AFL overtaking NRL in QLD

[The Educator]

Mate at the moment he's running rings around Andrew Dillon

Sure, except for the hundreds of millions in less TV money.....apart from that

 

[GC2015]

I am sure it means in aggregate numbers rather ratings shares.....which just shows he is completely missing the point. Queensland has over 3.5 times as many people and the Aus football is far from the dominant code. SA would still produce a lot more talent even if raw participation is lower.

Does this eventually become a discussion of quantity vs quality? SA has definitely produced more draftees than Queensland over the last few years, but there also seems to be more first round picks coming from Queensland when compared to SA in recent drafts. It's the same situation in rugby league with NSW producing more total players, but Queensland have the larger amount of top end talent and usually show it in the State of Origin games each year.

 

[Badger17]

Mate at the moment he's running rings around Andrew Dillon

Is he?

V'landys tenure has resulted in him-

• stuffing up every negotiation he's had with broadcasters.

• Stuffing up the stadium negotiations with the NSW government.

• Rushing through rule changes that've made the sport an unenforceable mess.

• Completely stuffing up expansion, which should have been an easy home run for the NRL.

• The standard of refereeing in the NRL is genuinely the worst it's ever been under his tenure, and instead of dealing with it his response has been to attempt to cover it up and accuse anybody who speaks out of being bad losers, cheats, etc.

• He's linked the sport more closely to the gambling industry than ever, right as legislation change is likely to happen in the next decade.

• Cut the NRL's digital arm to appease broadcasters.

• Butchered junior funding nationally, then handed the responsibility back to the NRL clubs which has seen resource deserts across the country become as bad as they've ever been.

• Re-established practices that bias the NRL towards Sydney clubs and rolled back programs to grow the sport outside of the heartlands.

I could go on.

The only thing V'landy's has going for him is that he's in with the media and RL establishment in Sydney, which has granted him universal positive coverage where anybody else got dragged in the media no matter what they did.

Even if the average Joe never realises it, the NRL will be paying for many of his decisions for decades to come, especially the rule changes, stadium deal in Sydney, expansion, and mangling of juniors and grassroots in Australia.

 

[Bjo187]

Does this eventually become a discussion of quantity vs quality? SA has definitely produced more draftees than Queensland over the last few years, but there also seems to be more first round picks coming from Queensland when compared to SA in recent drafts. It's the same situation in rugby league with NSW producing more total players, but Queensland have the larger amount of top end talent and usually show it in the State of Origin games each year.

Yeah I'd be taking the talent Queensland has been producing lately well above both s.a and w.a. People forget that the Ashcroft brothers are Queenslanders too. Their state side would be elite in the next 5 to 10 years.

Is he?

V'landys tenure has resulted in him-

• stuffing up every negotiation he's had with broadcasters.

• Stuffing up the stadium negotiations with the NSW government.

• Rushing through rule changes that've made the sport an unenforceable mess.

• Completely stuffing up expansion, which should have been an easy home run for the NRL.

• The standard of refereeing in the NRL is genuinely the worst it's ever been under his tenure, and instead of dealing with it his response has been to attempt to cover it up and accuse anybody who speaks out of being bad losers, cheats, etc.

• He's linked the sport more closely to the gambling industry than ever, right as legislation change is likely to happen in the next decade.

• Cut the NRL's digital arm to appease broadcasters.

• Butchered junior funding nationally, then handed the responsibility back to the NRL clubs which has seen resource deserts across the country become as bad as they've ever been.

• Re-established practices that bias the NRL towards Sydney clubs and rolled back programs to grow the sport outside of the heartlands.

I could go on.

The only thing V'landy's has going for him is that he's in with the media and RL establishment in Sydney, which has granted him universal positive coverage where anybody else got dragged in the media no matter what they did.

Even if the average Joe never realises it, the NRL will be paying for many of his decisions for decades to come, especially the rule changes, stadium deal in Sydney, expansion, and mangling of juniors and grassroots in Australia.

Other than the tv deal where he made the mistake of not having many bidders (which he seems to have realised that with expansion and the next tv deal), the money he has extracted from government and his influence over labor party leaders across Australia has been extrodinary.

For the first time ever I agree with Aussie in exile, he's running rings around Dillon, but more so his direct competitor and the most useless man in Australia sport, Richard Goyder.

 

[Outtatym]

Is he?

V'landys tenure has resulted in him-

• stuffing up every negotiation he's had with broadcasters.

• Stuffing up the stadium negotiations with the NSW government.

• Rushing through rule changes that've made the sport an unenforceable mess.

• Completely stuffing up expansion, which should have been an easy home run for the NRL.

• The standard of refereeing in the NRL is genuinely the worst it's ever been under his tenure, and instead of dealing with it his response has been to attempt to cover it up and accuse anybody who speaks out of being bad losers, cheats, etc.

• He's linked the sport more closely to the gambling industry than ever, right as legislation change is likely to happen in the next decade.

• Cut the NRL's digital arm to appease broadcasters.

• Butchered junior funding nationally, then handed the responsibility back to the NRL clubs which has seen resource deserts across the country become as bad as they've ever been.

• Re-established practices that bias the NRL towards Sydney clubs and rolled back programs to grow the sport outside of the heartlands.

I could go on.

The only thing V'landy's has going for him is that he's in with the media and RL establishment in Sydney, which has granted him universal positive coverage where anybody else got dragged in the media no matter what they did.

Even if the average Joe never realises it, the NRL will be paying for many of his decisions for decades to come, especially the rule changes, stadium deal in Sydney, expansion, and mangling of juniors and grassroots in Australia.

I don't know shit about the NRL but I feel like at least half of this list is transferable to the AFL

 

[GC2015]

Yeah I'd be taking the talent Queensland has been producing lately well above both s.a and w.a. People forget that the Ashcroft brothers are Queenslanders too. Their state side would be elite in the next 5 to 10 years.

It would be really interesting to see what would happen if the AFL re-introduced State of Origin in about five years from now when highly talented Queenslanders like Will Ashcroft, Levi Ashcroft, Jaspa Fletcher, Jed Walter, Leo Lombard and Zeke Uwland are all entering their peak years. Veterans like Eric Hipwood, Harris Andrews and Ben Keays would likely still be playing and able to lead the team with a younger crop of stars to come through the draft over the next few years.

We could get a point in the next five years or so where we have five legitimately strong state teams (on paper at least) + Tasmania that could compete in some kind of state competition. Would be fantastic for the game if we could make that happen and would really separate us from the NRL as it's a truly national state competition that virtually every Australian would be able to become invested in.

 

[Bjo187]

It would be really interesting to see what would happen if the AFL re-introduced State of Origin in about five years from now when highly talented Queenslanders like Will Ashcroft, Levi Ashcroft, Jaspa Fletcher, Jed Walter, Leo Lombard and Zeke Uwland are all entering their peak years. Veterans like Eric Hipwood, Harris Andrews and Ben Keays would likely still be playing and able to lead the team with a younger crop of stars to come through the draft over the next few years.

We could get a point in the next five years or so where we have five legitimately strong state teams (on paper at least) + Tasmania that could compete in some kind of state competition. Would be fantastic for the game if we could make that happen and would really separate us from the NRL as it's a truly national state competition that virtually every Australian would be able to become invested in.

Aliir is a Queenslander too actually. But yeah I agree, it's why I want a return of state footy when some of the state's get stronger.

I think Queensland will surpass both s.a and w.a to be the second strongest state in the next decade, due to the quality they're producing now, not necessarily the quantity.

 

[Badger17]

Yeah I'd be taking the talent Queensland has been producing lately well above both s.a and w.a. People forget that the Ashcroft brothers are Queenslanders too. Their state side would be elite in the next 5 to 10 years.



Other than the tv deal where he made the mistake of not having many bidders (which he seems to have realised that with expansion and the next tv deal), the money he has extracted from government and his influence over labor party leaders across Australia has been extrodinary.

For the first time ever I agree with Aussie in exile, he's running rings around Dillon, but more so his direct competitor and the most useless man in Australia sport, Richard Goyder.

Spare me.

At the expense of the best interests of the NRL and sport of RL, he handed money back and extended broadcast deals during covid for no reason other than to do some of his mates at News and Nine a solid.

The PNG deal does absolutely nothing for Australian RL other than give the NRL clubs a one off cash boost. It's inevitable that it'll ends in tears as well, with the NRL likely to be the ones left to clean up the extremely expensive mess.

Allowing the NSW Government to get away with re-negotiating the stadium deal to cut funding earmarked for redeveloping Accor into a built for purpose rectangular stadium, to instead fund another mid-size stadium at Penrith and new layers of lipstick on a handful of the other suburban grounds is an absolute disaster for the sport that'll be felt for decades to come. As an addendum to that, his handling of the Grand Final hosting rights have been a complete mess.

He's undersold Magic Round to Queensland for fear of upsetting them. TBF his predecessors did the same, but the behaviour of others isn't an excuse to follow suit.

He's taking the piss in the negotiations with Western Australia about a potential expansion side(remains to be seen if they're dumb enough to fall for it). Made no progress on a new stadium in Canberra at all (the place that needs one the most), if anything they've gone backwards. He only interacts with the Victorian and South Australian governments when they're bidding for Origin hosting rights, which is a program that started well before his tenure.

Other than debatably the Vegas deal (remains to be seen if he can capitalise on it), he hasn't really achieved anything great in any of his negotiations with anybody, and most of his results totally rely on future administrations dealing with the significant negative consequences of his decisions.

 

[GC2015]

Aliir is a Queenslander too actually. But yeah I agree, it's why I want a return of state footy when some of the state's get stronger.

I think Queensland will surpass both s.a and w.a to be the second strongest state in the next decade, due to the quality they're producing now, not necessarily the quantity.

Chol is also from the sunshine state. Jack Payne, Jack Bowes, Bailey Scott, Lachlan Keeffe, Tom Fullarton etc. There's a decent amount of Queenslanders running around the AFL that people probably aren't aware of. So Queensland would be able to put together a decent state team right now, but it should be a lot stronger in about five years from now. That's when it would be interesting to see them play against the likes of SA & WA.

 

[Badger17]

I don't know shit about the NRL but I feel like at least half of this list is transferable to the AFL

There's only so much that's transferable when you're comparing two different things.

As a person who knows a fair bit about the NRL, I'm just pointing out that V'Landy's is a myth.

He's a slimy self promoter who's done more damage to RL than any other administrator since the independent commission was formed. He gets away with it, for the time being, because all of his decisions benefit establishment interests first, namely News and the clique in Sydney, at the expense of the NRL and sport as a whole.

His isn't an example that anybody should be following.

 

[Taper]

Pretty significant if all of that is true. Shows how big the potential is in Queensland when you consider rugby league is ahead of Aussie rules in most metrics. Imagine what could be achieved in the sunshine state if we ever got a point of parity with the NRL.

Soon enough it'll go past WA and become the second strongest AFL state in the country, hence why I don't agree with the academy leg ups given to the Suns and Lions.

Because Aussie rules isn't the dominant code in Queensland. Look at the numbers from 2010-2018 when neither Queensland team played finals and compare that to the last six years while the Lions have been playing finals. Huge difference! The best way to grow the game in expansion markets is to have successful teams based in the market itself so the locals can create an emotional connection to the brand and feel pride when they win. It's why the Sydney Swans are so popular and also why Brisbane have become so popular in the last six years.

This is what people have said over the years to try justifying the leg ups given to the Swans.
The draft has become too compromised because of the academies, handouts to North Melbourne haven't helped either but that's a discussion for another thread.

The AFL is thinking big picture here and the northern academies allow the AFL to increase/maintain the competitiveness of the four teams based in Queensland and New South Wales when they would otherwise have a natural drop off. There's no big payoff for the AFL if they allow the Crows and Port to have the same kind of academies because South Australia is already won in terms of the code wars. The potential payoff in Queensland and New South Wales is absolutely worth it for the AFL so they are going to keep doing what's necessary (without going completely overboard) to keep/make the northern teams competitive.

Whether you like it or not, the AFL has an ulterior motive here and it's to grow the game in the two northern states.

I had to watch my side lose preliminary finals in 2016 and 2024 to sides with academy leg ups, but the pain is eased because I've witnessed us win four premierships since 2007.
Imagine being a long suffering supporter of a side like St Kilda or Fremantle, and your side gets beaten in finals by a QLD or NSW side that's stacked with academy players.
It wouldn't be fair on them, would it?