The game was full of colourful and larger than life characters, including Mark Jackson, Dermott Brereton, Warwick Capper and Doug Hawkins, many who played hard on and off the field. “A lot of my good mates now were opposition players then,” Shaw said. “That started to change in the ’90s when we wouldn’t catch up after a game.” The field wasn’t always a safe place. Nasty off-ball hits were common, but Shaw said players knew “toughness was putting your head over the ball and seeing if you could win it”. While the sport was morphing into more of a running contest, Shaw said tactically all teams essentially followed the same script – kick the ball long to key forwards. One-on-one battles ruled. Off the field, primal suburban rivalries sparked recruiting wars, most famously between Collingwood and Richmond. This left many clubs broke. The introduction of the national draft in 1986, and a salary cap a year later, were the first steps towards greater parity. Friday night and Sunday afternoon football took hold. Merger talk among Victorian clubs dominated headlines and South Melbourne shifted to Sydney. Colourful club owner, the late Dr Geoffrey Edelsten, made a recruiting splash, complete with the introduction of the “Swanette” cheerleaders, while the West Coast Eagles and Brisbane Bears became expansion franchises in 1987. Shaw said footy in the ’80s was “fairly watchable” despite muddy grounds. With the likes of Gary Ablett snr, Jason Dunstall, Tony Lockett, Stephen Kernahan and Capper up forward, Shaw said, “you couldn’t have got a better era for great full-forwards”. The ’90s David Schwarz (Melbourne 1991-2002, 173 games) Melbourne star Schwarz typified the 1990s, joining a bevy of gun forwards capable of leaping over packs (until he hurt his knee) and booting bags of goals. The decade is remembered for famous one-on-one battles and shootouts. “The footy was more pure, it was a pure contest between friend and foe. There were more one-on-one battles. Even a month out, we were looking forward to watching [Wayne] Carey play against [Glen] Jakovich, and [Stephen] Silvagni on ‘Plugger’ [Tony Lockett] … all the match-ups,” Schwarz said. “But ‘Plough’ Wallace [Footscray/Western Bulldogs coach Terry Wallace] stuffed it for everyone when he started to flood [in the late 1990s], and then brought in a real defensive, team mindset.” The list of must-watch forwards included Ablett snr, Dunstall, Paul Salmon, Lockett and Kernahan – while the likes of Tony Modra, Peter Sumich, Matthew Richardson and Schwarz emerged. All faced “concerns about being belted from behind or being taken out of the contest”, as forwards weren’t protected as they are now. “Back in the ’90s, you had to watch over your shoulder. The footy was one thing, when you have blokes coming at you and smashing your arms or hitting you late, that was just part and parcel of footy back then,” Schwarz said. But there was more room for forwards to lead into, although that could come at a cost when Lockett was on the prowl and a defender had to fill “the hole” in front of him. “I remember [Demons coach] Neil Balme said one day, we were playing Sydney, and he said: ‘Who is going to jump in the hole in front of Plugger?’” Schwarz said. “Steven Febey put up his hand, but Balmey said, “Nah, nah, we won’t put you in the hole because you’ll get killed’.” It was a bit of a piss take but, at the same time, we didn’t want him getting hurt.” State of Origin, early in the decade, reached its peak. The Adelaide Crows, Fremantle Dockers and Port Adelaide Power arrived, but Fitzroy closed their doors after the 1996 season and merged with the Brisbane Bears to become the Brisbane Lions. Essendon champion Michael Long led a major crackdown on on-field racism. Player wages exploded under the influence of player managers such as Ricky Nixon. “The 1990s was when it started to change. It went from a sport to a business, in the ’90s,” Schwarz said. “Wages went through the roof. Clubs were vying for talent. There was also an explosion in coaches and support staff. We went from part-time medical to full-time medical, part-time masseurs to full-time masseurs.” The 2000s Cameron Mooney (North Melbourne, Geelong 1997-2011; 221 games) Three-time premiership star Mooney played a cameo role in the Kangaroos’ 1999 premiership, before being a key figure in Geelong’s uprising with flags in 2007 and 2009. Mooney said while the 1990s produced the best football he had seen, the first decade of this century was an “amazing” time to play. “You started the day matched up on each other, forwards and backs in particular, but by the end of the decade because of the amount of running for forwards, up and down the field, you started to swap opponents a bit,” Mooney said of the increasing athleticism required to play at the elite level. “The lead-up key forward was still used, which barely happens any more.” The No.1 lead-up forward was Lance Franklin, while Gary Ablett jnr emerged as a superstar. Dynasties were formed by the Lions and Geelong. The Swans and Eagles split premierships in 2005-06, although their low scores reinforced how far the game, at that point, had morphed into a contested ball and stoppage contest, the largely free-flowing style of the ’90s all but extinct. The Cats, with stars across all lines, revived quick ball movement under Mark Thompson in 2007 in a bid to counter the defensive flood, with all 36 players sometimes in one team’s forward half. It was a “horrendous” look, said Mooney. Mooney noted professionalism heightened, more players doing the “one percenters” to get their bodies right. Statistics and data played a greater role, while the off-field “arms race” heated up, with the size of football departments, and training facilities, expanding by the end of the decade. The 2010s Josh Kennedy (Hawthorn, Sydney 2007-22; 290 games) Three of the AFL’s greatest players – Franklin, Ablett jnr and Dustin Martin – were at their peak all at once. Franklin’s blockbuster move after the 2013 season from Hawthorn to Sydney on a nine-year contract was the deal of the decade. Ablett likewise accepted a huge offer to move from Geelong to the Suns. And Martin’s transformation into the competition’s best player in 2017 was a sight to behold. “It just seemed like there was a good group of players who went through all together through that period. If you looked at the guys who have played over 200 games and have retired over the past three years, it’s a fair calibre of player,” Swans great Josh Kennedy said. “And a lot those played against each other and with each other over that decade.” Congestion was a persistent issue, the AFL introducing the six-six-six rule in 2019 to ease this. “Certainly, the evolution of statistics and analysis on games in that time, it was a huge,” Kennedy said. “The break-up of loose-ball gets, hard-ball gets and all that sort of stuff, rebound 50s, inside 50s, score launches, all that sort of thing, it certainly shaped the way not necessarily the way the game was played or coached, but it gave teams areas to focus on.” There was a dilution of talent early in the decade, as draft concessions were handed to expansion clubs Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney. Hawthorn prospered with a triple treat of flags between 2013-15, making Clarkson one of the game’s greatest coaches. The days of the dominant goal-kicking forward were gone, clubs turning to a more balanced approach, blended with small, pressure-forwards who could retain the ball inside attacking 50. When the Hawks eventually crumbled, Richmond – in dire strife at the beginning of the decade – began to prosper, and had flags in 2017 and 2019, led by Martin, who had inked a monster seven-year contract. The Tigers eschewed the high possession style of rival clubs, preferring to go long and look for their key forwards. An eight-team AFLW was fast-tracked into existence in 2017, sparking greater interest from young female athletes. The impacts of concussion became a greater talking point, the AFL moving to reduce head contact by cracking down on bumps. Subs and goal-line technology were introduced. 2020-24 Luke Breust (Hawthorn 2009-still playing, 290 games) Hawthorn great Breust says this decade has brought a more attacking mindset. The “stand” rule was introduced in 2021 to open the corridor for more attacking play. “[And] you obviously have less levers to pull with the six-six-six rule. I think that has made a massive difference,” the star forward said. “I remember back in our premiership years [2013-15], we would just never blow a lead because you could put eight behind the ball and just lock it down, and move the ball around. “Unless the opposition were good enough to counteract that, you could sort of shut down games pretty easily, whereas now, you can’t. You can have a guy off the back of the square, and it still doesn’t work. You get genuine one v ones inside 50. “It’s a little bit quicker, more attacking, I think scoring will continue to go up in the next couple of years.” Umpires tightened their interpretations of deliberate out of bounds, yet congestion – and confusion around the interpretation of the holding-the-ball rule – persist. COVID-19 caused massive disruptions, with the MCG left empty while Richmond and Melbourne won flags in Brisbane and Perth, respectively. Tall, robust midfielders ruled – Patrick Cripps, Marcus Bontempelli, Tom Green, Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca among the best. The AFL continued to crack down on high bumps and dangerous tackles while strengthening concussion protocols to tackle the biggest issue in the game. “There is a little bit more around duty of care, with the tackle and things like that. You look at vision through the week, you know what is a dangerous tackle, and what’s not,” Breust said. The hype around and commercialisation of player movement went to a new level, taking the AFL further down the path of US sports. Monday: Come back to see which decade came out on top when our experts cast their votes. Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter.
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