I raise this thread in response to some of the other posts, where the AFL crowd. eg. Mike Sheehan laid into football when he described the first leg of the Intercontinental playoff between Australia v Hondouras, as "rubbish".

As much as I would like to see football become  Australia's number one sport (at all levels, not just the amateur participant numbers), realistically it's not going to happen in the near future, and most likely not in our lifetimes.

In terms of TV rights, corporate sponsorship, media coverage, and average crowds, AFL reigns supreme, with NRL second, football third, and Rugby Union last (Rugby Union is a mostly elitist sport confined to snotty nosed private schools).

After Australia had  successfully qualified for the 2006 World Cup, Mike Hill wrote an excellent article called, "can you smell the fear?", which was in response to the AFL/NRL crowd rubbishing football, which seems to happen quite frequently around important World Cup qualifiers, and when the World Cup starts.

My view is that the AFL and NRL don't really fear football, as they have most of the mainstream media behind them, plus the lions share of corporate sponsorship and bigger crowds, however with NRL, the rapidly declining junior participant numbers must be concerning the NRL hierarchy. In all probability both the AFL and NRL, see football as a nuisance, competing for corporate dollar, but not a real threat.

What's your view?

They definitely see it as a threat, they were terrified of us getting the 2022 world cup, worried about football being the biggest participant sport in this country by a considerable margin and the worldwide influence of the game. This is why you see the AFL creating AFLX, trying to get some interest in their game internationally because they know the range of the sport is very limited. When you see when the big european clubs come over and they sell out their stadiums with ease which they can only do a couple times a year they know the support of football in this country is there. The issue however is that popularity hasn't transpired to the local game so they try and talk shit about it in the media and other schemes to keep control.

It may take 10-20 years but i really think it is inevitable that football will be the most popular sport in this country.

Aflx has nothing to do with our game or perceived fear, all sports are seeing a major opportunity over summer after the success of the bbl. Aflx and aflw are just short term sugar hits to keep bogans occupied during summer. Aflx is a joke and yet they will still fill stadiums.

What should be our concern is that we try and sell our game to the bogan masses whilst kicking the traditional elements of our game who actually love the sport. Take this weekend for eg victory and city are both interstate...a 2nd division match out at lakeside this weekend would have been handy...but nup lets just sit back and watch everyone else make the running.

Your half right ....

Where you are right is we should promote and sell to our own Football culture.... 1 trillion % agree...

Where I think you are not necessarily wrong, but hhhhhmmmm where you betray Football is where you say try and sell to the Bogan masses.... 

IMO the greatest assets and cultural Football has is its willingness to accept anyone who wants to play or watch...

Where FFA have totally failed nay to easy ... where professional Football in Australia both NSL and FFA and PFA and some leading journalists is an inability to defend and explain Football culture ...

We don't defend nor do we try and explain Football cultural... never have .... only Simon Hill IMO has achieved this ...

Social media sites  become in time a mire of name calling and personal opinions ...

Ange also has made great gains in this area...

IMO Bogans are welcome no one comes and from the first game becomes hard core rusted on.... that means accepting of their lack of knowledge and educating them ... but true Football culture accepts all ... even mullet hairstyle bogans...  but and this is the kicker accept on our terms ...

I've followed football my whole life.
And I have a mullet.
The two work beautifully together.

I'd say in any business you are always aware of competition (That's what sport is a Business) but they know footballs FFA is shambolic and the media will take every chance it can get to hate on football. 

And AFL executives can sexually assault younger staff members and the Media will still say the AFL is the shining light for women in sport these are a 'once off situations'. Football has put money time and effort into our women for almost a decade we have one of the best female national teams in the world but the media will talk about anti social behaviour because someone light a flare 

Well, davstar, going by your avatar I'd assume your respect for women is impeccable 

Are you saying me Avatar implies a lack of respect for women? I support the idea of women dressing the way they want i mean no disrespect - but if you are implying my Avatar is disrespectful i'd argue it is your own prejudice of a society that slut shames women - which really says more about you then me 

To my original point i love AFL don't get me wrong but the bias towards it in Victoria especially is unfounded. Literral the amount of scandals swept under the rag is a joke Ben Cousins drugs, Barry Hall assaulting a player, Essendon FC (enough said), Ricky Nixson, St Kilda School girl etc 
Flip-side that too football and you have the media crucify it for fans chanting too loud

Don't worry the AFL blown in only responds when its a good argument as he attempts to , derive the conversation to me he seems to only want to abuse, criticise and confuse... 

What they don't realise is AFL of all the major sports in Australia is the one at most risk .... 

They see strength in media deals and mass almost total media blackouts in their homeland states... 

The AFL also sees a fair amount of strength in its attendances and by association, members. Which determine a whole range of other incomes from signage, pourage, stadium returns, catering income, parking revenues, and onsite merchandise sales.

Until this year the league made almost as much from non broadcast sources as it did broadcast sources.
For the clubs, broadcast revenue is about 1/4-1/5 the total revenue on average and even less for the top clubs who bring in more from other sources.

Ripping off pensioners with poker machines

yeah like the NRL doesnt set the gold standard for this and we never hear about the Panthers Group, or the huge Raiders, Sharks, Easts or Eels set ups. No sir. Its only the mean old AFL - performing a business that is perfectly legal and would not be any different if operated by Woolworths or ALHG or some other such group.

Gotta say, bagging the AFL is fun, but pointing the finger at them for pokies revenue isn’t that right.

The NRL is the king of pokies. I doubt a single Sydney NRL club could survive without their massive pokies coin.

Wow, Wookie and his alts are in damage control :) I wonder how many forums he has accounts on just so he can stoically defend his cult when some less than stellar news comes out.


Sydney Leagues clubs are generally inside their own club districts, the AFL seems to specifically target the poorest/most at risk areas when building their pokie palaces, far from where the team plays. I'm sure you're aware of what they've done in SEQ.

what have they done in SEQ?

How we get sucked in every bloody time that we have to defend our game, our culture with this shit shows just how insecure football really is. 

true

The AFL is making $400  million per annum on the TV deal, that would would be well over half of all their annual revenue.

That deal literally started this year.

In 2016, the AFL (HQ) generated $542,856,000, of which $264,154,000 came from Broadcasting (and AFL Media) - 48% of total revenue.

After contra is removed, revenue from the new deal will add about 120 million to the AFL cash flow, but then the AFL can now add Docklands revenues in their entirety (80 million pa) and other revenues they probably expect to rise.

Wookie

Without doubt the AFL is the best managed sport in Australia, and as you suggest the best supported..

However that does not mean it operates without risk or has potential future issues.

The AFL biggest single issue IMO is that it is essentially a one country sport played essentially in the southern states....

There is nothing to help AFL if they have two to three bad years in a row. Whats seen as a strength could become a weakness tomorrow.... BTW I am not suggesting this will happen but that it could and thats my point.... even league today has 12 million people in the PI nations to support it if things go bad.

Never said it had no risks, Im saying that the risk you assigned to it isnt as great as you are making out. FFS theres nothing to help any code in Australia if they have several bad years in a row. The AFL can at least say they are sitting on an asset worth hundreds of millions of dollars that they own freehold.

It's ok Davstar I rate your avatar

Does Greg Baum write his article a week before or week after we qualify for the world cup?

There is your answer.

Baumy/Sheehan  know what  their doing. They do it to appease their masters at afl hq.  Headquarters are so paranoid about football/basketball that they'll  try everything in their power to grab headlines during their off season  (ie afl clubs looking  at buying an nbl licences)

I've never seen it as AFL & NRL vs Football. To me it has always been the sport of AR vs everything they see as a competitor (there are newspaper articles from ~100 years ago talking about how Aussie rules is about to rightfully take over NSW/QLD/NZ). It's not normal behaviour and the only comparable situation I can think of is the way RU goes after RL but that's on a whole other level.

The AFLX/WAFL are just last throws of the dice by a small corner-store in a regional town (that is apparently known for refusing service to local black customers...) trying everything it can to fight a new Woolies&Coles shopping centre opening up down the street. 

10 days ago, all of our competitors (Cricket, NRL, Super 15, NBL, etc), publically wished the Socceroos good luck in their playoff against Honduras. There was 1 governing body of 1 sport that was conspicuously silent. 

Just checked their twitter for November 14th and you're right, not a peep (although they did shill for their international rules match lol)

In fairness, Carlton did make a congratulatory text only tweet, referring to Ange and Behich as being Carlton fans.

Couldn't find anything on NRL's twitter either.

https://mobile.twitter.com/FOXSportsAUS/status/928167764828741632/video/1

Good luck Socceroos video

The problem is that everyone was saying the exact same thing with BBL. Havea  look back at the old threads. Everyone was saying it would fail by season 3, and now look where it is.

The bbl just like aflx will not be sold purely as a sport but instead entertainment. It won't be made to take seriously, it will be there to distract other sports and to gain some entertainment dollars from the public and ultimately persuade yung kids to play and follow aussie rules instead of football from the ages of 6-14. It's a very calculated move, one that will literally be seen as BBL 2.0 but in AFL form. In other words, look out for music and fireworks after every goal is scored. Watch the cameras pan across the crowd to all the kids. They will incentivise it so that it gets the attention of all the young one's. It will be sold as a "perfect" holiday product.

In a way it may end up competing more with Cricket than football as they will be targeting the exact same audience. But in the end it will affect the real sports out there such as football and basketball that are actually running a legitimate season long competition.

The success of the BBL and the fall of interest in the A League are two different things

There are 23 million people in this country and it is estimated only 3 million of those watched the AFL grand final

Some of the ratings we have had in past years, as well as bigger attendance figures and membership numbers for our two biggest clubs shows there are enough people out there to make our sport a success. But we opt not to because we follow this made up formula and pander towards myths and invent this stereotypical "average Aussie" and try to meet his needs

There will never be enough sport out there to make our game obsolete. Aussies love sport and all if not most follow several sports. We are part of a buffet of sport. Sometimes we will lose fans on individual weekends to other sports but equally we will lose them to other events (individually or collectively). But over the balance of the season we have the potential to do well and hold our own whether the BBL or AFLX exist

We just decide not to

Our game has been built as the game to watch when nothing else is on. Cant blame fans for upholding their end of the bargain

Difference is T20 cricket was already a success and the IPL was a massive hit, the BBL was just the Australian continuation of it. While AFLX is taking an already fast paced game with countless goals and making everything smaller which will mean everyone is just going to punt the ball continually because why not. If actual AFL fans hate the idea, then who will like it?

We'll see what happens, but remember that real cricket fans also hated the BBL concept initially. So the same will be with AFLX. Trust me, the AFL realise they need to deliver a product that appeals to a certain market. They know they can't target the hardcore fans, at least not initially, however as the game gains more traction by the entertainment types, it will become more accepted by the general afl public. Then the very inevitable comparison with other summer sports such as football will be made, and yet again we'll be here complaining about yet another distraction.

What we as a sport need to do is focus on ourselves. I don't want to claim that metrics mean nothing because many financials hinge off the back off it in one way or another, however we must go back to basics of building our game up using a football formula not an NRL/AFL formula. Now is the time that we get leaders in our sport that have football running in their veins. Capable intelligent business people. People that get football and how it works. People like Peter Filopolous, Anthony Di Pietro, Simon Pearce and even Tony Pignata.

Then you were talking to the cricket fans who only think test cricket is real cricket who are these days far from the majority. As i mentioned there was enough evidence and proof that T20 cricket was a success due to international matches and the IPL. There was no logical reason for its success to suddenly stop here. Meanwhile AFLX is the AFL throwing a longshot in the hopes of creating a game that can go international, however in this modification you can literally score in one kick, it is just going to be a disaster.

The AFL isn't so much concerned with football becoming the number 1 sport in Australia as it is it becoming a sport with a much more significant share of the market than it does now. Obviously it's not a zero sum game, but the increased competition for sporting fields combined with footballs' massive participation base must be a great source of concern for them.

Sheehan and Baum should have just been ignored.  It was nothing more than a distracting tactic to move attention from celebrating WC qualification.  Hill - who really should know better by now- should have just STFU.  Stop talking about them and focus on talking about us and the socceroos and the WC.  There was a time and place to bite and this was not it.

How we get sucked in every bloody time that we have to defend our game, our culture with this shit shows just how insecure football really is.

agree 100%.....the more we listen to these morons the more they will do it ...they are after computer clicks ...nothing else..and they know they will get them every time they sprout this shit...."slow news day at AFL land so lets bait the soccer dickheads" ...and like thousands of tuna we take the bait every time.  

No they dont. Football will always be subordinate to NRL and AFL, unless they manage to find a way to attract world class talent here. Rather than competing with NRL and AFL, we should reach out to their fans and position soccer as a summer sport alternative, and if possible try to forge alliegences with those codes. Didnt Parramatta Eels tinker with the idea of entering the NSL at one point?

Edit: Eels owned Power, proof soccer and footy dont have to be mutually exclusive

Carlton and Collingwood owned teams as well in the NSL era, both were abysmal failures.

Growing up and living most of my life in Victoria, I can only really speak on AFL.

As far as I can see, it's not only an issue of the AFL being fearful of football, but rather it is part of the whole culture of Aussie Rules that football must be denigrated.

As kids growing up in the 70's and 80's in Victoria, we were taught/indoctrinated by our families (those with anglo celtic backgrounds), the anglophile media and wider cultural interactions that this Victorian sport of Aussie Rules was the 'be all and end all' of sports, and nothing else could come close to it, except maybe cricket over summer. That attitude was all pervasive. Part of going along with that was having to eschew any support for 'foreign sports' including sokkah, and for Victorians, that also included  'Rugby' (as both union and league were referred to). Shit, I didn't even know there were 2 rugby codes til I was about 20.



It seems to me, supporting Aussie Rules and criticising other sports actually had a lot to do with defining a 'cultural identity' of what it meant to be Victorian, and Australian, and I'm assuming the same thing occurred with Aussie Rules in TAS, WA, SA and Rugby League in NSW, Qld. I reckon both Ausse Rules and Rugby League actively encouraged denigration of sokkah as the outsiders sport, what with all those new australians playing it and ethnic clubs. I reckon that a lot of this was heightened from the 1950's-60's as part of the backlash to the post war migration boom which brought so many greeks, italians, croatians etc to melbourne, and I'm extrapolating that to other cities. Tell me if I'm wrong. 

The AFL and NRL were still generally semi professional and suburban without national competitions, up until the 1990's. Before that time, I don't think it was so much 'fear' of other sports from an economic point of view, but as I've said above, a cultural cringe, a part backlash/fear response against post war migration, and the need for each state/major city/area to validate it's own culture and say we are better than elsewhere, and our unique homegrown sport is part of that, therefore that sport must be better than other sports. This last point is particularly the case in the "Who's better, Sydney/Melbourne?" argument that used to always be talked about. 

As such, I genuinely believe that it became part of the psyche of those following those sports that they should talk down sokkah. I reckon this is the case even with people that were exposed to football as kids. I'm sure everyone in their 40's onwards knows someone who as a kid of migrants didn't follow football like their dad, but became an avid AFL/NRL fan, and now criticise the round ball game. 

I think that after the AFL and NRL became professional and national, yes, there was a more heightened commercial imperative to suppress football, and of course, a degree of genuine fear that football will take some revenue and support away from their sports. I think that has only increased since the A league and the socceroos continued qualification for world cups. It has also become incredibly sophisticated and well disguised.

Thanks for your detailed reply, that was a good read.

I'm from New South Wales (Sydney to be precise), and yes growing up as a kid (I'm 49 now), in the 70's and 80's Rugby League ruled supreme, with football (soccer) derided as "wog ball" or a "poofters/sissy's game" (which is ridiculous as the modern game was invented in England, and spread around the world by Englishmen and the Scots). Before I started playing junior football back in 1977, I was considering playing Rugby League, but fortunately my late father stopped me, he knew how dangerous and unhealthy Rugby League is, and for that I am eternally grateful to my father.

What's truly ironic about Sydney, is that among boys, teenagers, men, and some women, football (at the amateur participant level), rules supreme, if you drive through most of Sydney, you will see mostly football/cricket fields, with very few Rugby League/Union fields and even fewer AFL ovals, yet most of these amateur football players follow an NRL team, not an A-League team.

The Bogan mainstream media definitely don't help football's cause, with their "selective reporting" on football violence, eg. a couple of fans have a fight/or light a flare at a football match and it gets reported as a full blown "riot", yet hundreds of drunk yobbos get ejected from a cricket one day game, and it gets reported as just a few drunks, having a little too much to drink. Back in the 1980's when I used to attend one day cricket games at the SCG, there would be dozens of drunk (often violent) yobbos ejected, yet the mainstream media played it down.

Since the reform of football in Australia in the mid 2000's, the mainstream media has been a bit better towards football, but then you have the Rebeca Wilson saga from late 2015.

My view is that the Bogan mainstream media's hatred of football comes from a few factors like racism (because football is popular with wogs), but I am of the view that your typical bogan hates football because it's simply not violent enough (in comparison to NRL and AFL). I hate to say it, but human beings get their jollies watching other people getting hurt eg. look how excited an NRL/AFL crowd gets when a brawl breaks out.

yep can't disagree with any of that ...pretty spot on .

^^^^^^^

Mark thats a great post .... and should be an article as it effects so many things...

Afl are very foreign to us due to circular grounds. I've always thought we should join forces with the NRL. The Wanderers could partner up with the eels and Sydney fc with the roosters. They could have a small logo on there jerseys eg wandered on eels and vice versa. They could also share memberships. It would benieft both codes.

Bozzas back on the nose candy

Well I saw this article today

Next stop for International Rules? USA Test - AFL.com.au

Thats an official site article saying they will play mongrel AFL in Boston or Phillie because there are Irish decedents there. 

Whats the point?
Will be a massive media ordeal for the southern states. Everything from players eating hot dogs to visiting an NFL game and comparing who is tougher I guess. 

Eating hotdogs and NFL matches... Sounds Like their offseason media articles already.

It is just bizarre to me. 

Sure I can understand if they play the hybrid sport in Australia or Ireland, if at all. But why would you take that game international?
Its not even supporting their own sport. 

Can you imagine a fan tourist that goes there? What do they say?
"Yeah nah, well Im not exactly sure of every rule, but its like footy. Yeah nah, we dont play this game nor do the Irish. There are no clubs that play this sport. Yeah now that I think about, its just 40 guys from 2 different sports running around. One team wins but we dont really know if they are playing well because this game is only played 2 times per year on planet Earth"

The Port game in China makes more sense.....

It is. Im a essendon  supporter  (dont shoot me) but our social media is full of nba games with players swapping jersies and the players showing the ballers  the finer details  of footy

Absolutely kidding themselves if they think the NFL are going to sit and let this happen.

Sport has always been a key part of national identity, even if we like to think it isn’t. In a lot of former colonies of the British, in the 19th century, people wanted to consider themselves free of foreign domination, and to forge a national identity for themselves. Sport was part of this. Every country wanted a unique pastime that was different to the stale pastimes of the old world, especially free from British influence.

Canada invented Ice Hockey, Australia invented AFL. The USA invented Baseball, Basketball and NFL. Each country played them and excelled in them because the people of that era wanted their own unique pastime or way of life.

The urge to promote and protect AFL comes from a Nationalistic and Protectionist instinct. AFL is the Australian game, therefore anyone who promotes another winter code is unAustralian. If you move to Australia, especially to the southern states, you are expected to assimilate. You do so by following an AFL team.

If you live in Melbourne and you don’t follow AFL, you are “disloyal to Australia and Victoria”.

In Sydney it’s less about Nationalism and more about class. Rugby League split from Rugby Union over the issue of player payments and professionalism. Rugby League became “the workingman’s game” because players actually got paid.

In Sydney until about 20 years ago, If you followed Rugby Union, Football or AFL, you were being “disloyal to the working class”. And if you were upper class and you followed league, you were seen as “mixing with the unwashed masses”.

Cricket and Football are the only two team sports in Australia that could ever hope to bridge all of these class and national divides and create an inclusive national identity.

Cricket isn’t a threat, because it’s played in summer. But Football is. It’s international, and it’s outward looking. It’s a non-contact sport. It’s multicultural as opposed to Assimilation. It’s followed by all social classes.

It is everything that the egg ball codes can never be, and that’s why they want to destroy it.

Just on cricket though, I'd be VERY surprised if Australia is still a Test-status ICC member in 30+ years' time. It will def lose cultural traction in future(& the process has already begun, IMHO) for the lack of international variety about it, to say nothing of the fact most migrants to this country have been/continue to be from places where it doesn't exist. Me personally, I've never seen the big deal about Australia being among the very best @ something for all intents&purposes played only by 12 nations...

And onto CarlitoG's post, no doubt you're referring to this absolute tragicomedy:

Yep thats the one..i found it cringey . Seems the afl want the whole world to accept  them. It reminds  me of a lil kid wanting  to be liked

It was the same in Brisbane with the founding League clubs. They changed sports and were union clubs all linked to (christian) Brothers or Old Boys etc. 

Cricket will continue to grow, at least T20 cricket will. In Sydney there is huge migration from places like India, Pakista, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, where the game is loved. Plus the women’s game is going gangbusters.

Keep in mind that one of the 12 nations that plays cricket - India - has 1 billion people. Plus a few hundred million more across the rest of the subcontinent. There are Indian diasporas everywhere too.

Test cricket always used to have a streak of politics running through it. When the Ashes is on, its always about “the mother country” vs “the colonials”. Or when india and Pakistan play each other it’s the same. When the West Indies used to play england it was always “the former slaves vs the Slavemasters”.

Test cricket has too many irrelevant series, which has dulled its impact. It needs to become a more boutique sport played in small stadiums, and they need to get the test championship up and running so all matches are relevant.

So the AFL are the Lannisters and football is Daenerys Targaryen with her army of Unsullied and Dothraki?

If we throw the Lowys into a fire will we get dragons?

Dont think its been metioned but aussie rules in melbourne has long had the backing of the wog communities, particulaly as the clubs are traditionally placed in the inner city suburbs. The membership take up of italians and greeks would leave most round ball people horrified.

i still think AFL is predominantly an Anglo sport. just look at the listed players from AFL clubs... sure, they have some second/third generation Italian, Greek and former Yugoslavia players, but little elsewhere. 3 or 4 Africans. 1 or 2 Asians. 2 Muslims (that i know of). 1 Jew (that I know of). 1 North American. No South Americas. Not anywhere near a true representation of a multicultural society we have in Australia. 

Cricket is the same (with the obvious exception of players that are second/third generation sub-continental).

Agree and most of them deride soccer like no tommorow.  

Internalised racism.

We all know if you are a racist in Australia, there is a higher probability that you like AFL/NRL a lot more than football.

Why do so many football people despise AFL so much? I think it's cool that Australia has its own game, which is actually pretty fun to both play and watch if you just manage to suppress this ridiculous eurosnob prejudice that a lot of Aussie football fans tend to wear as a badge of honour. In this respect, how are we any better than the likes of Sheahan and that other anti-soccer guy whose name I don't remember? All I see on this forum is ridicule towards afl and its fans. Why should they accept us when we're just as ignorant about and dismissive of their game as they are of ours? 

Welcome back Pippinu!!

For me its not so much the game itself, its the AFL as an organisation and its constant scramble for relevance.

If you look beneath the surface of the AFL its nothing that its self promoted perception leads you to believe. 

I have no idea what that is. You have me confused with someone. 

I'd suggest you do your homework on the subject, but here's the bottom-line: they began this sh1tfight many decades ago, but we're the only ones who can finish it - once we get our house in order so as to enable it:exclamation:

There's also the small matter of the fact modern AFL is actually a very pale shadow of its former self from 20+ years ago; nonetheless, the fans in the know dare not voice their concerns too loudly/frequently for fear of being ostracised.

here here !
One fine day.......

Maybe because our sports body wouldn't publish/upload something like this:

http://www.afl.com.au/video/2017-11-18/irish-acting-better-suited-to-soccer

I despise AFL. There are ovals here in Sydney that have signs which say no other balls allowed. Just AFL balls. They want to take over every other code. Then they have the nerve to say there is no code war. Right after signing Folau and Hunt. Wankers

Another thing is they control the media. So there virtually no bad stuff. They also have a 3 strike rule for drugs.

Yep. I don't mind the game itself, but I'll be damned if I'll give a single cent to any club or administration that seeks undermine or destroy the game I love. 

FFS

The issue of just how serious that "forearm smash" on O'Shea seems to be up for debate in Australia, with the official AFL website 

Irish acting better suited to soccer

The Ireland skipper fooled the ump, but we're used to seeing this in the other round ball game

Joe Kernan Slams Refereeing, Claims Michael Murphy Was "Tortured" | Balls.ie

I posted an article in the Glory thread about Reddy giving his gloves to a kid who had had a tough year, by chance. Even though the mum thought it was wonderful she writes 

"Dear Perth Glory. Today as a sole parent of 3 boys I took my eldest, the 12 year old, to his very first game (reluctantly as I follow AFL)"
https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/a-league/teams/perth-glory/perth-glory-goalkeeper-liam-reddy-praised-for-giving-gloves-to-young-fan-melbourne-victory-loss/news-story/3ad8135b9fd572f2e43ba23ad3c80219

This is the brainwashing from codewars. She has to let it known to her peers on fb that she didnt really want to go. Fear of becoming an outcast probably. 

It wasn't the soccer community that started the shit fight between the games in Melbourne by throwing glass on pitches, deriding us as un Australian and using political influence to drive us out of town.

+ 99999

wow ? is there evidence of this ?

Great post Mark, I share most of your views and opinions on the AFL.

Also, people outside Vic wouldn't know this, but they own Melbourne, and everything in it. They've done a great job of setting up their own backyard to ward off any potential competitors like Football.

In terms of media, they own the landscape, the papers down here don't write anything controversial before getting approval from AFL HQ. Their so called journalists are anything but, they are the biggest cheerleaders ever seen. But they're allowed to be, because they run the sports agenda down here. The AFL also own 30% of SEN, and people should hear the crap that comes out that radio station, particularly right now in the AFL off season, there's virtually nothing meaningful in the AFL world to talk about, but they still manage it with aplomb.

The AFL has an MOU with both the Media and
Victoria Police, and when issues arise, players aren't arrested, the AFL is contacted and they deal with it. And yet the say that FIFA is corrupt.

They're very good at protecting their own patch, which is effectively what Sheehan and Baum have done in the last couple of weeks. And get ready for it, as soon as the WC comes around in 2018, watch more of these muppets come out of the woodwork. Also, don't be surprised if a 'massive AFL scandal' is found and run to death by the Melbourne media in June or July 2018.

They've done it time and time again, it's all planned, but for someone like me who's had to put up with it for so long, it's all now very predictable.

Are they worried about football becoming the number 1 sport? No, not at all, particularly not in the short term. But if football continues to grow in Vic, which is their backyard, if the A-league continues to grow, if more A-league clubs come from Victoria, then they start losing money, even if only 5-10%, that's million of dollars, and their journalists potentially start losing jobs. It's all one big circle.

This is why they protect their patch like they do, and they talk down or even smash other sports. I'm just sick of it...

One's perspective on AFL is probably influenced by where one lives.

In the southern states our media is saturated all year round with AFL. It is different in NSW and Queensland, and probably the ACT.

I live in QLD and AFL does not register on my radar at all. Haven't watched a GF in years ....

Cricket's a long boring sport where nothing much happens. BBL simply took what everybody, big hits, and then tweaked the rules of the sport to maximise the amount of big hits occurring per game. They also reduced the standard match from five days (seriously you need that long?) to three hours to fit falling attention spans and advertising dollars. 

How will AFLX work in this way?

^^^^^

BB out of interest do you lay all blame for our issues with FFA..... or ....  FFA and others share the blame for our current issues... 

Of course I lay blame for all issues on the FFA

Now before I go on, let me state this clearly. I loved the reform and I embraced the FFA. It was a great thing and an important moment for our sport. We weren't going to get everything at once. But there was a framework in place and training wheels

Since season 6 when interest in our game was on the slide the FFA reacted poorly. We have seen concessions, no expansion (to stabalise current metrics), all stars, cahill rule, a reformed top 6 system to cement it, rigged FFA cup (which doesn't even have an ACL spot even though every other country in the AFC does as per requirements), VAR, the game on every channel in the last 12-18 months instead of a consistent home, bias fixturing...

Every single proactive decision from the FFA since season 6 has been metrics, metrics, metrics. We now have a "crowds working party"

This is 100% the AFL / NRL mentality of trying to build an entertaining product instead of a competitive product. Exactly wht Davo said above about the BBL and AFLX is exactly the direction the A League is heading. It is a stand alone entertainment product designed to feed the rest of the game which cant thrive without an integrated elite national league. Its like selling your house so you have enough money to pay the mortgage on the house you just sold

And who else can we blame when the FFA own and control 100% of the game, make 100% of the decisions and are responsible for 100% of the structure


I know you don't like blame for the sake of blame and like to challenge people who blame the FFA because their bin wasn't collected this week. But my blame and criticism is very much warranted

The game cannot move forward with the current lot in charge because their focus is on metrics and entertainment