Policing

If you’re an AFL player, you’re part of the most tightly monitored group of adults in Australia. On match day, the numbers are stark: one umpire for every eight players. Three in the field, four on the boundary, two in the goals, watching fewer than fifty men in real time, from every angle, with replay.

Now compare that with the rest of the country. Australia has just under 70,000 sworn police officers for a population of over 26.7 million. That’s one officer for every 382 people. Not 382 criminals, 382 men, women, children, pensioners, tourists, and politicians alike.

The contrast? AFL players are policed roughly 50 times more intensely than the general population.

And yet, they still manage to fuck up.