SEN -Tim WATSONS comments on Andrew Johns/Sydney papers

[Jimthegreat]

Is Tim Watson serious?

Let's put this into perspective rugby league is played outside of Australia. It's a bloody international game. Andrew Johns was the Michael Jordan of rugby league. Joey dominated his game across the world.

As much as I enjoyed watching someone like Voss, and the current crop of stars in the AFL, we need to appreciate that AFL is our game. It is only played in Australia. They are not talking about Judd, Goodes, Jonathan Brown anywhere else in the world.

Andrew Johns is to rugby league, what Shane Warne is to cricket. INTERNATIONAL LEGEND!

True. Anrew Johns is an international sporting great and an Australian icon.

The only reason RL is international though is because Australasia (Aust and NZ) took it from England. That makes 3 countries who play it with any seriousness. Basically we made it an international game for the Poms.

 

[Tigger Please!]

I wouldnt really see News Limited and Nine/PBL having bias towards RL and the NRL.

Ten and Seven promote the sh1t out of the AFL (especially in NSW & QLD). Sunrise is used as a promotional vehicle for anything on Seven (AFL V8 Supercars, Desperate Housewives).The AFL has a contract in place with News for editorials for the Swans in Sydney.

Personally I think Ten/Seven look after their investment far better then News/PBL do with the NRL

*Ding ding ding* - we have a winner.

 

[Kenny Hunter]

True. Andrew Johns is an international sporting great and an Australian icon.

Please give me a break

 

[Le KooK]

Please give me a break

Yeah you are right, those types of kudos should only be given to international legends like 'kouta' or 'fev'...

 

[Tim_in_Philly]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_league/6540309.stm

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/471FA96F-53DD-4F24-86A4-A8E9AEAD485A.htm

http://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyle...STORY_NAME=rleague/07/04/10/RUGBYL_Johns.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ma...OAVCBQWIV0?xml=/sport/2007/04/11/sorugl11.xml

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...l.australia.johns.2nd.ld.writethru/index.html

As someone who grew up in the Aussie Rules culture and then moved to Sydney in 1989 barely knowing rugby league even existed can I say that the comments by Tim Watson are sadly parochial. The people here on BF (from Melbourne) who claim Melbourne is more outward-looking re sport are way out of touch with the reality in Sydney. Sydney has a wide and diverse coverage of many sports including all the football codes. The NRL gets most because it is the most popular. The myth that all that is required for Sydney people to be converted to the one true religion is a single glimpse of an AFL game is rubbish. I've learnt enough about RL to appreciate it in the same way that it took a couple of years in the US to "get" American football. The Swans have built a secure following and have gained grudging respect from the wider population and have seen off the double sponsorship whammy of an Olympics and a Rugby World Cup to become financially more secure than ever. But they are not as popular as St George or Canterbury or the Broncos and won't be for a long time , if ever.

The thing that strikes me whenever I go to Melbourne is the parochial and somehow quaintly insecure "made in Melbourne" sticker attached to things like TV programs - you won't see that in Sydney. Tim Watson's comments are of the same calibre.

 

[azyboy]

I agree with you totally. It is funny how when you travel into the bordering state of NSW, you lose 99.9% of the AFL media coverage. I doubt sydney siders lose that much coverage of the NRL going into Vic.

Bull****e...I moved to Sydney two years ago and there is just as much AFL coverage in Sydney papers as there is NRL in Melbourne papers.
The Telegraph (owned by News Ltd) even trumpets its publication as the official AFL newspaper in Sydney. Admittedly 90% of its colums relate to swans games, news, injuries but so does the storm coverage in the HUN.

 

[balldman]

The only reason they want to read about it, is because none of them can be bothered to got to games.


Might not be a campaign, but having the clowns who run newspaper and TV also involved so heavily in Rugby League definitely is a factor on how much RL is "force-fed" to Sydneysiders.

Remind me again. Who's in charge of Channel 9 now?

 

[grayham]

Bull****e...I moved to Sydney two years ago and there is just as much AFL coverage in Sydney papers as there is NRL in Melbourne papers.
UN.

And thats the problem. The swans are probably 2 to 3 times bigger in Sydney than the Storm are in Melbourne. The Swans have been a financial powerhouse for the last 10 years, The storm are propped up by News Ltd. The swans get a couple of H&A games a year over 50,000, The storm get a couple of games a year over 12,000.

To say that the NRL gets the same coverage in Melbourne as the AFL gets in Sydney merely shows that the coverage is disproportionate.

 

[Warwick]

And thats the problem. The swans are probably 2 to 3 times bigger in Sydney than the Storm are in Melbourne. The Swans have been a financial powerhouse for the last 10 years,

Excuse me??

 

[1908]

And I thought Melbourne was maturing as a sporting city. Back to being parochial and insular.

 

[grayham]

Excuse me??

Maybe being top 4 in revenue for 10 years isnt what you'd call being a "powerhouse" ?

 

[peternorth]

And I thought Melbourne was maturing as a sporting city. Back to being parochial and insular.

i wouldnt take what tim watson says as gospel or indicative of victorians psyche.

 

[grayham]

And I thought Melbourne was maturing as a sporting city. Back to being parochial and insular.

The point that you've missed is that this thread is suggesting Sydney is the insular one, with Melbournites questioning why ?

 

[Mattlowry]

Name them.

If you actually read the thread you would see people already have.

Whats a generation? A quality player will play from about 18-30 so a generation would be somewhere between 10-12 years imo

Like i said earlier look at the players we have had in that time

Buckley
Hird
Voss
Cousins
Judd
Ablett
Dunstall
Lockett
Carey
Silvangni
Williams
Harvey

Fact remains that Johns was that good in Rugby League.

 

[Tigger Please!]

ive never heard of him, but andrew johns is a dumb *** lol.
he obviously only played thugby coz he couldn't make it in real footy and the only reason he would of dominated thugby is because thugby players are inferior to footy players. i'd have damian cupido as a superior sportsman to him.
tim watson is right to, why do sydney papers give so much space to thugby and so little to footy. most sydney people would be able to recognise barry hall over andrew johns, i know i would. who cares if there are 10 thugby teams in sydney to 1 footy team, they should still give more coverage to footy imo.

 

[Le KooK]

ive never heard of him, but andrew johns is a dumb *** lol.
he obviously only played thugby coz he couldn't make it in real footy and the only reason he would of dominated thugby is because thugby players are inferior to footy players. i'd have damian cupido as a superior sportsman to him.
tim watson is right to, why do sydney papers give so much space to thugby and so little to footy. most sydney people would be able to recognise barry hall over andrew johns, i know i would. who cares if there are 10 thugby teams in sydney to 1 footy team, they should still give more coverage to footy imo.

 

[balldman]

Good post mate. There are people in here disagreeing with you but the simple fact remains that the company that owns most of Australia's newspapers also owns NSWRL teams and has a big interest in the NSWRL. Same with Nine and Foxtel. Sadly the same can't be said for AFL, so we don't get that free ride.

The coverage of the NSWRL in Melbourne is FAR better and more open minded than AFL coverage in Sydney. The fact is that these media companys simply don't want AFL to be popular in NSWRL heartlands, because they think it will diminish their product

Sorry to nitpick, but it's the NRL(as in National Rugby League)not NSWRL which is an entirely different body.

 

[1908]

He's a champion sportsman who has retired. Why not recognise an elite sportsman for what he is. I'm sure when Lockett retired the Sydney press gave him more than enough recognition. This isn't about AFL v NRL, grow up, than again if your media can't how can you indoctrinated ones?

 

[1908]

How can SEN call itself a sports channel, it bags Andrew Johns, purely because he is a league player, if he was a rugby union player would they have done it...no. During last years world cup soccer they constantly bagged soccer and continuously compared it to AFL.

Alas Melbourne will always be a parochial insular town.

 

[balldman]

BTW, Sydney peopel, what was the coverage of the Cousins saga like up there?

Ben Who?

 

[charliemurphy]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_league/6540309.stm

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/471FA96F-53DD-4F24-86A4-A8E9AEAD485A.htm

http://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyle...STORY_NAME=rleague/07/04/10/RUGBYL_Johns.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ma...OAVCBQWIV0?xml=/sport/2007/04/11/sorugl11.xml

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...l.australia.johns.2nd.ld.writethru/index.html

As someone who grew up in the Aussie Rules culture and then moved to Sydney in 1989 barely knowing rugby league even existed can I say that the comments by Tim Watson are sadly parochial. The people here on BF (from Melbourne) who claim Melbourne is more outward-looking re sport are way out of touch with the reality in Sydney. Sydney has a wide and diverse coverage of many sports including all the football codes. The NRL gets most because it is the most popular. The myth that all that is required for Sydney people to be converted to the one true religion is a single glimpse of an AFL game is rubbish. I've learnt enough about RL to appreciate it in the same way that it took a couple of years in the US to "get" American football. The Swans have built a secure following and have gained grudging respect from the wider population and have seen off the double sponsorship whammy of an Olympics and a Rugby World Cup to become financially more secure than ever. But they are not as popular as St George or Canterbury or the Broncos and won't be for a long time , if ever.

The thing that strikes me whenever I go to Melbourne is the parochial and somehow quaintly insecure "made in Melbourne" sticker attached to things like TV programs - you won't see that in Sydney. Tim Watson's comments are of the same calibre.

Agree totally...

 

[Ted Ed Fred]

True. Anrew Johns is an international sporting great and an Australian icon.

The only reason RL is international though is because Australasia (Aust and NZ) took it from England. That makes 3 countries who play it with any seriousness. Basically we made it an international game for the Poms.

And no one in England cares about the game. Basically Aus and NZ are the countries that take it seriously

 

[1908]

From the London Times:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/rugby/rugby_league/article1637358.ece

From The TimesApril 11, 2007

'The greatest’ bows out as Johns hit by injury threat

Christopher Irvine
The risk of suffering a catastrophic spinal injury has forced Andrew Johns to retire from a sport at which, in both Great Britain and his native Australia, he was considered by many the greatest exponent.

Johns, 33 next month, was understood to have agreed to rejoin Warrington Wolves, with whom he enjoyed a three-match cameo at the end of the 2005 campaign, next season. But after a collision in training with Newcastle Knights last Thursday that aggravated a chronic neck complaint, scans yesterday confirmed that a protruding disc could not be alleviated through surgery.

It is uncertain how long the half back had been playing with the complaint, which is unrelated to the bulging disc that threatened his career three years ago.

“I swore to myself that I wouldn’t cry on television,” Johns, twice a World Cup winner and twice voted World Player of the Year, said. “It is really emotional, just because I love playing so much. I’m totally numb. I feel like I’ve dodged a bullet.

“I realise how lucky I am that I haven’t had a serious accident and been in a wheelchair. It only had to be one knock. It was a fairly simple knock that I got at training and I was in agony. I’d hate to think if I’d had a full-blown hit on the field what it could have done.”

Johns, the greatest points-scorer in NRL history with 2,176 in 249 appearances for Newcastle, had also been due to play as a guest of New Zealand’s “All Golds” against a Northern Union representative side in a centenary international in Warrington in October.

During a 15-year career, Johns played in 23 State of Origin matches for New South Wales, 21 times for Australia and was a member of the 1995 and 2000 World Cup-winning teams at Wembley and Old Trafford. He led Newcastle to Australian Grand Final triumphs in 1997 and 2001.

“Asking a player to cover Andrew Johns on the field was akin to expecting a sheepdog to catch mice,” Roy Masters, The Sydney Morning Herald columnist, wrote yesterday. “It wasn’t that ‘Joey’ was blindingly fast or eye-poppingly evasive. He simply out-thought everyone else.

“He played with a clock inside his head, slowing the game down or speeding it up, keeping the play tight then letting the ball move, passing inside then directing it out . . . Johns’s superior skill made him the best player of his generation and his all-round game renders him the sui generis of the code — one of a kind.”

Shaun Edwards, the former Great Britain stand-off half, described Johns as “simply the greatest player in the history of rugby league”, while Jonathan Davies, capped by Wales at both codes, said: “Andrew Johns was one of the best footballers, if not the best, I have ever seen. His skills were phenomenal. He could win games on his own and would make the right decisions nine times out of ten.”

 

[Mighty Reds]

Would people stop comparing Andrew Johns to Michael Jordan, I understand that Johns was obviously one of the best to have played Rugby League but to compare him to one of the top 5 greatest sports people of all time is laughable.

 

[Sedition]

And no one in England cares about the game. Basically Aus and NZ are the countries that take it seriously

Are you sure about that?