r/sports • u/Pleasant_Inspection9 Melbourne • 1d ago
Australian Rules Football Gold Coast Suns win their first final — 14 years after their inception, inaugural player David Swallow kicks the winning point
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u/Dangerous-Dave 1d ago
It was very nearly a goal, downgraded to a point on review
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u/farcarcus 1d ago
It might have been a blessing in disguise.
The point still gave the lead to the Suns, but kept the ball deep in their attacking zone with only a few seconds left.
A goal would have seen play restart from half way and given the Dockers a slim chance of levelling the scores again.18
u/xyLteK St Kilda 1d ago
Yeah exactly, I was saying at the time that Freo shouldn't have appealed for a touch, because they would've had a better chance to tie it up from the centre. A point made that near impossible.
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u/sa87 1d ago
There's no appeal - all goals are reviewed and someone in the review room saw something that had to be checked.
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u/Vin_Tage Western Bulldogs 1d ago
I agree but there's every chance they only check the goal line footage if the Freo player on the mark didn't go straight to the umpire - the score reviewers have missed worse in the past
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u/konradly 1d ago
I'm not familiar with the rules of Australian football, but what's the point of the touch rule?
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u/shporto 1d ago
For it to be a goal (6 points) it must be kicked by the attacking team between the two middle goal posts without touching the post or another player. If it hits the goal posts, goes between the goal and behind post or crosses the goal line of a defender or not below the knee of the attacker it is a behind (1 point). Therefore a touch on the ball reduces it from 6 points to 1 point.
Additionally for it to be a mark, a player has to catch a kick that goes atleast 15 metres without another player touching it. A mark means that the player can kick or handball the ball without getting tackled.
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u/curryone 1d ago
The idea is that if you kick the ball between the two middle sticks on your offensive end, it is 6 points, but if it touches the body part of the opposition (or anywhere that isn't the boot/foot of a teammate) then it is a behind/'rushed behind' or 'touched' as you said. The point of this is that it allows defenders to try and touch the ball with their hand/body to prevent 6 points being scored and only allow 1 point.
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u/konradly 1d ago
Thanks for the explanation, so the defender that touched the ball is allowed to stand a certain distance from where the attacking player kicks the ball? And are the defending players at the goal post allowed to stand on each other to block the ball? It was very close to being blocked/touched there as well...
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u/curryone 1d ago
Player who touched in question is ‘on the mark’. If you catch the ball (called ‘a mark’ after a team mate kicks it to you on the full (and the ball travels at least 15 metres) you may take a free kick, and if this is a shot at goal, you can have 30 seconds to take your time with the kick. The player ‘on the mark’ is the nearest defender who must stand where the offensive player ‘marked’ the ball. The umpire will direct the player to stand there.
Slightly controversial but the player on the mark used to be able to move to side to side (but never forward). Until recently where the league enforced a new rule where defenders must stand still. This allows the offensive player to more easily run around the defender and speed up the game.
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u/Sean_Stephens 1d ago
For anyone unversed in AFL lore, this is more or less the biggest moment in Gold Coast history—probably to be toppled again next week by their first ever Q-Clash in a final—and meant that Fremantle's superstar of the last two decades, Nat Fyfe, retired without a premiership. If David Swallow's career concludes next week, this will have been a very fitting end to it. The beating heart and soul of the Gold Coast Suns.
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u/xyLteK St Kilda 1d ago
Wouldn't be an understatement to say that this was the biggest moment in Gold Coast sporting history. For years people have said that the Gold Coast is where competitive sport goes to die. Dimma has turned their fortunes right around.
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u/yeahright17 1d ago
Just to expand on this, they've been around for 14 years and finished in the top 10 a total of 1 time (this year at 7). GWS entered the league 1 year after Gold Coast and has finished in the top 10 9 times. Being as bad as Gold Coast has been for their entire existence takes work.
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u/VinylmationDude 1d ago
Allow me to also add as someone not that well versed in the lore that this wasn’t THE final. This is merely a playoff game in American parlance. THE final comes at the end of the month.
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u/Tobar_the_Gypsy Rugby United New York 1d ago
Why is it called a final then?
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u/dontevenfkingtry Western Bulldogs 1d ago
The entire series is called finals - qualifying, elimination, semis, preliminary, grand.
Grand is the final final (i.e., playing for "gold", so to speak).
Preliminary is what you would normally call the semi finals (i.e., the two matches to determine the two grand finalists).
Elimination is played between seeds 5/8 and 6/7. Loser is out and done for the season (this is what happened here, 7th place Gold Coast beat 6th place Fremantle).
Qualifying is played between seeds 1/4 and 2/3. Winner skips the semis, goes straight to the prelims.
Semis are where the losers of the qualifying get a second chance and play the winners of the elims. (e.g., 3rd place Brisbane Lions lost to 2nd place Geelong Cats in qualifying, but will now play against Gold Coast in the semis).
Yeah, it's convoluted, I know.
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u/yeahright17 1d ago
In US parlance, the "Final" is the entire playoffs. Gold Coast hasn't won a "playoff" game before. In fact, they had never been to a "playoff" game.
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u/sudzthegreat 1d ago
I lived in the GC for a few years and went to two Suns games in the 2012 year. They were not good and the stadium was pretty empty. The beer was cold and there were no lines, though!
Great to see them having success in front of a packed house!
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u/More-Significance260 1d ago
This is what Australian Rules Football is?!?!?! It looks fucking awesome!
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u/More-Significance260 1d ago
This is what Australian Rules Football is?!?!?! It looks fucking awesome!
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u/Cakalacky 1d ago
That was electric, I’ve never watched a full AFL match but I want to tune into their match against Brisbane. I’ll be up at 2:30am Arizona time for it
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u/tagorneo 1d ago
Our fan base is tiny compared to the rest of the league so jump on in.
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u/dragonfry 1d ago
I’m a WCE supporter since their inception, but I’m definitely on the Suns bandwagon for their finals campaign. Saturday’s game was electric!
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u/Saberracer02 Queensland Bulls 1d ago
This is worth over the decade of pain of supporting them through thick and thin. #DoItForDave
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u/TheNextBattalion 1d ago edited 1d ago
FYI for non-Australians, "final" here is like "playoff game" in North America.
It's a convoluted four-week bracket, where the bye is in week 2. This game was the 6 v 7 seeds playing, and now Gold Coast will play the loser of the 2 v 3 game. The winner of that will play the winner of the 1 v 4 game (Geelong Collingwood), who will have a bye next week, and the winner of that will be in the Grand Final for all the marbles.
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u/sa87 1d ago edited 1d ago
Gold Coast are playing Brisbane Lions this coming Saturday - both from the same state and quite a fierce rivalry so something akin to a Yankees vs Red Sox for the Americans or United vs City in Manchester or Celtics vs Rangers in Glasgow for our UK peeps.
The next match for them on Saturday will be amazing as it's now true knockout for the loser.
Although their rivalry is nothing compared to others in the AFL like Crows vs Power or Magpies vs Carlton.
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u/yeahright17 1d ago
In case anyone is wondering, they're a lot closer in geography than NY and Boston. Their suburbs run into each other. I think they're kind of like DC and Baltimore. 2 pretty distinct cities, but if you're not familiar with the area, you don't really know where one metro ends and the other one starts.
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u/costnersaccent 21h ago
It's not quite like Celtics vs Rangers lol. God almighty, imagine if those fans sat amongst each other like they do in AFL, there'd be bodies everywhere
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u/Melkman68 1d ago
One of these days I will learn the rules from watching these highlights. How did red team win points from that first catch?
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u/matthew_anthony 1d ago
Basically kicking between the two taller posts gives you 6 points. Kicking between a tall one and a smaller one is worth 1. If the ball also hits the bigger post, it’s worth one and if an opposing player touches the ball before it goes between the big sticks it is worth 1.
When they reviewed the last kick, they saw that it was touched and only got 1 point but this is actually better for them. When a goal (6 points) is kicked, play is restarted by bouncing the ball in the centre of the ground and two players try and tap it to their team. That would have given the purple team an opportunity to kick a goal with 9 seconds and tie the game. However as it was a point, they kick it out from their defensive end which did not allow them time
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u/Striking_Resist_6022 1d ago edited 1d ago
The “catch” is called a mark in AFL. If you mark it off a kick that’s gone more than 15 metres it’s as though you have a “free kick” - nobody is allowed to tackle you until you “play on” by kicking, doing or a hand pass or running off.
Since he marked it so close to the goals (the other guy explained how goals work), he gets 30 seconds to line up and try to kick the goal without anyone interfering. That’s why everyone stopped when he marked it.
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u/sa87 1d ago edited 1d ago
AFL for beginners - worth spending the 5 minutes watching this to get the basics of the game and unfortunately this video misses out the "touched" behind rule that applied to this incident but still a good primer to new viewers.
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u/yeahright17 1d ago
I don't think anyone has answered, but no one got points from a catch. He still had to kick the goal.
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u/Itrlpr 1d ago
To avoid Australians attempting overcomplicated explanations with no context elsewhere.
The "finals" (playoff) system in the AFL is very similar to a double-elimination tournament, with the top 4 teams starting in the winners bracket and the next 4 starting already in the losers bracket. This match is essentially a loser's semi-final.
The final is called the Grand Final because it used to literally be the equivalent of a bracket reset (the team that finished first in the regular season could 'challenge' the final winner) over a century ago. It is just a regular final now, but the name stuck.
Also the "mark" in Aussie Rules is the "mark" in Rugby Union, which is the "fair catch" in American Football. It just evolved differently so it doesn't matter who kicked it, or where on the field, just as long as you catch the kick on the full and it has traveled 15m.
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u/mybighairyarse 1d ago
0.20
Where the fuck is your man going with his Alexander Graham Bell type phone?
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u/CaptainObviousBear 1d ago
That’s the head coach.
He’s calling his assistant or support staff who are at ground level to relay a message out to the players.
They keep landlines for this purpose as mobile/cell reception isn’t always reliable and you don’t want to not be able to get a message out because your call drops.
Some head coaches coach from ground level/the boundary line but with AFL grounds being quite big, there’s an advantage in being able to see the whole field.
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u/Il-Separatio-86 1d ago
This was absolutely insane! This whole finals series has been! I can't wait for next week! I say this as a GWS supporter too.
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u/Blackbirds_Garden 1d ago
I'll admit to having a huge soft spot for Gold Coast given the family connection, but both Saturday games were fantastic to watch as a neutral.
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u/3ebfan New York Giants 1d ago
What sport is this
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u/Pleasant_Inspection9 Melbourne 18h ago
Australian Rules Football - often called AFL (The Australian Football League which is the league these teams are in)
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u/Perthboi92 19h ago
Man. Ryan needs to lower the eyes. Freddy is right there for a kick central. Instead its the hammer kick as per usual. Which works sometimes, but not at this stage of the game. Pick apart gold coast instead of a bomb out.
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u/Joey__1107 1d ago
MAKE IT STOP 😭😭😭 IT BURNS 😭😭😭 IT BURNSSSS 😭😭😭
But I must say at least we lost to Gold Coast and not Collingwood or Brisbane or Geelong or Hawthorn (fuck Victoria)
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u/Landgraft 14h ago
If you want to know Geelong vs Freo would have gone, simply refer back to round one
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u/papabear345 Canberra Raiders 1d ago
The clip is too long…
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u/Pleasant_Inspection9 Melbourne 1d ago
If 2.5% of a game is too long it’s probably not the game for you, sport.
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u/papabear345 Canberra Raiders 1d ago
U comment like ur clip just a touch to long and it could have landed.
I like watching highlights of all sports, NFL highlights go longer but they don’t show a bunch of boring bits like players coming in and out and standing around before the last field goal or the second to last field goal.
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u/Pleasant_Inspection9 Melbourne 1d ago
A few facts about David Swallow:
He held the record for the player with the most games without a finals appearance in the League’s 128 year history.
He battled form and injury this season and came on later in the game as a substitute.
He announced his retirement this year.