Channel 10 took their viewers on a trip back in time on Monday during their coverage of the Carlton Geelong clash from the MCG. Back to the days when going the bash got the turnstiles ticking and bad blood meant more than good football.

During Monday's telelcast they chose to promote the rivalry round game between Essendon and Hawthorn by regularly showing a 90-second promo that highlighted hatred between the two clubs based on the fist rather than the scoreboard. What made their pitch to fans even more galling was that they set up their take of the Dons and the Hawks game by using the upcoming round 16 and 17 clashes between first Collingwood and St. Kilda, and then Collingwood and Richmond to whet their viewers appetite for destruction. In doing so they reprised footage of the Malthouse/Milne incident and also the Jake King inspired brawl between the Pies and Tigers. In all, their promotion was a glorification of shirtfronts, verbal abuse and outright thuggery.

Seemingly oblivious to a picture any bigger than can be delivered on a TV screen, both the architect of the promo, Andrew Maher, and head of football at Channel 10, David Barham see nothing wrong in putting the dark side of the game up on a pedestal in order to boost their ratings. Both are convinced that on-field violence is an element of the game that the fans want to see and in the scramble for ratings ‘what baby wants, baby gets'. By behaving expediently the network is rewinding the clock to a time best left in the past.

It is the 1970's and Thursday night's League Teams begins with vision of an all-in brawl between Collingwood and Carlton. Jack and Lou stoke the fires of hatred between the Tigers and the Pies whilst poor old Bobby has to fend off accusations that his beloved Cats are a bunch of poofs. The decade gives us the battle of Windy Hill, the 'animals' game at Moorabbin and countless other afternoons of bash and blood. The fans are lapping it up, but at the very same time suburban and country football is home to incidents that are a lot less glorious and in many cases a lot more vicious. It is a classic case of 'monkey see, monkey do' and whilst the big boys are being lauded for playing like ‘real men', the game is falling apart at the lower level, awash in a sea of violence.

Thankfully the last 15 years has seen a quantum change in how the sport is played and promoted. To its credit, the AFL sees itself as custodian of a highly skilled sport where inflicting injury outside the rules is no longer tolerated. Gone are the shirtfronts and the hits behind the play, replaced by a new world where the ball player is protected and the head is sacrosanct. The flow-on effect is there for all to see.

A suburban or country football ground has become a much safer place to be, and the evidence is more than anecdotal. Determined to shed its reputation as a no go-zone for fair footballers, the Diamond Valley Football League changed its name to the Northern Football League in 2007. Along with the name change, came a change in attitude and the NFL is now home to some of the most skilled non-AFL footballers in the state.

Likewise, nearly all football competitions across the state of Victoria now emphasise fair play and have brought in new rules to enforce change. A coloured card system similar to the one used in soccer exists in most competitions, ensuring that unruly players can now be dealt with summarily. Another major change has seen clubs held responsible for the behaviour of their players with heavy fines and expulsion the result for clubs that don't tow the line.

Football has come a long was in the last 20 years, the result of hard work by administrators at all levels. On Monday, Channel 10 undid some of that hard work in the search for a few more viewers, and whilst we shouldn't be surprised, we should all be disappointed and demand that it doesn't happen again.

Mark Fine presents the evening show on SEN 1116.