Finding footy : female fan socialization and Australian rules football

The question of how, irrespective of gender, a person becomes a sports fan has been absent in sociological studies of sports supporters. Distinct from other studies of sport spectatorship that focus on the practices of already existing (and overwhelmingly male) fans, our research is the first to consider how women become supporters, and in doing so, it begins to redress the significant under-representation of women in sports fan research. From interviews with female supporters of the Australian Football League (AFL), this article identifies and critically assesses the modes by which women come to support sport. We propose four categories to explain the different ways women accomplish fandom, focusing on the importance of strong social ties and doxic actions in this process. The events, experiences and social relations that inform women's first encounters with AFL offers a template for the wider consideration of women as social agents in the sporting landscape.

Drinkers, non-drinkers and deferrers : reconsidering the beer/footy couplet amongst Australian rules football fans

There is a common perception that football and alcohol go hand in hand and that players and fans routinely engage in excessive and irresponsible drinking. In Australia, this is manifest in the stereotypical ‘Pissed Aussie Rules fan’. Following research with Australian Rules football fans in South Australia, we identified three categories of fans according to their (non)engagement with alcohol: Drinkers, Non-Drinkers and Deferrers. Deferrers were selfidentified drinkers who separated alcohol consumption from spectating, for fear of ‘contamination’. Our identification of counter-stereotypic ways in which fans engage with alcohol (or not) challenges the assumptive worlds in which popular commentary on football and drinking operates. This was, to our knowledge, the first ethnography of drinking behaviour amongst Australian Rules football fans. It demonstrates the advantage of using ethnographic research techniques to understand the relationship between identity and consumption.

Fast mining of non-derivable episode rules in complex sequences

Researchers have been endeavoring to discover concise sets of episode rules instead of complete sets in sequences. Existing approaches, however, are not able to process complex sequences and can not guarantee the accuracy of resulting sets due to the violation of anti-monotonicity of the frequency metric. In some real applications, episode rules need to be extracted from complex sequences in which multiple items may appear in a time slot. This paper investigates the discovery of concise episode rules in complex sequences. We define a concise representation called non-derivable episode rules and formularize the mining problem. Adopting a novel anti-monotonic frequency metric, we then develop a fast approach to discover non-derivable episode rules in complex sequences. Experimental results demonstrate that the utility of the proposed approach substantially reduces the number of rules and achieves fast processing.

Physiological responses of elite junior Australian Rules footballers during match-play

Australian Football (AF) is Australia's major football code. Despite research in other football codes, to date, no data has been published on the physiological responses of AF players during match play. Fifteen athletes (17.28 ± 0.76 yrs) participated in four pre-season matches, sanctioned by Australian Football League (AFL) Victoria, investigating Heart Rate (HR), Blood Lactate (BLa), Core Temperature (Tcore), and Hydration status. Match HR was measured continuously using HR monitors. BLa was measured via finger prick lancet at the end of each quarter of play. Tcore was measured by use of ingestible temperature sensor and measured wirelessly at the end of each quarter of play. Hydration status was measured using refractometry, measuring urine specific gravity, and body weight pre and post-match. Environmental conditions were measured continuously during matches. Results of HR responses showed a high exertion of players in the 85-95% maximum HR range. Elevated mean BLa levels, compared to rest, were observed in all players over the duration of the matches (p = 0.007). Mean Tcore rose 0.68 °C between start and end of matches. Mean USG increased between 0.008 g/ml (p = 0.001) with mean body weight decreasing 1.88 kg (p = 0.001). This study illustrates physiological responses in junior AF players playing in the heat as well as providing physiological data for consideration by AF coaching staff when developing specific training programs. Continued research should consider physiological measurements under varying environments, and at all playing levels of AF, to ascertain full physiological responses during AF matches.

Profile of position movement demands in elite junior Australian rules footballers

This study investigated the positional movement patterns in elite junior Australian Football (AF). Thirty players (17.1 ± 0.9 years) participating in this study were tracked over seven home games of the regular 2006 Victorian junior (Under 18) league season. Using lapsed-time video analysis, each position for an entire match was videotaped on three separate occasions over the course of the season. Data analysed included the number of individual efforts, duration and frequency of efforts; distance and percentage time for the classifications of standing, walking jogging, running and sprinting. Results showed that the midfield position travelled the greatest distance (4173 ± 238 m per quarter; p < 0.05; ES = .94) whilst the full forward/full back travelled the least (2605 ± 348 m per quarter, p < 0.05, ES = 1.21). For all positions, walking or jogging accounted for the greatest number of efforts (45-55%), conversely running and sprinting accounted for 5-13% of match efforts. The majority of efforts across all classifications were between 0-3.99 s. The data from this study provides further evidence that AF is an intermittent sport characterised by high intensity movements separated by low intensity movements at a ratio of one high intensity effort every 12-40 s. However, careful interpretation of the data is required when training junior AF players for specific positions, given the specific group studied.

Player movement patterns in an elite junior Australian Rules Football team : an exploratory study

This study explored the physical movement patterns associated with an elite Under 18 Australian Football (AF) team. Five field positions were selected with observations recording the number and relative per cent of "working" efforts (jogging, running, and sprinting), "resting" efforts (walking) and the total distances associated with "working" or "resting" efforts. Intra-observer reliability, using test- retest method, showed correlations were r = 0.98 or greater. The Wing position covered 11,877 m, the greatest total distance during an entire game, whilst the HBF and Centre positions both recorded 11,545 m and 11,537 m respectively and the Ruck position covered 9,203 m. The HBF recorded the greatest frequency of 'working' and 'resting' efforts (180 and 182 respectively), whilst the Wing (166 and 158), Centre (162 and 149) and Ruck (161 and 166) showed similarities in their results. The Wing position recorded the longest average distance per 'working' effort (58 m) whilst the Centre position recorded the longest average distance per 'resting' effort (17 m). Results also show the completion of less total efforts and smaller total distances, in Under 18 players, recorded compared to professional senior AF data. The results from this study suggest that further in-depth research is required into movement patterns and game activity demands in this AF playing group.

Fuzzy FMEA with a guided rules reduction system for prioritization of failures

Purpose – To propose a generic method to simplify the fuzzy logic-based failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) methodology by reducing the number of rules that needs to be provided by FMEA users for the fuzzy risk priority number (RPN) modeling process.

Design/methodology/approach – The fuzzy RPN approach typically requires a large number of rules, and it is a tedious task to obtain a full set of rules. The larger the number of rules provided by the users, the better the prediction accuracy of the fuzzy RPN model. As the number of rules required increases, ease of use of the model decreases since the users have to provide a lot of information/rules for the modeling process. A guided rules reduction system (GRRS) is thus proposed to regulate the number of rules required during the fuzzy RPN modeling process. The effectiveness of the proposed GRRS is investigated using three real-world case studies in a semiconductor manufacturing process.

Findings – In this paper, we argued that not all the rules are actually required in the fuzzy RPN model. Eliminating some of the rules does not necessarily lead to a significant change in the model output. However, some of the rules are vitally important and cannot be ignored. The proposed GRRS is able to provide guidelines to the users which rules are required and which can be eliminated. By employing the GRRS, the users do not need to provide all the rules, but only the important ones when constructing the fuzzy RPN model. The results obtained from the case studies demonstrate that the proposed GRRS is able to reduce the number of rules required and, at the same time, to maintain the ability of the Fuzzy RPN model to produce predictions that are in agreement with experts' knowledge in risk evaluation, ranking, and prioritization tasks.

Research limitations/implications – The proposed GRRS is limited to FMEA systems that utilize the fuzzy RPN model.

Practical implications – The proposed GRRS is able to simplify the fuzzy logic-based FMEA methodology and make it possible to be implemented in real environments.

Originality/value – The value of the current paper is on the proposal of a GRRS for rule reduction to enhance the practical use of the fuzzy RPN model in real environments.

Warlpiri warriors : Australian Rules Football in Central Australia

Yuendumu, located in the Tanami desert of the Northern Territory, is home to the largest Warlpiri community in Australia. We examine the role of Australian Rules football in this remote Indigenous community. Football is seen to operate on many layers of Warlpiri culture, from the traditional game of ‘purlja’, the introduction of modern football in the 1950s, the growth of sports weekends, community football and the Alice Springs competition to the journey of Liam Jurrah, the first Warlpiri man to make the journey from being a desert footballer to emerging as an Australian Football League star. The importance of football in Yuendumu is revealed as a vehicle for social cohesion, group identity, pride and joy, and as an expression of manhood, enabling its young men to see themselves as modern-day Warlpiri warriors.