2017 AFL international cup

[mikey127]

Honestly?

The standard of play isn't exactly a great advertisement for the game, so the time/money/effort would probably be better spent in other areas.


Doesn't mean it's not fun to watch for someone who is already a fan of the game....Hard fought, good spirit and so forth, but the skills are about what you'd expect if you walked up to a random suburban game.

I agree except for the top 4 or so nations. PNG, Ireland South Africa and even New Zealand have some quite good players.

 

[Cmarsh]

I still find it amazing that so Little people know about this. If the AFL really wanted to grow the game why not televise it?

Would have thought SBS might have been intresered in showing a few games on NITV or one of their multi channels given their multicultural charter but apparently not.

However The AFL are streaming some games on it's IC17 youtube channel.

I see the AFL has just uploaded a well produced highlights package from the last IC on that youtube channel.
The intensity around the huddles seem to portray the players really caring about what thay are doing. Must be a real buzz for the finalists to play at the MCG and Etihad.

 

[mikey127]

Would have thought SBS might have been intresered in showing a few games on NITV or one of their multi channels given their multicultural charter but apparently not.

However The AFL are streaming some games on it's IC17 youtube channel.

I see the AFL has just uploaded a well produced highlights package from the last IC on that youtube channel.
The intensity around the huddles seem to portray the players really caring about what thay are doing. Must be a real buzz for the finalists to play at the MCG and Etihad.

What a shame Les Murray passed away the other day would be gold to see him anchor AFL coverage on SBS

 

[telsor]

Would have thought SBS might have been intresered in showing a few games on NITV or one of their multi channels given their multicultural charter but apparently not.

LOL.

 

[Cmarsh]

What a shame Les Murray passed away the other day would be gold to see him anchor AFL coverage on SBS

Just needs Simon Hill and Craig Foster as his co hosts to make a full trio of AFL haters.

 

[telsor]

I agree except for the top 4 or so nations. PNG, Ireland South Africa and even New Zealand have some quite good players.

No doubt. I said 'randon suburban game' quite deliberately...There can be some good standard suburban games too. The best players would get a gig in a suburban first div team, perhaps even higher with training/regular games (Some of the women could probably play AFLW next year), but the standard is inevitably quite variable, and there are some teams with players whose qualification is more due to their capacity to pay for a flight than kick a football.

Don't get me wrong though, as I said before, they're hard fought games, played in good spirit (and that goes for both players and fans), and I'll be down at Royal Park for several hours on Sunday watching (I'd be there longer, but Richmond play that day too), and almost certainly the following week too, so I am a fan...I just think we should be realistic. Another positive is that with 3 grounds so close together, it means that if a game is less than stellar, you only have to walk 20m to see another.

 

[mikey127]

No doubt. I said 'randon suburban game' quite deliberately...There can be some good standard suburban games too. The best players would get a gig in a suburban first div team, perhaps even higher with training/regular games (Some of the women could probably play AFLW next year), but the standard is inevitably quite variable, and there are some teams with players whose qualification is more due to their capacity to pay for a flight than kick a football.

Don't get me wrong though, as I said before, they're hard fought games, played in good spirit (and that goes for both players and fans), and I'll be down at Royal Park for several hours on Sunday watching (I'd be there longer, but Richmond play that day too), and almost certainly the following week too, so I am a fan...I just think we should be realistic. Another positive is that with 3 grounds so close together, it means that if a game is less than stellar, you only have to walk 20m to see another.

Yeah I definetly think there are some players that are state level quality. There will probably be a few PNG guys that have been on rookie lists

 

[telsor]

Yeah I definetly think there are some players that are state level quality. There will probably be a few PNG guys that have been on rookie lists

I think they definitely have the ability, and AFL scouts could do worse that checking out some games and trying to entice a few of the younger guys to be international rookies.

 

[mikey127]

Just needs Simon Hill and Craig Foster as his co hosts to make a full trio of AFL haters.

I know the 2 mentioned do but did Les actually hate our game?

 

[the10secondping]

is Financial reasons the reasons why they are not here this time?

I notice there is no representation from Scandinavia where as previously we have had up to 3 teams from the region. Is footy struggling over there?

Finances is definitely one of the main reasons. Others being small pool of players to pick a team from, and how to schedule 3-4 weeks off from work/school for amateur sport tournament on the other side of the world.

Footy is constantly struggling over here, as it's really just a minor sport with only a handful of teams competing in it. Even between other minor sports (Gridiron, Rugby, Lacrosse, etc) it seems to be difficult for footy to attract people to try the game in the first place. Generally people don't know about the game at all, and when told about they assume its rugby. IMO the first step to gain more public interest is to start showing AFL on tv on a regular basis. Then it would be easier to start recruiting younger talent into footy.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

There are plenty of twitter accounts to follow the comp and each team with pictures and videos.

https://twitter.com/AFLIntCup

https://twitter.com/hashtag/AFLIC17?src=hash

https://twitter.com/hashtag/IC17?src=hash

https://twitter.com/worldfooty


In Div 1 I'm watching the PNG Mosquitos




In Div 2 naturally I'm watching Team China
https://twitter.com/teamchina_afl





In the Women I'm watching the Canadian Northern Lights
https://twitter.com/IC17Lights

 

[wally funk]

A nice article on Canadian footy

http://nationalpost.com/sports/how-...ball/wcm/097374ae-e147-40f7-b220-b525443c4041

 

[JapanFootball]

頑張れ日本！

 

[The Slitherin' Snake]

I remember last time it was held, the AFL was too tight to even help the teams get here. Hopefully this time around they have dipped into their millions and given them a hand.

Nup. US players have to pay for themselves (there might be a small amount of assistance from the USAFL but it is still not cheap for them).

On the standard, the top teams are generally pretty good and wouldn't look out of place in a suburban league. The kicking skills are generally what lets them down (especially for the US) but athletically they are bloody good. The US team has an ex NFL practice squad player on the team who only took up the game about 6 months ago. He covers the ground amazingly, has an insane leap, punishing tackler and good hands. But really struggles kicking.

 

[NoobPie]

As a former fanatical follower of Rugby League and English Premier League and soccer in general I agree with you Australian Rules is the best team sport on the planet, can't beat it for spectator appeal IMO.

We are never going to be even a blip on the radar of international sports though, soccer has that all tied up into the foreseeable future. IMO just concentrate on and pour all our resources ie. $$$ into absolutely dominating the Australian market, including QLD and NSW which I see as far more realistic than any sort of international footprint.

Promote the game aggressively in migrant communities nation wide and try to get schools to take a far bigger interest in Australian Rules in QLD and NSW would be a great start.

I agree that is overwhelmingly where the focus should be but you can chew gum while you walk surely? I think there is a case to lift the support for OS football in to the very low millions without compromising development in Australia

 

[NoobPie]

Would have thought SBS might have been intresered in showing a few games on NITV or one of their multi channels given their multicultural charter but apparently not.

.

Dead right. If anyone can explain to me how it is justified in the age of digital and subscription TV and the internet that SBS is outbidding commercial media for the EPL rights (at the apparent expense of most of the next soccer world cup games) I'd be surprised.

 

[The Slitherin' Snake]

I agree that is overwhelmingly where the focus should be but you can chew gum while you walk surely? I think there is a case to lift the support for OS football in to the very low millions without compromising development in Australia

This is the objective of AFLX isn't it?
There are significant logistical barriers in growing the game overseas, not just a lack of awareness

 

[MarkCatsFan]

Keep an eye on Canada, I played over there last year and one of their guys has learned the game from scratch and is turning into a solid footy player, strong mark, great kick and ran absolute circles around me, the only guy from that province to make the cut, and if he happens to read this forum, good luck Chris! I'm sad I can't make it home to Melbs to watch.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

Jason in some countries like the USA and Europe yes its going to be a lot more difficult but I think in Asia, the pacific the sub-continent and South Africa we can have a lot more success

South Africa only have 3 big sports Soccer, Cricket and Rugby and the game has made some real inroads there and they have the athleticism for our game.

A country like India has the population for another sport and one advantage they have that many other countries don't have is that they have the right shaped grounds.

Even with the USA and Europe yes it will be tough but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

Disagree on the USA. Sure, it'll never be a huge sport like the big5 games there (hockey, soccer, gridiron, basketball, baseball), but I can see it becoming a niche sport like lacrosse.

The issue is that the AFL don't want to spend the money and take losses to build the game.
They need to start by paying a US network to broadcast games, just as the VFL did in the late 80's with ESPN.

Then "all-star" games in our off-season.
Then put money into the college system.

Only then should they even consider a league

 

[NoobPie]

This is the objective of AFLX isn't it?
There are significant logistical barriers in growing the game overseas, not just a lack of awareness

Sure, it is one of the objectives of AFL X apparently....but the other issue is the provision of support for at the grass roots level. The game may face challenges with "ground size and team numbers" in terms of growth but my understanding is that the grass roots already deal with this through their own 9-aside versions. The greater challenge is administrative, logistical and resourcing at the grass roots level where it is purely based on volunteerism, not even able to access public grants that other sports get in various countries available to most other sports

I think the AFL should increase the financial support to the peak bodies in North America, Europe and Asia for development but, more importantly, it should work provide practical and political support and efforts to access funding from respective governments AND the commonwealth government (ie DFAT)

In Australia (though this is not the totality of public funding for sport), this ASC's distribution of funding in 2017/18

http://www.ausport.gov.au/__data/as...97/34649_Investment_allocation_2017-18_v2.pdf

La Crosse gets $100k for "participation", for instance. Australia would have less participants in La Crosse than many of the IC countries have aus football participants.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Disagree on the USA. Sure, it'll never be a huge sport like the big5 games there (hockey, soccer, gridiron, basketball, baseball), but I can see it becoming a niche sport like lacrosse.

The issue is that the AFL don't want to spend the money and take losses to build the game.
They need to start by paying a US network to broadcast games, just as the VFL did in the late 80's with ESPN.

Then "all-star" games in our off-season.
Then put money into the college system.

Only then should they even consider a league

The VFL didn't pay ESPN to broadcast their games but they didnt receive any real rights monies either. In 1985 when ESPN first used to broadcast the VFL game of the week on a Tuesday at 11pm NY time they did so because they didn't have much content at the time. They were less than 5 years old and didnt have any TV rights for the big 4 professional US sports. Once they won rights to those big 4 sports VFL was pushed back to 2 and 3am in the early 1990's and then on to ESPN 2 and I think they ended up ESPN 4 or the equivalent of their 4th channel.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Dead right. If anyone can explain to me how it is justified in the age of digital and subscription TV and the internet that SBS is outbidding commercial media for the EPL rights (at the apparent expense of most of the next soccer world cup games) I'd be surprised.

Optus outbid everybody for EPL rights. They are smart enough to realise that having 1 game a week on free TV gives people a taste of it to make them want to go buy an Optus subscription even if some people might have pay TV already. Optus knew SBS would give that 1 game the gretest exposure of the 5 free TV networks so what's the bet they aren't charging SBS 1/10th of what they paid for the rights to show 1 of the 10 weekly games.

 

[NoobPie]

Optus outbid everybody for EPL rights. They are smart enough to realise that having 1 game a week on free TV gives people a taste of it to make them want to go buy an Optus subscription even if some people might have pay TV already. Optus knew SBS would give that 1 game the gretest exposure of the 5 free TV networks so what's the bet they aren't charging SBS 1/10th of what they paid for the rights to show 1 of the 10 weekly games.

The point is, why we don't know the finer details of the transaction (that I am aware), we know that SBS traded what could easily be justified within its charter - soccer world cup matches - for an EPL match a week which surely can't

 

[telsor]

Disagree on the USA. Sure, it'll never be a huge sport like the big5 games there (hockey, soccer, gridiron, basketball, baseball), but I can see it becoming a niche sport like lacrosse.

The issue is that the AFL don't want to spend the money and take losses to build the game.
They need to start by paying a US network to broadcast games, just as the VFL did in the late 80's with ESPN.

Then "all-star" games in our off-season.
Then put money into the college system.

Only then should they even consider a league

That sounds like a lot of money. Given that they don't own a bottomless pit of money, What do you think they should stop funding in order to pay for it?

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

The point is, why we don't know the finer details of the transaction (that I am aware), we know that SBS traded what could easily be justified within its charter - soccer world cup matches - for an EPL match a week which surely can't

When and what did they trade away w.r.t to 2018 WC rights? At the time of the 2014 WC there were stories that they will struggle to host future WC because they can't sell enough ads to raise revenues to pay for both rights and production costs.

What does their charter say specifically about soccer tv rights?