Miro Dreams Of Footy
January 11, 2018 1:43 PM Subscribe
Australian Rules Football (aka "Footy") says that if you're athletic enough to jump up on an oppposing player's unpadded shoulders, land kneeling, AND catch the ball, they're gonna rule it legal. Miro Gladovic of American Footy Star has a dream: to take American football players who don't make the NFL down under to play in the AFL. Aussie Rules is not only played on a larger pitch than any other major field sport in the world, its analytics & data are truly next level. Also: 10 funniest moments in the AFL.
Joan Miró foot
(ya, I don't get sports in any language)
posted by sammyo at 2:09 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
(ya, I don't get sports in any language)
posted by sammyo at 2:09 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
Back in the early days of cable when ESPN was scrambling for content, I became fascinated with footy. A tough game with a unique skill set. I might mention a former Aussie rules player at my alma mater just won the Ray Guy award and is now on to the NFL...
posted by jim in austin at 2:21 PM on January 11, 2018
posted by jim in austin at 2:21 PM on January 11, 2018
It's an interesting video for sure. I really feel for the players though - this guy from Australia turns up, sells them a dream, gets them to work hard and then they end up in a country league?
That's hard yards.
posted by awfurby at 2:22 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
That's hard yards.
posted by awfurby at 2:22 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
My fave reaction videos are non-Australians losing their minds watching Aussie rules
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:37 PM on January 11, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:37 PM on January 11, 2018 [3 favorites]
Maybe ten years ago I found a weekly Australian Footy highlight show somewhere in my cable package. The first 15 minutes were all the big plays and goals, the second 15 minutes were all the injuries. It was awesome.
posted by peeedro at 3:48 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by peeedro at 3:48 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
One of my favorite parts of footy are the team songs, which you can listen to in one YouTube playlist.
A surprising number use American patriotic music for their melodies. Years ago, I attended a match between Hawthorne (to the tune of "The Yankee Doodle Boy") and Melbourne (to the tune of "You're a Grand Old Flag"). Other teams have written their songs to the tunes of the "US Marines' Hymn," "When the Saints Go Marching In," and the "Notre Dame Victory March." We felt very welcomed to Australia with all this music, and I hope the American Footy Star players feel so too.
For the record, we rooted for Melbourne, because their hats had better colors.
posted by zachlipton at 3:57 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
A surprising number use American patriotic music for their melodies. Years ago, I attended a match between Hawthorne (to the tune of "The Yankee Doodle Boy") and Melbourne (to the tune of "You're a Grand Old Flag"). Other teams have written their songs to the tunes of the "US Marines' Hymn," "When the Saints Go Marching In," and the "Notre Dame Victory March." We felt very welcomed to Australia with all this music, and I hope the American Footy Star players feel so too.
For the record, we rooted for Melbourne, because their hats had better colors.
posted by zachlipton at 3:57 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
While you may have rooted for Melbourne, it is not a turn of phrase normally used that way in Australia. What you do behind closed doors and all that.
posted by deadwax at 4:09 PM on January 11, 2018 [22 favorites]
posted by deadwax at 4:09 PM on January 11, 2018 [22 favorites]
One of my all time favorite sports moments (even though I'm still not exactly 100% on what's going on) is this call: "LLLLLLLLLLOOYD IS GOING TO HAVE A KICK [SIREN] AFFFFFTER THE SIREN [PANDEMONIUM] "
posted by creade at 4:15 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by creade at 4:15 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
For the record, we rooted for Melbourne
No, you barracked for them.
Pro tip: Do not ask someone at a bbq who they root for.
posted by Thella at 4:23 PM on January 11, 2018 [8 favorites]
No, you barracked for them.
Pro tip: Do not ask someone at a bbq who they root for.
posted by Thella at 4:23 PM on January 11, 2018 [8 favorites]
I’ve long argued that, in the US, we need a college footy season to fill that hopeless void between the end of one college football season and the beginning of the next.
posted by wintermind at 4:24 PM on January 11, 2018
posted by wintermind at 4:24 PM on January 11, 2018
True fact. Back in the day friends and I would tune in to Aussie rules football on ESPN just to enjoy a moment of being gobsmackingly non-plussed at what was going on. We simply had no idea what was happening. It was indecipherable.
Quick question, how is footy on the concussion front?
posted by oddman at 4:29 PM on January 11, 2018
Quick question, how is footy on the concussion front?
posted by oddman at 4:29 PM on January 11, 2018
Oh boy, I have lots of thoughts about this... and some of them are nationalistic and I'm not sure I'm comfortable with those.
It didn't seem like Miro really spoke about a love for the game, or what the game means in communities. He didn't explain how a football club in a town of 5000 people could afford to pay for two international players. He didn't reference a shortage of local players because there isn't one. He didn't mention what the players could give in exchange except their desire to regularly play a code of football. It just seems to be a seeping experience of appropriation, or something.
I think my discomfort relates to my research into the history of AFL and the debate around the relevance and influence of the Aboriginal game marn grook in the formation of Aussie Rules. If recognition is due yet not forthcoming, the importation of ultra-athletic players may delay it even further. I dunno.
Prior to nationalisation and extensive commercialisation, AFL was VFL (Victorian Football League) and the players were frequently garbos as their day job. They would run alongside the garbage truck picking up bins and emptying them into the hopper, often wearing a worn out team jumper. I lived on a steep mile long road as a kid and those guys friggin ran and tossed and ran and tossed all the way up it. The original VFL teams came from Melbourne and the suburbs around it - North Melbourne, South Melbourne, Carlton, Fitzroy, Footscray, Hawthorn, St Kilda etc. You get the picture. And you had to live in that suburb to play for that team. It is a game so distinctly of-place [of my place] that Miro's approach reaches further away from the heart of the game. Is that a bad thing? I don't know. I just know that losing the very elements that embedded the game in people's hearts and lives would be a sad thing.
posted by Thella at 4:51 PM on January 11, 2018 [15 favorites]
It didn't seem like Miro really spoke about a love for the game, or what the game means in communities. He didn't explain how a football club in a town of 5000 people could afford to pay for two international players. He didn't reference a shortage of local players because there isn't one. He didn't mention what the players could give in exchange except their desire to regularly play a code of football. It just seems to be a seeping experience of appropriation, or something.
I think my discomfort relates to my research into the history of AFL and the debate around the relevance and influence of the Aboriginal game marn grook in the formation of Aussie Rules. If recognition is due yet not forthcoming, the importation of ultra-athletic players may delay it even further. I dunno.
Prior to nationalisation and extensive commercialisation, AFL was VFL (Victorian Football League) and the players were frequently garbos as their day job. They would run alongside the garbage truck picking up bins and emptying them into the hopper, often wearing a worn out team jumper. I lived on a steep mile long road as a kid and those guys friggin ran and tossed and ran and tossed all the way up it. The original VFL teams came from Melbourne and the suburbs around it - North Melbourne, South Melbourne, Carlton, Fitzroy, Footscray, Hawthorn, St Kilda etc. You get the picture. And you had to live in that suburb to play for that team. It is a game so distinctly of-place [of my place] that Miro's approach reaches further away from the heart of the game. Is that a bad thing? I don't know. I just know that losing the very elements that embedded the game in people's hearts and lives would be a sad thing.
posted by Thella at 4:51 PM on January 11, 2018 [15 favorites]
I’ve long argued that, in the US, we need a college footy season to fill that hopeless void between the end of one college football season down and the beginning of the next.
Seriously! You play for four seconds at a time between ad breaks. I went to private school in Queensland so my sport was rugby union. It doesn't stop when you get tackled. Apart from line-outs, penalty kicks and scrums, the play doesn't stop for 40 minutes. And no padding either. You should be playing rugby during the doritos ads.
posted by adept256 at 5:03 PM on January 11, 2018 [5 favorites]
Seriously! You play for four seconds at a time between ad breaks. I went to private school in Queensland so my sport was rugby union. It doesn't stop when you get tackled. Apart from line-outs, penalty kicks and scrums, the play doesn't stop for 40 minutes. And no padding either. You should be playing rugby during the doritos ads.
posted by adept256 at 5:03 PM on January 11, 2018 [5 favorites]
Well, I learned a new thing about the English language today.
posted by zachlipton at 5:49 PM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by zachlipton at 5:49 PM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
Quick question, how is footy on the concussion front?
Injury survey: Games lost to concussion on the rise
posted by Thella at 5:54 PM on January 11, 2018
Injury survey: Games lost to concussion on the rise
posted by Thella at 5:54 PM on January 11, 2018
Maybe ten years ago I found a weekly Australian Footy highlight show somewhere in my cable package. The first 15 minutes were all the big plays and goals, the second 15 minutes were all the injuries. It was awesome.
I remember in the '80s when the highlight of the evening TV news on match days was a round-up of the day's AFL and SANFL brawls, with the biggest saved for last. For example.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 6:05 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
I remember in the '80s when the highlight of the evening TV news on match days was a round-up of the day's AFL and SANFL brawls, with the biggest saved for last. For example.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 6:05 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
Thella: doesn't the game owe just as much to Gaelic Football as anything else?
posted by Ampersand692 at 6:28 PM on January 11, 2018
posted by Ampersand692 at 6:28 PM on January 11, 2018
Oh, and it's a shame that the time zone difference make it very difficult to follow the game here in the States. If someone could figure out a version of the game that could be played on an American football gridiron, it wouldn't bother me one bit to see American football replaced with Aussie Rules, if only because Aussie Rules seems quite a bit safer (not safe, but safer).
posted by Ampersand692 at 6:31 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Ampersand692 at 6:31 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
doesn't the game owe just as much to Gaelic Football as anything else?
Aussie Rules (1858) predates Gaelic Football (late 1800s). Tom Wills, the man who organised and umpired matches and codified Aussie Rules (and who grew up playing versions of marngrook), left Australia to attend Rugby School, the English home of rugby, prior to returning to Australia and writing the rules for Australian football, which explains why people think it was most heavily influenced by Rugby. Gaelic Football was not codified until later. Both Gaelic Football explicitly and AFL arguably, have roots in a local game played by many people over a large area. But these local games are not necessarily the same game. Australia's influx of Irish convicts had long ceased prior to the codification of Gaelic Football. Some people claim that Australian Rules is the first codified football game (Rugby was around the 1860s, Gridiron around 1870s).
posted by Thella at 6:44 PM on January 11, 2018 [7 favorites]
Aussie Rules (1858) predates Gaelic Football (late 1800s). Tom Wills, the man who organised and umpired matches and codified Aussie Rules (and who grew up playing versions of marngrook), left Australia to attend Rugby School, the English home of rugby, prior to returning to Australia and writing the rules for Australian football, which explains why people think it was most heavily influenced by Rugby. Gaelic Football was not codified until later. Both Gaelic Football explicitly and AFL arguably, have roots in a local game played by many people over a large area. But these local games are not necessarily the same game. Australia's influx of Irish convicts had long ceased prior to the codification of Gaelic Football. Some people claim that Australian Rules is the first codified football game (Rugby was around the 1860s, Gridiron around 1870s).
posted by Thella at 6:44 PM on January 11, 2018 [7 favorites]
Apparently NFL scouts actively seek punters from Australia because the kicking skills required to play Australian Rules Football are similar.
posted by eye of newt at 7:37 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by eye of newt at 7:37 PM on January 11, 2018 [1 favorite]
Seems like such a crazy, Calvinball-yet-sensical sport. Love it.
posted by Windopaene at 10:49 PM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Windopaene at 10:49 PM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
10 funniest moments in the AFL
As God is my witness, I thought Australians were funny.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:26 PM on January 11, 2018 [3 favorites]
Football commentators doubling as boxing commentators. Top 9 AFL all-in brawls.
posted by Thella at 11:40 PM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Thella at 11:40 PM on January 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
And who could talk about AFL without mentioning the AFLW, the women's league, which began last year. Wanna see AFL played by women?
posted by Thella at 11:48 PM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Thella at 11:48 PM on January 11, 2018 [4 favorites]
Ampersand692 - in fact the AFL are trialing a new version of the game. It will
Be played on a rectangular field, with fewer players, shorter game time and modified scoring. Of course they named it AFLX.
posted by awfurby at 12:53 AM on January 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
Be played on a rectangular field, with fewer players, shorter game time and modified scoring. Of course they named it AFLX.
posted by awfurby at 12:53 AM on January 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
Concussions definitely happen in AFL. Just the fact that players are coming from all directions means accidental collisions are inevitable before you get to intentional contact. It's not like NFL or rugby where players get knocks to the head every game. However the league has definitely seem the writing on the wall with what is happening in other sports and tightened the laws a lot around high contact. Some "traditional" fans complain about the "softening" of the sport, but it's the only way for the game to survive long term.
posted by markr at 1:20 AM on January 12, 2018
posted by markr at 1:20 AM on January 12, 2018
I think The video was mistitled kirkaracha- should have been the 10 stupidest moments.
posted by awfurby at 1:30 AM on January 12, 2018
posted by awfurby at 1:30 AM on January 12, 2018
Point of pedantry: 'footy' is also used in the UK to refer to the game we don't call soccer except for disambiguation.
posted by mushhushshu at 3:20 AM on January 12, 2018
posted by mushhushshu at 3:20 AM on January 12, 2018
doesn't the game owe just as much to Gaelic Football as anything else?
The games are similar enough that there's an annual hybrid "international rules" series between Ireland and Australia.
posted by kersplunk at 3:54 AM on January 12, 2018
The games are similar enough that there's an annual hybrid "international rules" series between Ireland and Australia.
posted by kersplunk at 3:54 AM on January 12, 2018
eye of newt, many universities also recruit Australian punters, such as Brad Wing, who played for LSU before going to the NFL. In this YouTube clip from 2011 you can watch him score a touchdown on a punt fake against Florida that is then called back for taunting.
posted by wintermind at 4:24 AM on January 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by wintermind at 4:24 AM on January 12, 2018 [1 favorite]
I had the good fortune to attend a Sydney Swans game a couple of years back. I didn't get AFL before then - I'd watched it on TV but couldn't quite figure out what was going on. Attending a game was AMAZING. The best sport I've ever seen. When I was flying home on Qantas I watched a bunch of AFL highlight reels, and finally it all made sense. The field is just far too large and the play too all over the field for it to be an easily filmable game.
posted by rednikki at 6:23 AM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by rednikki at 6:23 AM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]
Best Jump-up-on-a-guy-and-catch-the-ball 2017
Whether or not Australians are funny, some of them have obviously drinking kangaroo milk or something.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 8:13 AM on January 12, 2018
Whether or not Australians are funny, some of them have obviously drinking kangaroo milk or something.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 8:13 AM on January 12, 2018
I love AFL footy, from when it was on FoxSports World, but that AFLW highlight clip was outstanding. I didn't see any difference from how the men just throw themselves into challenges (not that I should), but without nearly so much argybargy (although maybe that was edited out...).
posted by billsaysthis at 3:17 PM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by billsaysthis at 3:17 PM on January 12, 2018 [2 favorites]
The things that I really appreciate about AFL is that the league is run by the clubs, and the clubs are (largely) owned by their members. As a result they've handled expansion, pay tv deals and a host of other issues in a sane manner that is good for the game.
Rugby league is the complete opposite. I grew up watching league but have completely lost interest due to off-field shit-show the game has become.
posted by onya at 11:30 PM on January 12, 2018
Rugby league is the complete opposite. I grew up watching league but have completely lost interest due to off-field shit-show the game has become.
posted by onya at 11:30 PM on January 12, 2018
As God is my witness, I thought Australians were funny.
Yeah, I’ve seen way funnier stuff than that. Everyone’s shorts stayed on, only one guy fell over, no confused umpires at all.
I miss footy season. How long until we get another women’s season?
posted by harriet vane at 10:20 PM on January 13, 2018
Yeah, I’ve seen way funnier stuff than that. Everyone’s shorts stayed on, only one guy fell over, no confused umpires at all.
I miss footy season. How long until we get another women’s season?
posted by harriet vane at 10:20 PM on January 13, 2018
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