As the 2020 AFL Premiership season prepares to explode to life again after the coronavirus postponements on field, the mechanisms of the game that go unseen off field for most of the time are also gearing up for action.

Such is the case for the team of AFL Multicultural Community Ambassadors across Australia.

In 2013, the AFL initiated a program to have everyday people from all walks of life, and all manner of cultural backgrounds, head out into communities all over the country to espouse the virtues of Australian Football. Whether at junior or senior level, male or female, schools or clubs or anywhere else in the spectrum of community, volunteers will find innovative ways to involve and immerse children and adults in our great game.

The slightly eccentric KSI is a British YouTube "influencer" and musician. He has over 21 million followers, of which 2.4 million have tuned in to his review of "AFL" football where he rates it a 9.6 out of 10 for toughness. His video clip focuses on 10 minutes worth of some of the toughest tackles and hits of recent years. The massive following of the clip has introduced the game to an even wider audience, mainly across Britain and Europe - something invaluable for the game, which is why the risque (though funny) clip is worth watching.

WARNING: This clip does contain occasional profane language, some racial overtones (though contextually relevant) and some extreme overacting...but, its worth it.

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Over the years there have been many studies and articles that dealt with why girls and young women give away their football. Often men write these articles and often the women that write them are not active in sport themselves. These are no less relevant or important but it is rare to find an account from the eyes of a young woman still involved in playing, yet questioning her own desire to continue. 

A young woman playing soccer writes the following story. MarvaMSK’s (the name on her WordPress article) story is as relevant to Australian Football as it is her own code of choice. With the AFL postponing the AFL Premiership season on the same day they cancelled the remainder of the AFLW season, questions were raised as to the priorities of the AFL when it came to women’s football. Some believe that the AFL may have inadvertently devalued the women’s game through that decision-making process (suggestions that if the men’s season can be postponed, why couldn’t the women’s seasonω).  

In many ways, girls and women face the challenge of questioning their place in the game, and this article goes a long way to understanding that questioning process.

 

The following is the official AFL statement, released on the www.afl.com.au website regarding the season restart date and the conditions around the restart on and off the field. This positive move will also be the catalyst for footy returning at all levels – grassroots through to nation and eventually international.

The AFL has today announced that clubs will return to training on Monday, May 18 and the 2020 Toyota AFL Premiership season will resume on Thursday, June 11.  

Players and football department officials will return to clubs on Monday, with clubs completing a 3.5 week training block before matches officially restart.   

Clubs will initially train in maximum groups of eight, before resuming full contact training from Monday, May 25. 

 

All players and returning football department staff will have been tested for Covid-19 prior to returning to the club and undergone education sessions on the protocols they will need to follow, including rigorous ongoing screening and regular testing, throughout both the training and return to play period. This will also apply for umpires and AFL Match day staff once the season resumes.

The following article by Callum Twomey at the www.afl.com.au website looks at recent comments made by Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley, which cast doubt on the future of international recruits and the recruiting process for talent from alternative catchments. 

Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says clubs may not have the resources to look abroad for players 

DESPITE the Mason Cox success story, Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has forecast international rookies to be a 'casualty' of the AFL's COVID-19 fallout.  

Cox has been one of the shining category B rookie stories in recent times, with the American ruckman/forward proving to be a key member of the Magpies' side. 

Collingwood has also two Irish players currently on its list – Mark Keane and Anton Tohill – having had a strong history in the region, including former star defender Marty Clarke.

Michael Gallus is known to many people in the footy world as the founder of the Footys4all Foundation in Australia, an organisation in Australia that distributes donated sporting equipment to kids in need the world over. He is also an ardent Carlton supporter.

Recently, he took on the challenge of putting out the rubbish by dressing his wheelie bin as Graeme "Jerker" Jenkin, the Collingwood ruckman used by Alex Jesaulenko to take the "Mark of the Year" in the 1970 VFL Grand Final. Here is his attempt to recreate a part of footy folklore.

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Discussions that have been raging already, and are now accelerating, regarding size of player lists, player payments and the impacts on rookie-listed players are the focus of Marc McGowan’s latest story on the www.afl.com.au website.

The issues being raised may yet have a huge impact on how clubs look at recruiting international players to their lists, with players from Ireland and the United States impacted as well as potential newer markets 

CLUBS remain in the dark about where – or if – Category B rookies will fit into the potential new list structure from next year. 

 

As AFL.com.au reported on Thursday, list and football bosses are generally accepting there will need to be reduced list sizes for 2021 but most are keen for a gradual rather than drastic cut.

If you are like me, you are missing your footy fix. Yes, there are countless replays on television. Yes, there are games that can be purchased and played from the bedroom. Yes, there are books to read, videos to watch, footy cards to collect and lots more.

However, sometimes you want something more tactile. More hands on. Something you control.

So, here is something from my childhood that might come in handy. I didn’t invent it. My grandfather showed me how to do this – something he picked up during the war years in the 40’s and passed on to me. Pencil footy.

If interested in a new (yet old) way of passing these COVID days waiting for the AFL to come back, or your local team to start playing again, follow these step by step instructions. I will also put the photo at the end of the article also to enlarge.

Whilst their would be no ANZAC Cup today at Villers-Bretonneaux in France, or a myriad of other matches and events around the world that would normally honour ANZAC Day and those who fought and died in war, on lone bugler stood in the middle of the MCG today playing his bugle in an emotional message to the world.

John Mansfield, a member of the army reserve since 1990, always held a dream to play The Last Post in front of almost 100,000 fans one day for the ANZAC Day clash between Collingwood and Essendon. Today, he alone graced the expanses of the MCG to recite the Ode Of Remembrance and play The Last Post.

The following clip from the Essendon Football Club website shows the stirring occasion.

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On face value, the answer to this question will be a resounding yes. When framed against the eventual return of the game at all levels, a large majority of people will proudly boast their love of the game, their sadness over its brief disappearance, impatience for its return and excitement in anticipation of that day.

Most people are counting the days, even if they don’t yet know how many days to count.

However, lurking beneath the surface of this emotion is another realisation. Many people at all levels of society have stated that the world will not be the same in the wake of COVID-19. Aspects of life which we had previously taken for granted have changed already and may never return – at least never return exactly as we remembered them.

An example would be the accepted concept that Australia’s freedom would never see state borders closed. Already that myth is dispelled and could happen again should any other disease threaten.