AFL overtaking NRL in QLD

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what will be interesting to witness is the financial impact on NRL and AFL, as they can no longer obtain finance or insurance as ESG principles are captured under equatorial principles due to concussion and brain injuries

I dare say soccer will overtake both NRL and AFL within 40 years
Doesn't soccer have some brain related issues with people heading the ball?
 
Why would many people change from their teams? I wouldn't stop supporting the Storm.

Many fans would have a de-facto team but you would be surprised how much geography impacts people’s loyalty sometimes. I’ve got a handful of mates who at unrelated times moved to Canberra (God only knows why) and bit by bit basically all of them have become raiders fans.
 
Many fans would have a de-facto team but you would be surprised how much geography impacts people’s loyalty sometimes. I’ve got a handful of mates who at unrelated times moved to Canberra (God only knows why) and bit by bit basically all of them have become raiders fans.
I suppose the difference with Canberra is that people in SE Qld already have two geographical based choices and this will make the third. It will be people who really dislike the Broncos, locals and a slow burn though children's programs. Having said this, it is quite common for Queenslanders to support all the Qld teams, so there will be some who go anyway.
The point you make certainly applies to the Brisbane Lions.
 
Many fans would have a de-facto team but you would be surprised how much geography impacts people’s loyalty sometimes. I’ve got a handful of mates who at unrelated times moved to Canberra (God only knows why) and bit by bit basically all of them have become raiders fans.


Yeah that's right.

We forget the tribalism is far shallower in League and so people will often change teams.
 
Doesn't soccer have some brain related issues with people heading the ball?

It does.

If things do trend in that direction and risk tolerance for head injuries gets much lower, Australian football has an enormous scope for making the game safer

Removing the header from soccer massively changes the game. Prohibition of using the hands in Sheffield rules football apparently only happened when they started heading it sometime in the later 1860s. Apparently the FA reps came up from London and thought it was hilarious at the time.....ultimately though it won out and full prohibition of outfielders handling the ball in play became a thing. When you think about it, banning the header is near impossible without allowing punching the ball at least
 
Lol, Nah yeah.

You literally just demonstrated it.

If you don’t think something similar could happen to AFL fans you’re probably misunderstanding human nature.

I demonstrated it because Canberra is marketed as a local club totally representative of the area it’s in.
Imagine, say, Bendigo had an AFL team who had one brief golden era, relatively little success hype and glamour in the 20 years since, and an AFL fan from Melbourne moved there.

you don’t think if that team was marketed as a real representative team of the local area, they would be able to win over fans of other teams in time? GWS themselves have done it. I know plenty of people who’ve gotten on the bandwagon that used to follow other teams. Or in that very hateable tradition ‘they follow GWS AND someone else.’
 
If you don’t think something similar could happen to AFL fans you’re probably misunderstanding human nature.

I demonstrated it because Canberra is marketed as a local club totally representative of the area it’s in.
Imagine, say, Bendigo had an AFL team who had one brief golden era, relatively little success hype and glamour in the 20 years since, and an AFL fan from Melbourne moved there.

you don’t think if that team was marketed as a real representative team of the local area, they would be able to win over fans of other teams in time? GWS themselves have done it. I know plenty of people who’ve gotten on the bandwagon that used to follow other teams. Or in that very hateable tradition ‘they follow GWS AND someone else.’


I'm saying it is far more common in rugby league to switch teams.....and that is rooted in weaker tribalism.
 

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I'm saying it is far more common in rugby league to switch teams.....and that is rooted in weaker tribalism.

As someone embedded in rugby league culture, it’s really not. But every example of it I’ve seen, has been completely to do with locality and community.

the exceptions I would say are borne out of the extinction of teams like Illawarra, Balmain and western suburbs, north Sydney, Newtown as stand alone or top grade clubs. THAT has effected tribalism, absolutely. But for the other established clubs I don’t see a greater rate of club abandonment
 
Doesn't soccer have some brain related issues with people heading the ball?

according to stats brain related injuries are very low with the leading cause being head to player an immaterial amount is head to ball


It's an interesting read as it highlights the problem sports
 
according to stats brain related injuries are very low with the leading cause being head to player an immaterial amount is head to ball


It's an interesting read as it highlights the problem sports
Show this to all governments in the world, federal, state and local.

GET CYCLING BANNED
 
Show this to all governments in the world, federal, state and local.

GET CYCLING BANNED

I was stunned when reading this. I'm not sure what the rules are in the US regarding head protection.

I wonder what the stats were in Oz pre and post head protection.
 
abc.net.au 25.6.21

Dr. H. Fujak, Aust.'s most prominent academic that specialises on the relative strengths & weaknesses in Aust. of AF, RL, soccer, & RU, said:-

. "The AFL is winning the code wars".

. one in five Australians are interested in AF, & no other football code.

. "We've seen the AFL make really strong gains in Qld.".

(Fujak, of Polish background, who spent nearly all his life in Sydney, has described A League games in Aust. as having the best atmosphere in Australian sport. His book was published by a company that- until Fujak's book- only publishes books, magazines, websites etc. about soccer in Aust.)

E. Buckley, a sports' consultant, who was formerly Chair of Netball Australia, & CEO of Brisbane Roar, said "the AFLW has been a game changer".

The other codes believe they can halt the AFL's continuing growth trajectory & dominance.


Expansion, private equity and female investment the new frontiers in footy code war
By Jack SnapePosted 2ddays ago
A composite image of an NRLW player and an AFLW player

The AFLW has made a splash in Queensland, now the NRLW is expanding [C. 2027, NRLW & GR female contact RL are likely to be strong in NSW & Qld.]

Rugby League Commissioner chair Peter V'landys could not have been more explicit."It's our territory and we will protect it. It's rugby league heartland."
Rugby league's part-administrator, part-commander-in-chief was talking on Nine Radio in May about the AFL's steps into Queensland.
Most dramatically, Brisbane hosted much of the AFL season last year as COVID-19 gripped Victoria.
"Look the AFL have done a wonderful job," he added.
"They've held our hands. Made us feel warm and fuzzy while they've invaded us."

The comments came as a new book titled Code Wars lands on shelves.
Its author, Dr Hunter Fujak, has spent the past seven years studying the dynamics of football in this country.

A man stands in an office holding a book

Dr Hunter Fujak writes in his new book that AFL is winning the football code wars.

He's in no doubt which code is currently on top.
"The AFL is winning the code wars," he says, "followed by rugby league, soccer and rugby union bringing in the tail."
Dr Fujak cites the fact that one in five Australians are interested in AFL and no other football code. He points out AFL brings in more revenue than anyone else each year. And he highlights clubs in the AFL are largely profitable.
But don't tell those in charge of the other codes, who continue to battle like the score is nil-all.

Queensland the focus
While other codes have presence in the AFL states of Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia, Queensland — as the fastest growing state — has become the front line in the footy code wars.
"We've seen the AFL make really strong gains in Queensland," Dr Fujak says, "television audiences in Brisbane are very strong and rugby league audiences are declining."[Major AF growth has been in SEQ & Cairns district- elsewhere, AF has a minor presence].
The NRL will announce plans for a new team in Brisbane in the coming months and not only is the senior men's competition expanding.
The NRLW is set to grow to seven teams this season, with the Titans becoming the second team in South-East Queensland.

Brisbane players celebrate a goal on the AFL field


In response to V'Landys' talk about invasion, chief executive of the Brisbane Lions AFLW team, Breaanna Brock, is steadfast.
"What can I say? AFL's the Indigenous game of Australia right.
"We invented the game here. It's native to Australia. It should be everywhere in Australia."
The Lions are reigning AFLW champions, with a team made of mostly Queenslanders.

Two women celebrate on a football field, one wearing a uniform and the other a polo shirt

Breeanna Brock with Emma Zielke after the 2021 AFLW Grand Final.

"My previous role to this was working for AFL up in Queensland and my role was to grow the game for women and girls," Brock says.
"When I started in 2013 we were starting at around 40 to 50,000 participants, well that's up to 120,000 now. [Fluff nos.- female AF club & school comp. nos. are much lower. All codes publish one-off Gala Days, community events etc. But female GR AF very strong in Qld.]"

Eugenie Buckley from sports consultancy Suiko knows Queensland well. She has worked in cricket and rugby and been chair of Netball Queensland.
She was also CEO of A-League club Brisbane Roar during the club's most successful period.
"It is a code war because there's only so much talent in Australia," she says.

Sports consultant Eugenie Buckley says women's competitions are driving corporate investment.
She believes the talent pool of female athletes is currently being squeezed by the sporting bodies tapping into changing investment dynamics.
"The corporates are finding it harder and harder to justify investing into just single sex sports, investing in sports that just have male arms," she says.
The W-League started in 2008 and netball is a major competitor with an established elite competition, but neither has secured the success of AFLW, which Buckley describes as "probably a game changer".

But she's concerned the growth of the AFLW — four more teams will join by 2023 — may do more harm the good.
"Hats off to them to having such an ambitious goal, but I have concerns whether they have the underlying pathways ready for that," she says.
"When the AFLW started there were a few criticisms over the quality of the product and the number of injuries ... so if you keep adding too quickly, it could come unstuck."

Dr Fujak's research shows why junior participation is so important to those in charge of the codes.
Put simply, playing sport as a junior — for example the AFL's Auskick program for primary school age children — leads to more consumption as an adult.
"If we use Auskick for the AFL as an example, a child who has not had exposure to Auskick as a child, on average watches 3.7 games of AFL in a season. A child who has played Auskick goes onto watch 8.5 games."

The AFL is certainly best placed to spend. Right now no sporting body brings in as much money each year (Emphases, & words in brackets, mine).

(Article has more info.)
 
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It really comes down to marketing and image. If you find a way to make the new team representative of the area, many people who have other teams will get on board
To make them representative of the area, they will have to take take players from the Broncos, Storm, Titans and Cowboys, as they are the teams Queenslanders mainly play for. How do you think fans of these teams will react to losing players to a new club.

There is already too much movement of NRL players, it's heard to feel a connection for a team when your favorite up and coming player jumps clubs.
 
To make them representative of the area, they will have to take take players from the Broncos, Storm, Titans and Cowboys, as they are the teams Queenslanders mainly play for. How do you think fans of these teams will react to losing players to a new club.

There is already too much movement of NRL players, it's heard to feel a connection for a team when your favorite up and coming player jumps clubs.

I don’t think they’ll be stealing many fans off the other Queensland sides.

I agree re. The transient nature of rugby league careers
 
Daily Telegraph P. Crawley 28.6.21

QRL Chairman B. Hatcher again states there is not enough depth of talent (reflecting the significant GR male contact RL decline in nos.) in the NRL to expand to 17 teams. He says best option, so the NRL is still 16 teams, is for a Sydney team to relocate ("strategic alliance"!) to Brisbane.


Crawley said

"Hatcher used this year’s State of Origin debacle to again highlight why the depth of playing talent is not ready to support 17 teams at this point.

Hatcher preferred to use the phrase “strategic alliance” rather than “relocation” when quizzed on his thoughts.

But there was certainly no mistaking exactly what he was suggesting — moving an established Sydney club north of the border to play out of Suncorp Stadium.

While it’s not the first time he’s argued against expansion (the Sharks pointed out he did the same thing last September), Hatcher had some fresh ammunition in the wake of Sunday night’s Origin shame that secured NSW’s third series victory in four years.

Queensland has been absolutely lapped in the first two games to the tune of 76-6 [Along with the woeful Broncos, these thrashings suggest that RL in Qld. has structural problems, of which their declining male contact GR is a part of the problem- & difficult to rectify].

Not that the lopsided scoreboard has surprised too many fans given a complete difference in the class and experience of the teams, with the Maroons recent era of dominance now feeling like a distant memory.

Hatcher said while he was preparing to read the 197-odd page GEMBA report that looked into the viability of NRL expansion, he was pretty sure what the next step needed to be.

“To me, how can we (Queensland) be competitive?” he questioned.

“In our halcyon days we had 10-odd players from the Broncos to pick in the Origin side.

“We have one this year (Xavier Coates).

“You don’t have to look too far to see that we have to address issues.”

But Hatcher is also adamant it is a must to have a game played at Suncorp every week, which is what the TV networks also want.

He is also concerned an extra NRL club would potentially come at the expense of future grassroots funding, further stunting player development.[Strategic issue for the NRL on where it should spend its funds- GR to be prioritised?] (my emphases, & words in brackets)".

 
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Things ebb and flow and RL in QLD is definitely in a trough. Will bounce back and remain the number 1 for at least a generation, though the AFL is also assuredly growing.

This expansion could be a disaster for them tho. I dont think there's ever been a defensive expansion of a competition in Australia before. Will be interesting to see how that goes.
 
Things ebb and flow and RL in QLD is definitely in a trough. Will bounce back and remain the number 1 for at least a generation, though the AFL is also assuredly growing.

This expansion could be a disaster for them tho. I dont think there's ever been a defensive expansion of a competition in Australia before. Will be interesting to see how that goes.
This is not just a trough though, the Broncos will be in trouble for years.

They used to be able to pay star players unders, to play at the Broncos. That has gone now. They are having to overpay to bring stars in and are telling the up and coming kids we can't afford you, (Walker, Walsh, Deardon, Fifita).

Such a shit show.
 

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