5 reasons why AFL is better than Soccer.

[AndrewP6]

I'd give it about three years until diving is a tactic in the AFL.

Already is in some camps....

[mighty_west]

I'm not getting into an AFL v Soccer debate, nothing like that.

But a few things that i just do not understand with Soccer, how on earth can a team lose a player, and be down a man for an accidental handball.

Did his actions stop a goal? probably, fine, let the goal be counted, but to lose him when it was clearly accidental and be a man down for the rest of the game, but ALSO lose that player for the next game as well.....hmmm, did he hit a bloke?

The other, we all know umps / refs make mistakes, it's always going to happen, but in such a cut throat enviroment, when scoring is a premium, games seem to be decided on bad calls, rather than purely on merit, and in such a massive tournament, everyone knows how big a scale the World Cup is, bigger than the Olympics etc, yet, there are no steps in place to at least try & make those wrongs, right, with so much on the line, it just doesn't seem right.

[Topdog]

Sadly this thread is just so big footy!!

yeah it isn't good.

[Desipura]

For the love of god can the soccer v Aussie rules arguement please go away!!It's just tiresome and just utterings from insecure and paranoid people. I love our game but some people who just continually compare the sports gives me the utter shits. Why don't you just enjoy a sport for it's differences.

I totally agree with the above. To say one sport is boring because you are brought up watching a game that scores lots of goals tells me you have only been brought up watching footy.
FWIW, I enjoy watching AFL much more than soccer, however I will not bag it because it is different to AFL.
2 completely different sports, soccer adored by many around the world and AFL just in Australia.

[soupman]

I'm not going to come in and bag soccer because I quite like it as a sport, however I feel there is one key issue that takes a lot of enjoyment out of the game for me.

Bad refereeing around the goals.

I'm sure all of us here would agree that soft free kicks in front of goal in AFL are a blight on the game and have the potential to turn the match, with the Nick Riewoldt incident being the prime example. However in the grand scheme of things these free's account for maybe a 20th of the total score at most, and thus a bad decision in front of goal isn't necessarily the end of the world.

However in soccer that decisions ramifications are massive. One goal in soccer regularly accounts for a third of the score, and can often be the only score in that match. So it thus follows an umpiring decision that unjustly results in a goal has the ability to greatly affect the result of a match. We've seen this with dodgy penalties and in an absolutely terrible call last night, the incorrect call of play on when Lampard scored Englands second to tie the match at 2-2.

This is obviously something which cannot be modified too greatly due to the nature of the respective sports, but it is something that works to the detriment of soccer. There is a certain dissatisfaction gained from seeing a result influenced by a dodgy referee call, but the importance of goals in soccer only amplifies this impact.

The whole yellow card and red card issue obviously follows on from this, but after last night the impact of a false goal, or lack of a true one, has such an enormous impact on a match.

[anfo27]

I played soccer for most of my life and have watched footy for a bit longer so i love and appreciate both. I can understand how people can find soccer boring, hell i find soccer boring at times but I think you need to have played or brought up on soccer to really appreciate the game.

People must have short memories because I remember reading plenty of posts on how boring the Bulldogs Saints game was and I find most of St.Kildas games very boring to watch.

They may be very different games but I find quite a few similarities between them as well.