"Senior" Football

[Leaping Lindner]

Can somebody explain to me what "senior" football. Just a couple of gems from the Victorian media in recent times....

* Neil Craig is the only coach in the AFL not to have played senior football

* Graham Moss retired from senior football in 1976

* Phil Carmen almost won the Brownlow Medal in his first year of senior football.

Love it.

[gadj1976]

take little or no notice of them LL. I keep hearing the term bandied around about people in local competitions playing AFL. I used to get asked this in Canberra. No I don't play AFL, I play Aussie Rules.

Senior Football is a term loosely bandied around about playing league in the VFL or AFL. It's one of those terms used by the media which loosens their grip on reality for mine.

[GWW]

Yeah that type of thing has been happening for years. Quite annoying, but typical Vic-centric attitude.

[spell_check]

If South Australians have a so called "inferiority complex", is this a "superiority complex"?

[GWW]

take little or no notice of them LL. I keep hearing the term bandied around about people in local competitions playing AFL. I used to get asked this in Canberra. No I don't play AFL, I play Aussie Rules.

Senior Football is a term loosely bandied around about playing league in the VFL or AFL. It's one of those terms used by the media which loosens their grip on reality for mine.

I think LL is more referring to the Victorian football community not regarding SANFL/WAFL games being classed as "senior" games in the same way as VFL games ie. the competition that was around before the AFL, not the new VFA.

[spell_check]

And then you have last year when Geelong kicked 35.12 (222) that it was "the 5th highest score in the history of the game".

[gadj1976]

take little or no notice of them LL. I keep hearing the term bandied around about people in local competitions playing AFL. I used to get asked this in Canberra. No I don't play AFL, I play Aussie Rules.

Senior Football is a term loosely bandied around about playing league in the VFL or AFL. It's one of those terms used by the media which loosens their grip on reality for mine.

I think LL is more referring to the Victorian football community not regarding SANFL/WAFL games being classed as "senior" games in the same way as VFL games ie. the competition that was around before the AFL, not the new VFA.

Yeh, I agree, but it is the media that's commenting on it.

[gadj1976]

And then you have last year when Geelong kicked 35.12 (222) that it was "the 5th highest score in the history of the game".

agreed Spelly, it's like when Nathan Bassett took 21 marks (you can correct me) last year, year before (whatever) and they said it was a "world record"?!?!?! I quoth Dwayne Russell.

[spell_check]

And then you have last year when Geelong kicked 35.12 (222) that it was "the 5th highest score in the history of the game".

agreed Spelly, it's like when Nathan Bassett took 21 marks (you can correct me) last year, year before (whatever) and they said it was a "world record"?!?!?! I quoth Dwayne Russell.

Yep, although Brian Lake now holds that WR. And also, I think there was a world record for behinds* that hit the post.

[Leaping Lindner]

I must admit most of it just washes over me after 12 years of living amongst it but the one about Neil Craig really irked me. He CAPTAINED the South Australian state team FFS.

Another classic from a few years back now was David Marshall made his "league" debut in 1991. Must be the oldest debutant in history!

[Leaping Lindner]

take little or no notice of them LL. I keep hearing the term bandied around about people in local competitions playing AFL. I used to get asked this in Canberra. No I don't play AFL, I play Aussie Rules.
Senior Football is a term loosely bandied around about playing league in the VFL or AFL. It's one of those terms used by the media which loosens their grip on reality for mine.

Good point. When did the code become the competition??

[GWW]

And then you have last year when Geelong kicked 35.12 (222) that it was "the 5th highest score in the history of the game".

agreed Spelly, it's like when Nathan Bassett took 21 marks (you can correct me) last year, year before (whatever) and they said it was a "world record"?!?!?! I quoth Dwayne Russell.

I think thats different, its a partial attempt at humour given we only really play professional Aussie Rules in Australia, its also an off cuff comment in the middle of commentary, different to not recognising SANFL/WAFL footy as "senior".

[gadj1976]

GWW, you're nit picking.

The idea is that the Victorian media make this stuff up as being the be all and end all. We (non Victorians) know that that's not the case but they never have anyone answer to, so therefore get away with it.

I realise I'm fighting a losing battle, but at my local Div Z footy club, no, I'm not playing AFL. If I play AFL and take 38 marks, it might be a record but not a world record. I hate the AFL vitriol we get spoon fed day in day out. Please, we're not the MLB and no, we don't play World Series when we're the only country (barring Canada) that play in that comp.

Quick ring the Guinness book of records, I recently saw Brad Johnston throw his mouthguard 37mph into the ground. SURELY that must be a world record!? FFS.

[gadj1976]

take little or no notice of them LL. I keep hearing the term bandied around about people in local competitions playing AFL. I used to get asked this in Canberra. No I don't play AFL, I play Aussie Rules.
Senior Football is a term loosely bandied around about playing league in the VFL or AFL. It's one of those terms used by the media which loosens their grip on reality for mine.

Good point. When did the code become the competition??

I confused the hell out of several women in Canberra by having the following conversation :

Woman : Do you play AFL?
Me : No
Woman : So you play league?
Me : No, I play footy!

I note that Foxsports have "Football" (Soccer) and "AFL" (Football). No scope for lower grades, ever!

[GWW]

GWW, you're nit picking.

The idea is that the Victorian media make this stuff up as being the be all and end all. We (non Victorians) know that that's not the case but they never have anyone answer to, so therefore get away with it.

I realise I'm fighting a losing battle, but at my local Div Z footy club, no, I'm not playing AFL. If I play AFL and take 38 marks, it might be a record but not a world record. I hate the AFL vitriol we get spoon fed day in day out.

Quick ring the Guinness book of records, I recently saw Brad Johnston throw his mouthguard 37mph into the ground. SURELY that must be a world record!? FFS.

I don't really care about the Guinness Book of Records, thats not a key part of the discussion, the bit about the "senior" footy is! The point is that when the VFL, SANFL, and WAFL were all state based competitions, it was common, as LL said, for players to be described as having made their senior debuts on the day they played their first VFL game, even if they'd played 457 games for their SANFL/WAFL club.

[gadj1976]

Yeh and Senior footy is a term (like playing AFL) that has crept into our vanacular (by the Vic media), that's simply incorrect. End of story.

I was just giving you examples of other terms that have crept in that have no credibility.

[Ian]

Good point. When did the code become the competition??

Or

When did the competition become the code?

[Sojourner]

Will be interesting to see which AFL sides have a look at Rick MacGowan as an assistant coach considering that he has not played at AFL level, yet clearly is a first class coach!

[Adelaide Hawk]

Back in the late 80s I had a number of friends in Melbourne who were staunch footy fans but knew stuff all about SA football. It wasn't their fault, they just never heard much about us. It was the fault of the media who refused to give anyone outside of Victoria a rating.

Victorian football supporters were to Australian football what the Americans were to world current affairs ... blissfully unaware of anything going on outside their own back yard.

I recall Phil Carman being interviewed when he joined Collingwood in 1975 and made an immediate impact. He was asked by a Melbourne journalist what it was like to play "league football". Carman responded saying he had been playing league football with Norwood in the SANFL. The journalist just gave one of those looks as if to say, "yeah, yeah, very funny".

Journalists ...... if only murder was legal

[Interceptor]

Did Craig Bradley get much Vic media publicity a few years back when he either broke Peter Carey's senior games record or clocked up 500 games (I'm not sure which it was now) ?

His tally would have included games played for Port of course, but I imagine the Vic media didn't pay too much attention to the feat. I can remember the Carton cheer squad making a special banner for the occasion though.