Expansion Things like this dont help

[gostk86]

Declining membership for the Swans and a disappointing crowd for Sydney's elimination final against North Melbourne have some questioning the league's plan to expand into Western Sydney in 2012.

"It's a problem we can afford but it's a reminder to us that these are not AFL states as yet," McLachlan said of the ratings slump — the third consecutive year that TV viewership for the sport has declined in Sydney.

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/afl-stays-the-northern-course/2008/09/11/1220857741454.html

Now...yes Im a league fan, but do like AFL

But surely even the most hardcore AFL supporters realize this puts people off.

 

[Subprime]

Depends how touchy you want to be I guess.

NSW isn't an AFL state as yet (and it may never be considered an AFL state). Its just a statement of fact. The AFL may have 2 successful sides there in the future and it still won't be considered an AFL state.

 

[gostk86]

if gallop said the same thing he would be laughed out of the NRL HQ...they have to realize they are going up against RL and RU which have 100 plus years of heritage up here.... no matter how much they dont rate them..
Even non sports people think the same

 

[Subprime]

if gallop said the same thing he would be laughed out of the NRL HQ...they have to realize they are going up against RL and RU which have 100 plus years of heritage up here.... no matter how much they dont rate them..
Even non sports people think the same

Like I said depends how touchy you blokes want to be.

Pretty touchy is the answer I suppose.

 

[Golen Swans]

i from sydney and true is the word the state is no yet condidred afl dominate. but soon in blaktown there will be a new afl teem that wins the flag and won't have to worries about nrl and union cos they have the telstar premiership to worrry about.

 

[CoastBhoy]

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/afl-stays-the-northern-course/2008/09/11/1220857741454.html

Now...yes Im a league fan, but do like AFL

But surely even the most hardcore AFL supporters realize this puts people off.

I can understand where you are coming from , a Melbourne person reading that would'nt look twice , but a Sydneysider or league fan would see that as pure arrogance , just goes to show you what the AFL mindset is at the moment.

 

[Woodside Hawk]

Sorry, I'm obviously missing the point - which part was arrogance? Was it the 'yet' when referring to NSW as not an AFL state?

 

[Golen Swans]

Sorry, I'm obviously missing the point - which part was arrogance? Was it the 'yet' when referring to NSW as not an AFL state?

the 'yet' imlpliez a sents of invetitbitliyl that afl wil tak ova as the number1 sport in the days to come my frend.

 

[Woodside Hawk]

OK, thanks - I wasn't sure whether that was it or if I'd missed something else in the article.

Surely the 'yet' is used to imply they are still working to win you over, rather than it being inevitable that NSW is going to become an AFL state - but maybe I'm being too soft on the AFL. They have proven to be incredibly arrogant at times, that's for sure, but I'm not 100% convinced this is one of those times.

 

[fishmonger]

what a tosser.

not reeks of arrogance, but ignorance as well

NSW is likely of ever being an "AFL state" as Australia has of being a communist state..

 

[genghiskhan]

if gallop said the same thing he would be laughed out of the NRL HQ...they have to realize they are going up against RL and RU which have 100 plus years of heritage up here.... no matter how much they dont rate them..
Even non sports people think the same

Australian football has more heritage in Sydney than rugby league. It is just a weakness of the VFL based administration of the Australian Football League (AFL) that they have decided that heritage doesn't matter.

 

[fishmonger]

It is just a weakness of the VFL based administration of the Australian Football League (AFL) that they have decided that heritage doesn't matter.

Sure heritage matters to them ... when it means more money

Just 8 years after celebrating their 100th anniversary they claim ownership over the whole game and then make a joke of it on the national stage with television ads and a mickey mouse exhibition match that poke fun at the game's history.

Then they throw out 150 years of "Australian Football" and force every other league in the country call themselves and the game "AFL".

Then hire a "historian" to discredit the founding father of our game and go around claiming that our game is imported rugby - the very sport they're going out of their way to destroy in Sydney.

History and AFL should not be mentioned in the same sentence, except when it suits the AFL.

 

[genghiskhan]

Sure heritage matters to them ... when it means more money

Just 8 years after celebrating their 100th anniversary they claim ownership over the whole game and then make a joke of it on the national stage with television ads and a mickey mouse exhibition match that poke fun at the game's history.

Then they throw out 150 years of "Australian Football" and force every other league in the country call themselves and the game "AFL".

Then hire a "historian" to discredit the founding father of our game and go around claiming that our game is imported rugby - the very sport they're going out of their way to destroy in Sydney.

History and AFL should not be mentioned in the same sentence, except when it suits the AFL.

Well said. In the AFL's opinion, the heritage of the VFL matters. The heritage of things outside of the VFL does not.

On the positive side, Melbournians retain a strong love of the code.

 

[kaypee]

who cares whether qld or nsw are or ever will be "afl" states. they are not rugby states in the same sense that the southern states are footy states, and that is why the afl should be getting more teams in there. sport at the minute in wsyd is a take-it-or-leave-it option, there's plenty of reason to believe that will change with a dynamic sport in the area. west syd will be viewed as a disaster for the first 10-20 years, but not beyond. start now.

 

[magic_johnson!]

who cares whether qld or nsw are or ever will be "afl" states. they are not rugby states in the same sense that the southern states are footy states, and that is why the afl should be getting more teams in there. sport at the minute in wsyd is a take-it-or-leave-it option, there's plenty of reason to believe that will change with a dynamic sport in the area. west syd will be viewed as a disaster for the first 10-20 years, but not beyond. start now.

just a quick q
being in cairns, how big is afl up there compared to nrl?
50-50?
80-20?
cheers

 

[Stereophonic]

i from sydney and true is the word the state is no yet condidred afl dominate. but soon in blaktown there will be a new afl teem that wins the flag and won't have to worries about nrl and union cos they have the telstar premiership to worrry about.

Welcome to Big Footy

 

[kaypee]

just a quick q
being in cairns, how big is afl up there compared to nrl?
50-50?
80-20?
cheers

I reckon, as a spectator sport it's probabably 50/50. as a club sport, AFL dominates, certainly the northern beaches, and probabaly most of cairns. the league comp spreads over a very large area including the tablelands and yarrabah. the afl comp is mostly cairns with two northern beaches clubs and port douglas. a few of the australian football teams pull decent crowds. i work in an office, and i never hear people talkin' league

 

[Ice-Wolf]

As to the reaction to the article, someone is being far too sensitive.

 

[CJisJC]

Just out of interest, how big actually is Union on the other side of the 'line'? I know the Wallabies are big, but does Super 14 ever make any headlines?

I actually prefer watching Union over League; the lesser of two evils

 

[kaypee]

Just out of interest, how big actually is Union on the other side of the 'line'? I know the Wallabies are big, but does Super 14 ever make any headlines?

I actually prefer watching Union over League; the lesser of two evils

union is big when tests are on etc, super 14 causes a bit of a stir, but league is far more popular, super 14 is probably on par with a-league (nobody seems to talk much about either, up here at least)

 

[samiam]

possibly less - dropping off and picking up takes a bit of timed up

Not really. Especially in the Northern Beaches of Cairns. Of course, you wouldn't happen to know anything about Cairns schools, as you didn't even know what Peninsula Sport was.

As it turns out, I will be down at Smithfield SHS for PD tomorrow (even though it isn't a PFD). Happy to catch up if you want to prove that you actually exist.

 

[Subprime]

Strange, isn't it, that whenever you are asked to answer a question that you a clearly incapable of, you simply say "You're bonkers", "I'm here baby" or "What's your problem, hotshot?".

It is called deflection. I would ask you to look it up in a dictionary, but your previous posts imply that you have never availed yourself to one before. For what it is worth, although I am not in Melbourne, I am sure that your bookshops down there stock them.

I wouldn't give you any details either.

Cairns has a fairly successful footy league and Cazaly's club is strong evidence that the game does well there. Too bad if that freaks you and VFC4E out.

 

[kaypee]

I wouldn't give you any details either.

Cairns has a fairly successful footy league and Cazaly's club is strong evidence that the game does well there. Too bad if that freaks you and VFC4E out.

quite right. i'm not meeting either of those two. like i said, i'm in cairns samian, i live on the northern beaches and quite happily get my fix of australian football. i've got know idea what samian is talking about when he carries on about suburbs

 

[HitEmHardFreo]

I had the misfortune of watching the History of Australian Sport: rugby league, recently and there were a number of: "enemy territory's", "foreign city", "the other code(s) shaking at our strength/growth..." Was I offended? Absolutely not, merely to point out that thjis came, not from rugby league-compromised journalists, but by league types themselves.

What I also have noticed this past year is that Sydney and its navel-gazing media likes to think of theirs as an 'international city', yet the insecurities they have with, oh, a city like Melbourne and its home-grown indigenous football code, for example, highlights their small-town and 'code-ist' irrelevance.

And yes, as someone somewhere else mentioned, Cairns is indeed a footy 'hot spot', with a handful of AFL draftees now emerging from that fair, far north city.

 

[Redb]

I had the misfortune of watching the History of Australian Sport: rugby league, recently and there were a number of: "enemy territory's", "foreign city", "the other code(s) shaking at our strength/growth..." Was I offended? Absolutely not, merely to point out that thjis came, not from rugby league-compromised journalists, but by league types themselves.

What I also have noticed this past year is that Sydney and its navel-gazing media likes to think of theirs as an 'international city', yet the insecurities they have with, oh, a city like Melbourne and its home-grown indigenous football code, for example, highlights their small-town and 'code-ist' irrelevance.

And yes, as someone somewhere else mentioned, Cairns is indeed a footy 'hot spot', with a handful of AFL draftees now emerging from that fair, far north city.

Right on the money.