2030: You'd think an international club comp would be on the radar

[Pessimistic]

Media had a piece with AD discussing possibilities c2030.

I would have thought someone might have floated a semi professional international footy competition

 

[MiloStedman]

I sure bloody hope not

 

[Hodge is God]

I sure bloody hope not

If there is the support, why not?
Not saying there would be, just saying.

 

[||-GOB-||]

By then South Africa will surely be an Aussie Rules Test match nation and rugby union will be on the outer*.

Imagine a tour where the Proteas and Springboks tour Australia and the cricket is one night and the AFl test match is the following night at the Gee. Would be amazing!

Then have the Stormers vs the CFC's, the Sharks vs the Swans, the Bulls vs the St KFC's, etc. Damn, would be so awesome.

*Assuming that the AFl participation figures in SA are close to correct ofc, and what reason could we have for doubting them?

 

[wmvaux]

Yeah I would think it would happen only after enough local leagues or national leagues are played in various countries. And only when the standard is good enough.
I think 2050 is more realistic. I think the AFL should keep promoting the game around the world too.

 

[Pessimistic]

Whats not to like /

More fans
More players
More investment
More footy on TV

Remember with clubs the teams dont all have to be nationals. In fact nationalist basad teams is quaint these days
Think of the money avaialble for pyjama cricket.

Put ti this way, if the top soccer teams in euurope could get away with a european superleague tomorrow they would. and the economic power is shifting from US Europe to asia

A sport unecumbered byu all the corrupt hangers on that other sports have (but give us time)

May not happen in 2030 but we should be seriously talking about it, much as we were about a national AFL in the eighties - which arrived in 2004

 

[uncustom]

By then South Africa will surely be an Aussie Rules Test match nation and rugby union will be on the outer*.

Imagine a tour where the Proteas and Springboks tour Australia and the cricket is one night and the AFl test match is the following night at the Gee. Would be amazing!

Then have the Stormers vs the CFC's, the Sharks vs the Swans, the Bulls vs the St KFC's, etc. Damn, would be so awesome.

*Assuming that the AFl participation figures in SA are close to correct ofc, and what reason could we have for doubting them?

Not just South Africa but we could have a Aussie Rules compteition like the Rugby Union Tri/Four Nations I would like that, but the nations would probably be Ireland, Australia, USA + some other country. Otherwise, some league setup similiar to the Super 15 where there would be 3-4 nations having 3-5 teams each,

 

[RogersResults]

These things obviously take time....​

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The Argus 25 April 1932.​

George Cathie who was also the founding editor of the Football Record traveled to California but after much investigation found the lack of suitable grounds presented too many obstacles to the project.
(The mention of American baseballers was in reference to an exhibition match between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Giants at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in January of 1914.)

(Note the heading of the article is 'Australian Football' not the derisive and cringing 'Australian Rules' that seems to gaining new currency amongst the uninformed.The "rules" tag was a creation of the NSW and Queensland press in the 19th century which persists to this day. The press in those states over the decades have used the term in a derogatory and condescending manner to suggest that Australian Football was only some inferior local imitation of the superior English games - a variant of the "rules". As such it was part of the 'cultural cringe' whereby nothing of Australian invention or origin could be any good.

In America, their game is proudly American Football, or just football, never "American Rules". There is power in language and our game is Australian Football officially and football or 'footy' colloquially. Lets leave the "rules" tag to colonial left-overs like Roy Masters and others with a colonial back-water mentality.)

 

[||-GOB-||]

These things obviously take time....​

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[img removed]​

​

The Argus 25 April 1932.​

George Cathie who was also the founding editor of the Football Record traveled to California but after much investigation found the lack of suitable grounds presented too many obstacles to the project.
(The mention of American baseballers was in reference to an exhibition match between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Giants at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in January of 1914.)

(Note the heading of the article is 'Australian Football' not the derisive and cringing 'Australian Rules' that seems to gaining new currency amongst the uninformed.The "rules" tag was a creation of the NSW and Queensland press in the 19th century which persists to this day. The press in those states over the decades have used the term in a derogatory and condescending manner to suggest that Australian Football was only some inferior local imitation of the superior English games - a variant of the "rules". As such it was part of the 'cultural cringe' whereby nothing of Australian invention or origin could be any good.

In America, their game is proudly American Football, or just football, never "American Rules". There is power in language and our game is Australian Football officially and football or 'footy' colloquially. Lets leave the "rules" tag to colonial left-overs like Roy Masters and others with a colonial back-water mentality.)

Here, I think you need this.

 

[fabulousphil]

Here, I think you need this.

Isn't it odd, some people have dreams, whether built on reality or totally unfounded, or perhaps in between, but then others are just are sadly negative, and for what reason ?.

Imagine someone who hates Australian football, but spends years of his life posting on a Australian football board, what sort of a loser would this guy be .......

Why do you really bother , seriously why ?.

 

[fabulousphil]

Media had a piece with AD discussing possibilities c2030.

I would have thought someone might have floated a semi professional international footy competition

I didn't actually see or hear the interview, but some time ago i floated the idea of a pre-season comp between top Gaelic football teams from Ireland playing AFL teams at international rules in Australia.

The gaelic season would be winding down as the AFL season heats up, the games are no-where near as physical as a ordinary AFL game, you don't need to use cricket grounds, the injury factor would probably be less, and it may also provide a look at some Gaelic players to make the code hop.

Anyway that was around when IR was a lot bigger.

 

[Karnezis_13]

With the developments re: NZ in the last couple of days have the first baby steps been taken ?

 

[Gibbke]

Other countries only exist so that Australia can exploit them via hideously expensive cable tv deals, and draft experimentation which rob them of their best players in sports that matter to them. We take their money, they help finance the game in this country...everyone wins...

If they get their act together and develop to the point they can take on Australia in a test match, good for them...wouldn't hold my breath, seeing as they've had 150 years to get on board and still insist on playing soccer...in any case, Hawthorn v Essendon is far more important than what the Chinese think of Australian Football (see? I dropped the "rules" from the name)...

 

[Gibbke]

With the developments re: NZ in the last couple of days have the first baby steps been taken ?

Seem to remember Stewart Loewe kicking badly v Geelong in NZ twenty years ago, and Hawthorn playing in front of noone in Wellington in 2000...I'd be looking for the replacement home game on my ticket if I was a Saints fan...

 

[imadodgyumpire]

An international club comp by 2030? Really? FMD, the only way there's going to be an international comp by then (it'd be a half-arsed one as well), will be if half the Victorian teams GC, GWS and Port relocate to countries surrounding Australia.

 

[blaze036]

i think 2040 is more realistic than 2030

 

[cos789]

Two possibilities- A competition outside of Australia with or without Australia's involvement.
Toronto is about the best league outside of Australia atm.
Poverty will probably inhibit the establishment of semi-pro in the RSA.
Likewise poverty and instability will deter semi-pro in PNG.
NZ would be the best bet with some really good participation numbers but still a long way of maturation.
With the effort the AFL has put into NZ lately there's a good chance of it happening.

.

 

[OrdinaryJoel]

I see this eventuating in this century, but more or less after 2050...

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

I can't see it by 2030, not an overseas based AFL club or a semi-pro competition outside Australia. Hell, even some supposedly semi-pro comps inside Australia are next to dead (the TSL being the obvious example, reality is many "amateur" comps pay more than the state league in Tassie).
There is no need for it. GWS was needed because there is a national TV deal that is brought down by Sydney's lack of interest. Adding a side to Sydney's west, where Swans support was minute, is an attpt to rectify that glaring gap somewhat. TV outside Australia is worth nothing, indeed the AFL probably pays cable networks to show the game in some cases.

If PNG got their act together economically and security-wise they might be chance. The game used to be the number one game before Packer showed only rugby league and the one TV station became widespread. Even into the 90s AF was bigger than RL in some parts (according to some people who lived there at least, its only anecdotal evidence) and in the little I've seen of them at International Cup it looks like they actually grow up with the game ut end not to be coached and drilled as well as NZ or Ireland. But as things stand, and look to be for the forseeable future, PNG just isn't financiay up to the mark - and would even be behind Tasmania, who I can't see having a team this century. NZ could do it financially and are close enough (though NZ-WA trips would be hell and should only be done either side of a bye week), but the interest in the game there is negligible and they are not a key component of TV rights like Sydney is.

I can imagine leagues such as Ontario and California becoming roughly equal to a country league here in standard. Rep games between suburban and country leagues and some international leagues might eventuate at some stage (Japan has been known to tour some country Vic clubs I believe); but unfortunately any international presence at AFL level beyond a player or two seems beyond 2030 to me. We haven't yet had a situation where a player learns the game in anotjer country and is drafted directly into the senior list at an AFL club. They have either learned the game here as a kid born overseas, or come from another sport and had to learn it while at the club. That is the next step, to have someone from a league outside Australiabe able to go straight onto a senior list and play at the level of an Australian based draftee who grew up with the game.

 

[Cmarsh]

We haven't yet had a situation where a player learns the game in anotjer country and is drafted directly into the senior list at an AFL club. They have either learned the game here as a kid born overseas, or come from another sport and had to learn it while at the club. That is the next step, to have someone from a league outside Australiabe able to go straight onto a senior list and play at the level of an Australian based draftee who grew up with the game.

The closest we have come to this happened just this week. Gideon Simon from PNG, who first learnt and played the game in PNG, was placed onto Richmond's International rookie list, having already been on an International scholarship with that club.

 

[cos789]

We haven't yet had a situation where a player learns the game in anotjer country and is drafted directly into the senior list at an AFL club.

There are plenty of examples of players coming from overseas and going straight into second tier competitions.

.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

There are plenty of examples of players coming from overseas and going straight into second tier competitions.

.

Plenty? I'm aware of two South Africans at South Launceston last year before the International Cup. Whether the TSL really qualifies as second tier is a another question.
I'm guessing some of the AFL international rookie listed players have been fast-tracked into the second tier at times.

 

[cos789]

Plenty? I'm aware of two South Africans at South Launceston last year before the International Cup. Whether the TSL really qualifies as second tier is a another question.
I'm guessing some of the AFL international rookie listed players have been fast-tracked into the second tier at times.

Two American Brothers in the WAFL, quite a few Papuans in QLD, Victoria and Tasmania.
There are quite a few others but they might not be strictly second tier.
Some New Zealanders on the East coast and some Africans in WA.

.

 

[blaze036]

Plenty? I'm aware of two South Africans at South Launceston last year before the International Cup. Whether the TSL really qualifies as second tier is a another question.
I'm guessing some of the AFL international rookie listed players have been fast-tracked into the second tier at times.

mcnamara cribbin and mooney for collingwood over the past few years (american and 2 irish)

 

[cos789]

mcnamara cribbin and mooney for collingwood over the past few years (american and 2 irish)

We're talikng about people who played in local leagues before coming to Australia.