How convinced are the AFL that their code will take off to the chinese... Do chinese living in melbourne follow the game at all or have the $$$$$ that the AFL is hoping to get a slice of ?
This venture hasnt generated once cent of profit... and it relies on the local state govt ( ALP , who love AFL and hate football ) throwing in 300k at least ...

AFL/VFL is not about sport. It is a propaganda machine designed to distract Victorians from their mundane lives.

The PR component stepped up after World War 2. Look at how crowds walk to the AFL on match days. It is like watching lambs go to slaughter.

The only thing I have seen coming out of the Chinese venture is a bit of an increase in Chinese company sponsorship.  There was little chance the gamble would pay off by having China embrace such a crappy game like Aussie Rules, but a lot more likely was the fact that they will realise Australians actually like this game and anyone with financial interests in Australia might throw some bones

Just a slight change, very little care up here (Sydney) of the Sydney derby semis.

Ha ! Very Orwellian concept but you could say the same of any of the codes ,including football.( I assume you had your tongue firmly cheek planted there )

I think we just need to concentrate on getting the already football loving people to games .
There are more than enough of them to sustain our game very healthily if we can make them supporters of the A-League.
We simply need to get back to basics. Put on a good game , clubs engaging with fans etc etc ...and more will come and the game will grow naturally.
Sport is tribal.
The successful clubs have fans who feel part of their clubs tribe.
Make people feel connected and they will support you even if you aren't the best team .

We focus far too much on what AFL is doing ....it just doesn't matter .

It's a case of Koch not doing his homework. Adelaide United has played against Chinese opposition many times on Hindmarsh. Depending on who they play the Chiese mob usually buy a couple of thousand tickets and the give them to the Chinese students studying in Adelaide.  Adelaide United has also had Chinese sponsors for a while now. 
Koch and the AFL had their anti-football glasses on again, for them to spend money without trying to couple with AU and learn rather than go in with guns a blazing and with their usual "AFL is the best game in the world" blinkers was moronic and showed their true colours.

Creepily enough I was just reading and viewing images of Orwell on BBC talking about the great right wing of Europe dictating in 1936-7
I'm with you re AFL. It's just a puny, parochial game, but I do like them wasting their money!

Remember when Mr Football told us that this was the biggest deal in Australian sporting history, then it turned out Port and the tax payer were actually stumping up the cash for this. 

Then the best bit was the presser unveiling in China with the PM - the Chinese didn't even send a janitor down, let alone an offical or even a photographer. 

File this under "failed attempts by the AFL to promote or get anyone interested in their game overseas' - if there is any space left in the file storage warehouse

Our money. The kick backs they get from govt are obscene. 

So it took 2 years for AFL China to fold
It will be 2-3 years until AFLW folds
AFLX has already had open heart surgery, will be 2 more years before that sorry excuse dies.

Pretty shocking strike rate if you ask me, but yea AFL is the National Game LOL

Don’t forget goals Coast gws

Trouble is the AFL is run from Melbourne ....and in Melbourne AFL does indeed reign supreme. 
So the powerbrokers there live in a bubble of "AFL is everything" .
They assume that because they love it everyone else in the world should too.
I am sure they really believe that other countries will abandon football and love AFL ..."if only they could just see it live".
They live in a delusional bubble and so do the Victorian pollies.

Personally I am Football first ,daylight second , then Rugby League a very distant third .....AFL and Rugby Union do not even enter my thoughts , nor does Cricket anymore ...but ..hey... that just me .

The Port AFL China deal was never about fans on the ground, it was all about business connections between the various people involved with pushing the idea. They were just using the AFL as a vehicle for forging connections.

Yet another reason Koch & co should have talked to AU, as they have Chinese sponsors located in Shanghai, but in true "AFL is best" ilk they ignored a sports club that first played Shanghai Shenua in 2005.

lol

But, but I thought AFL was a big tough guy sport. You know, real men. And they can't even handle one international trip where they are given 2 weeks rest period around the fixture?

I don't think they'll let AFLW fold.
It's run on the cheap, and the AFL is cashed up enough to easily keep it going, rather than lose face by letting it fail.

AFLW will get proped up but on bare bones. Crowd, Tv etc have all plummeted. They’ve even cut back the season.

After initial fanfare even the AFL are not interested with the head of the AFL getting criticized for not even bothering to tweet about the grand final yet was posting about afl stuff

Theyve got a new headache every week.

they will kill off mens AFLX and morph it into AFLXW ,,,, Womens AFLX....short game , can put the heat on councils to use rectangular grounds .then claim AFL is best sport in the world for the female.

How have they cut back the season?
I thought there were new teams joining in 2019 & 2020  ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFL_Women%27s#Future_clubs ), so if anything, the season will get longer.

AFLW PLAYERS VENT FRUSTRATION AT SHORTER FIXTURE

Ahahaha!
AFL really seems to be obsessed with having a final ladder based on an uneven set of fixtures.

What do they expect. Players are playing the women's professional game after literally never playing a single game of Aussie Rules in their life. 

Maybe its too soon , and I mean no offence, the sister of ex-AFL plyer passed away after a head clash playing AFL. 

https://www.news.com.au/national/south-australia/afl-star-travis-varcoes-sister-dies-at-royal-adelaide-hospital-after-football-game-accident/news-story/3730fa9437d9b44bd1776b7feeed7001

Travis Varcoe might be an average player but he's still playing mate lol.

Looks like Barcelona was watching port Adelaide and kochie they are set to play a game on USA soil in January

That is an absolute tragedy and horrible situation - RIP, but also it's not good for a women's game. There is obviously serious injury risk concerns to females and their body build.

I bet Mason Cox (the american) will win the best on ground because it will look on the papers 

No. It could happen to anyone regardless of gender or sport. She clashed heads with a teammate and I guess broke her skull. No one, including her, realised how bad it was until it was too late. It was just a freak accident, similar to Phil Hughes dying on a cricket field after being hit by a bouncer. It had nothing to do with gender. 

That guy is legitimately a beast. He genuinely was best on ground against Richmond on the weekend. I think he took the most contested marks in history.

You are definitely right in regards to freak accidents but this is something that is also a major issue in football, in fact a bigger issue than any other sport for women. There are enough studies out there that show head injuries do differ between genders in how common they are and the severity.

https://www.neurologyadvisor.com/traumatic-brain-injury/gender-differences-in-concussion-diagnosis-and-treatment/article/636005/

This is one of them if you want to read it