Monday, June 4, 2012

AFL Goal Camera Idea


AFL. The great game of the Australian nation. The sporty locally known as "the footy".

Love my footy!

I've been sitting my wee lad down in front of the telly to teach him all that is good about the Adelaide Crows. We're having a great season too! 8 wins and 2 losses! Amazing turn around from last year..

What is more amazing though is the shoddy appearance of the dreaded video review, or, as I like to coin *insert irish accent here* "the turd umpire".

Hehehehe I make me laugh.

Anyway, the third umpire appears in cricket and it has worked well for a number of years now. Really well in fact. The no balls are caught, run-outs are never missed and LBW's are argued between mates and commentators a-like. They're great!

What is disappointing in the AFL at the moment is the amount of thought that was put in to the video replay system. A few weeks of "testing" and it was in-place in the regular season, shocking many experts.

I'm not an expert, far from it. Hell, I still confuse myself with how long a quarter actually goes for.. But! I am an expert of ideas.

Here's my latest:

Why not put a camera in the goal post!?

Cricket has a camera in the middle stump, surely the same could be possible for the footy!

No?

See my diagram here:


Here you'll see the four goal posts. Point A is refering to a camera situated inside the two main goal posts. This would allow a sturdy position for the camera to sit in without dislodging, positioned and directed for a non-obstructed view for goal line touches by opposition players. The only issues:

  • there is a level that the view could not see upwards, unless several were installed along the inner pole upwards.
  • does installing a camera interfere with the post's structural integrity?


The other Point B would be used if the post could not maintain holding a camera or if it happened to be dislodged easier. Although:

  • the lower section of the poles are padded and could likely cause more of a chance for dislodgement or shifted, but I can see it easier to embed than the pole itself.

These cameras, of course, would not be protruding from the posts, otherwise there is a slim chance ball will nick the camera.

But seriously folks, too many times is our great game of Aussie Rules Footy being put on hold for video review, where the result has been "inconclusive". Why even bother with the current system! Look at US games like NFL and NBA that are consistantly slowing down the games with video reviews.

Let's improve the system to be quick instead of consistantly inconclusive!

So what do you think of my idea? Do you have anything better?

Also, any tips influencing my son to love the Crows and hate my wife's team the Hawks would be greatly appreciated.

:-)

- tork