Leigh Matthews calls for only one team in SE Qld.

[Robbo18!]

I thought it was a pretty dumb comment.
Better ways to ask for help in relation to AFL footy in Queensland.
That type of comment just puts a wedge between clubs.
In an environment such as Queensland where everything must be re inventing the wheel as far as progress, constructive stuff is far more helpful than destructive stuff.
Not sure I agree with his comments there in any form.

 

[Sherrinator]

What a pointless thread. Leigh has lost it.

 

[____]

Removing GC would be a major backwards step for the game here. Brisbane has 2 million people, GC over 600k and rapidly growing. Bris and GC are 60-70km apart. When I lived in Southport (Northern end of the Gold Coast for you Vic readers) and went up for Lions night games I'd stay at my parents place overnight after the game so the two teams aren't even near each other... in fact Old Trafford and Anfield are closer to each other than the 'Gabba and Carrara Oval. There is definitely enough room for two teams in the region. We got over 31k to a home game last year when we were expected to be mid-tablish before the season started (admittedly against the scum)... once we start actually winning again the 'Gabba won't be big enough.

Also I hate with a passion hearing about how we've become a basketcase because of the Suns. Pure bullshit

The Suns didn't make us recruit Fev in return for Bradshaw, Risca and Henderson (essentially)
The Suns didn't make us change into the paddlepop logo
The Suns didn't make us change into the paddlepop jumper
The Suns didn't make us sack Voss when he was truly starting to find his feet as senior coach
The Suns didn't make us recruit Michael Bowers as our CEO
The Suns didn't make us recruit Angus Johnson as chairman

Plus:
GWS made the Swans stronger
Port made the Crows stronger
Freo didn't weaken the Eagles... in fact they are one of the main, main powerhouses of the comp

I hate it when our administration blame the Suns for our problems, it's such a loser mentality that has to go. Everything wrong with the club over the past few years and today has been our own admin's doing.

 

[Football Pope]

As much as I disliked the comments...On reflection they're fair...Matthews is the Master Salesperson and timing is everything... the week before we face off on a struggling Collingwood.. letting all and sundry know all is not well in Sunny Queensland. It had the desired reaction the Suns boss, Cochrane came out swinging. and had the AFL backing their future

When you compare the Suns & Lions to GWS and Swans..You think, wtf,... Both Qld based clubs are still using makeshift training facilities.. (GC has recently been mentioned in getting Government funding to update their precinct). We on the other hand still can't agree on a site ..Both Qld clubs have been in the competition well before GWS.. yet we are so far behind them on facilities..Pathetic really.

Both Clubs are in debt over $10 million each and what had helped Brisbane profitable, its extra cap, was removed well before the other Northern clubs after getting beat up by Victorian clubs, Essendon & Collingwood, after we beat up on them in Grand Finals.
The Cold hard facts are, you can be in our competition... but you can't win it..Add to that, the majority of supporter below the Murray River have only ever considered us as a feeder club for Victorian Clubs...Welcome to a National competition run by outdated VFL rules. When we get a prized recruit, how many times have we heard, they'll be home at the end of their 2 year contract?.

Neither QLD clubs have enough home grown talent on their lists..Our Academies are being canned by Victorian Clubs and with that comes the accusation of hiding players because the Victorian Clubs can wreak the benefit of them.

this season has seen both teams not performing well on the field..Gate receipts in the red and fixturing of the Queensland sides is pretty much an AFL afterthought.

All the above has added considerable weight to Mathews statement.

 

[braddsey]

Relocate the Suns to Tasmania?

As an old Fitzroy supporter I'd accept relocation of the lions to Tasmania (with apologies to Brisbane based fans). While nothing like that or merger would happen, it would continue the nomadic existence of the Lions. I watched them play home games at:
- Junction Oval
- Victoria Park
- Princes Park
- Western Oval
- The Gabba
...- Blundstone Area next?!?

..if a merger with the Suns were to happen (which it won't), i'd be happy to see no link with the Lions (be it colors, mascot, song, history). I'd then be free to support another club without the need to barrack against the Lions. if there was a link, i'd probably desert the AFL as a supporter entirely.

 

[luthor]

Removing GC would be a major backwards step for the game here. Brisbane has 2 million people, GC over 600k and rapidly growing. Bris and GC are 60-70km apart. When I lived in Southport (Northern end of the Gold Coast for you Vic readers) and went up for Lions night games I'd stay at my parents place overnight after the game so the two teams aren't even near each other... in fact Old Trafford and Anfield are closer to each other than the 'Gabba and Carrara Oval. There is definitely enough room for two teams in the region. We got over 31k to a home game last year when we were expected to be mid-tablish before the season started (admittedly against the scum)... once we start actually winning again the 'Gabba won't be big enough.

Also I hate with a passion hearing about how we've become a basketcase because of the Suns. Pure bullshit

The Suns didn't make us recruit Fev in return for Bradshaw, Risca and Henderson (essentially)
The Suns didn't make us change into the paddlepop logo
The Suns didn't make us change into the paddlepop jumper
The Suns didn't make us sack Voss when he was truly starting to find his feet as senior coach
The Suns didn't make us recruit Michael Bowers as our CEO
The Suns didn't make us recruit Angus Johnson as chairman

Plus:
GWS made the Swans stronger
Port made the Crows stronger
Freo didn't weaken the Eagles... in fact they are one of the main, main powerhouses of the comp

I hate it when our administration blame the Suns for our problems, it's such a loser mentality that has to go. Everything wrong with the club over the past few years and today has been our own admin's doing.

Where do I start?

So much material, so many fallacies.

I'll try to keep it simple

GWS did not "make" the Swans stronger. The Swans continued to enjoy COLA after the Giants were invented and abused it to land Tippett and Buddy. The AFL thundered, frowned and sounded upset about this but the Swans were miles in front and what did the AFL do about it?

Apart from Eddie Everywhere whining and moaning about Acadamies, basically they did jack shit nothing to reign the Swans in. There was the "you naughty boys, we're not going to let you trade for a while" thing but by then the horse had well and truly bolted.

Port and Adelaide?

Freo and Eagles?

Come on man.

Those clubs exist in a market where Aussie Rules is #1 undisputed top dog. The footy public in SA and WA has as an insatiable appetite for the game as 90% of the sports loving QLD population has for State of Origin Rugby League. I'd wager that the vast majority of "Football" loving people in Adelaide and Perth wouldn't know the difference between NRL and Rugby Union. It's a common thing to hear AFL supporters from VIC, SA and WA refer to the NRL as "Rugby"


The AFL could probably grant at least one more licence in SA and WA and they still wouldn't reach saturation.

They could have the Oodnadatta Opossums or the Kalgoorlie Miners and they would somehow generate as much interest in their own markets as what the Lions and the Suns can attract in SE QLd.

I think Leigh is right to draw attention to the plight of the Queensland Clubs.

The AFL needs to so something to address this terrible situation.

 

[Slax]

I never saw the sense in Gold Coast, the area has been a financial black hole for sporting teams no matter what the code. Every major sport has had at least one failure there.

Last year the AFL dividends made up nearly 60% of the Suns revenue, their crowds were the worst ever, this year might of started ok, but it is trending south rapidly and they'll end up with another year of poor crowd numbers.

That all said we're in no better shape either. Our crowds are down and the way we play away from home doesn't encourage people to come to home games.

Queensland footy is a mess and honestly whilst there are two teams in Queensland it will remain a mess because I agree with Leigh, the numbers just aren't there to make it work.

 

[braddsey]

Queensland footy is a mess and honestly whilst there are two teams in Queensland it will remain a mess because I agree with Leigh, the numbers just aren't there to make it work.

I don't necessarily agree... Queensland footy is not a mess because there's 2 clubs there. The lions are a mess because they have been allowed to flounder for so long, and even now they're still unable to sign off on new facilities. A lot of Brisbane's problems are self inflicted over the years, but the argument is that the AFL were asleep at the wheel in allowing it to continue for so long. They started to job of getting things right in getting Swann in, kicking out the old board etc... they could finish the job by assisting us financially to get AFL level facilities in a location that is considered Brisbane. If we at least take away one reason young players have for wanting to leave, on field success will bring supporters back. Sure, the supporters that come back are fair weather supporters... but that's the reality of the market. Sydney supporters are renowned fair weather supporters too... but Sydney have beaten that by remaining competitive over a long long period.
The suns are only 5 years old. To expect them to be pulling 30,000 people to matches is ridiculous. They need time to build a strong base, and if they can get some success over the next few years it will happen. It's a long project... but for the Suns to be strong, Brisbane probably also need to be strong. Provide a quality football that people talk about, that drives interest for fringe supporters.

 

[____]

Where do I start?

So much material, so many fallacies.

I'll try to keep it simple

GWS did not "make" the Swans stronger. The Swans continued to enjoy COLA after the Giants were invented and abused it to land Tippett and Buddy. The AFL thundered, frowned and sounded upset about this but the Swans were miles in front and what did the AFL do about it?

Apart from Eddie Everywhere whining and moaning about Acadamies, basically they did jack shit nothing to reign the Swans in. There was the "you naughty boys, we're not going to let you trade for a while" thing but by then the horse had well and truly bolted.

Port and Adelaide?

Freo and Eagles?

Come on man.

Those clubs exist in a market where Aussie Rules is #1 undisputed top dog. The footy public in SA and WA has as an insatiable appetite for the game as 90% of the sports loving QLD population has for State of Origin Rugby League. I'd wager that the vast majority of "Football" loving people in Adelaide and Perth wouldn't know the difference between NRL and Rugby Union. It's a common thing to hear AFL supporters from VIC, SA and WA refer to the NRL as "Rugby"


The AFL could probably grant at least one more licence in SA and WA and they still wouldn't reach saturation.

They could have the Oodnadatta Opossums or the Kalgoorlie Miners and they would somehow generate as much interest in their own markets as what the Lions and the Suns can attract in SE QLd.

I think Leigh is right to draw attention to the plight of the Queensland Clubs.

The AFL needs to so something to address this terrible situation.

I'll grant you the point about the AFL states and the Swans COLA, but still as I eluded to earlier:

The Suns didn't make us recruit Fev in return for Bradshaw, Risca and Henderson (essentially)
The Suns didn't make us change into the paddlepop logo
The Suns didn't make us change into the paddlepop jumper
The Suns didn't make us sack Voss when he was truly starting to find his feet as senior coach
The Suns didn't make us recruit Michael Bowers as our CEO
The Suns didn't make us recruit Angus Johnson as chairman

If the Suns were never formed our crowds would still be as shit as they are today.

If we never recruited Fev in exchange for Bradshaw, Risca and Hendo, if we never changed into the paddlepop jumper and logo in the first place, if we didn't sack Voss as he was finally finding his feet as coach, if Micahel Bowers and Angus Johnson never went anywhere our club we'd be getting home crowds similar to the late 2000's, regardless of whether the Suns are there or not... they aren't even in the same city as us ffs.

GWS and Swans share a city, Adelaide and Port share a city, WCE and Freo share a city. We have the third largest city in Australia to ourselves, blaming the Suns for our downfall is an easy copout... the board blaming a team that is based 70km away in a completely different city will only ensure we become a basketcase until the board are willing to fix the aspects that made our club a basketcase in the first place. Obviously we can't undo the Fev trade, Voss sacking or Bowers/Johnson, but what we can do for starters is see what our club is doing wrong and fix it. The perfect first change is for us to change our logo. Our current logo will always be associated with failure and our club turning into a basketcase. A new logo would be a perfect way to wipe the slate clean so to speak... getting fans involved in making up the new design (submitting new designs and/or voting) would be perfect to engage the Brisbane community plus the Roys of old

 

[adey115]

Changing the logo? Well that escalated quickly. I associate our logo with three premierships and a decent history myself.

We have certainly done ourselves no favours, however this has been the worst time in AFL's modern history to:
* be in a non-traditional AFL state
* be stuck with facilities that do not compare to the others in the competition (thus weakening your chances of bringing in quality, and retaining quality)
* be at the bottom of the ladder and needing to re-build with high quality draft picks (I'm talking 1 to 5)

Because, we suddenly have:
* competition in a smaller market place than the other territories in the league
* an inability to realistically re-build with high quality draft picks because an enormous amount of those have gone to the two new franchise clubs. Those picks 1-5 have been pushed far down the pecking order

And why? Because of the two additional clubs, one of which has come into our part of the world. Of course the addition of the Suns is a factor. As is the addition of the GWS a factor. But they didn't put the GWS in Toowoomba though did they....

The AFL is mighty satisfied with what is going on in Sydney at the moment. And Lethal is more than aware that when the AFL starting patching up Queensland footy with cash, we better be somewhere near the front of the line with our hand out as well.

 

[adey115]

I thought it was a pretty dumb comment.

Player of the century, multiple premierships, captain
Coached for many years, including a premiership, in the biggest market in the league
Coached for many years, including three premierships, in the smallest market in the league
Media giant, across the League
Club Board Member

If ever there is pedigree for knowing when to say something controversial, for the benefit of those you represent and have interest in, this is the man who would know how and when to do it.

 

[luthor]

Leigh also made the big statement that Prince James of Aish "Will NOT be traded"

Now, no-one ever really took that at its literal meaning but the statement itself drew a line in the sand insofar as we as a club were not going to take peanuts for our Go-homers or Want-Outers anymore.

Similarly, when Leigh made this latest comment, you need to read between the lines. Everyone knows the AFL is not going to fold the Suns but when a personality like Leigh Matthews speaks on a big issue, the media sits up and takes notice.

And that's exactly what's happened.

Good.

 

[ZoBlitz]

Player of the century, multiple premierships, captain
Coached for many years, including a premiership, in the biggest market in the league
Coached for many years, including three premierships, in the smallest market in the league
Media giant, across the League
Club Board Member

If ever there is pedigree for knowing when to say something controversial, for the benefit of those you represent and have interest in, this is the man who would know how and when to do it.

This was also the man who said publicly that the Lions didn't deserve a priority pick last year when the club was making an application to the AFL commission for a priority pick. He's certainly not infallible when talking about the club in the media.

 

[MacMum]

In a nutshell imo..

The article JB wrote spelt out our problems far better than Leigh's outburst that could do more damage than good for the game in Qld......and possibly our club.

The Lions and Suns must co-exist and work together to further the game up there.

Alienating the Suns/AFL is not the right way to go about the issues we face..

 

[Robbo18!]

Player of the century, multiple premierships, captain
Coached for many years, including a premiership, in the biggest market in the league
Coached for many years, including three premierships, in the smallest market in the league
Media giant, across the League
Club Board Member

If ever there is pedigree for knowing when to say something controversial, for the benefit of those you represent and have interest in, this is the man who would know how and when to do it.

Comments like that are made with a specific agenda in mind. In my opinion, nothing good can come from comments like that one. Won't help footy in Queensland.

 

[pauldrc]

Any publicity is good publicity???

 

[MacMum]

Not always....can backfire bigtime.

 

[Len S]

Not always....can backfire bigtime.

It may be madness, yet there's method in it !Leigh is raising the stakes, and they must be, in order to get the AFL to wake up.

 

[adey115]

It may be madness, yet there's method in it !Leigh is raising the stakes, and they must be, in order to get the AFL to wake up.

Yep. Why plant a seed when you can shove a bloody tree in the ground. The AFL media are now not just talking about the Suns being in trouble, they're saying AFL Footy in QLD is in trouble, because Lethal said so. It will leave the AFL no choice but to address such a public topic.

The media will ask Gil for an opinion as to if two clubs are viable, Gil will say yes... And they'll need to deliver on it.

 

[Grizzly86]

It was briefly touched on "The Back Page" last night, and Underwood and Craddock gave the Suns a bath and essentially agreed with Lethal, whilst being a bit incredulous about Cochrane's tantrum.

Needless to say, I hope the Suns give Cochrane a run in the guts for them this week, at least he seems to care. After May hit Martin, they all went into their shells when the physicality lift. Last week Lynch tried to fire them up during thein slump by roughing up the Dees, after the ensuing wrestle, I doubt a Suns player touched the ball or his opponent for 10 minutes. They are soft and heartless.

 

[SRH17]

Some context is needed - Leigh was asked his opinion on the matter as a commentator and he gave said opinion. In fact it's an opinion that he has held since day one. He didn't run it up the flagpole in the belief that the AFL would fold the Suns tent up, but what I believe he has done is let anyone who is interested know that the AFL needs to be doing a lot more to grow the game up here.
Cochrane's responses was childish, but I expect he understands that at this point in time there is probably a fair bit of truth in Leigh's argument. He spoke about there being an increase in participation of 82% in the code up here......not at my footy club where I am the Vice President....our numbers are up from 140 to 160 this year....that's not 82%. Please don't quote Auskick numbers to me because the conversion from Auskick to junior footy is woeful. We are fighting with one hand behind our backs competing with private school sporting schedules where it as the point where youth footy is being played at the same time as Lions home games at the Gabba.
How can you grow the game when kids can't go and watch their idols play? If in doubt go and watch the recent Ben Keayes interviews.

 

[Football Pope]

It may be madness, yet there's method in it !Leigh is raising the stakes, and they must be, in order to get the AFL to wake up.

Yep....There is no mistake that the outburst has been timed the week before we face a floundering Collingwood...who have monopolised the media with a variety of on field and coaching problems. President Ed has a knack of diverting the supporter scrutiny by being vocal, through his media programmes, jumping at shadows on the handouts the northern clubs receive from the AFL......Leigh's attack is nothing new, It just rationed the ammunition being fired at us.. (hoarding of talent through our academies.). the AFL needing to do more to grow the game so both clubs are a viable proposition..We have AFL clarification on both QLD club's future.

 

[DanT7]

Leigh is stirring the pot to say QLD clubs need more love, that's all.
Dramatic to suggest inky one needed and the AFL won't let that happen, but it might make them think Crikey we better support them
a bit more.

- Priority pick once off so we can get SPS plus our academy guys
- Extra salary cap for QLD, NSW rugby league states
- Training base funding for airport - with netball hey?
- Academies protected
- Easier draw

 

[MacMum]

More games at the Gabba wouldn't hurt either.......especially as we are/will be on the improve

 

[The Flying Belgian]

In my opinion, nothing good can come from comments like that one. Won't help footy in Queensland.

It would if put more pressure on the AFL to fund QLD footy. The AFL are very good in talking the talk when it comes to the frontier markets, but really they just view it as a nice untapped market that broadcasters can point at to potential advertisers, hence boosting the $$$ on broadcast rights deal.

To my mind Lethal was saying to the AFL, there's not the demand for the product up here - if you want to keep the two teams you damn well need to start walking the walk. It's a joke that the Suns didn't have purpose-built facilities within a year of startup and it' a joke that the AFL can't fund a new training centre for the Lions.