The modern game often gets criticised for being too sanitised and tame compared to earlier versions. This is true to a degree but as seen in this clip, football is still played hard and at a frenetic pace. Present day football is a much viewer friendly model of the game, due to the sport turning professional.

From a marketing point of view AFL has to appeal to a family dominated market, with AFL being one of the most participated sports in Australia for children. The televising of weekly games has also lead to a cleansing of the national game with stricter penalties and interpretations of the rules. The most recent controversial rule interpretation being the ‘Hands in the Back’ rule. It was bound to happen, as the Australian Football League was transformed from being a grass roots club like model to a multi million dollar business.

But the footballers themselves are a lot fitter than the players of the past and the game is played at a manic pace. With football these days played so free flowing , collisions are bound to happen more frequently and with quite lethal consequences. ‘Aussie Rules’ is a contact sport after all and seen in the following clip are both bad and good examples of how to bump or ‘Hip and Shoulder’.

A classic example of the right way to ‘Hip and Shoulder’ is to tuck the elbow in and use your hip and/or shoulder to make contact with an opposing player’s side or front. The contact has to be made below the neck and above the knees and not in the back. This can all be done within a 5 meter radius around the point of play. Get your timing and your positioning of the bump wrong and in the AFL this can lead to a penalty varying from a free kick to a suspension, depending on the severity.

Even though Aussie Rules footy cops it for being softer than other football codes, I think it finds a good balance of being skillful while still retaining its physical nature.

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