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AFLW 2024 - Round 10 - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
USA team in AFL?
- Thread starter Fitzcray
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FMD you only need 1% of the population to buy a membership and it's a winner! Right?
HollyLovesWCE
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- Sep 9, 2009
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Fact aside that this is a totally unthoughtout thread, why would we want to bring in an American team anyway? They would ruin the meaning of the game and turn it into some big money driven scheme without a care for what its really about!
.. so is Demetriou American or what?
.. so is Demetriou American or what?
Charles Barkley was actually referring to rugby league, not afl. when he made those comments after watching the Rabbitohs with Russell Crowe.
FootyontheBrain
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haha ok i think we have all stated that this is a bad idea, but do u know what would be awesome if we had some players from the US playing in the afl. i watch a bit of NFL and i mean if we could get some of those blokes on board that would be excellent. i know money wise they are getting bucket loads more but c'mon who wouldnt wanna see some1 like larry fitzgerld taking a huge grab after getting hit lace out by Juddy or J. Selwood.
Watch the PSD this year of a certain Victorian club. The AFL will be getting one of these athletes.
6'7" 235lbs, under 3 seconds in 20m, kicks well on both sides. In general, an absolute freak athlete.
giallonero
Draftee
Great to come across people with ideas and vision. Whether AFL can make it or not in the USA, it's wonderful that we have the courage and confidence to at least start entertaining the idea of world domination.
Congrats to all.
Congrats to all.
Wonaeamirri33
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No, it wasn't...
Moreover, Fitzroy's future in the AFL would have been entirely secure if the League had not stymied us at every turn from 1984 onwards, including the effective veto on our move into Canberra, where we had a deal arranged that would've delivered $1 million/year for the Club, and crowd support as high as 14,000 when we played...
Wonaeamirri33
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Incidentally, maybe we could think about starting an AFL franchise in Greenland, once the ice melts a little more there....
To say that Aussie Rules is growing in the United States is a myth. If you look on their website, (www.usfooty.com) you can see a table with the number of games played each year.
So as you can see, the number of games played peaked in 2006 and has declined every year since. Although there are 2 months to go, the USAFL national championships has already been played, so I can't really see many games been added to the 2009 tally. In reality, they've played approximately 1/3 the games this year as they did in 2006 and 1/2 what they did in 2002. To say the game is growing is bullshit.
The expats in the US basically fund the USAFL and they are the ones who will ensure that the game survives in some form over there. AFL in the US wasn't started by Americans who loved the game - it was started by Australians who missed it. If the AFL doesn't do more to get behind it, it wont grow much beyond what it is now.
None of our clubs over here bother to add our local matches to the tally on the US Footy website. The website is a bit outdated and so it's only used by a few club administrators. There were at least 45 matches played by men and women in my city this year that weren't added, and we're one of the smaller cities in North America affiliated with the league. I'd imagine most games played here aren't added.
Actually, it's called the Australian Football League.
I get sick of these generalizations from people living in Australia about the state of footy in North America. All clubs over here have as many Americans or Canadians lining up for them as they do Aussies, and the locals are just as interested in footy as you are in Australia. In fact, there are quite a number of them on Bigfooty and playing fantasty footy games like Ontheball.com.au.
The reality is (from someone actually living here) that outside of the major Aussie-expat destinations like NYC, LA, Chicago, Vancouver and such, most clubs get by with only a couple of Aussies to help teach the sport. Most players are locals, and we're getting to a point now where some of those locals are familiar enough with the sport to start their own clubs (like in Des Moines & Columbus recently) or coach (Mark Block, coach of Canada Northwind). Their entire experience of the sport has been a local one, and the same is happening across the globe. Perhaps do a bit of research before you throw out comments about the state of footy elsewhere - I'm not about to comment on the state of the Bellarine Football League.
Good comment. Eventually investment in footy development outside of Australia will be repaid in tv rights and merchandise sales. It's hard to fathom several cable providers each operating in excess of 300 channels of tv content here - practically nobody has or watches free-to-air tv as in Australia. Some channels are begging for quality content, and we have a lot of pubs in Calgary that play the footy regularly throughout the season - particularly Saturday and Sunday afternoon games which screen at 9pm on Friday and Saturday nights here.
Why don't you do your own research. AFL in the USA is held together by expats. The number of games each year has declined since the middle of this decade. A handful of Americans playing on each team does not equal a huge interest from the American public. Most don't know what the hell Aussie Rules is and most don't want to know what it is. As I said previously, if there was any interest at all, it wouldn't be so hard to recruit players in the first place, and you'd actually get a few people watching the game other than just wives and girlfriends. Football used to be available to watch on cable and they took it down as nobody watched it. It will never take off in the USA.
No, it wasn't...
Moreover, Fitzroy's future in the AFL would have been entirely secure if the League had not stymied us at every turn from 1984 onwards, including the effective veto on our move into Canberra, where we had a deal arranged that would've delivered $1 million/year for the Club, and crowd support as high as 14,000 when we played...
I didn't say it was sensible, nor serious, but I do recall some clowns kick it around in the media at the time. Hence why I bought it up.
Roll your eyes at me again and I'll cut your heart out and cook it in my frying pan.
My recollection - which is not a reliable guide of much - is that it was a serious suggestion, just not sensible and not seriously considered by the club. I also thought the LA Lions concept was earlier, around 1986 or so.I didn't say it was sensible, nor serious, but I do recall some clowns kick it around in the media at the time. Hence why I bought it up.
Roll your eyes at me again and I'll cut your heart out and cook it in my frying pan.
Who's "they"? Surely no-one expects these leagues to be at VFL level. Does anyone here think of one of the overseas leagues being anything better than a kick and giggle?
Incidentally, maybe we could think about starting an AFL franchise in Greenland, once the ice melts a little more there....
Certainly Big Footy is doing its part to advance global warming.
Exactly. The best teams over there would not even be compettitve in the Diamond Valley.
Mate you have no idea!
I have travelled to the US numerous times over the past 10 years and watched numerous USAFL gams. The number of teams and Americans playing has grown substantially year-on-year since the mid-1990's. Importantly, the clubs i saw first hand were starting to get a good presence of Americans running things off-field as well.
Southern California league is particularly strong and San Diego now even has feeder teams contributing to it's main rep side, the Lions.
The standard of the American players i saw was better than you think, especially amongst the big guys. There was one guy who played for a few years with Old Haileybury in A-grade amateur reserves and held his own so much so that unless you heard him talk you wouldn't even have known he didn't grow up with the game.
I can definitely see AFL being marketed as an option for high school or college athletes from basketball or American football backgrounds who won't be able to cut it at NBA or NFL level. There are literally thousands who fall into this category every year. I'm sure the opportunity to play professionally in a sport where they could conservatively earn anywhere from $US200,000 to $US1,000,000 per season beats the heck out of working at Walmart!
I would suggest that at least one American will be internationally rookie listed within the next 5 years and an American will debut in AFL within 10 years. if Mike Pyke can do it from Canada and with zero Aussie Rules or Gaelic background, then surely an American can.
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Australian rules football is probably less popular than lawn bowls in America.
So, no, I don't see an AFL team there ever.
So, no, I don't see an AFL team there ever.
I think to do it properly we would need two American teams in the comp to build up local rivalry and to give footy a greater local presence on USA TV.
This idea has merit but it would need to be done in a very calculated manner.
People in America that have been exposed to football love it and all we would need to expose the game to the masses and they would be hooked.
A 22 team comp with two from america, one from NZ and another from South Africa would be ideal.
We could be looking at something like this 10 years down the track.
This idea has merit but it would need to be done in a very calculated manner.
People in America that have been exposed to football love it and all we would need to expose the game to the masses and they would be hooked.
A 22 team comp with two from america, one from NZ and another from South Africa would be ideal.
We could be looking at something like this 10 years down the track.
You've mentioned the AFL a few times but what exactly are you expecting them to do? They're not likely to prop up an entire separate league with the likelihood of no return. As you said yourself, the USAFL matches are mostly viewed by wives, girlfriends and the odd puzzled American. It's also not true that the AFL haven't taken notice. The commission mightn't but some of the clubs have. I know for a fact that North have a few times been in contact with the Denver Kangaroos and in fact it was us who supplied them with all their gear. If anything, I'd be more than satisfied with the progression so far. When the league started there weren't half the clubs there are now and it was completely expat. Now, it's still 65% ex pat but there are a lot more Americans involved and something like 50 clubs. You just need to be patient. These things don't happen overnight.
As for the thread, it's a ridiculous idea that would never work and I would think it would be discussed and dismissed in about 30 seconds at commission level.
http://www.denverbulldogs.com/
Just so you know, it's the Denver Bulldogs, and they are the powerhouse team of the USAFL. They just won their 7th straight division 1 National Championship. Them, Boston, SanDiego and New York have always been the better teams. None of them would be competitive in a decent Australian league though IMO.
Each team can only have a maximum of 50% Australian players. Every single Australian involved has been extremely passionate about promoting the game, but even so, it's not like Americans are beating down the door to play or even watch Aussie Rules. The USAFL IMO is a way for expat Australians to catch up with other expat Australians and eat meat pies, drink a few Australian beers and listen to Cold Chisel together.
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