Wow - an article from Wilson that makes sense...
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/time-to-act-on-slighted-canberra/2008/06/21/1214009173094.html
TWO years ago, this column visited Canberra in the dying days of the Kangaroos' shortlived and wasteful partnership with Manuka Oval and a city that boasted a relatively small but passionate pocket of AFL supporters.
On this particular day, the good football-loving folk of Canberra had gathered in the National Press Club to listen to a couple of senior AFL journalists, North Melbourne executives and New South Wales AFL identities talk about the game.
And they were angry, sensing that the game was yet again on the verge of deserting them for hotter and sexier pastures. Canberra football fans, who appeared to spread from Sydney's west to the Riverina, did not want blow-in football teams. They wanted a side they could follow and be passionate about.
They were right. North Melbourne that day could not provide its supporters in the national capital with answers and several months later would turn its back on Canberra for the Gold Coast in an ill-thought-out dash for cash that would prove even more disastrous for the game and its image.
Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs — two more Victorian clubs who desperately need the money and have no intention of working to develop the code in the Australian Capital Territory — have been dumped onto the Manuka Oval in a continuation of an agreement that ends at the finish of next season.
In a bid to appease local clubs and the ACT Government, which contributes towards the largely AFL-funded $400,000 per game earned by the home clubs, Sydney has been given two away games in Canberra. In that sense the current ad hoc arrangement makes everybody happy, but it cannot go on.
Melbourne says it wants two home games in Canberra next season, but that club's long-term plan states that the MCG is pivotal to its crumbling and largely meaningless current image and surely Jim Stynes' vision does not seriously include Canberra, while the Bulldogs have no real interest in the ACT except for the money.
History relates that the AFL ignored its stronghold in the national capital decades ago and lost it but now it has a second chance given the current fragility of the territory's other football codes.
And yet there is no plan in place for the city that houses the Federal Government beyond next year.
The AFL is throwing millions of dollars into the Gold Coast and Sydney's west and Canberra is now making noises not dissimilar to Tasmania, whose devoted football followers cannot understand why they have been ignored in the game's long-term thinking.
The AFL's regional ACT boss, Brian Quade, wants three home-and-away games a season at Manuka by 2010, but has received no hint from headquarters that the competition plans to ramp up its presence in Canberra, nor that it has a plan at all.
The Western Bulldogs have asked the AFL about its plans for Canberra beyond 2009, but have heard nothing.
"If we lose AFL games here and if we don't have a presence here, the game will be lost," said Quade. "If we walk away from Canberra, we've got no chance of ever coming back. There is value to the development of western Sydney too to have some games here and I'd like to think they saw a role for us.
"Unless we present a positive plan, the ACT Government is only going to come to the party for so long. A western Sydney side will only be 2½ hours away and we've got the Swans reserves in the competition here. This is a crucial time for us."
Perhaps it makes sense to fixture three home games a season in Canberra for the second Sydney team should it truly emerge as an AFL team by 2012.
Clearly Homebush and its 80,000 capacity will not provide a permanent home-game venue and the ACT deserves at least a stakehold in a side that believes it will take at least a decade to gain 25,000 members. In the meantime, the territory's fans need a stable, reliable, if short-term relationship.
It is true that the Kangaroos treated Canberra shamefully, turning their backs on a partner desperate for affection and quality time with the full support of the AFL.
The AFL is developing a long-term reputation for unreliability in the ACT, so it wouldn't hurt to over-correct that. Canberra may be a small market but it spreads a long way and has some powerful people living there.
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/time-to-act-on-slighted-canberra/2008/06/21/1214009173094.html
TWO years ago, this column visited Canberra in the dying days of the Kangaroos' shortlived and wasteful partnership with Manuka Oval and a city that boasted a relatively small but passionate pocket of AFL supporters.
On this particular day, the good football-loving folk of Canberra had gathered in the National Press Club to listen to a couple of senior AFL journalists, North Melbourne executives and New South Wales AFL identities talk about the game.
And they were angry, sensing that the game was yet again on the verge of deserting them for hotter and sexier pastures. Canberra football fans, who appeared to spread from Sydney's west to the Riverina, did not want blow-in football teams. They wanted a side they could follow and be passionate about.
They were right. North Melbourne that day could not provide its supporters in the national capital with answers and several months later would turn its back on Canberra for the Gold Coast in an ill-thought-out dash for cash that would prove even more disastrous for the game and its image.
Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs — two more Victorian clubs who desperately need the money and have no intention of working to develop the code in the Australian Capital Territory — have been dumped onto the Manuka Oval in a continuation of an agreement that ends at the finish of next season.
In a bid to appease local clubs and the ACT Government, which contributes towards the largely AFL-funded $400,000 per game earned by the home clubs, Sydney has been given two away games in Canberra. In that sense the current ad hoc arrangement makes everybody happy, but it cannot go on.
Melbourne says it wants two home games in Canberra next season, but that club's long-term plan states that the MCG is pivotal to its crumbling and largely meaningless current image and surely Jim Stynes' vision does not seriously include Canberra, while the Bulldogs have no real interest in the ACT except for the money.
History relates that the AFL ignored its stronghold in the national capital decades ago and lost it but now it has a second chance given the current fragility of the territory's other football codes.
And yet there is no plan in place for the city that houses the Federal Government beyond next year.
The AFL is throwing millions of dollars into the Gold Coast and Sydney's west and Canberra is now making noises not dissimilar to Tasmania, whose devoted football followers cannot understand why they have been ignored in the game's long-term thinking.
The AFL's regional ACT boss, Brian Quade, wants three home-and-away games a season at Manuka by 2010, but has received no hint from headquarters that the competition plans to ramp up its presence in Canberra, nor that it has a plan at all.
The Western Bulldogs have asked the AFL about its plans for Canberra beyond 2009, but have heard nothing.
"If we lose AFL games here and if we don't have a presence here, the game will be lost," said Quade. "If we walk away from Canberra, we've got no chance of ever coming back. There is value to the development of western Sydney too to have some games here and I'd like to think they saw a role for us.
"Unless we present a positive plan, the ACT Government is only going to come to the party for so long. A western Sydney side will only be 2½ hours away and we've got the Swans reserves in the competition here. This is a crucial time for us."
Perhaps it makes sense to fixture three home games a season in Canberra for the second Sydney team should it truly emerge as an AFL team by 2012.
Clearly Homebush and its 80,000 capacity will not provide a permanent home-game venue and the ACT deserves at least a stakehold in a side that believes it will take at least a decade to gain 25,000 members. In the meantime, the territory's fans need a stable, reliable, if short-term relationship.
It is true that the Kangaroos treated Canberra shamefully, turning their backs on a partner desperate for affection and quality time with the full support of the AFL.
The AFL is developing a long-term reputation for unreliability in the ACT, so it wouldn't hurt to over-correct that. Canberra may be a small market but it spreads a long way and has some powerful people living there.
