I would be amazed if the game takes off in Qld... let alone overseas

http://www.smh.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-accused-of-exploiting-figures-20120723-22knq.html#ixzz21U3GIIQw

VFL rent-seeking, lies and inflating figures. Shows player numbers and quality declining but they claim increases. Their little game is in trouble, no wonder Mr VFL is such a desperate zealot.

i don't see why it should take off.......but i don't see AFL X for Australia

What AFL does rather successfully is it taps into this country's sense of wanting to prove its worth. It feeds off the parochialism and defensiveness which is commonplace (but not universal) in mainstream Australia.

The more critical you are of it, the more they (and others in Australia) become defensive about it and try to reinforce how good it is.

I don't have a problem with Aussie Rules supporters/the AFL when they're not aggressive and defensive (not actually an oxymoron). Admittedly, I'd sooner see its athletes play other sports. But it's only when the fans and organisations become aggressive and defensive that I get pissed off with them. Unfortunately, this seems to be par for the course. In keeping with the attitude of far too many in Australia.

E.g. QandA this week. People in the audience getting upset because Shakespeare is apparently stopping great Australian works getting the attention they deserve.

Then what have you been arguing in the past pages. Fuck me you are nauseating. 

I have seen AFL junior games in Sydney. They played on the field opposite us and rugby league played on the field further up. Growing up AFL was the sport that did all the funny looking stretches and odd drills. Both had only one or two teams that would play each week. When training or warming up we were not allowed to a blade of grass on either field while they freely trampled over ours.
The rugby league team is now dead has been incorporated into the club I played for and the process seems to be repeating with the rugby league club that plays on the ground opposite to my current club. The AFL team somehow seems to struggle on so there is a big well grassed area that you can fit about four football pitches on that gets about 3-4 hours of use every two weeks at most. The football clubs have been dreaming of taking over it for the 20 years since I started playing.

While I enjoy the further dominance that football is gaining in the area, I think that it is sad that the diversity of games that were played on the same grounds is dying off. Even though I didn't really understand what was going on on the field back in the other two sports then I enjoyed watching three sports being played by my age group every weekend. At my current club we used to be able to play our game then walk up to the other field and join a large crowd to watch players who'd just been dropped from the Shark's squad for the week playing for their local club side. That was dead this year.

It's true that in the dozen or so countries which have a footy league, the standard is quite low.

If you are seeking diversity, you should applaud the AFL's attempts to expand its footprint into NSW.

Ground breaking. Please share more of your pearls. 

Certainly I see it as my task to enlighten the great unwashed on this forum, and for the most part, I have been quite successful and received the plaudits I most thoroughly deserve.

Delusional as always Mr Tardball. 

I don't care if they "come". As I said from my perspective they have been a somewhat small but successful presence in my area for my entire life. They already here.
What I severely dislike about recent AFL expansion tactics is that they seem to claim a usable space as theirs and refuse to relinquish control even when they don't have the numbers to maintain a presence in that space. It has created a very much us vs them situation. Why should they have control of 4-5 grounds in the area when at the moment they only need one to satisfy their demand, while other sports have so many players on so few fields that they are digging themselves to China with overuse? 
I get that all sports would like to be able to have spare fields just in case and football would do the same if it was in a similar situation. In my area there is resentment from football towards both rugby league and AFL because from our point of view they currently do not have the numbers to justify locking us out of the use of the grounds they currently hold. Half the season that we pay for gets cancelled because we have too many playing on too little fields while the pristine rugby league and AFL fields are sitting opposite largely unused for the year.

I think that the AFL would be much better served in Sydney to start with developing itself at the minimum amount of grounds that it needs to satisfy demand. If it starts to grow in playing popularity that is when it should be asking for more space. By locking in grounds before you have the people to play on them you are just asking for the local inhabitants to be angry with you.

go away monkey 

Log out of your other account tard?

Mr Tardball trying to pretend that there are a dozen or so VFL leagues in Europe. Would be lucky to find a dozen clubs in Europe. Will never be anything more than the minority game played in the uninhabitable parts of Australia, one day it will be recreated alongside Morris dancing and medieval reenactment.

Handball is s much bigger than than you give it credit tbh


My mistake Red Dog.I just checked and wow handball is much bigger than AFL.played seriously in many countries .Who would have thought.

The funny thing is there are many national sports which have spread to other countries .Which suggests a bigger problem for AFL .
Here are some:
Kabbadi played in Bangladesh.
Pato played on horses in Argentina
Buzkashi played on horses in Afghanistan
Pesapallo played with bats and balls in Finland and now with a team in Australia.
Gaga from Israel


I think the long term future for AFL is a smaller ground with heavy balls ,two halves and shorter games.
Having massive ovals taking up so much space in prime real estate is just a code killer.
How is it sustainable to have so much money tied up in a junior or lower grade game in capital cities?

How can you export a game so socially incompatible with space and economic realities in virtually every other country in the world?
Where in Hong Kong,Manila,Bangkok,Tokyo,London,NewYork,Paris,blah blah blah are you going to find space for even one team to play?

AFL internationally is doomed!
Give up all hope now .






Insert numerous emojees at will,because I can't yet from an iPad unfortunately.

WTF are you talking about?  

there AFL leagues all over Europe....just as there Rugby union leagues all over Europe.....or baseball, or cricket, or  lacrosse


should we close down the Australian Handball Federation in Australia, no body play that game in Australia...what about Australian Lacrosse Association, should we lose that down, have then give up 

AFL X is not about starting pro-Leagues 

Its true, there are AFL teams all over Europe but outside of the UK it's Australian guys who can scrap together 18 guys for an excuse to have a piss up after training and matches twice a week and pretty much one team per city I think.

I have tried to be recruited myself when they stumbled into my pub one day.

Yes absolutely, recruiting a few young muslim ladies and throwing to them every time they attempt to 'grow our great game' in NSW shows that your sport is diverse. Well done.

Not surprising.

In Western Sydney Muslim girls were paid to play - obviously for the PR shots, and in Victoria clubs have started to wipe playing fees as they cannot attract kids 

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/outer-east/the-eastern-lions-junior-football-club-in-wantirna-has-waived-fees-to-attract-new-players/news-story/60981f8a3e092c8d6f062bc4895a3d3a

Even the adults have had enough

http://www.vafa.com.au/latest-news/st-francis-xavier-player-shortage-sparks-appeal/

If by recruit, you mean 'employ' then yes. :)

I am currently in Australia and see a massive difference every time I come. In shopping centres there are products of European clubs. I see many more people walking around with EPL shirts on. It has coverage on the news. There are Bein commercials on tv. 

I have been in Australia for about 6 weeks and a few days ago I saw a guy kicking a footy with his son. At the beach it is only kids with soccer balls and all over the parks too. In Qld but havent seen anyone throwing league balls around. But RL has Logan and NZ so theyll be fine. 

Also many local footy ovals in VIC I see kids kicking a soccer ball around, using the footy goal posts as goals with an imaginary cross bar :)

Mostly slated on Big Footy but this comment (from presumably mister football)  is amazing 

Would work overseas.

Imagine this scenario.

Wembley Stadium virtually is unused most of the English football season and the off-season.

Have AFLX playing there in say 10 years time

After sitting in a bar next to an expat in Manila, I have no concern where ALF are going with this.
This fine Aussie chap with a beer gut told he was on his way overseas to play in an international ALF tournament no one ever heard about and he was representing the country lol.

With such seriousness and quality resources how could they go wrong?

AFL - X

As others have pointed out,most sports have a presence in many counties through expats,but few have serious competitions.
If you look at rugby league as an example,they have had first grade competitions in many countries from USA to Russia for decades. Teams from those countries have even competed against Australian teams.
But getting quality atheletes of a high enough standard is another thing altogether.
Look at places like France .League used to be big there,with serious internationals against us..Now they are a tiny outpost swallowed by the might of Rugby Union.

The problem all sports face is funding,infrastructure,management and players.
You might be able to get expats to pool resources and have some sustainable novelty z grade teams.But beyond that having a serious high level competiton is a pipe dream.


Even locally the top sports have trouble making ends meet.
Look at Rugby.They have teams in Melb and Perth at the elite level.But still rely on resourcing those teams from NSW and QLD.
Look at NRL they have a team in Melb but the players mostly come from NSW ,QLD and NZ.
Look at AFL,they have two teams in NSW and two in QLD.Yet where do most of their players come from?
Not NSW and not QLD.


So these well established sports,that pump millions of dollars to expand in their own country still struggle to sustain grass roots here.
What hope for AFL overseas?
As I said, AFL are deluded ,with blind arrogance ,if they think they are going to conquer the world by heading off overseas with their bags of cash and a new hybrid game for expats.







.
It's a sobering lesson for any sport trying to expand.

Yeah I went to the Royal Adelaide Show for the first time in years over the weekend and couldn't help but notice all the show bags that had a ball as the toy option were all soccer balls. 

My niece in law (if that's a thing) went the other day and came home with a Socceroos show bag. Her family is ENTIRELY made up of die-hard Aussie Rules fans. Like soccer is for pansies types. We asked her why she had a socceroos bag and she said she "plays soccer at lunch time like all the other kids" and she got so excited when i said I loved soccer and would show her a few things.

What did you show her?

Social media and being able to access stuff from all over the world means kids know about the superstar players now and they seem way more exotic than the mullet heads playing AFL and it doesn't all seem a million miles away.

That and the FIFA series are a massive problem for the AFL. They have reached their limit. It's a massive limit and they are a huge organisation but if they keep up with the gimmicks they will only chip away at their own empire and we will feed on the scraps. I grew up going to SANFL matches as much as soccer matches but fuck the AFL.

Music to my ears. Maybe theyll use the $2.5billion deal to bribe school kids into playing the insular game...