To make it fairer, just amalgamate both of these games, issue all the contestants with baseball bats and tell the players that the last one left standing is the winner.
It will make the hero-worshipping kids even more inclined to follow in their footsteps and think that gratuitous violence that goes unpunished and is the way to go.

wow

/talk about adgenda-setting
nrl/afl...is nothing about fairity

how about the thugs..elivated to the status of god-heads
you know the spoiled-brats..who think they can do anything they chose
to anyone..they want..knowing the media will excuse their barberism

or how about banning betting on the games
especially the first score-type betting
you know like the penalty...recently
or like exposed..in cricket

or how about how so much of our tax..going into building stadia
the list of excuses/abuses..is never ending

hiny
gert money..
get media... out of sport

and them..commentators..
put them back on valium

have a look arround you next time your at the GAME
see the type attracted..to this stuff loosly called entertaintment

crack another tube roy
the games on

its a never ending saga
the war you have

when you need to build up loyalists..
simpltons moved/motivated to consume

but hey thats only my opinion
..its just like the days of rome
dumbed down-clowns...re-acting predicavly...like pavlogs dogs

hey love..show us your hits
bah...get ya hand out of ya tackle

sport rhymes with rort..its just a tort

Chris Lewis, one of your best! I need to study the complexity of the article, but the following springs to mind. You definitely burned the midnight oil on this one!

(AFL) scoring system is flawed when 10.8(68) vz 9.14(68) = draw?

This in itself is a hugely flawed scoring system. When the value of a near miss (behind) accumulates points to defeat the value of a goal, then it’s time to reconstruct the scoring method to reflect the skill of goal kicking in the game and to address this obvious inequality.

The result on the 25th September 2010 was the enormous unfairness to the best team on the day, St Kilda, when sent home non-victorious: That is wrong and not the rare event that the league attempt to make of it.

Just a casual look at some of the close scoring games of St Kilda’s scoreboard for this season alone will twig us to the fact, Viz:

2.13. 4. (100) Collingwood 1.13. 12. (99) Win 1 Docklands Stadium 19/2/2010 (nab)
2.9. 7. (79) Sydney 0.12. 6. (78) Win 1 Docklands Stadium 27/2/20106(nab)
7. 7. (49) Western Bulldogs to 6. 10. (46) Win 3 Docklands Stadium 30/4/2010
14.3. (87) Hawthorne to 13.9. (87) Draw 0 Docklands Stadium 23/7/2010

The first two examples include the new complication and complexity to AFL scoreboards within the NAB cup series which has not helped to clarify winners: (loosely speaking, a set up kicked from the 50m mark).

AFL, It’s time to end the nonsense on the score board and reflect conclusive results based on the best team winners and not best team wins by a fluke!

One under God:

A good point and your post is an entertaining expression of the bad reflexion some untamed supporters will inflict on their fellows at crowded venues, particularly football matches in my experience.

Unsocial Behaviour:

To be fair in the judgement, organisers work hard to prevent confronting behaviour: Penalties apply. Not always too conspicuous, are discreetly positioned constabulary, but also, in defence of sport, drunken fans are also drunken revellers on other occasions. Drunken behaviour is anti-social wherever practiced and is no more welcomed at sporting venues than elsewhere in society.

Corruption And Sport:

Corruption in sport is the same corruption as in life generally: again rules and penalties apply; “Melbourne Storm” overpayment to players, make an interesting example featured recently and served as a good example of the manner in which such underhanded cheating can be controlled.

The Upside Of Sport:

Sport remains one of our communities most valued assets. Sport teaches by example fairness, it reinforces the need to follow rules, and displays to Children and Youths an example of achievement possible by the maintenance of fitness and good health.

The sports ground is a place to physically excel and test personal limits by refining the art of self-control and teamwork.
Sports have been a long time contributor to School and Community spirit and drawn into those communities money from Government contributions particularly, to build infrastructure in local towns and communities: Sporting complexes such as swimming pools and indoor stadiums of magnificence in many cases.

If God gives you the chance, attend a Football Grand Final at the MCG for the most exhilarating and pinnacle experience of sporting entertainment, where to be part of a crowd upward of 100K is as close to Heaven as Earth will allow.

diver dan

"Sport remains one of our communities most valued assets. Sport teaches by example fairness, it reinforces the need to follow rules, and displays to Children and Youths an example of achievement possible by the maintenance of fitness and good health. Yes i am in full agreement with you".

Well said, and we can add how much sport has helped break down racial barriers in a number of nations to help people overcome their prejudices.

Thank you Chris Lewis:

I really enjoyed the huge history lesson and I am totally impressed with your ability to highlight an obvious flaw in the draw of both football leagues. Seems to me, and on the surface of the argument, less teams would be the simple answer; but of course that is not a simple answer where sponsorship and profits are concerned. A conglomeration (or is it an accumulation) of more teams is the current trend.

Maybe parallel competitions combining into an end finale of ply-offs, could satisfy fans and sponsors. The pressure must be continually applied to league executives on this issue or the benefits to the fan base will again be subordinated to profit.

Would you comment on my “winge” indicating frustration on the complexity of the AFL score board and its worsening direction with the birthing of the nine point goals applicable to NAB cup comps.

The problem with the NRL is that 10/12 teams would be the ideal for a 6 month season with each team playing each other twice. Once at home and once away. There is no way they can contemplate getting rid of more teams without a big backlash and probably protracted legalities. The current 16 teams is too many to play each other twice so they have the unfair situation of only playing some teams once. Penrith made it to second this year with a run of easy games facilitated by this system. Their subsequent finals performance showed that they didnt deserve to be there.

I have always favored a two division solution. With relegation and promotion and new teams to initially take the competition to 1st and 2nd division with ten teams each.
Unmerge Wests and Balmain. Bring in the Central Coast Bears. A new Brisbane team. And either a new New Zealand team (for nth and sth island teams) or maybe Perth. Later on they could expand to twelve teams each with additions like Papua New Guinea, Nthn NSW, Central QLD, Adelaide, Pacific islands/Fiji, the sunshine coast, NSW Country or many other possibilities.

There would be more games, and so more tv revenue. More local teams to follow. Maybe a few more midweek games. They could all play each other twice without dragging the season into the heat of summer and it would all be much fairer and logical.

Diver Dan,

Yes I am all for a fairer scoring system.

I do not take the NAB system seriously and do not believe that there should be different systems for scoring goals because of distance.

In fact, I also share your disdain for points, but not sure what do about it as game is vastly different from rugby and soccer which clearly penalises team for being cuaght in defensive zone or provides corners for soccer.

Maybe in case of 10.10.70 v 9.16.70, team with most goals should win.

However, at least in terms of scoring, the rules are consistent for both sides throughout the competition.

mikk,

Yes, it would be great if we had two divisions.

That is what I admire about English soccer with its four divisions.

There 2nd division still averages 18,000 attendance and all their clubs stick to their home grounds.

As our population gets bigger, there is no reason why our two most popular sports could not have two viable divisions of 12 teams.

Chris, As an AFL fanatic and former player, I admire your article in an attempt to overcome the current weaknesses in how matches are rostered each year. Given the fact that a number of the Melbourne clubs are on a "drip feed" from the AFL, the richer clubs such as Collingwood, Carlton and Essendon are always going to be favoured by the draw. The introduction of two new clubs by 2012 will ease the situation as will the cessation of the pre-season NAB Cup which has become a bit of a farce with only a few clubs serious about chasing the $100,000 to the winner. There is little doubt that without a salary cap and National draft in place the competition would be dominated each year by the top 4-5 wealthier clubs something that the Players Association is fighting against, which will ultimately lead to an uneven competition, which should be resisted.