1987 Football Record

[5 from the wing on debut]

I recently read a Football Record from the Collingwood/Carlton game in July 1987. We only had two injured players listed then, Ron McKeown and James Manson.

More interesting than that was the following:

" In the unlikely event that the VFL's Laws of the Game Review Panel needed any incentive to address the question of congestion in modern football, it came this week. Panel member and national umpiring director Bill Deller advised his panel colleagues that there were more than 50 ballups in general play (excluding those which automatically follow a goal) during the Essendon-Footscray game at Windy Hill last Saturday.

Little wonder that the first item of discussion at the panel's second meeting on Wednesday was headed 'General congestion of play:diving on the ball which causes packs to form and results in field bounces'.

The panel, revived recently to address matters which might detract from the game as a spectacle, met for more than two hours, with the bulk of the time allotted to the broad question of congestion in general play. The panel members all shared a concern about the practice of players diving on the ball, a trend which flies in the face of the universal desire to maintain a free flow of play.

Panel chairman Alan Schwab, the league's executive commissioner, said later 'The panel sees its primary responsibility as submitting recommendations to the board of directors with the aim of making the game as attractive as possible for spectators. What we plan to do is eliminate the cause or causes of much of the congestion, particularly the situation where we have two and sometimes three ball-ups in a row in virtually the same spot.......What we are doing at the moment is addressing the most pressing problems and, at the same time, formulating a plan for the longer term".

The panel consisted of Schwab, Bob Skilton, Barassi, Robert Flower, Jack Hamilton and Ron Casey. Thirty years on, I doubt that Skilton and Barassi would consider that they succeeded.

[piedys]

[Mugwump]

^ the biggest issue in football. Back then they had people trying to solve it who understood and loved the game. Now we have $1.7m a year executives like Gill who preside over a scrum with handball and seem unconcerned about that. Very sad.

[Dave The Man]

[Raw Hammer]

I think we lost by around 7 points by memory.

[5 from the wing on debut]

[Skids]

Dyso has a memory like a steel trap

[piedys]