Sheahan: The worst of today’s football is the worst it’s ever been

SEN  •  August 25th, 2025 7:03 pm
Sheahan: The worst of today’s football is the worst it’s ever been
Legendary journalist and football expert Mike Sheahan has never been more disappointed with the state of the AFL.
The 2025 AFL season has been by far the most divided season in recent years - with nine teams clearly playing at a different level to the remaining competition.
CEO Andrew Dillon is insistent that the competition is in a great place, however from difficult prime time fixtures to a scarcity of contests across any given round, poor umpiring and a lack of equalisation, Sheahan argues otherwise.
Having taken a step back from football media nearly a decade ago, the 78-year-old has been rather let down by the “rubbish” played out this year.

“I’m really disappointed with the division in this competition,” Sheahan told SEN Tassie.
“With finals coming up, we’ve got eight very good teams but geez, we’ve had some rubbish on the way through.
“I was at Richmond and Geelong on Saturday; I thought Saturday’s fare was terrible. Lopsided games, poor skills, nothing going forward. It was saved yesterday, because yesterday was a great day for football.
“It just convinced a lot of us that there are too many teams in the competition, which sounds odd because I am in favour of Tasmania coming in.
“I think we need to get back into the marketplace – we want to get the best of the kids that play footy codes in Australia and channel them into the AFL.”
Speaking on the state of today’s game, Sheahan admitted his belief that the game is in its worst state in its long history.
“No, I’m not (satisfied with today’s game),” he said.
“When I retired from working in newspapers, which is now 13 or 14 years ago, I said to myself, ‘don’t become one of those people where everyone says, ‘those old blokes, they just think it was always better in their day, things have gone backwards’.
“I said I would never do that, but I think the worst of today’s football is the worst it’s ever been. The execution of skills and the rolling mauls and the ruckwork the way it’s become a wrestling match, all those sorts of things – I don’t like that.
“You see games, and you see the way that Brisbane play, and Adelaide and Geelong, and you say the game has probably never been played better.
“Two things here, umpiring AFL is probably the most difficult umpiring exercise in any world sport, but geez they make some mistakes. I think we just learn to live with them unfortunately. We shouldn’t have to, but we do.”
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