Enough is enough! Boycott the AFL website!

by Rick Newbery

I know cyberspace is supposed to be infinite but that doesn’t excuse the wanton waste of it. And that is precisely what the AFL continues to do.
 
I am sick and tired of losing use of my net connection for five or ten minutes while the bloated AFL site loads. It has been that way for ever but nobody in a position that matters seems to give a toss. If they did, they’d do something about it. Instead, they stuff us around even more by keeping the home match page defaulting on Round One, and (presumably in line with some ‘law’ about Free Speech) putting an idiotic ‘chat’ facility on each individual match page (taking up about half the screen) so Cretinous of Canterbury and Nobody of Nunawading can go ‘nyah nyah nyah’ and ‘we wuz robbed’ and throw multiple exclamation marks at each other throughout the match.
 
Fellow Almanackers, if you are with me in the view that the AFL site is considerably less useful than a chocolate teapot, esp its match pages, please join me in an OZI (ongoing zero interface) and ask your friends to do likewise. It can’t possibly hurt.

Comments

  1. Rick, I’m with you all the way on this one. I have noticed that the home match page (the banner across the top) has been defaulting to Round 1, and I am heartily sick of the mindless chat sessions we are forced to endure. Last year’s match page was far better, incorporating the worm and goal-kickers in order in list form. I’m all for improvement, but this is regression.

    There are obviously those that utilise the chat facility. That’s fine; just let those of us who have no interest close the chat box down and see just the score and stats updates.

    There also used to be the option of switching to a (much less resource-hungry) HTML version. That appears to have been canned.

    I quite like the idea of a chocolate teapot, though.

  2. Agreed 100%, the new layout has made me not want to visit the AFL website these days. The new Match Centre is an absolute joke, Demetriou gets paid millions but they can’t even form an AFL website that works efficiently.

    The new http://www.superfooty.com.au website is a bit harder to navigate as well.

  3. I thought everyone had given up on the AFL site.

  4. Pamela Sherpa says

    Agree, re above complaints with AFL website. I only access it to listen to a game via net.

  5. Tim Ivins says

    Is there any way in the site rebuild we can pick up links to the match radio stations directly and host it on Footy Almanac? That way all the bloat and rubbish is gone and we get the essentials?

  6. It’s not just the match day content that’s painfully implemented. The whole site is all but unnavigable if you’re aftyer anything else but the most recent news items. A new menu structure has been introduced recently with fewer items, but no alternatives, and the search function is all but useless with its 10 results per page format. Considering it’s an ISP (Bigpond) running the site, it’s usability is abysmal.

  7. Great call, Rick.
    As the leading sporting code in the country, the AFL should be ashamed that their official on-line presence is so compromised and user-unfriendly.
    I gave up using the AFL site during round 1, when I realised that it still had not been improved. I have “un-bookmarked” the site.

  8. Never felt the need to access it!

  9. Alovesupreme says

    I don’t use the site a lot, but I occasionally check current scores on matches in delayed telecasts. I’ve noticed the score-board is extremely amateurish (I’m sure that’s only occurred this year). The progress scores shown are frequently wrong and the goals-behinds-points combinations, ludicrous e.g.7-5-24. I’ve also noticed the painfully slow loading and progress of the match centre.

  10. Absolutely agree with everyone. Final teams used to be easily accessible, game center now sucks.

    But unfortunately the Herald Sun game center is even worse!

    Anyone got any alternative sites for gamecenter?

  11. It seems that accessing the AFL website with the BB Torch works like the online site, and defaults to lastest round, as opposed to being stuck on round 1, like my BB Bold..

    Would love to find out about a non resource hungry AFL scores website. The Foxsports site m.foxsports.com.au is pretty good.

  12. I’ve stopped visiting the AFL web site all together. Its too hard to use, too slow, too ‘party official’. There are plenty of other easier to use and more informative sites out there, without the rubbish. Don’t bother complaining, just stop using it. That sort of silence the AFL will hear.

  13. Argggh, I totally agree. The website is pathetic to say the least. Thought I would jump on to see who is being televised in Perth and as usual it does not come up. The so called “live” games are ridiculously slow and the only reason I look at the posts on the chat is to get a more realisic score update. You would think in this day and age that the boffins could manage to provide a more up to date “live” score. Unfortunately I have not been able to find a website that actually updates the scores within a reasonable time period. Being in Perth does not mean I want to see West Coast or Fremantle games but have little choice with the pathetic television rights, which will be worse next year as I am not about to pay a fortune to Foxtell for the crap they put on. What the AFL heirarchy does not seem to be able to get through their thick skulss is that without us supporters they would all be up s**t creek. Mr Demetriou has deep pockets and short arms. Time he started thinking about the supporters from Australia wide and not just his suburb. Get rid of Telstra Bigpond and find someone that will actually deliver what the supporters want. THE WEBSITE IS A DISGRACE!!! Does anyone have any idea of how we can send these complaints direct to the AFL?

  14. This is the only web address that I can find and I imagine it will fall on deaf ears as well, but I did say my piece. I encourage all to say your piece.

    http://www.afl.com.au/Default.aspx?tabid=10302

  15. I have written to The AFL and website feedback at least twice every year for the past 5 years about how slow and inaccessible AFL.com.au is. The afl must have sold out to Bigpond 20 years ago on a timeless deal otherwise they would have bought out by now. The afl know the site is crap so why don’t they spend more on correcting it?

  16. The site is amateurish in many respects which is surprising consider how much money and how big the AFL organisation is. The problem is the site is not professionaly maintained so we have a slow site and connections being disconnected. It is now 2016 and it is not a good thing if the AFL want to promote the game to the international community.

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