Why Footy Feels Broken in July (Again)

So often in June and July in Melbourne, football fans come up against the same phenomenon; the winter blues.

By now very often a portion of the competition’s season is finished. The glow of the early season optimism is a long-faded memory and intermittent wet weather can bring about some ordinary spectacles.

Suddenly, media pundits are saying the game is unwatchable. Recently retired players are asked to speculate about umpiring and fixturing. The mysterious and faceless men of the ‘AFL’ has a problem on its hands. It happens every year like clockwork.

Somehow in this sunlight devoid period, pundits get snappier, journos start to grate on audiences a little bit. This is the time that coaches are in the gun and list management speak kicks into gear.

Everyone in football is just a bit narky. We’ve all got to kill a bit of time till spring is sprung and the finals rise.

If a middle of the road footy fan like me has noticed this, I felt that I couldn’t be alone.

Major complaints in football tend to be around rules; the implementation of them (by the AFL) the judgement of them and their outcomes. Calls for sweeping changes in July are as predictable as cooler weather.

There will be adjustments, reviews and trials over the off season only to be dissected and critiqued in the new season. Rinse and repeat.

Arguing about the rules and the perception of their fairness is a cornerstone of Australian life. We love the idea of a fair go, sure, but we don’t mind a bit of a whinge when it doesn’t go our way.

After a bit of rummaging for research on a new series of artworks I discovered a bit of rule tinkering is not new. The 1907 season saw the push in the back rule abolished for one week in an attempt to make the game more of a spectacle.

The players hated it and it did nothing to assist.

Similarly, in 1910 it was suggested that the boundary throw in be deeper to avoid player congestion. The modern method of a back to the player over the head throw was forged here to avoid ‘the suggested free kick against the last player to touch the ball’.

115 years on and its modern machinations are still up for debate. The ‘stand rule’ and its interpretation is under scrutiny. Player congestion is a problem of such constancy that it can be noted in many football eras.

Footy gives us something to grumble about; to stew over on a replay or any one of the dozens of footy shows showing the same vision. Melburnians have done it for years and years in our papers, pubs and in the outer.

The deeper I go into the games history the more patterns of the modern game are visible. Power and influence within the city are tied to the clubs and their suburbs, the haves and have nots and their own skulduggery.

When it comes to rules (their bending) and the state of the game, it’s a constant conversation. Perhaps we should start to embrace the improvisations to the native code as a sign of Australians ingenuity; that this is a sport in evolution.

Hopefully the pundits can cheer up and thaw out a bit as the sport rolls on to its next phase, shaped by rules the crowd and society feel are fair.

Also finals aren’t too far away. And that means Spring.