Violent Supporters Are Unacceptable | Thebigtip

The fine sport of Australian Rules is undoubtedly promoted as a family sport, offering a great environment to head down and see your team perform. This is one of the major differences between the scene set at an AFL game in comparison to that of association football where the crowds are noticeably more rowdy. Although it's obvious to the eye that the safer crowd code is AFL, you can never eliminate all of the bad influences.

This comes on on the back of another assault following Friday night's blockbuster between Collingwood and Carlton, arguably the biggest rivalry in AFL history. Unfortunately, the influence that the competitiveness on the field continues over to off-field situations.

Steven Eglezos was leaving the MCG early with his two teenage sons when he spotted a group of five men giving two elderly ladies a hard time. After confronting them, he was attacking while his back was turned, resulting in Eglezos spending the night in hospital with injuries including a broken jaw, several smashed teeth and temporary blindness in his right eye. The suspected cause of the brutal attack is alcohol abuse.

The full story can be found here.

The AFL, as well as licensed AFL venues, have worked hard to cut out alcohol fueled violence at events by only allowing light beer options when purchasing alcohol, as well as skyrocketing prices to help discourage indulging in a few too many. While this is a good step in the right direction, there are plenty of ways to exploit the system.

Although beer is only available in light, full-strength spirits are available at any alcohol stall within the ground. It doesn't help that anybody can take in almost anything they desire upon entering the ground, as the job that the bag checkers do at the gate is sub-par at best.

Unfortunately, the most damning factor contributing to alcohol-fueled violence is out of the AFL's hands. With so many bars, pubs and restaurants circulating grounds, any legal patron can drink until their heart's content prior to the match before strolling through the gates.

So what can be done to stop morons disrupting others' experiences? Sadly, not much. Most of the steps available to the AFL have been taken to cut back on the frequency of alcohol-fueled attacks. Sadly, the way that a small number of idiots act in the public's eye - generally in front of a young audience, mind you - can only be contained by the security's effectiveness, and in most cases at AFL ground, that can be a gamble.

If the AFL is so keen on solidifying Aussie Rules as a family sport, they need to look not only at the options that they have in front of them, but the plans that are already in place and how they can be improved. It goes without saying that venues need more security so there's an obvious one to add to the list. Whatever the AFL does about this, and there's certainly reason to believe that something needs to be done, this sort of behaviour can never be accepted. Although the majority of this great game's focus is on the players, something needs to be done to give the common fan a renewed sense of security against those that are looking to get on the grog.