AFL might have had a chance in China 100years ago.
A sport where players try to bounce an egg shaped ball,when a round one is available and used in a similar sport for decades in Ireland would have fitted a country that used chopsticks when spoons and forks were available.
But China now love Football,so AFL is just a weird curiosity...bounce egg shaped ball..?...hmmm ..weird.

Genius!

Your friend doesn't happen to be Steven Fletcher, does it?

Have told this story here before - but one of the most entertaining conversations I've had since coming to Australia was with three Hawthorn players just after Shane Crawford's latest contract had been announced, around 2000-2001ish...  His deal was apparently breath-taking and spectacular, and showed just how rich the AFL was - then I noted how much a friend of mine was getting - at the bottom end of the EPL.  They had never heard of the club, or of the player, and couldn't believe that a squad member in the EPL could earn more than their very own superstar.

It's what their players now want to know too. 

That just shows how much money there really is in the CSL or Middle East. Our best players will be playing in crap leagues to the detriment of our national team. Sainsbury should have taken the Middlesbrough offer and Milligan should have been in a decent Europe league too.

The more these families that have kids in soccer realise that a decent football career can set their child up for life the better. A lot of the bogan families push their kids into AFL/NRL looking for money, a lot less risk in football giving the amount of places around the world that can provide a good salary. Of course the sport should still be all about fun, I'm only talking about a small group of parents.

I remember the Sydney Morning Herald melting down that Wilkshire was on 5 million a season in Russia at 13% tax. I think I read somewhere he is on around 750k in the Russian Second Division atm lol.

I still can't get my head around that the AFL has a $400m per season TV deal yet their players are only given a small percentage of that. Where does all the money go?

Worth noting Thon Maker and Ben Simmons are in their first year of the NBA

This gap will only get bigger with the A-League's new TV deal.

I love it when Victorians, Western Australians and South Australians discover that AFL isn't the centre of the universe, and nobody outside their insular, parochial states gives a shit. It really is quite beautiful.

I know but it still doesn't make it any easier for me to imagine the amount of money being thrown around relative to my perspective. I think what most of the young A-league players is a lot and that gets blown out of the water by many leagues around the world.

That is some beautiful bogan butthurt. I wonder how many of them are multis for Mr VFL?

That's impressive.

I'd say given the build of AFL players they should be more worried about the money that Aussie basketball players get.

Andrew Bogut $15M
Matthew Delladova $12.6M
Aron Baynes $8.5M
Ben Simmons $7.7M
Dante Exum $5.2M
Patty Mills $4.25M
Thon Maker $3.4M
Joe Ingles $2.8M

A few ACL games viewing audiences involving Aus sides have made AFL finals ratings look laughable. 

Nice to know NTS and Dario is on such good coin...

Sadly they're so far from reality that blokes like Koch think that a game of AFL in a Chinese city will woo those millions of people over because Aussie-rules is the greatest game in the world.

Also to add to their lack of reality they're saying stupid things about Port Adelaide even though reality shows that Adelaide United have played games for ACL points against Chinese teams and they've also had Chinese sponsors while Kochie was still dreaming about a game of AFL with his team being represented in China.

bonafide One Nation voters if they're fair dinkum in their sentiments; shit banter if not.

But it's obv they're afraid. They needn't be - when Collingwood's future HAL team is playing in the Club World Cup against Real Madrid, they'll be wondering WTF they were ever resistant to...

Interesting reading but perception is everything. Cannot wait for the day that the Aus media hypes the shit out of the A-league the way it does the other codes.

lol that is amusing as hell

I await the anti football article which will come in the next week or puff piece on how good afl is in the Herald Sun. 

If you put link or headline into google, then click on article once it comes up in search results you usually get around it

Paywall :(

Perhaps post a selection of some of the best ones? lol

Wow. The VFL fans are really throwing their toys out the pram at this one:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/more-news/afl-trumped-by-soccer-in-football-code-pay-stakes/news-story/ba70c192378c425c1b2a412d3af6cbf9

Many of them find it hard to fathom that the pinnacle of football for Aus players is not the local competition. 

Why would we want to keep our best in Australia? Every player that goes overseas opens up another spot for a player to sign a professional contract.

Lol at NTS earning so much more than any VFL player but even average defenders like him and Leijer are worth more than them. It shows the value of the +1 rule for Australian defenders. South American and European attackers fill the 3 visa spots and that makes an Australian defender attractive for the Asian spot. SFC will probably lose either Ryall or Jurman to China.

The list also shows how hard it is to keep our best in Australia.

Goes to show how much the fringe sports like League and Aussie Rules are up against it. The gulf will only get far bigger with China especially going hard with their $.

Davidson, Behich and NTS getting paid more than the highest earning AFL player lol

I find it hard to believe he gets 2 million to leave the ball behind or blaze over the bar.