My apologies, I diverse, Rugby League is the biggest game in the West of Sydney, Football has massive potential, but unfortunately doesn't have the ability to have the best players in the world playing the local game, like what AFL & RL does.. For AFL think Rugby in Melbourne, where most Melbourians would struggle to tell the difference between Johnathan Thurston & Quade Cooper. This is what AFL is to Sydney, most would get confused why a Swan plays for the Magpies.

Edited by robbos: 10/1/2013 11:37:39 AM

Edited by robbos: 10/1/2013 11:42:04 AM

Next you will be telling me that WWE isn't a real sport.

If ALF was truly any good it would have made inroads overseas by now. One can't say 150 years isn't enough.

Not even in New Zealand where cricket ovals suitable for ALF are plentiful have they been able to make inroads, or in London where at any one time there are 300,000 expats living there.

Let's go to South Africa shall we where ALF hands out freebees to these poor village kids so they can kick an egg around for the cameras. And in the back ground you will notice other kids watching whilst wearing a football club's shirt from various parts of the world.

They've tried China I believe or going to? The Chinese attitude would be thanks but don't call us but we'll call you? So polite are those Chinese.

Where to next, India? Good luck.

I guess I'm being a bit rude here calling it ALF. It's AFL. Unfortunately for many it may as well represent Australia's Funniest League.

Edited by paulc: 10/1/2013 12:18:36 PM

You seem to be filling the cocksucker role. The only effect you have is to reinforce hatred of the VFL. I didn't have anything against the game a few years ago, but the quasi-religious zeal that has broken out once you lot realised how unimportant your silly little sport is makes me look forward to the inevitable day when your game retreats back to Victoria where it belongs.

Two or three TV deals from now the value placed upon your game will decrease, and that will be the beginning of the end for you, as VFL has nowhere else to go. At the end of the road VFL will end up like jousting or falconry, kept alive by a few socially inept luddites at re-enactment festivals.

It sounds like you've got it all worked out.

A pity the AFL lacks the integrity of the K-League (and dozens of other soccer leagues around the world, including super powers such as Italy and Germany).

Certainly more accurate tyhan your spin.

Gallop reckons WSW will be as big as Collingwood in a few years and you reckon I'm the one with the spin??

That's as accurate as ALF saying they will take over the world.

Given the number of wetbacks who now live on the GC, the GC probably qualifies as VFL "heartland".

Yes but the overwhelming majority of those fans are in one city. One well placed nuke, plague or a cultural shift and the game of VFL would no longer exist.

Take Melbourne away and what are you left with? 6 teams, 2 jokes and small base of juniors of fans. The VFL is a paper tiger. HAL teams have played many teams that are global giants, bigger than your entire sport, such as Rangers, Celtic, Blackburn, Juventus, Olympiakos, Urawa etc. What is the biggest team from outside your league a VFLteam has ever played. Werribee, Bendigo?

But seeing that we are talking about a single confined area ie western Sydney. The only arguable point is whether AFL or Rugby Union ranks last in the football market there.

No, not very true at all.

The strength of a code's constituants is reflected by its overall support. Can ALF get 30,000 to 40,000 spectators as it does in some 3 rd tierclubs like it does for football? Rangers for example? Can a secondary or tertiary ALF league average the tens of thousands of spectators that support their team and league in lower football divisions?

Did someone call ALF a paper tiger?

Edited by paulc: 10/1/2013 12:43:41 PM

No, Demetriou reckons AFL will be the no 1 Sport in the world within a few years.
And Kevin Sheedy said West Sydney would've been won if AD let me sign Cousins, Fevola & Hunt to join Folau in their first Season.

It's easy, everyone can quote random stuff like Mister Football, without proof.

Interestingly attendance at football games in Sydney this season is on track to take over second spot from the AFL for attendances at home and away games in the city. Football is on track for 430k patrons up 155% on last season and about 60k ahead of AFL.

Well done FFA on taking the plunge with WSW and well done Sydney FC for taking the plunge on Del Piero.

Edited by gyfox: 10/1/2013 01:11:09 PM

Maybe he meant everyone will hate them because they're supported by bogans?

Does it matter. All Mr ALF has done is proved that it was not Gallop who said that but a interpretation by a reporter what club officials believe. Nothing about Gallop.

Which means Mr ALF above has deliberately lied to suit his egg ball agenda once again.

Rangers are that big? Are they the ones who went into liquidation last year?

Did Alf really say that? If he did, then he is every bit as silly as Gallop.

Completely disagree, someone who provides that service would be much more popular!!

BTW cant we all just get along? Why do I have to hate AFL if I like Football and so on?

All the FFA and AFL and NRL see us as walking wallets, I feel aggrieved by that so I don't buy memberships for any club. I just go to the games when I want and watch a gome on TV when I want.

Geez, people on here are creaming their jeans about WSW getting 10+k crowds, but you want 2nd tier Australian Football crowds to get 40k?

That's a bit rich.

In terms of the 2nd tier, the WAFL and SANFL are no longer as big as they once were, but still have their support.

A crowd of 21,287 attended the 2006 WAFL Grand Final between Subiaco and South Fremantle at Subiaco Oval. The all-time attendance record is 52,781 in 1979 for East Fremantle v South Fremantle at Subiaco Oval.

The record attendance for an SANFL fixture was set at the 1976 SANFL Grand Final between Sturt and Port Adelaide at Football Park which saw 66,987 crammed into the stadium.

The SANFL average attendance for 2011 was 3,579.

Last season, 14,536 watched the VFL grand final.

There are some very strong 3rd tier competitions. The Ovens and Murray Football League is probably the strongest country league in Australia of any sport. Last year, some clubs managed attendances of home and away clubs of around 10,000, i.e. some country clubs managed attendances of the kind WSW are getting now in the premier soccer league in the land.

You're probably right there, although interestingly, I was just looking at this wikipedia page which shows the biggest attendances of clubs across all of the football codes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_club_attendances_(2012)

Rangers is amongst the top 20 soccer clubs in the world at 46,324, but it's behind both Collingwood (59,799) and Essendon (47,698).

Edited by Mister Football: 10/1/2013 02:16:53 PM

Rangers are a world famous side that draw over 40k fans despite playing in the fourth tier of Scottish football. Can anybody name a team from the 4th tier of the VFL? How many fans do they attract?



I stand corrected.

Which shows that being world famous is much better than being world famous in Melbourne.

If liquidation is your ambition, you might be right.

Essendon plays at Etihad which has a capacity of around 52,000.

Rangers went bust on a revenue stream of around US$125m. Makes you wonder. They used to sit at the bottom end or just outside the top 25 Association Football clubs in the world according to Forbes on nett worth.

Obviously I know all about Rangers, but the original comment was that Rangers was bigger than all of Australian Football.

Now people on this forum might think that the AFL is small in world terms, but the annual revenue of the AFL and its 18 clubs combined still exceeds $1 billion, and clearly that is more than Rangers' annual revenue (by many multiples).

My comment was questioning how is it possible not to able to run a profitable club on a revenue stream that large.

True but at present Rangers are in the 4th Tier football in Scotland now. I'm sure when they are back to the top tier in a few years, they will again exceed the whole AFL.