 RESPECT</a> (1800 737 732), <a href="https://www.safesteps.org.au">Safe Steps</a> (1800 015 188), <a href="https://ntv.org.au">Men’s Referral Service</a> (1300 766 491) or <a href="https://mensline.org.au">Mensline</a> (1300 78 99 78). In an emergency, call 000.</em></p>
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<p><em>William Douglas, policy and projects officer at <a href="https://ntv.org.au">No to Violence</a> co-authored this article and is a partner in the research mentioned in it.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191497/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsty Forsdike currently receives funding from the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions of the Victorian Government to research the prevention of violence against women through sport and has previously received funding from the Office for Women in Sport and Recreation to explore violence against women in sport. She also receives funding from the Victorian State Government Crime Prevention Innovation Fund and has previously received funding from the Department of Social Services, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Respect Victoria and Department of Social Services.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne-Marie Laslett receives funding from the
Australian Research Council and
*veski
*The Victorian Near-miss Award Pilot is being administered by veski for the Victorian Health and Medical Research Workforce Project on behalf of the Victorian Government and the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes. Funding for the Pilot has been provided by the Victorian Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions. The Victorian Near-miss Awards are provided to eligible individuals who narrowly missed out on the 2021 NHMRC Investigator Grant funding in the Emerging Leaders 2 stream.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Associate Professor Leesa Hooker currently receives funding from a Victorian Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions Crime Prevention grant. She does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no other relevant affiliations beyond her academic appointment.</span></em></p>For years, we’ve taken major sporting events, a public holiday, added alcohol and gambling, then watched domestic violence rates rise. It’s time we did something different.Kirsty Forsdike, Senior Lecturer, La Trobe Business School and Senior Researcher in Centre for Sport & Social Impact, La Trobe UniversityAnne-Marie Laslett, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe UniversityLeesa Hooker, Research Director, Rural Judith Lumley Centre, La Trobe Rural Health School, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1241572019-09-26T20:12:42Z2019-09-26T20:12:42ZThe odds you’ll gamble on the Grand Final are high when punting is woven into our very social fabric<p>With the AFL Grand Final between Richmond and Greater Western Sydney this Saturday on the hallowed turf of the MCG, punters around the country will be encouraged to place their bets hoping they can score a sweet victory. </p>
<p>Many will even have <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-08-13/gambling-operators-are-invading-your-smartphone/11405678">personalised messages</a> to bet sent to their phones.</p>
<p>But there have been major concerns at the links between sports betting and the AFL this year. In recent months, Collingwood’s Jaidyn Stephenson <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-20/jaidyn-stephenson-afl-betting-collingwood-magpies/11228156">bet on AFL matches</a>, which led to him being banned for ten games. This brought the issue back onto the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/brisbane/programs/qld-grandstand-saturday/queensland-sport/11214106">public radar</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-a-kick-sporting-statues-can-enshrine-players-and-also-capture-pivotal-cultural-moments-123516">More than a kick: sporting statues can enshrine players and also capture pivotal cultural moments</a>
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<p>Stephenson announced during a press conference he was regretful, would take responsibility for his actions, and promised to <a href="https://7news.com.au/sport/afl/collingwood-young-gun-jaidyn-stephenson-learns-his-fate-after-betting-probe-c-173782">do better in the future</a>. </p>
<p>But what if Stephenson was merely reflecting the norms of Australian society, which has seen the establishment of sports betting as an <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S01482963150013007">everyday social practice</a>?</p>
<p>Australia is the gambling world leader by a mile. Australia’s betting losses per adult are the highest in the world, and they’re around <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/world/australia/australians-gambling-betting-machines.html">50% higher</a> than the country in second place, Singapore.</p>
<p>And with sports betting heavily marketed and apps making it easier than ever to bet, punting will only become more deeply entrenched in Australian culture. If we really want to do something about tackling gambling related harm, we need to de-normalise sports betting as an everyday social practice in Australia. </p>
<h2>A season of gambling debates</h2>
<p>Debate about the AFL’s relationship with sports betting has raged all season. Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley called the punishment of Jaidyn Stephenson a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-20/nathan-buckley-accuses-afl-of-hypocrisy-over-gambling/11228402">hypocrisy</a> given the AFL has a long-standing sponsorship deal with <a href="https://www.afl.com.au/news/2014-12-01/beteasy-named-exclusive-afl-wagering-partner">BetEasy</a>. </p>
<p>Brisbane Lions have announced betting company Neds will appear on their <a href="https://www.lions.com.au/news/2019-06-26/neds-extend-with-the-lions">guernsey</a> from next season. And concerns about AFL’s relationship with gambling companies even led Western Bulldogs captain Easton Wood to say he would support players taking a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-27/afl-urged-to-cut-player-pay-to-curb-gambling-advertising/11251154">pay cut</a> to end gambling sponsorship.</p>
<p>These concerns are related to the effect gambling has on society. Gambling expenditure in Australia was estimated <a href="https://responsiblegambling.vic.gov.au/about-us/news-and-media/latest-edition-australian-gambling-statistics/">at A$23.7 billion</a> in 2016–2017, an average of A$1,251 per adult who gambled. Research estimates between <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/gambling-2009/report">80,000 and 160,000</a> Australian adults suffer from severe gambling problems; and between 250,000 and 350,000 are identified as at moderate risk. </p>
<p>Problem gambling can lead to a severe harms for the partners, families, communities and employers of gamblers – including <a href="http://heapro.oxfordjournals.org/content/27/3/307">financial hardship</a>, family breakdown, headaches and nausea, stress, anxiety, and depression. In fact, the social cost of gambling harm is conservatively estimated at <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/gambling-2009/report">A$4.7 billion per annum</a>.</p>
<h2>Australians associate sport with betting</h2>
<p>While gambling and related harm has traditionally been understood as an <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296315001307">individual issue</a>, this is changing with growing recognition forms of gambling such as sports betting are becoming <a href="https://responsiblegambling.vic.gov.au/about-us/news-and-media/sports-betting-embedded-australian-sporting-culture/">normalised</a>.</p>
<p>Sports betting is now the fastest growing sector of the gambling market. What’s more, sports betting is heavily marketed, especially during the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1753-6405.2012.00856.x">television broadcast</a> of sports like the <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjt1LOZy-vkAhXegUsFHUHiCogQFjAAegQIAxAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.insidegambling.com.au%2F__data%2Fassets%2Fpdf_file%2F0016%2F23083%2FResearch-report-Brand-community-and-sports-betting-in-Australia.pdf&usg=AOvVaw3E0EKimeN41COuCzvliGhu">AFL</a>. And a recent report pointed to how Sportsbet – one of the biggest players in the market, has spent nearly <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-05/sportsbet-documents-reveal-millions-spent-on-marketing/10833196">half a billion dollars</a> over the past five years on marketing to Australians.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-long-and-complicated-history-of-aboriginal-involvement-in-football-117669">The long and complicated history of Aboriginal involvement in football</a>
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<p>Technological advancements, such as the introduction of mobile phone sports betting apps, now mean Australians can bet on sports <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-017-9671-9">anywhere, anytime, and on anything</a>. </p>
<p>Australians now punt on their phones in the home, at work, at the game, or out with their friends. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296315001307">Research</a> has shown sports betting apps relate to social grouping, passion, mateship, competition, and knowledge of the game, creating social norms that associate sport with betting. </p>
<p>It also means people who would not traditionally bet, such as females on a night out with male friends, are now getting involved.</p>
<p>So, it’s no surprise AFL stars such as Jaidyn Stephenson are engaging in sports betting. Their behaviour merely reflects the norms in Australian society. </p>
<h2>Don’t blame the players when betting is in our social fabric</h2>
<p>If we wish to tackle gambling related harm, and prevent sports stars from having a punt, then we need to first understand and address these norms. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-took-a-gamble-on-premier-league-betting-odds-and-showed-that-football-bets-should-come-with-a-health-warning-108848">We took a gamble on Premier League betting odds – and showed that football bets should come with a health warning</a>
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<p>Some suggestions include the AFL <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-27/afl-urged-to-cut-player-pay-to-curb-gambling-advertising/11251154">phasing out gambling sponsorship</a> much the same way as they did with tobacco 30 years ago. </p>
<p>However, we still don’t know enough about how, why, where and when <a href="https://www.crcpress.com/Digital-Gambling-Theorizing-Gamble-Play-Media/Albarran-Torres/p/book/9781138303850">people use</a> mobile phone sports betting apps. </p>
<p>This is the focus for a new government funded project: <a href="https://rms.arc.gov.au/RMS/Report/Download/Report/a3f6be6e-33f7-4fb5-98a6-7526aaa184cf/189">In it to win it - An interdisciplinary investigation of sports betting</a>. The project aims to understand how young adults use, communicate about and experience mobile phone sports betting applications. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/loud-obnoxious-and-at-times-racist-the-sordid-history-of-afl-barracking-119080">Loud, obnoxious and at times racist: the sordid history of AFL barracking</a>
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<p>The research – led by myself with a team of sociologists, geographers and neuroscientists – will combine visual ethnography and cognitive neuroscience methods, such as eye tracking, to examine how people use mobile phone sports betting apps and how this shapes sports betting practices. </p>
<p>The project findings will enhance understanding of social practices of sports betting and the role of mobile phone sports betting apps, to help inform gambling policy and programs to support better health and social outcomes.</p>
<p>So, next time an AFL star is caught and pilloried for betting on a game we should recognise they are merely reflecting our social fabric. The AFL could make a start by taking responsibility and rejecting gambling sponsorship.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124157/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ross Gordon has received funding from the Australian Research Council, and the the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation. </span></em></p>Debate about gambling has raged throughout the AFL season, but it’ll take a cultural shift for there to be any meaningful change.Ross Gordon, Professor, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1036042018-09-26T20:18:20Z2018-09-26T20:18:20ZWhy AFL commentary works the same way as Iron Age epic poetry<p><audio preload="metadata" controls="controls" data-duration="0" data-image="" data-title="Erin Sabo reads from the epic poem Beowulf in Old English." data-size="263342" data-source="Erin Sabo" data-source-url="" data-license="" data-license-url="">
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Erin Sabo reads from the epic poem Beowulf in Old English.
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Erin Sabo</span><span class="download"><span>257 KB</span> <a target="_blank" href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/audio/1306/afl8.m4a">(download)</a></span></span>
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<p>The clip above is English, more or less, as it was for the first half millennium of its existence. Although it sounds alien, the basic vocabulary is familiar. Except for the odd rune, like “þ” (which equals “th”), to read or say “Hwæt hæfst þu weorkes?” (literally, “what have you of work?”) isn’t too far from “What do you do for a job?” </p>
<p>Even footballers can do it; here’s ex-Saint Travis Fimmel (okay, sure, he never debuted) speaking Old English on the television series Vikings: </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-epic-of-gilgamesh-73444">Guide to the classics: the Epic of Gilgamesh</a>
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<p>More difficult than learning the language of the Anglo-Saxons is mastering the structure of their epic poetry. Take the translation of the lines you’ve just heard from <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50114/beowulf-modern-english-translation">Beowulf</a>, the Old English poem celebrating the deeds of the eponymous hero, dating back more than a millennium. Not that everyday punters are out trying to learn Old English. But with vivid passages like this, maybe they should:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Spiralled into the clouds, the greatest death-fire, howled before the pyre. Heads melted, wound edges burst, then the blood gushed out; the body’s hate-bites. Flames swallowed all – the greediest guest – of those taken in the battle.</p>
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<p>This passage is fragmented. The poet describes the action – spiralling and howling – before we have any idea what’s going on (as it happens, it’s a funeral). Then we get a smash-cut as the poet elaborates the image of fire as a greedy funeral guest at the funeral. For anyone used to reading modern texts, it’s dizzying. </p>
<p>But then consider a narrative more familiar to AFL fans, Fox Sports’ Adam Papalia calling Fremantle versus Collingwood in Round 23 this year:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>From the wing, driving ball, up towards Taberner – ball brought to ground – Fyfe to do the roving. He slips it through to Brennan Cox – the Dockers could get the answer here! Fumbled here under pressure – Cox taken to ground and holding the ball the decision.</p>
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<p>As soon as we try to place Papalia’s spoken English on the page/screen it becomes hard to understand and our choice of the punctuation changes how you read it. Here, there are also fast-paced topic changes, and visualising action is more important than who performs it. Like an epic poet, Papalia improvises in short phrases, not sentences, because it creates vivid images of fast action. </p>
<h2>Action and digression</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237992/original/file-20180926-149961-me5ay0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237992/original/file-20180926-149961-me5ay0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237992/original/file-20180926-149961-me5ay0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=881&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237992/original/file-20180926-149961-me5ay0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=881&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237992/original/file-20180926-149961-me5ay0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=881&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237992/original/file-20180926-149961-me5ay0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1107&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237992/original/file-20180926-149961-me5ay0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1107&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237992/original/file-20180926-149961-me5ay0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1107&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Beowulf decapitates the demon Grendel. Illustration from Hero-myths & legends of the British race, John Henry Frederick Bacon, 1910.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hero-myths_and_legends_of_the_British_race_(1910)_Grendel.png">Wikimedia</a></span>
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<p>If you’re listening to the action, you need the information in a different order to written English, so the literary decisions commentators make are typical of archaic improvised or <a href="http://art3idea.psu.edu/metalepsis/texts/ring_structure_beowulf.pdf">semi-improvised epic poetry</a>. Action, characterisation and only then the person being talked about. If there’s time, maybe something about the person, too. Something like this: “Scrubs it off the deck – beautiful kick! – Dangerfield, the great man”, or Beowulf’s “Felt body-pain, the fierce aggressor”.</p>
<p>Like epic poets, commentators are always playing for – and with – time. Even commentators responsible for special comments – analysis more so than action – must work around the play. Papalia’s only opportunity for characterisation in that blistering passage of play in Fremantle versus Collingwood is a few word choices: “slips”, “fumbled”, “driving” and “roving”. </p>
<p>And yet he digresses to tell us something that isn’t happening — yet: “Dockers could get the answer here”. And that’s typical of epic poetry too. </p>
<p>In the heat of the fight with the monster, Grendel, the anonymous poet digresses to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319182899_'Fyren'_and_Foreshadowing_the_End_'Beowulf'_879a_915b_and_1744b">foreshadow the future</a> feuds in the Scylding dynasty; ultimately human beings, not monsters, are a greater threat to the Danes.</p>
<p>In short, commentators and epic poets cut ruthlessly to convey action, but then digress or repeat to amplify it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The door gave way, held fast with fire-forged bands. He touched it with his hands – evil-minded – he tore it open, now that he was enraged, the mouth of the hall.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The quick initial description “the door gave way” is restated twice (“he touched it”, “he tore it”). Similarly, in the initial commentary of a Shaun Burgoyne free kick (Hawthorn versus Melbourne semi-final, 2018), commentator Cameron Ling simply says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Burgoyne: did he have his feet taken?</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>The end of the formula “… out from under him” is omitted and the interrogative phrasing is the quickest way of signalling ambivalence about the umpire’s decision. </p>
<p>But Ling follows up with dramatic repetition:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Brayshaw’s already on the ground. He’s going for the ball. That’s not sliding in. That’s not below the knees. That’s not a free.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Notice, too, the abrupt switch of focus at the end of the Beowulf passage, which pulls us back to the point: the monster is now in the hall. </p>
<p>Bruce McAvaney does the same when he calls a goal by Melbourne’s Angus Brayshaw:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Viney twists and turns, and does it magnificently, and kicks to centre half-forward. And Brayshaw takes a beauty. Oh, Viney!</p>
</blockquote>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N-XRj4-AmyE?wmode=transparent&start=281" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Brayshaw gets the goal, but Viney is the main attraction for Bruce.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-icelandic-saga-63112">Guide to the classics: the Icelandic saga</a>
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<h2>Feeling and formula</h2>
<p>In this kind of text, action and digression are always in tension. After Hawthorn’s Tom Mitchell injures his shoulder in the same game, Ling offers a complex response to the initial incident, to what is just, what football should be, what players owe barrackers, and to what intense competition inspires, in three phrases:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All fair. Good hard play. That’s finals footy by Neville Jetta.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet, often, as we’ve seen, redundancy is part of the technique. The “lic-sar”, or “body-pain”, from Beowulf is paralleled in AFL’s “body-strength”, “foot-speed” and hundreds of others. </p>
<p>Beowulf is tearing Grendle’s arm from his shoulder, “seonowe onsprungon·burston banlocan” (“sinews snapped apart, bonelocks burst”). Are we in doubt it’s bodily pain? </p>
<p>And when a commentator praises a player outdistancing another for “foot-speed”, is there any danger barrackers would think mental acuity was intended? But that’s not the point. The language emphasises the physicality, makes the image more vivid, and increases our visceral response.</p>
<p>Formulaic elements like these, and anything from Dennis Cometti’s “centimetre perfect” to Bruce McAvaney’s “specialllllllllllllll”, are part of what we listen for. They can be funny (people tuned in to Rex Hunt’s commentaries for the increasingly elaborate nicknames) and they’re familiar. </p>
<p>They are also practical. They buy the poet/commentator time to improvise something breathtaking and original for the most important moments. In fact, the faster the sport, the <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8a15/4ad67e4b6dac0238dee0df295efd0caa3c7f.pdf">more commentators rely on formulae</a>. </p>
<p>It’s not just phrases. Formulaic constructions also perform this function. Something like “ball brought to ground” and “Cox taken to ground” adapt easily to describe lots of different plays, just like “grew under the skies” and “raged under the skies” (“weox under wulcnum” and “wod under wulcnum”) in Beowulf.</p>
<h2>Building legend</h2>
<p>But back to digression. The divergences from prosaic – in all senses – sentence structure are echoed in larger, narrative “digressions”, where present deeds are understood through the past. </p>
<p>When Beowulf kills Grendel, the Danes improvise a poem comparing him to Sigemund, the greatest past hero; when Hrothgar advises on making difficult decisions, he tells the story of Heremod, who made the wrong decision. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237993/original/file-20180926-149964-ybx6ti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237993/original/file-20180926-149964-ybx6ti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237993/original/file-20180926-149964-ybx6ti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237993/original/file-20180926-149964-ybx6ti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237993/original/file-20180926-149964-ybx6ti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237993/original/file-20180926-149964-ybx6ti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237993/original/file-20180926-149964-ybx6ti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/237993/original/file-20180926-149964-ybx6ti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ray Winstone in the 2007 film Beowulf.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/marvel-meets-mesopotamia-how-modern-comics-preserve-ancient-myths-101529">Marvel meets Mesopotamia: how modern comics preserve ancient myths</a>
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<p>When scores were level in the 2010 AFL Grand Final, 1 minute and 13 seconds before the siren, Denis Cometti said, “Collingwood knows all about draws in a Grand Final,” invoking Collingwood’s 1977 VFL Grand Final versus North Melbourne. And when the ball then went to ground in front of the Saints’ goal, with 54 seconds to go, Leigh Matthews said, “Where’s Barry Breen?”, referring to the player who kicked the winning point in St Kilda’s only grand final triumph, in 1966.</p>
<p>The comparison between the unfolding here-and-now and the mythologised past explains the idea instantly, and with a complexity that would otherwise take many words to match. But it also creates a shared legendary narrative, with each new great deed on the field instantly entering a kind of narrated hall of fame.</p>
<p>AFL commentary developed for radio, designed to replace attendance. In most sports, commentary has modified in response to televised games. But because AFL is played over such a large space, supporters at a match have trouble seeing the action if it is taking place on the other side of the ground (how many spectators enjoy a game more if they are listening to radio commentary, even though they are at the ground?).</p>
<p>Television viewers, meanwhile, cannot see, say, the multiple leads a full-forward makes until ball and player are in the same screenshot. So commentary never became something that was only a vehicle for expert opinion. Even now, commentary replaces or enhances vision — which is also what epic poetry does. Both are improvised, both are devoted to conveying action and both are mesmerising for audiences, trained through long exposure, to be good at listening to them. </p>
<p>If the 2018 AFL Grand Final turns out to be a dud of a game, neutral observers might consider muting Bruce and Lingy and turning instead to an older epic battle.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103604/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Like epic poets, AFL commentators improvise in short phrases, not sentences, because it creates vivid images of fast action.Erin Sebo, Lecturer in Medieval Literature, Flinders UniversityPatrick Allington, Lecturer in English and Creative Writing, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/664852016-10-04T07:17:37Z2016-10-04T07:17:37ZAFL and NRL grand final TV ratings show codes still rely on their traditional heartlands<p>With the AFL and NRL grand finals now played over the same weekend, there’s never been greater scrutiny in comparing the television ratings of these two sport spectacles. While the on-field football contests were both highly combative, the off-field battle between these two winter football codes is arguably just as competitive.</p>
<p>These off-field battles can be measured with metrics such as attendances, memberships, fan numbers and television ratings; all of these critical in maintaining each league’s place in Australian culture. Television ratings are particularly vital: they underpin the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/nrl-inks-18-billion-record-tv-rights-deal-20151126-gl8nvg.html">multi-billion dollar price tags</a> placed on each code’s broadcast rights. This has a flow-on effect in terms of <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/football-fever-will-cost-advertisers-more/news-story/69f40e2deb23b3e1c68c0ded4b5f2810">how much advertisers pay during sport telecasts</a>. </p>
<p>This season offers an unusual opportunity to compare television ratings, given the similar regional blend of teams in the finals. In each game, a local underdog (Western Bulldogs and Cronulla Sharks) played off against an interstate expansion club (Sydney Swans and Melbourne Storm). </p>
<p>While the aggregated ratings figures are well reported, <a href="http://www.afr.com/business/media-and-marketing/tv/bulldogs-and-sharks-fairy-tales-deliver-for-seven-and-nine-20161002-grtgxi">with the AFL generating a national average audience of 4.1 million and NRL 3.7 million</a>, considerably more information about the codes can be inferred from the television ratings data that sits beneath this top-line figure. </p>
<h2>The battle between different codes</h2>
<p>The AFL has placed strategic and financial investment <a href="http://search.informit.com.au/browsePublication;isbn=9780522853667;res=IELHSS">in expanding its game into the northern markets of NSW and Queensland</a>.</p>
<p>As early as 1984, following the establishment of an independent commission, the Victorian Football League produced a strategic plan in which “a programme of national expansion” was one of four key pillars. </p>
<p>This is unsurprising considering current figures; these two northern states not only account for <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3101.0">53% of the population</a>, but are responsible for <a href="http://www.thinktv.com.au/SiteMedia/W3SVC371/Uploads/Documents/Free_TV_Advertising_Revenue_Figures_Jul_to_Dec_2015.pdf">57% of advertising spend on free-to-air television (FTA)</a>.</p>
<p>In addition to this, Sydney is the single largest media market in the country, accounting for 29% of advertising expenditure within Australia (Melbourne is 21%). This distribution of advertising spend between the northern and southern markets explains why the NRL is able to achieve comparable broadcast rights despite the perception of it being a sport that has its hubs in just two states. </p>
<p>Despite the more progressive expansion program of the AFL, whose branding and marketing communications is more focused toward being <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/australiasgame">“Australia’s game”</a>, the distribution of audience across Australia during the 2016 final confirms that both leagues still rely heavily on heartland markets. Specifically, the AFL derived 70% of its metropolitan audience from heartland markets (Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth) while the NRL similarly derived 67% of its audience from Sydney and Brisbane. </p>
<p>The audience share of each market during the finals (average audience divided by population) illustrates that the AFL have indeed made stronger in-roads into the northern markets, although considerable work remains before either game has an even distribution of viewers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140228/original/image-20161004-20196-3is2qe.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140228/original/image-20161004-20196-3is2qe.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140228/original/image-20161004-20196-3is2qe.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140228/original/image-20161004-20196-3is2qe.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140228/original/image-20161004-20196-3is2qe.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140228/original/image-20161004-20196-3is2qe.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140228/original/image-20161004-20196-3is2qe.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figure 1: Average audience share by market and code.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A sign for optimism within NRL headquarters would be that more Melbournians tuned into the NRL final to watch their team (609,000, 12.2% share) compared to Sydney and the AFL grand final (534,000, 10.7% share). However, analysis of ratings suggests that the value of grand final appearances, in terms off promoting the game in expansion markets, is diminishing. </p>
<p>In the case of the Sydney Swans, its local audience in Sydney for 2016 grand final was in fact the lowest of the five grand finals it has featured in since 2005. Similarly, the Melbourne Storm’s audience was the second lowest of the six it has featured in since 2006. </p>
<h2>How engaged are viewers?</h2>
<p>By considering the <a href="http://www.oztam.com.au/termsanddefinitions.aspx">reach of a telecast</a> (the cumulative number of unique viewers who have seen at least one minute of the program), it is possible to calculate the loyalty of an audience. When we look at this for the grand finals, there are significant differences between the codes and across markets. </p>
<p>The AFL appears to have a clear advantage in keeping its fans engaged. The average metropolitan viewer watched 102 of the 160 minute game telecast (64%) while the average NRL viewer watched 67 of the 120 minute game telecast (56%). </p>
<p>These differences however become much larger for the NRL across markets. In Sydney and Brisbane, viewers watched an average 64% of the telecast compared to only 44% in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Therefore, the NRL not only has a smaller audience in these markets overall, but also a less engaged audience. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140224/original/image-20161004-20217-24zvjy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140224/original/image-20161004-20217-24zvjy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140224/original/image-20161004-20217-24zvjy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140224/original/image-20161004-20217-24zvjy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=295&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140224/original/image-20161004-20217-24zvjy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140224/original/image-20161004-20217-24zvjy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/140224/original/image-20161004-20217-24zvjy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figure 2: Average % of telecast watched by market and code.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Free-to-air broadcasters still have large audiences for the grand finals of both codes. Indeed, the ability to achieve such ratings within one weekend is perhaps the ultimate testament to Australia’s sporting culture. </p>
<p>Despite these audiences, both codes remain reliant on their traditional heartland. While the AFL certainly appears to have made strong in-roads, developing a fully engaged national broadcast audience in non-traditional areas remains a generational challenge.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66485/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hunter Fujak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>TV ratings for the NRL and AFL grand finals show its still a challenge to engage a national broadcast audience that covers non-traditional areas.Hunter Fujak, PhD candidate, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/482532015-10-01T06:55:23Z2015-10-01T06:55:23ZLoyalty in sport: who to support if your team is not in the weekend’s footy finals<p>Commentators are prone to describe every weekend as a huge one for sport, but this weekend qualifies as large, even by the inflated standards of the sports hyperbole peddlers.</p>
<p>On Saturday afternoon the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-30/hawks-and-eagles-grand-final-rematch-24-years-in-the-making/6816392">West Coast Eagles meet Hawthorn</a> in the AFL Grand Final at Melbourne’s MCG. The following evening sees Queensland teams the <a href="http://www.theroar.com.au/2015/09/30/nrl-grand-final-preview-brisbane-broncos-vs-north-queensland-cowboys/">Brisbane Broncos and the North Queensland Cowboys</a> enter Cockroach territory to play the NRL Grand Final at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium (better-known as home of the 2000 Olympics).</p>
<p>In between these events and on the other side of the world in the UK, the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/rugby-world-cup/rugby-world-cup-2015-wallabies-prepare-for-england-thunder-at-twickenham-20150929-gjx14x.html">Wallabies play England</a> in the Rugby World Cup at Twickenham, a heart-stopping encounter in the much-touted <a href="http://www.rugby.com.au/News/NewsArticle/tabid/1699/ArticleID/16231/Rugby-World-Cup-Pool-A-What-the-Wallabies-are-up-against.aspx">Pool of Death</a>.</p>
<h2>A question of support</h2>
<p>The question for many television viewers – always the vast majority of spectators for major sports events – is how to negotiate this weekend of heavy-duty media sport.</p>
<p>For those who have no or little interest in Australian rules football, rugby league and rugby union, the choice is simple. A myriad cultural alternatives await, from the performing to the culinary arts, or binge TV comedy and drama or a visit to the movies.</p>
<p>For keen supporters of any of the four teams participating in the finals – out of a total of 36 that set out with so much forlorn hope last autumn – the right move is also fairly obvious.</p>
<p>But what of the large number of people who count themselves as fans of some or all of the sports involved, but do not support any of the teams in the games on view? </p>
<p>If they ignore the matches, they will lay bare one of sport’s enduring myths – that love of the game means a disinterested appreciation of sporting excellence rather than fixating on who wins.</p>
<p>The blunt reality is that, for most of us, sport is just not that interesting unless, like swinging voters in the world of politics, we have skin in the game.</p>
<p>So, the usually effortless process of supporting a team becomes the more complicated one of speedily picking one to champion in any given sports encounter.</p>
<h2>Your loyal support</h2>
<p>Choosing to support a sport team regularly is most straightforward when it is a matter of geography, kinship and culture.</p>
<p>In one-team towns (such as Brisbane, Newcastle or Geelong) it is a matter of civic pride. When there are multiple teams in close proximity it mostly comes down to suburb and family history (such as Collingwood and Manly).</p>
<p>These spatial markers tend to overlap with other cultural histories that confer on teams their particular collective character and reputation (for example, the common attachment of <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/south-sydney-rabbitohs/why-south-sydney-rabbitohs-will-be-forever-linked-with-aboriginal-australia-20141003-10pq8e.html">Indigenous Australians to the South Sydney Rabbitohs</a>).</p>
<p>But this “blood and soil” sport fandom is less viable in an increasingly mobile world where place of birth is left far behind, and may even be in another country. Residual club loyalties determined by origins might endure, but the lure to bond with new neighbours by supporting their teams can be strong.</p>
<p>In any case, football fandom is more flexible than is generally acknowledged. Most sport fans have a second, third and above team to support depending on who they like most, or least dislike. In Grand Finals and World Cups, support tends to swing behind those teams left standing.</p>
<h2>Old rivalries</h2>
<p>When teams with long historical rivalries are playing, the visceral urge to wish failure on the principal enemy should not be underestimated. It may even provide a perverse incentive to watch in the hope of some serious schadenfreude.</p>
<p>Sport marketeers are alive to this flexible sport fandom. For example, during this year’s AFC Asian Cup, Australia-based fans were encouraged to <a href="http://adoptateam.com.au/">adopt other teams</a> when they were not playing against the host nation’s Socceroos.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/meUkCyKMHWo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Sport fans themselves are adept at negotiating their various loyalties, as I have discovered when researching <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14660970.2014.963315">transnational sporting affiliations</a> in Greater Western Sydney.</p>
<p>For most of those who will watch the Australia versus England game in the Rugby World Cup on early Sunday morning, the catch-cry “Anyone but England” – many transplanted Poms excepted – will apply.</p>
<p>But their emotional decision-making will be more complex if, for example, teams of fellow-Pacific Islanders such as Samoa, Tonga and Fiji are playing, or for those of Irish descent who are known to sing “Oh Danny Boy” in the twilight hours.</p>
<p>The question of sporting loyalty to a person’s adopted nation was <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/jan/08/britishidentity.race">famously raised by Norman Tebbit</a>, a former minister in the UK’s Thatcher era, when he said back in 1990:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A large proportion of Britain’s Asian population fail to pass the cricket test. Which side do they cheer for? It’s an interesting test. Are you still harking back to where you came from or where you are?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is a test that many Australian citizens and residents of diverse backgrounds would be happy to fail as the Rugby World Cup unfolds – not least those with close ties across the Tasman.</p>
<p>So, what advice can be offered to the discerning TV sport consumer this weekend? Your options are any or all of the following: </p>
<ul>
<li>do anything but watch the games</li>
<li>avidly support your participating team</li>
<li>watch anyway because you love the sport uncontaminated by partisanship</li>
<li>pick the teams you most or least loathe and watch with intense or casual interest.</li>
</ul>
<p>May the most appealing cultural selection win.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48253/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Rowe receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the Discovery Projects 'A Nation of "Good Sports"? Cultural Citizenship and Sport in Contemporary Australia' (DP130104502) and 'Australian Cultural Fields: National and Transnational Dynamics' (DP140101970), and for the Linkage Project 'Recalibrating Culture: Production, Consumption, Policy' (LP130100253).</span></em></p>Which team you support in sport can depend on many things. But who should you barrack for in this packed weekend of sport if none of your favoured teams are in any of the games?David Rowe, Professor of Cultural Research, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/319842014-09-26T02:32:38Z2014-09-26T02:32:38ZWhy AFL grand final is the most successful event in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/60128/original/2wp9bxfc-1411698410.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hawthorn fans watched the players train this week - everyone is a winner when it comes to the AFL grand final.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Julian Smith</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the Sydney Swans take on Hawthorn at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday, it won’t just be AFL fans cheering.</p>
<p>As Australia’s dominant sport competition, the AFL generates more revenue than any other national sporting code. In 2012 it attracted $425 million comprising ticket sales, memberships, television rights, sponsorships, merchandise, gaming, and sundry income. </p>
<p>In contrast Cricket Australia generated $206 million, while Tennis Australia, National Rugby League, and Football Federation Australia <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/data-point/afl-leaves-other-codes-in-the-dust-20130326-2grkp.html">secured $186 million, $136 million and $95 million respectively</a>. </p>
<p>This not surprising in view of the AFL’s spectator numbers. In 2013 it attracted 6.4 million fans to its home and away games, while another 559,000 attended the finals series. In short, the total season attendance exceeded seven million people. </p>
<p>The NRL cobbled together just over 3.1 million admissions, while the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Australian_football_code_crowds">A League</a> assembled 1.8 million ‘fan visits’ for the season. </p>
<p>The AFL has also become the most popular site for sports betting, excluding horse racing. Horse racing turned over $20 billion in 2012, while the AFL and the NRL churned $900 million and $750 million respectively, <a href="http://australianwageringcouncil.com/assets/docs/Deloitte_-_Optimal_Product_Fees_Report.pdf">underpinned by a 13% annual growth rate</a>. </p>
<p>This is not a bad financial outcome for an enterprise that is technically not for profit, has no shareholders, and is not required to pay dividends. Being a company limited by guarantee, the AFL is able to undertake commercial initiatives, but does not have to pay tax on its profits, since, legally speaking, it only makes surpluses. </p>
<p>These surplus funds are reinvested in the business, so to speak, and used to “grow the game” into the future.</p>
<p>The second point to note that as a highlight of the Australian sporting calendar, the grand final receives saturated media exposure - its national television audience usually peaks at around 4.5 million, which makes it the <a href="http://www.sevenwestmedia.com.au/docs/default-source/business-unit-news/2013-afl-grand-final-dominates-on-seven.pdf?sfvrsn=2">highest rating Saturday afternoon television event for the year</a>. </p>
<p>It is additionally the highest rating football competition, with NRL grand final viewership usually peaking at just over 3.9 million.</p>
<p>The AFL grand final is also good for the city of Melbourne. The excitement begins with the Brownlow medal count for the best player of the season, it builds with the parade of players through the city streets on Friday, and culminates in the frenetic playing out of the game on Saturday afternoon. It is an <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/gallery/2013-09-27/grand-final-parade">old ritual</a>, but a good one.</p>
<p>Many fans come from interstate, and, from a commercial perspective the more “out of towners” the better. Saturday’s game is anticipated to draw 30,000 interstate fans. </p>
<p>On the assumption they will have spent $200 on a ticket, paid $600 for two nights of accommodation, and spent another $500 on food, drink, and entertainment, then this average per-person spend of $1,400 will generate additional in-Melbourne expenditure of $42 million. This becomes a <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/sydney-fan-invasion-to-give-victoria-an-extra-10-million-boost/story-fni0fit3-1227067080996">valuable boost the local economy</a>.</p>
<p>But, Melbourne gets more than commercial benefits from hosting the AFL grand Final. The psychological, social, and cultural benefits are less tangible, but are more significant. This is because the AFL grand final is more than a game, and more than an event. It is a sporting festival that brings people together in the most inclusive of ways. Class divisions are forgotten, social bonds are created, friendships are strengthened, civic pride is enhanced, and individuals feel emotionally alive. </p>
<p>There is massive community goodwill, and connectivity and optimism dominate the mood of the city. It celebrates our egalitarianism, and allows us to reflect on our democratic traditions. It also highlights our rich cultural heritage, and especially the magnificent achievements of <a href="http://aflcommunityclub.com.au/index.php?id=790">our aboriginal footballers</a>. It is the perfect springtime experience.</p>
<p>Critics argue that the AFL is a focal point for brutal exhibitions of ugly hyper-masculinity, a site for a barrage of racist and homophobic commentary, a game that <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/society-and-culture/kicking-goals-on-gay-pride-20130205-2dwdp.html">marginalises minorities</a>, and an institution that not only sexualises women, but also accommodates violence against them. In response, the AFL argues it is trying actively to <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/news/2013-08-13/rulebreakers-a-short-history-of-conduct-unbecoming">change the culture</a> that enables these problems.</p>
<p>The AFL Grand Final is both good for the economy and good for society. It is Australia’s most socially responsible sporting enterprise, and by any measure, contributes an enormous amount of social utility to the broader community. It is a great indigenous game, a first-order icon, and a national treasure, all wrapped into one.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31984/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bob Stewart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When the Sydney Swans take on Hawthorn at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday, it won’t just be AFL fans cheering. As Australia’s dominant sport competition, the AFL generates more revenue than any…Bob Stewart, Associate Professor in the School of Sport and Exercise Science, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/320962014-09-25T20:06:55Z2014-09-25T20:06:55ZWho will be the weakest link on AFL Grand Final day?<p>Hawthorn has recovered after a rough patch this season, with key players shaking off injuries and its tenacious coach returning after a health scare. So why have the Hawks earned their spot on Saturday’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/afl">AFL</a> Grand Final against the Sydney Swans despite their run of setbacks?</p>
<p>Quite simply, Hawthorn has developed a plan that prevents the team from slipping if something goes astray. All developing players act like understudies and have learned to step up when the cracks appear. </p>
<p>Emerging Hawks have earned their spots, including midfielder Will Langford and defender Taylor Duryea. The cyclic nature of football has meant players need to perform well at the elite level when a berth opens up. This has happened at Hawthorn.</p>
<p>Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson’s has shown foresight to condition most of his players to attack and convert goals, while practising under pressure. Inaccurate kicking cost Hawthorn the 2012 premiership against the Swans.</p>
<p>Despite Hawthorn’s methodical approach to help them win consistently, the team’s flaws may become exposed in the Grand Final. The question is: who is the weakest link?</p>
<h2>Identifying weakness</h2>
<p>There are some glaring weaknesses in the Hawks’ line-up and they’re all related to players recovering from leg injuries. Sam Mitchell looked slow when he was tackled and penalised last week, and although he is a workhorse, his recent hamstring injury may have impacted on his speed.</p>
<p>Hawks star forward Cyril Rioli has virtually no match fitness and is a wild card after returning from a serious hamstring tear. </p>
<p>If Swans forward Lance “Buddy” Franklin converts accurately and often, then Sydney will claim the flag. But if the Hawks’ key players – captain Luke Hodge, Brian Lake, Josh Gibson, Jarryd Roughead, Mitchell and Rioli – all play to capacity, then the match will be a nail biter.</p>
<p>Sydney’s line-up is packed with talent, boasting two of the AFL’s most talented forwards, Franklin and Kurt Tippett, who are match winners. The Swans’ fleet-footed midfielders - Dan Hannebery, ex-Hawk Josh Kennedy, Lewis Jetta, Luke Parker and Kieren Jack - will play a fast, attacking game out of the centre.</p>
<p>But the Hawks are excellent fighters and are better at winning tight matches, often relying on their improved goal kicking to win.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59955/original/cgjfy7yh-1411597055.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59955/original/cgjfy7yh-1411597055.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59955/original/cgjfy7yh-1411597055.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59955/original/cgjfy7yh-1411597055.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59955/original/cgjfy7yh-1411597055.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59955/original/cgjfy7yh-1411597055.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59955/original/cgjfy7yh-1411597055.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59955/original/cgjfy7yh-1411597055.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=820&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Online poll results.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-premiership/the-list-fox-footys-league-teams-asks-viewers-to-decide-which-is-the-afls-best-biggame-player/story-e6frf3e3-1227069414874">Fox Sports</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Full forward Roughead is a proud player and he will be pumped to take on the Swans’ defence. Roughead won’t want to see Franklin upstage him at the other end of the ground. Roughead is capable of swinging matches and the Hawks will be relying on his versatility to dominate the forward line.</p>
<p>Hodge was exceptional in the dying minutes against Port Adelaide in the Preliminary Final. In a Fox Sports <a href="http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-premiership/the-list-fox-footys-league-teams-asks-viewers-to-decide-which-is-the-afls-best-biggame-player/story-e6frf3e3-1227069414874">footy poll published this week</a>, fans voted Hodge as the AFL’s best big-time player.</p>
<p>Hodge’s steadiness in high-pressure games could prove the difference between the highly talented units. </p>
<h2>The winning team</h2>
<p>The team that wants it more often wins and so there needs to be a high workrate around the ball. The old saying, “the harder you work, the luckier you get”, has relevance when it’s down to the wire. Hodge leads by example, and under his on-field leadership, the players mostly remain focused on their team roles.</p>
<p>After Hawthorn’s <a href="http://www.theroar.com.au/2012/09/29/afl-grand-final-2012-full-time-result-sydney-91-81-hawthorn/">2012 Grand Final loss</a> to the Swans, former Hawk champion Leigh Matthews said the Hawks lost the game because they lacked composure, their workrate was lower and they kicked too many points. Since then, Hawthorn has worked to correct these weaknesses.</p>
<p>Big-game Hawthorn forward Jordan Lewis is recovering from a corked thigh and his mobility was affected in last Saturday’s Preliminary Final against Port Adelaide. </p>
<p>I’m not convinced a player can recover from a corked thigh and perform optimally after a week. These injuries can take two-to-four weeks to heal, as there is internal bleeding. Lewis says he has recovered well, but I believe this injury may impact on his speed.</p>
<p>Kennedy has recently returned from a hamstring injury and he may not be at peak fitness when he fronts up in the middle.</p>
<h2>Under pressure</h2>
<p>If anyone will choke on Grand Final day, it’s often the players who haven’t been there before. Hawthorn’s Duryea and Matthew Spangher are among those untested in Grand Finals.</p>
<p>Tippett proved he handles pressure well after a brilliant match against North Melbourne last week, while Swans livewire Ben McGlynn will play in his first Grand Final after missing out in 2008 (Hawks) and 2012 (Swans). </p>
<p>The overwhelming sensation of playing in a Grand Final can often make players fumble and miss goals. That’s why some Grand Finals are ugly, scrappy affairs.</p>
<p>I’m tipping the Swans to win, based on three observations. Buddy’s ego is huge and he wants to win a premiership for the Swans. Mitchell may be outrun by the Swans’ class midfielders and Rioli, desperately lacking match fitness, might act as a passenger.</p>
<p><br></p>
<p><strong>Further reading:</strong> </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-afl-grand-final-a-carnival-of-struggle-passion-and-tragedy-31775">The AFL grand final – a carnival of struggle, passion and tragedy</a><br>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/buddy-franklin-has-the-swagger-but-can-he-be-an-aussie-hero-31985">Buddy Franklin has the swagger – but can he be an Aussie hero?</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32096/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Tullberg does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hawthorn has recovered after a rough patch this season, with key players shaking off injuries and its tenacious coach returning after a health scare. So why have the Hawks earned their spot on Saturday’s…Julie Tullberg, Digital journalism coordinator, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/319852014-09-25T01:49:35Z2014-09-25T01:49:35ZBuddy Franklin has the swagger – but can he be an Aussie hero?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59755/original/jfrtjww3-1411440507.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In football’s biggest week, Franklin is football’s biggest story.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/NEWZULU/HUGH PETERSWALD</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s early in the fourth quarter and Lance “Buddy” Franklin is enjoying himself. Celebrating his 200th game <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/match-centre/2014/21/syd-v-stk">against St Kilda</a> at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) last month, the Sydney Swans forward has already booted eight goals and clearly wants more. He’s been swaggering since his first goal, four minutes into the match.</p>
<p>It’s one of those days where, even as a Swans fan, you feel sorry for his defenders. Hapless, face in hands, they try to keep it all together. But the ball keeps coming in and Buddy keeps doing his thing.</p>
<p>His ninth goal is the best of the lot. Like Mick Jagger leaving Satisfaction until the encore, Franklin skips around one opponent, holds another off with his right hand and slams the ball through with his left foot. Around me, grown men and women shake their heads in happy disbelief. </p>
<p>On Saturday afternoon, Franklin will line up against his old side, Hawthorn, in the AFL grand final. In football’s biggest week, he’s football’s biggest story.</p>
<p>Since joining the Swans in late 2013, Buddy has rarely left the spotlight. Before the season began, media reports claimed he was corrupting Sydney’s internal culture. Tabloids suggested he was enjoying the Bondi lifestyle a little too much. In April, he <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/entertainment/sydney-confidential/jesinta-campbell-and-buddy-franklin-back-behind-the-wheel-after-franklins-crash/story-fni0cvc9-1226901204239">crashed</a> his girlfriend’s Jeep into five parked cars. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59757/original/hmv6vgyy-1411443099.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59757/original/hmv6vgyy-1411443099.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59757/original/hmv6vgyy-1411443099.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59757/original/hmv6vgyy-1411443099.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59757/original/hmv6vgyy-1411443099.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59757/original/hmv6vgyy-1411443099.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1455&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59757/original/hmv6vgyy-1411443099.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59757/original/hmv6vgyy-1411443099.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1455&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sydney Swans player Lance ‘Buddy’ Franklin at Bronte Beach on May 30, 2014, after beating the Geelong Cats at the SCG the night before.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Hugh Peterswald</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But by the end of the season, his talent was well and truly the main story. Crowds flocked to the SCG to see him play. He finished the season with the Coleman Medal, the award given to the AFL’s highest goal kicker. The word “hero” was thrown around liberally.</p>
<p>But does Buddy Franklin really make sense as an Australian hero? Brash, confident, so aware that he’s brilliant, how does he fit within the line of national idols?</p>
<p>Peter Carey, the prize-winning Australian novelist, once said that our tales of heroism were all about loss. Ned Kelly, a bushranger who was hanged by the police; Burke and Wills, explorers who got lost and died; Gallipoli, a military adventure doomed from its inception. Because the Australian landscape is so unforgiving, Carey argued that the national narrative is defined by stoicism in the face of great challenges.</p>
<p>Take the ABC’s recent series, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/anzac-girls/">ANZAC Girls</a>. The show is about the Australian nurses who served at Gallipoli and the Western Front, placing women at the centre of the Anzac legend. The nurses are seen as heroic, but not because of technical brilliance. What’s really heroic is their competence in the face of brutal adversity. </p>
<p>The historian <a href="http://www.monash.edu.au/research/people/profiles/profile.html?sid=234&pid=2614">Graeme Davison</a> made a similar point when he argued Australians have largely been “wary of hero worship”. In a country that wanted to believe that “Jack is as good as his master”, the existence of heroes was a threat to egalitarianism. The greatest insult of all was to be a “wanker” – aware of your own superiority. </p>
<p>But writing in the year 2000, Davidson thought this was slowly changing. The phrase “tall poppy syndrome” entered the national vocabulary. Australians were more enthusiastic about honouring high achievers, especially if they played sport. In his book <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/5725392">The Use and Abuse of Australian History</a>, he wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Egalitarians were more likely to rejoice in the fall of the high achiever … but those who wished to cut down the tall poppies were outnumbered by those who wished them to grow taller.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Buddy Franklin walks this cultural tightrope. He’s not exactly a “wanker” – from all reports he’s a great and supportive team-mate. It’s just that he knows he’s good. You can see it in the way he struts after a goal, the way he drinks in the applause of his fans. </p>
<p>But if some Australians do love Buddy’s confident brilliance, some of the old egalitarian spirit remains. After his car crash and a poor start to the year, people were quick to bring him down. A small crack in the armour was enough. He was a waste of money whose arrogance was killing the Swans from the inside. </p>
<p>Compare this to the way Americans handled Lance Armstrong. Despite glaring personality flaws – egotism, bullying, lying – he continued to be the country’s spotless sporting idol. The country believed in the power of the heroic individual. While the house of cards did eventually collapse, it was only when the US could no longer honestly avert its eyes from the truth.</p>
<p>The Australian hero might be slowly moving towards the American ideal – valuing excellence above all, comfortable with superiority – but we’re not there yet. Arrogance is still quickly pulled down.</p>
<p>But as a Swans fan, I for one will let that slide on Saturday afternoon. If Buddy kicks another nine goals, he can strut as much as he wants. </p>
<p>He’ll still be a hero to me.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31985/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shaun Crowe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s early in the fourth quarter and Lance “Buddy” Franklin is enjoying himself. Celebrating his 200th game against St Kilda at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) last month, the Sydney Swans forward has…Shaun Crowe, Research Manager and Doctoral Candidate, Centre for the Study of Australian Politics, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/317752014-09-24T20:30:12Z2014-09-24T20:30:12ZThe AFL grand final – a carnival of struggle, passion and tragedy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59688/original/w4fb3gmd-1411362228.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What keeps us watching AFL, even when we'd rather not? </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Theron Kirkman/AAP Image</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In September each year, for more than a century now, Australians have participated in the triumphs and tragedies of the annual carnival of the boot. We celebrate football as a quasi-religious, tribal homage to athleticism and mental strength, and symbol of humanity’s longing for transcendence. </p>
<p>You don’t need to be a football fanatic to get caught up in this collective ritual. What Shakespeare did for theatre, our footballers do for the arena. Their exertions invite us to project our hopes and fears, torments and joys onto them. If they win, they validate our hope. Yes, we can prevail over adversity. Yes, we can live large. </p>
<p>Then there’s the agony of defeat. The sudden-death executions of recent weeks – Port Adelaide’s one-goal defeat by Hawthorn in Saturday’s preliminary final, and the stunned reaction of Geelong players to their eviction from the finals by North Melbourne the previous week – testify to the shock and pain of giving everything you’ve got, and failing. Yet, human to the core, we empathise with the losers. We admire what they gave, not what they lost. They find their own place in our hearts.</p>
<p>Sport’s iconic moments stand transfixed in time, as if eternal. In 1970, before the largest crowd ever to witness a grand final - 121,696 people at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) - Carlton came back from 44 points down to beat arch-rivals Collingwood. Only a religious metaphor - Lazarus rising - suffices. </p>
<p>Hawthorn’s victory over Geelong in the 1989 season-decider was due in no small part to a troika of wounded heroes who played on despite concussion (John Platten), a punctured lung (Robert DiPierdomenico) and broken ribs (Dermott Brereton). Geelong too had its heroes. Gary Ablett Senior (aka “God”) scored nine goals, but even this record-equalling individual haul of six-pointers in a grand final couldn’t save the Cats.</p>
<p>Then there are those like Hawthorn captain Michael Tuck, injured in the same game, who never won a Brownlow Medal but through talent and staying power amassed in his career more distinctions than a decorated war hero, including a record number of finals played (39), grand finals played (11) and premierships won (7).</p>
<p>It’s all about the human search for immortality and glory, fame and riches, how we get them and how we cope with not getting them. It’s the story of our lives enacted on a stage by players for whom it is real. And that conundrum – the game that matters, the myth that is real – has a history, a record of like deeds in different times against which the present may be measured. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59675/original/dv4bfjjj-1411360223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59675/original/dv4bfjjj-1411360223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59675/original/dv4bfjjj-1411360223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59675/original/dv4bfjjj-1411360223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59675/original/dv4bfjjj-1411360223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59675/original/dv4bfjjj-1411360223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59675/original/dv4bfjjj-1411360223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59675/original/dv4bfjjj-1411360223.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hawthorn players celebrate after winning the 2013 AFL Grand Final.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Crosling/AAP Image</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In AFL history, the grand finals serve as the milestones. The players are the heroes, but in the strange alchemy of time’s passing all individual achievements accrue to the tribe, in this case, the clubs. In their histories we see replicated the rise and fall of nations and dynasties. </p>
<p>Fitzroy, Carlton and Essendon were the dominant forces before the first world war, followed by a Collingwood ascendancy that spanned three decades and included four successive grand final victories in 1928-1931, the greatest winning streak in Aussie Rules history. </p>
<p>The Magpies owned the 1920s and 1930s, appearing in 14 of the 19 grand finals played between 1919 and the outbreak of the second world war. </p>
<p>Come the 1940s and the Dons dominated, playing in seven of the ten grand finals that decade and winning 4 of them, but losing the 1948 replay of the first ever drawn grand final to Melbourne.</p>
<p>The Dees would go on to do even better, contesting seven consecutive grand finals between 1954 and 1960, winning five of them. The 60s saw a more democratic sharing of the glory, with seven different teams winning grand finals in that decade and no one outfit dominant. </p>
<p>Along the way, struggling clubs chalked up debutante victories – Footscray in 1954, Hawthorn in 1961 and St Kilda in 1966. In the 70s, Hawthorn and North Melbourne established a clear ascendancy before the 1980s witnessed the Hawks’ golden era of seven consecutive grand finals, winning four of them and adding a fifth in 1991. </p>
<p>Geelong’s four grand finals between 2007 and 2011 – three of which they won – gave birth to yet another legend.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59673/original/frw5fbmc-1411359866.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59673/original/frw5fbmc-1411359866.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59673/original/frw5fbmc-1411359866.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59673/original/frw5fbmc-1411359866.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59673/original/frw5fbmc-1411359866.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59673/original/frw5fbmc-1411359866.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59673/original/frw5fbmc-1411359866.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59673/original/frw5fbmc-1411359866.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Geelong players holds the premiership cup after defeating Collingwood in the AFL Grand Final at the MCG in Melbourne, in 2011. Geelong beat Collingwood by 18.11.(119) to 12.9.(81).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">JOE CASTRO/AAP IMAGE</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This history of winners conceals some of the great droughts in the annals of organised sports. For teams like St Kilda and Footscray, winning has never been a habit. Both have just a single flag to their names, and the Saints had to wait 69 years for theirs. </p>
<p>Big winners have become woeful losers. In the 53 years from 1937 to 1989 inclusive, the Magpies won just two premierships. Their first big drought lasted 18 years, the second, 32 years. The 70s were particularly cruel to the “Colliwobbles”, beaten five times in grand finals between 1970 and 1981, including a lost replay to Norths after the drawn grand final in 1977, and three consecutive losses in 1979-1981. </p>
<p>Yet such travails have only accentuated the cathartic vindication on those memorable occasions when the modern Magpies have thrown off their curse, most notably in the 1958 Grand Final, when they faced down the might of Melbourne who were coming off the back of three consecutive grand final victories and were gunning to equal Collingwood’s record or four straight flags, only to be denied.</p>
<p>Individual players too had droughts. Former Fitzroy star Paul Roos was nearing retirement when he finally got his chance to play in a grand final. He’d played 313 Victorian Football League (VFL)/AFL games before running onto the MCG for the Sydney Swans against North Melbourne in 1996, only to experience the bitterness of defeat. It would be another decade before he was redeemed, not as a player, but as coach. Roos masterminded the Swans’ 2005 Grand Final victory over West Coast, 72 years since the Swans, formerly based in South Melbourne, had last won the title. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59682/original/g5439st4-1411360968.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59682/original/g5439st4-1411360968.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59682/original/g5439st4-1411360968.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59682/original/g5439st4-1411360968.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59682/original/g5439st4-1411360968.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59682/original/g5439st4-1411360968.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1079&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59682/original/g5439st4-1411360968.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1079&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59682/original/g5439st4-1411360968.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1079&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Paul Roos in 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julian Smith/ AAP Image. </span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But Roos’ and the Swans’ respite would be brief. The following year Sydney made the grand final, again facing West Coast, and lost by a point. They joined Essendon and Collingwood as one of only three sides who have lost grand finals by the meanest possible margin.</p>
<p>Every game adds a new line to the cumulative narrative that is AFL history. Every grand final closes a chapter. The intensity with which the players sacrifice their bodies, and the psychological trauma that they and their coaches suffer in defeat is fueled in part by a consciousness of their place on this continuum. </p>
<p>Material wounds and rewards aside, the story is what imbues their quest with much of its meaning. But is this history, as postmodernists since Jean-Franҫois Lyotard have argued, a metanarrative, the story of a story that irons out all contrarian wrinkles and inconvenient contradictions, producing an easily commodified mythic delusion?</p>
<p>My reading of the AFL’s metanarrative suggests it’s an evidence-based cake, frosted with mythic significance. The game’s vast statistical database, supported by eye-witness anecdotal accounts – what Lyotard called “<em>petit recits</em>”, or particularities of a singular event – provides rich materials from which to conjure epic narratives, and subversive ones. </p>
<p>The AFL story can be told as an ode to individual exploits, or a saga of collective club fortunes; as a social history or as an analytical success story. Whichever way you cut it, it’s a good yarn. </p>
<p>Yet the game’s essential truth - that it <em>is</em> just a game - is lost when the audience gets caught up in the dramas that the sport so regularly produces, and comes to believe that there is something actually transcendent about what they witness. The reality is that this drama is principally the product of more than a century of indefatigable tinkering by officials with the rules and structures that govern the sport.</p>
<p>The original Victorian Football League did not stage grand finals. As with England’s Football Association league, the team that won the most games during the season would be crowned as champions. </p>
<p>In 1897, the VFL opted for a finals season that pitted the four top teams in a round robin series to decide the premiership. Fitzroy won the most games, and so became premiers, but something was missing - the culminating drama of a grand final. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59679/original/bvcp5scr-1411360619.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59679/original/bvcp5scr-1411360619.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59679/original/bvcp5scr-1411360619.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59679/original/bvcp5scr-1411360619.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59679/original/bvcp5scr-1411360619.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59679/original/bvcp5scr-1411360619.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59679/original/bvcp5scr-1411360619.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59679/original/bvcp5scr-1411360619.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sydney players celebrate after their win in the 2012 AFL Grand Final against Hawthorn.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Joe Castro</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the next three decades, the VFL would trial different forms of finals football, often getting it wrong. Anomalies plagued the system. In some years the minor premiers would benefit from losing a preliminary final, while in others, the semi-final would “decide” the premiership, leading to low attendance at the grand final. </p>
<p>Gradually, as they ironed out the bugs in the structure and rules of the game, crowd numbers began increasing steadily and then rapidly. The league’s subsequent success, I would argue, owed more to its administrators’ determination to find the winning formula for a closely contested competition with an enthralling end to the season, than to any epic quality inherent in the game. As in literature, epic is a conjurer’s trick.</p>
<p>Sport is also a science. It is, for example, obsessed with statistics. It’s also a process of refinement and improvement of measurable human physical performance. </p>
<p>A hundred years ago Aussies Rules was a low scoring affair. In the first ten grand finals from 1898 to 1907, the average winner’s score was less than six goals, 47 points to be precise. In the lowest scoring game of the 20th century, the 1927 Grand Final played in atrocious conditions, Collingwood and Richmond kicked three goals between them. Collingwood won 2.13 (25) to Richmond’s 1.7 (13). I doubt anyone complained about poor defence on that occasion.</p>
<p>By contrast, grand final victors over the past decade have scored on average 16 goals. Sports science and hyper-professionalism (and, for all we know, performance enhancing drugs) have upped the ante. </p>
<p>Science, mathematics, and well-administered sports have something else in common: a methodology that rewards excellence and punishes sloppyness. In a well-run sport, unlike art prizes and cooking shows, taste and subjectivity are relegated to the margins. </p>
<p>Audience satisfaction demands that the best team should always win, and the scoring structure of AFL, with its six points for an accurate kick on goal, and one point for being close but off target, helps deliver fair outcomes. In soccer, a penalty awarded by a referee often accounts for half or all of the points scored in a game. When did an AFL umpire’s decisions contribute that ratio of points to the final score?</p>
<p>An added bonus is high scoring games - more goals, more bang for the spectator buck. In 1972, the Carlton v Richmond grand final produced a record combined score of (50.27) 327.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zx76wjpnl9E?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">1972 VFL (AFL) Grand Final Highlights - Richmond v Carlton.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then there are the intervals. When it comes to calibrating a contest, four quarters are better than two halves, providing breaks in which trailing teams regroup and with their coach’s help, change course and claw their way back into the game.</p>
<p>Combine the AFL’s relative fairness, lots of goals, the dramatic dividend of a scoring system and game structure in which six goals is by no means an insurmountable lead, and the slow build up to a tumultuous grand final day via a series of sudden-death preliminary and elimination finals, and you have the stuff that sporting dreams - and revenues - are made of.</p>
<p>A century of fine-tuning has developed a lucrative and dramatic spectacle, the ultimate bread and circus.</p>
<p>Melbourne’s MCG has been the stage upon which this metadrama has been played, expanding to accommodate consistently large audiences, and in the process magnifying the spectacle. The objective measure of the AFL’s success remains the number of people who turn up to watch the code each week. </p>
<p>In 2013, almost 7 million people came through the gates, double the number who attend National Rugby League games. Average AFL attendance ranks fourth among the world’s sports leagues behind America’s National Football League, Germany’s Bundesliga and Britain’s Football Association. AFL’s <em>per capita</em> crowds are far higher than all of them. The AFL grand final attracts more spectators to the ground than either America’s Super Bowl or England’s FA Cup.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59689/original/5mb4jnmx-1411362739.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59689/original/5mb4jnmx-1411362739.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59689/original/5mb4jnmx-1411362739.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59689/original/5mb4jnmx-1411362739.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59689/original/5mb4jnmx-1411362739.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59689/original/5mb4jnmx-1411362739.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59689/original/5mb4jnmx-1411362739.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/59689/original/5mb4jnmx-1411362739.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Geelong football fans at the 2009 AFL Grand Final.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joe Castro/AAP Image</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As if all that were not enough, the AFL - and, in fact, all national sports - have, without really meaning to, contributed to the patchy, not always inclusive, but slowly maturing sense of nationhood in our country. The irony is that this sense of shared identity is fostered by intense regional, interstate and local rivalries. </p>
<p>In football in the 1980s and 90s, these rivalries saw the two major football codes of Aussie Rules and Rugby League embark on efforts to colonise each other’s heartlands. Victoria exported two of its teams - South Melbourne and Fitzroy - to establish franchises in Sydney and Brisbane, while New South Wales invented the Melbourne Storm. The old state-based football leagues were superseded by national ones.</p>
<p>The results were almost immediate, and not always welcome. Between 1992 and 2006, interstate teams won two out of every three AFL grand finals played, including the Brisbane Lions’ hat-trick of premiership victories in 2001-03. For three years in a row (2004-2006) no Victorian team made the grand final. </p>
<p>Although they didn’t know it at the time, the pioneers of the Victorian Football League began what would become Australia’s pre-eminent football code and a sporting competition that ranks with any in the world. The players have provided the necessary talent and hunger, the clubs the institutional memories, funding and cultures, the spectators the dedicated audience, and the media has chipped in with relentless enthusiasm and hyperbole. </p>
<p>Do we care too much about sport? Possibly, but every nation has its obsessions and flaws. Success speaks for itself, and whatever the outcome of this year’s AFL season, 2014 has done justice to the rich history of struggle, triumph, passion and tragedy that is Australia’s football code <em>par excellence</em>, reminding us once more that as Shakespeare put it: “All the world’s a stage/ And all the men and women merely players”.</p>
<p><br>
<em>Dr Christopher Kremmer is the author of <a href="http://www.panmacmillan.com.au/display_title.asp?ISBN=9781405039932&Author=Kremmer,%20Christopher">The Chase</a>, a historical novel set in the corrupt world of horse racing in Australia in the 1940s and 50s.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31775/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Kremmer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In September each year, for more than a century now, Australians have participated in the triumphs and tragedies of the annual carnival of the boot. We celebrate football as a quasi-religious, tribal homage…Christopher Kremmer, Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.