The Aussie Rules Grand Final was played this morning with Laois's Zach Touhy and Kerry's Mark O'Connor lining out for Geelong against defending champions Richmond.
Unfortunately for the Irish lads, Richmond pulled away to win by 5 goals in the end.
Zach is 31 now I think which is relatively old in the high attrition world of AFL. Most players retire around that age, I wonder if he'd come back to play a couple of years with Laois before hanging up the boots for good. O'Connor is only 23 or 24 so can't see him coming home any time soon, which is a big loss to Kerry.
Does anyone follow Aussie Rules on here? What pros and cons do ye see with Aussie Rules compared to Gaelic football?
Replying To ballydalane: "The Aussie Rules Grand Final was played this morning with Laois's Zach Touhy and Kerry's Mark O'Connor lining out for Geelong against defending champions Richmond.
Unfortunately for the Irish lads, Richmond pulled away to win by 5 goals in the end.
Zach is 31 now I think which is relatively old in the high attrition world of AFL. Most players retire around that age, I wonder if he'd come back to play a couple of years with Laois before hanging up the boots for good. O'Connor is only 23 or 24 so can't see him coming home any time soon, which is a big loss to Kerry.
Does anyone follow Aussie Rules on here? What pros and cons do ye see with Aussie Rules compared to Gaelic football?"
Touhy has knocked a right decent career out there and don't see him coming back as he's seems settled as well. O'connor also seems pretty committed to it. Mckenna would seem to have been the most talented of the lads who went out recently. He was in the top tier of the essendon team. His highlights are worth watching, especially the odd dummy solo he threw in. I'd imagine he's forgone a pretty decent salary to come back to tyrone. Though he never seemed to really settle and apparently a gaelic football was never too far away from him. They really do add power to their players. Mckenna does not look big out there though he looked a very powerful man last week. The media out there does not come across well at all.
The game itself is certainly comparible with gaelic. Plenty blanket defence on show yesterday, pushing up on the kick out to helm the team and maybe get turnovers. That tactic does lead to more contested kicks and overall there would seem to more kicking in aussie rules. If a team did get out sometimes they got a run on you and can transition the ball quickly to score though any slow play leads to blanket defence and it's hard to break that down no more than it is in gaelic football.
Few things that I don't why is the case that if a ball bounces out of play it's a throw in though if you kick it out on the full the opposition get the ball. Strange enough rule and teams play to it as a tactic and it slows the game. Don't like that. Don't like that after a goal (basically a point) game stops, players go round celebrating it too much and games starts with a throw up at midfield. A team that concedes a score should get the ball back, maybe give them a kick out further up the field.
And for a game that has a defined tackle and a clear use it or lose rule with the ball in the tackle there's a lot of stop and start and rucks around the ball. The oval ball also probably doesn't help with this. You like to see the flair players skill more to the fore because when it does open up you can see the skill.
In saying that the defined tackle makes things clear to players and that had always been a struggle in gaelic. A shoulder or tackle the ball in gaelic but you can't tackle the ball when over carrying is not reffed properly. That the leads to fouls because what else can a defender ultimately do.
It's always a game worth keeping an eye on for tactics. It's full time professional and should be more innovative as a result.
Replying To ballydalane: "The Aussie Rules Grand Final was played this morning with Laois's Zach Touhy and Kerry's Mark O'Connor lining out for Geelong against defending champions Richmond.
Unfortunately for the Irish lads, Richmond pulled away to win by 5 goals in the end.
Zach is 31 now I think which is relatively old in the high attrition world of AFL. Most players retire around that age, I wonder if he'd come back to play a couple of years with Laois before hanging up the boots for good. O'Connor is only 23 or 24 so can't see him coming home any time soon, which is a big loss to Kerry.
Does anyone follow Aussie Rules on here? What pros and cons do ye see with Aussie Rules compared to Gaelic football?"
I don't follow Aussie Rules. But, in the case of Zach Tuohy, he's been in Australia for over 10 years, has a wife and two young children. He's probably well settled. As with a lot of Irish who go abroad for work, he may never come back.
Started following a bit of it when Mark went out there. Kind of lost interest after a while as games are on at awkward times vs other commitments I have. I'd like if a magazine show was available on YouTube or whatever.
I did watch yesterday's game, hard luck on the lads. Mark and Zach did ok but didn't really impact the game an awful lot from my admittedly basic knowledge of the game. Geelong were outmatched all over the field as the game went on to be fair so it would have been very hard to stand out. Some of their top guys like Dangerfield did nothing at all. They have been knocking on the door a few years so perhaps they will get another crack at it next year.
While it's a pity from a GAA point of view to lose lads to AFL its wonderful to see them making it and playing in these big games, and earning a really good salary too. Good luck to any young fella that gets that opportunity.
Replying To Ulsterchamps_32: "Touhy has knocked a right decent career out there and don't see him coming back as he's seems settled as well. O'connor also seems pretty committed to it. Mckenna would seem to have been the most talented of the lads who went out recently. He was in the top tier of the essendon team. His highlights are worth watching, especially the odd dummy solo he threw in. I'd imagine he's forgone a pretty decent salary to come back to tyrone. Though he never seemed to really settle and apparently a gaelic football was never too far away from him. They really do add power to their players. Mckenna does not look big out there though he looked a very powerful man last week. The media out there does not come across well at all.
The game itself is certainly comparible with gaelic. Plenty blanket defence on show yesterday, pushing up on the kick out to helm the team and maybe get turnovers. That tactic does lead to more contested kicks and overall there would seem to more kicking in aussie rules. If a team did get out sometimes they got a run on you and can transition the ball quickly to score though any slow play leads to blanket defence and it's hard to break that down no more than it is in gaelic football.
Few things that I don't why is the case that if a ball bounces out of play it's a throw in though if you kick it out on the full the opposition get the ball. Strange enough rule and teams play to it as a tactic and it slows the game. Don't like that. Don't like that after a goal (basically a point) game stops, players go round celebrating it too much and games starts with a throw up at midfield. A team that concedes a score should get the ball back, maybe give them a kick out further up the field.
And for a game that has a defined tackle and a clear use it or lose rule with the ball in the tackle there's a lot of stop and start and rucks around the ball. The oval ball also probably doesn't help with this. You like to see the flair players skill more to the fore because when it does open up you can see the skill.
In saying that the defined tackle makes things clear to players and that had always been a struggle in gaelic. A shoulder or tackle the ball in gaelic but you can't tackle the ball when over carrying is not reffed properly. That the leads to fouls because what else can a defender ultimately do.
It's always a game worth keeping an eye on for tactics. It's full time professional and should be more innovative as a result."
Yes, that was my reading of the game as well. Throwing the ball in when the ball goes over the sideline surely leads to more rucks than if a team got a chance to kick it back in. The celebrations are mad too. I'm trying to imagine our footballers and hurlers celebrating points like they celebrate goals, it wouldn't happen!
I like the fact that there's far more kicking and contested high balls. That's because of their tackle rule, a team can't just handpass the ball around for 2 or 3 minutes at a time like they do in Gaelic, they know they have to kick it long.
Wicked dangerous game though, two players were completely sparked out in yesterday's game contesting high balls, they just throw themselves into the contest with reckless abandon.