lolol, just wow

My old man is a school teacher and tells me how figures of children playing AFL are doctored through forcing the school to ensure every child signs a registration card before the AFL provides the school with a ball for each child, goal posts, cones, jerseys etc all free of charge. So despite never playing a proper game of AFL the numbers they can claim for children playing AFL across the country are massive

he forgot to say they called us shielas and poofs too. The only sport that has treated football worse than League in modern times is Aussie Rules. League will only use football where it thinks it can gain a stadium upgrade etc... Happy the RBB told the Eels to FO!

There is only one professional VFL competition in the world, and the ruling body interferes at every level to ensure that its preferred teams succeed, it rewards failure and teams routinely throw matches in order to receive new players. It is a farce.

How many of his pets has MrFootball registered as a member of a VFL club?

As a person who lives in western sydney. I have already written a letter that goes with all applications to schools for my son, stating that he is not to be registered, or entered in any database what so ever for Auskick.

Last year GWS sent all UWS students an email offering two free tickets to the home match v North Melbourne.

I thought to myself "hey... it's free. Get the tickets, If I have nothing else to do just go".

I didn't go on the day, because Yagoona Lions playing Birrong FC in the Bankstown Premier League was more of a contest. Crowd figure was probably similar in actual number too.

However, because I got the tickets, I was now a "GWS Member".

For the rest of the season, I received emails with a member number, giving me updates I couldn't give a shit about. I received a "members renewal offer" and "membership discounts".

That's how loose GWS are with their membership figures.

Besides, WSW are a West Sydney club, not a Parramatta club.

You are wrong - MV have offered 5 game memberships since season one.

UWS sponsor GWS.

Do soccer fans understand the concept of sponsorship?

Let me keep it simple - it brings in money, lots of it - the sort of money A-League clubs can only dream about.

I seriously doubt you were given a GWS membership - like many of the posts I've read on here today - a clear theme of BS running through all of them.

Try and keep it real people.

Paranoid much?

Again, I repeat ... NONSENSE.

You are trying to make the claim that an 8 year old league, with only 7 teams having survived the whole of those 8 years, carries more authenticity than a 116 year old league, which contains 4 or 5 clubs which are amongst the oldest football clubs in the world.

But it gets worse.

The 8 year old league allows 60% of the competition to play off in the finals - 60%!!

But it gets worse.

In the first 7 years, two championships were determined by penalty shoot-outs, I'm serious, that's what happened! two championships were determined by means other than actually playing the game!

But it gets worse.

CCM have lost all of their grand finals, but yet appear to be claiming a prize of equal stature.

In other words, in any one season, 20% of the competition can win a major prize of equivalent status - everyone's a winner!!

@Mister Football

The biggest Aussie Rules competition in AUS started wit... EIGHT TEAMS.

It took several years for the competition to expand to 10 teams.

Then another TWENTY YEARS to move from 10 teams to 12 teams.

Then, for the next SIXTY YEARS, Aussie Rules had ONLY 12 TEAMS ... remember this is the BEST & BIGGEST Aussie Rules competition in the world!

A-Leauge has 10 teams in the competition after 8 years ... compared to Aussie Rules, we're tracking very nicely, thank you.

It's not "doctored" but it's certainly manipulative. Especially when the "figures" are used by the AFL to lobby local/state governments for access to facilities and contributions to AFL-centric infrastructure. That is what's at the seat of all this.

The AFL isn't the first to do this though. Dodgy governments have been manipulating figures for centuries :lol:

All valid points. But none of them change the fact that Crusaders post is bang on the money - the AFL is a farce.

It's part of the reason that I let my AFL membership lapse. And even now, after 6 years, they still email and txt every season to see if I could be tempted back.

The AFL has 12 football clubs with an amazing, rich history that is part of the culture of Melbourne. But the AFL (not its clubs) are slowly but surely destroying that with their constant tampering with the rules, the draft, salary cap exemptions and fixture manipulation.

You're right, in many parts of the world, football is corrupt. But the difference is that in football, we actually call it corruption.

The AFL calls their version "equalisation".

And it's fans, clubs and media disgracefully swallow it and tow the line.

Everyone that has read this thread is now a member of GWS. Congratulations.


This past weekend WSW tweeted/FB'd that we had passed the 6000 membership mark.

Yes, the VFL started in 1897 with 8 teams - who broke away from the much older VFA (and the SANFL is older still).

And?

It's a bit of a long bow to equate soccer corruption with the AFL's equalisation policies, especially when the A-League utilise one of those policies (the salary cap), and the A-league allow 60% of the teams to compete in the finals.

Thankyou for proving my point. You've swallowed the AFLs line beatifully. The AFLs "equalisation" policies are a farce. They are just officially sanctioned corruption that they've convinced you people are necessary for the game. A game that was going beautifully and growing through the 90s without the blatant fixture manipulation and draft and salary cap tampering that the AFL believed were necessary in order to make even more obscene amounts of money and invade the northern markets.

I saw it getting worse for years and refused to be a part of it anymore.

You're right, the A-League is also a compromised competition in many regards. But still nowhere near as compromised as the AFL.

The difference is that many of the A-Leagues compromises have been forced on it to survive.

The AFL does what it does out of greed.

Only the AFL could spin corruption into "equalisation" and have its parochial constituents swallow it hook, line and sinker.

The major tenet of the AFL's equalisation policy is that Collingwood is more equal than the rest of the clubs.

I keep laughing at the fact that after years of preparation, a planned budget of $200 million and government handover of infrstructure wortrh millions, GWS get less attendances than WSW who are running on the smell of an oily rag and only a few months old.

lol i cant imagine the giants going well western sydney is just not an afl area, i understand their aggressive stance because they would have even less chance without it but it is annoying

How is the A-League comprised when each team plays the other 3 times and have equal chance to make the finals and the salary cap is equal for all teams?

You can make the AFL finals based on your draw (i.e. Adelaide 2012 playing weaker teams)as not all teams play each other twice and the salary cap is not equal as Sydney get a larger cap amount for "living" costs which they use to attract the best players such as Tippett.

Tanking allegations against Melbourne just show's what a farce the draft is when you have to question if teams were playing to win or lose for draft picks and you even have your own supporters cheering for a loss.

At least if you make the finals in the A-League you have made it on a even draw and have earned the right to win the competition, even by penalties which is part of the game and rules last time I checked.

If you do so from sixth place then you were still good enough to do so. Plenty of AFL clubs have won who have not finished high up the ladder re: Adelaide in the 1990s have won a premiership from a low finish in the table and they were even afforded a second chance after losing one final by 100 points.

GWS already showing themselves to kids in western Sydney. Schools are making adjustment to include AFL teams into their gala day sport competitions. I wouldn't be surprise AFL does do well in 10years time. They are working in a long term strategy.
It doesn't bother me too much as in fact League and football will hold most of the share out west here, but the pie can only grow bigger, everyone is winning. Looking forward to the day where going out to watch a sporting even becomes a cultural thing to Sydney. Kudos to Victoria for beating us to that first.

And the elite ARF competition in Australia had 12 teams from mid-1920s until 1986!

The elite Football competition in AUS has 10 teams after 8 years. I reckon HAL will expand to more than 14 teams after 90 years.

Edited by Joe Davola: 15/1/2013 02:07:06 PM

If 1% of all administrators are corrupt, which sport has the most corruption?

If 1% of all sportmen are cheaters, which sport has the most cheaters?

This is the silliest arguement i've ever seen.

I probably shouldn't make my first post on this thread, but why the hell not. Further to the comment above, Australia is also in a conference with 167 (source wikipedia) other teams, who's top teams play against each other, something that is not open to the AFL, unless you count the modified rules against Ireland. So in reality, HAL is a member of a competition with 167 teams.

That is the beauty of Football over AFL and NRL, the international opportunity, Rugby at least has a fair dinkum international competition. There really is no comparison between Football and the AFL.

It is for rugby union followers in Sydney, there is just not too many of them outside of GPS matches. But if you think that a majority is going to favour a single sport over the other attractions & distractions of Sydney I doubt you'll see that in your lifetime.

I did some numbers quite a while ago and if the AFL sold out every GWS and Swans game played in Sydney the AFL would still "only" have about a third of the football attending market. Quite clearly their goal is not to capture the market but to be a significant player in it. If a city that is heading towards 6m population in 25 years time can't support each code well I'd be surpsrised.

Edited by gyfox: 15/1/2013 02:18:55 PM