#attackingplayers

One of the reasons we have zone defences in the AFL is to make the game more dynamic. There has been a concerted effort over the last decade by the official game definers to ensure maximum amounts of scoring occur in matches. This is why, as an observer, you see players in the backline guarding space rather than an opponent. This porous approach to defending results in more fluid movement of the football through those guarding the goals. This is, also, why you see so many intercept marks by defenders. Very few actual defenders get drafted into the AFL anymore, as most of those playing in the backline are midfielders and more attacking types of talls.

AFL Is All About Attack Rather Than Defence

It can be very frustrating, as a supporter, to watch your team leak goals like a sieve. Players like witches’ hats stand off from their opponents several metres. A switched on attacking team can slice through zone defences like a hot knife in butter. Those of us who grew up on ‘man on man’ football find ourselves punching cushions on the couch and swearing loudly in despair. Putting pressure on around the ball makes forward forays more difficult but this doesn’t always happen. Players stand off their counterparts to provide attacking options themselves, as the game of AFL has become a matter of competing offences. It becomes all about the more effective attack winning games of football. Very few actual defenders get drafted into the AFL, on this basis. “Somebody teach these Swans how to tackle. The number of broken tackles I witnessed were too many to be counted on all my fingers and toes.” - (https://www.golfdom.com.au/geelong-reminds-us-swans-just-too-soft/) Drafting Attack Over Defence In AFL Goal Fest Intent The AFL Commission wants to see lots of goals and players using the ball in chains of attack across the ground. AFL is fast and furious. The ball carrier is always favoured by the umpires. Those making the play are advantaged over those defending against it via tackling and other forms of physical pressure. The current crop of game designers do not want to see the intense, low scoring, types of games prevalent between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles of the mid-2000s. In these finals, tackling and ball ups were king in hotly fought contested matches. Defenders defended as if their lives depended on it. Unlike today, where defenders are very thin on the ground. Body types have changed in sympathy with this designed evolution of the game, with slimmer less stockily muscled players running about on field. Daniel Hoyne would say, how you use the ball has become more important than just winning the contest. Outside ball users over inside bulls. Concussion Rearing Its Ugly Head Has concussion reared its ugly head to turn the game this way? Has the fear of brain injury and litigious actions taken AFL down a different road in terms of how the game is played? The bump is pretty much outlawed, as is the dangerous tackle and any front on contact involving the head. Due to the fact that all parts of the human body are connected this becomes onerous in interpretation by officialdom. Will AFL end up more like soccer in evolving away from being a contact sport? Eventually, one can see this arising as the realisation sinks in about the real dangers of players continually banging into one another on the field. Zone defences reduce the volume of contact and the demise of man on man football is likely all part of this evolution of the sport. Very few actual defenders get drafted into the AFL these days. More and more we see highly talented tall midfielders performing athletically and avoiding physical contact out on the field. Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera is the perfect illustration of this. “Players don't wait this long and then stay, do they? Generally not, but players also don't tend to traverse a contract year with the precision, class and brilliance that Wanganeen-Milera has displayed on his way to becoming football's first ever $2 million player, as revealed by AFL.com.au on Monday.” - 9 https://www.afl.com.au/news/1396089/inside-the-decision-the-two-meetings-that-sealed-nasiah-wanganeen-milera-future-at-st-kilda-saints) Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; Money Matters and America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump. ©GolfDom