Following on with things that annoy me about AFL.
The running through a crepe paper banner before a game. What the fuck. Let the supporters/cheer squad/toothless degenerates have a tifo…
Oh, and AFL doesn’t have derbies. Oh no, that’d be too close to a football terminology.
They have showdowns. At least in Adelaide.
They can’t even call a inter-city rivalry a derby. Sydney Swans v GWS is the Battle of the Bridge 
Unlike the Big Blue, The Distance Derby, the F3 Derby etc
Shit marketing is shit marketing
TBF, that’s an intra-city derby.
Wait til they discover that same barracks invented the flat white. 
Yeah, nah.
Cheer squad and guernsey both belong in the bin.
In Perth they call the West Coast and Freo game the Western Derby.
But they pronounce it D-er-by, not D-ar-by like most of the country. Anything to be different for WA…
I always say D-er-by over D-ar-by for the sole reason it winds up my West Coast membership holding wife.
Trust me it is the height of comedy.
I just seen that seppo Collingwood player Mason Cox has claimed to be world champion.
I also am now aware of a seppo in the AFL who appears to have only changed to the abominable Victorian pursuit in his twenties.
Is this a thing or are we just talking about Israel Folau?
Well, the bloke that hillbilly pointed out seemingly went from being a college basketball player in the U.S. to debuting in the AFL in 2 years… according to his wiki, we was invited to a combine in the U.S in 2014 and made his debut in the AFL in 2016 - and succeeded.
There is also that Canadian rugby player who was signed by the Swans, with zero AFL experience and went and played 100+ games for them.
I don’t follow AFL at all, I think its a terrible game, but via osmosis of having a family member who is really into it, I hear about these things from time to time - it has always struck me that being able to play a sport at it’s top level with no history and 1 or 2 years training means the skill level is obviously very low - just need to be a good athlete.
I was always surprised that after his failed A-League bid, the AFL didn’t chuck wads of cash at Usain Bolt to give AFL a crack
Mason Cox and Mike Pyke (the Canadian) are both also 200cm+ giving them a distinct physical advantage in the ruck. I understand what’s being said but there are so many instances you can cherry pick for either side of the debate.
Carmichael Hunt played AFL as a junior, but was an abject failure… Israel Folau was in the same vein as Mariners trialling Bolt. A marketing ploy and nothing else. Those 2 were NRL jazz bait and they were hopeless.
Alex Carey captained GWS and won a best and fairest in the leadup to their AFL debut. Now I don’t personally see alot of crossover with the skillset of Cricket and AFL but maybe that’s what made him unique. Generality over specificity.
Natural athlete.
But what you’re saying is that someone can captain a team in the 2nd tier of AFL whilst taking a time out from their path to the national cricket team wicket keeping position?
I wonder if a football(er) could do that?
Honestly, if a football had a career in football, that would be amazing in it’s own right…
Wasn’t the whole concept of AFL derived by wanting to give cricketers something to do to keep fit during the Winter?
Ian Botham played for Scunthorpe and Yeovil while he played for England at Cricket
28 games from 1978 to 1985! Golden Balls was pretty good.
Those are Jack Rodwell numbers…
Apparently he played quite a few more games for the Scunny reserves. Even scored a hat-trick!
I’m sticking with the thread title.
The worst sport ever.
They hold AFL draft camps in the USA.
This is from the Wikipedia page of the Collingwood Premiership winner Mason Cox:
Cox studied engineering at Oklahoma State University, graduating in 2014. While studying, he started playing basketball as a hobby.
Cox was invited to attend the 2014 US International Combine for potential Australian rules footballers, in Los Angeles in April 2014 despite knowing very little at all about the sport. After impressive performances in the skills testing, he travelled to Australia for a second combine and on May 30, 2014, was signed by the Collingwood Football Club. AFL teams Port Adelaide, North Melbourne, Richmond, and Fremantle were also reported as having shown interest in recruiting Cox.
Cox made his AFL debut on April 25, 2016, in the annual Anzac Day match against Essendon. Within the first 80 seconds of the match, he took his first mark and scored the game’s first goal with his first kick in the AFL. Collingwood went on to win the match by 69 points.
Here’s something you’ll never read:
“Joe Bloggs trialled for football at age 23, while having grown up playing Aussie Rules in regional Victoria and having never played football. He impressed the scouters and was signed by Manchester City, playing for the reserve sides initially then making his Premier League debut 2 years later and went on to become a Premiership winning footballer”.
Face it. If you are tall, athletic, and know how to catch a ball, you can practice Aussie Rules for a year or two and debut at the highest level of the game in the AFL. The skills required for Aussie Rules are generic.
edit: yeah I get that you were asking if AFL were still poaching players from the NRL, and no I don’t think so. Mason Cox popped up on my feed when he jokingly posted “World Champions” after winning the Grand Final. That’s when I read up on it and found out the AFL hold draft camps in Europe and USA and invite athletes from various sports to see if they’d be a good candidate for playing in the AFL.