Have you noticed that unlike the less violent game of soccer with its often violent crowds, AFL supporters are on the whole a peaceful crowd which is a mixture of elderly women, children and testosterone charged young men?

Twenty years ago, the running, flying, bumping nature of AFL and its often gruesome injuries were part of my attraction to the code.

The game of my childhood, rugby league, had turned into a rabble, with too much time spent wrestling on the ground, with players stacked on top of each other and regularly being interrupted by intrepid referees blowing their whistles and stopping the flow of the game.

What is great about AFL was the bumping, gladiatorial violence.

So long as the team's objective is to score points and not put the other team in hospital there is room for fair play bumping.

Violent movies, especially those which link violence with sex are abhorrent. Violence on our streets and in our homes is insidious in its unpredictable and destructive force.

But violence and physical aggression, it can be argued are healthy instincts.

Civilisation has evolved; we have learned better ways to express our rage.

But to totally deny a place for violence in our society is unrealistic.

If you get your fix of bumping every Saturday watching your team biff and bang around an AFL oval, surely that's better than biffing your neighbour for their noisy motorcycle?

It's become a way to let off steam.

The trick is to tame the the violence to stay in its place, so good men like Barry Hall don't take their violence to town.

But a game of AFL without the bump would be a tragedy.