Time for a ball re-design?

[LaughingKookaburra]

Burley Premiers are good footys. All Sherrins are good footys apart from the yellow non veg tans. They crack @ the ends and get a drop of water they turn in to bricks...

[HH3]

Our Burleys are only a few weeks old. They have the West End print on them I think. They look like a juniors footy. I dont know whats going on with them.

Has anyone else got new yellow Burleys this year? Wondering if they've had any problems.

[MatteeG]

Another question- why is the yellow ball the choice of night footy?

I remember booting some white Sherrins at practice as a junior and they were way easier to see!

[bennymacca]

Paint?

[Phantom Gossiper]

Think white would prove a difficult colour to see at night during a game, would blend in too easily with the surroundings + goal posts & lines are all white, the lights around the ground would mask the ball, it would be crap for TV cameras i think and watching at home wouldn't look great

[MatteeG]

Paint?

Nup- definitely white leather. A fair time ago though....

[OnSong]

All I'm saying is the footies weren't always this good.

There was evolution of the ball over the decades and while we think the ball is pretty good now, there was a time we thought a Commodore 64 was a pretty damn nice piece of technology.

Golf balls have evolved, soccer balls, cricket balls (I think, to a degree anyway), tennis balls, why is the footy considered some sort of un-improvable object?

As for what I would change, I do not know. I am not an expert in ball manufacturing. To think of something that perhaps travels a bit further through the air than the current option is but a hypothetical.

Surely it's not that far-fetched. Imagine (unlikely, I know) if say Burley started producing a footy that travelled an extra 2 per cent further on average than a Sherrin.

[OnSong]

Paint?

Nup- definitely white leather. A fair time ago though....

Yeah, we had one at Berri few years ago.

[Phantom Gossiper]

Footballs have already been redeveloped and improved.. they aren't the heavy leather balls that become water logged and feel like a brick they used to be

[MatteeG]

The Kookas were hard as hell as an 8 year old when brand new, but once they softened they were awesome for launching huge Screwys.

[OnSong]

Footballs have already been redeveloped and improved.. they aren't the heavy leather balls that become water logged and feel like a brick they used to be

Yes. They have. Which is why it could happen again in some capacity. Maybe. Or not.

[daysofourlives]

Think white would prove a difficult colour to see at night during a game, would blend in too easily with the surroundings + goal posts & lines are all white, the lights around the ground would mask the ball, it would be crap for TV cameras i think and watching at home wouldn't look great

See it ok on a cricket field and its about 5% of the size of a footy

[Psyber]

Don't panic mate! Imagine for instance, a seamless Sherrin. Not made in four portions...

Does that imply synthetic balls?
I tend to prefer mine natural.

[Zelezny Chucks]

All I'm saying is the footies weren't always this good.

There was evolution of the ball over the decades and while we think the ball is pretty good now, there was a time we thought a Commodore 64 was a pretty damn nice piece of technology.

Golf balls have evolved, soccer balls, cricket balls (I think, to a degree anyway), tennis balls, why is the footy considered some sort of un-improvable object?

As for what I would change, I do not know. I am not an expert in ball manufacturing. To think of something that perhaps travels a bit further through the air than the current option is but a hypothetical.

Surely it's not that far-fetched. Imagine (unlikely, I know) if say Burley started producing a footy that travelled an extra 2 per cent further on average than a Sherrin.

Well which is it have they improved or not?

I think Sherrin make improvements all the time but thankfully you don't notice them. Unless there is something detrimental to the game about the ball why would you change it? What possible result from any change could you deem as an improvement on the status quo?

I daresay Basketballs would be in a pretty similar situation at the top level, if you put the first balls next to the current balls you would see the difference but thankfully you wouldn't notice too much change in the essence of the way the game is played using either. Football (soccer) has been tinkered for the reason that the game was struggling to entertain and they wanted to improve the chance of scoring goals but this wasn't their first method of trying this. Changes to the offside rule were made a few times to try and increase scoring.

It feels like more and more these days that people are put into positions to review things and have to make changes to justify their existence, the AFL rules committee is a perfect example of this! If the need arises review it, if not just enjoy what we have ffs!

Leave the game alone!

[OnSong]

If they're changing the ball all the time without us noticing then the very essence of what I'm proposing is already happening to a small degree.

That's fine. Just writing off any possible improvement is quite narrow minded.

[Zelezny Chucks]

If they're changing the ball all the time without us noticing then the very essence of what I'm proposing is already happening to a small degree.

That's fine. Just writing off any possible improvement is quite narrow minded.

I am struggling to understand how you can improve something that for all intents and purposes does the exact job it's supposed to do?

What results are you seeking to show that an improvement has been made?

Players can kick the ball further?

The ball is completely waterproof so never becomes waterlogged?

The ball bounce is more consistent to improve the flow of the game?

I am pretty sure all changes that have been made would be to get the balls to behave as consistently as possible to the optimum standard. Anything more than that and you are once again just changing things for the sake of changing them without a reasonable goal in mind.

[bennymacca]

^

obviously not an engineer
1. the horse and cart, for all intents and purposes does the exact job its supposed to do. so does the model T ford. doesnt mean there cant be improvements. you named a few there which are pretty good starting points.
2. there is always a better design. always
3. by trying to push the boundaries that is where innovations can be made, quite often in a way you werent expecting.

not trying to pick on you, but it is that sort of mindset that allows the current government off the hook when they dont even bother with a science minister, science and technology in this country is horrendously undervalued.

[OnSong]

I'm happy with the current ball (when speaking of Sherrins only).

I just like to think there's a better ball out there somewhere. A ball of the future.

Maybe there's not and I'm fine with that too. Just dare to dream I guess.

[Zelezny Chucks]

Think it's a long bow to draw to compare this argument with politics or general engineering. Obviously innovation is a good thing but I can guarantee you that improvements that were made to the Model T were done with a goal in mind. i.e. make it faster, safer, more durable.

If you can honestly come up with a good reason to improve the ball by all means do it but I fail to see why something needs to change if there isn't and end goal in mind for it.

Kicking the ball longer would completely change the way the game is played, do we then decide that bigger ovals are needed to play on?

As an example, the decision to make all head high contact awarded, or in some cases maybe we should say "rewarded", with a free kick probably (I can't be @rsed finding stats) increased the incidences of head high contact due to players manipulating the rule to their advantage. It could then be argued that this had a flow on effect to the laughable situation we are now in when people who are genuinely contesting the ball are getting rubbed out for incidental contact as another way the powers that be are influencing the game when their initial attempt actually exacerbated the problem.

I think the only one that would genuinely improve the game would be a completely waterproof ball to make wet weather footy a better spectactle and probable save some cash in increasing durability of a ball. I honestly think if Sherrin had the ability to do this without changing the grip or other properties of the ball they would have!

I get your point about innovation being a good thing in general but I don't think you can apply it with a blanket rule to all situations.

Thanks for giving me a topic to rant on about I have been bored as **** at work this arvo.

[OnSong]

What about creating a rebel league called 90s Aussie rules, with 90s rules and 90s game style?

There's clearly a market for that and every other decade preceding it. Just about.