There's probably about 70 indigenous players in the AFL who think you might need your eyes checked...

How does the AFL keep track? Number of bananas thrown on the field each round or do they sew something onto the singlets?

Was just gonna say this. bahahaha fucking ALF a multicultural sport is a joke.

Interesting piece from Tim Lane and touches on the fact that fans don't see the teams as their club. Also interesting to note the lack of quality analysis and writing around this form of the game:


Big Bash League: Here for a good time not a long time?

January 7 2017 - 1:50PM

Illustration: Jim Pavlidis
Wednesday night at Spotless Stadium: Eoin Morgan's last ball six gives Sydney Thunder victory over the Melbourne Stars and brings the house down. New Year's night at the MCG and 70,000 defy indifferent weather for a local shoot-out. Two nights earlier, a sell-out at the Gabba brings the bloodthirsty feel of the colosseum as the Heat put the Hurricanes to the sword. Meanwhile, Chris Lynn and the Bash Brothers continue their national tour.

The Big Bash League is going gangbusters. The Adelaide Oval packs them in for Strikers' games. Perth's new stadium can't open soon enough for Scorchers' fans to be adequately accommodated. And down south, the Bellerive attendance-record keeps going up. One old codger points to this as another indication of how powerful a presence an AFL team in the island state would provide.

Right now, it's hard to see a flaw in the BBL's make-up beyond that in the two biggest cities there are two teams without obvious differentiation from each other. Still, 70,000 fans can't be giving a wrong or misleading answer, can they?

Yet, as with all surveys of public opinion, the correctness of the answer depends on precisely what the question is. If it's whether the Big Bash League – played over six weeks during the middle of summer – has become a big player in Australian sport, the answer, clearly and unambiguously, is "yes". If it's whether the BBL is now a vital component of Australian cricket's shop window and its economy, the affirmative answer is even less equivocal.

If, however, the question is as to whether the form of the game and the format of competition are entrenched in the public psyche to the point of permanency, the jury remains out. The same applies to the question as to whether this form of the game will ultimately be judged as having been good for the sport of cricket.

This is going to be a lengthy deliberation. Somewhere between 10 and 30 years I'd estimate, which brings no discomfort to the game's profiteers. With a bidding match looming for the next round of TV rights, the air is rich with the smell of money.

Remember, though, it took around 20 years for the concept of an annual, triangular One-Day International series to show clear signs of faltering. But falter it eventually did, and it happened before the even-more abbreviated game of Twenty20 gave it a final shove. Games that had once aroused national fervour somehow became meaningless.

Clearly, the BBL's fundamental elements are different and this makes the future of the format intriguing to ponder. The city-based franchise system provides a great strength as it offers an instant attachment of team to fan. Competitions like the BBL and soccer's A-League have been able to piggy-back off the development of the AFL without having to endure the growing pains involved in that competition's early development.

I have to say, though, I still find it difficult to see the day when each of Melbourne's Stars and Renegades achieve a level of discrete identification that causes fans to truly see them as their club. What – other than Eddie McGuire or James Brayshaw/Jason Dunstall – makes you want to barrack for (or against!) one in particular? Collingwood versus Essendon it's hard to see them becoming.

Not unrelated is the matter of which Australian players play for which franchise. When, as a rusted-on Hurricanes fan, I watched James Faulkner and Ben Hilfenhaus playing against the Tasmanian team, it felt wrong and it felt fake. Strikers fans no doubt feel the same when Shaun Tait grabs a wicket or two for the Hurricanes at the Adelaide Oval. I know we're inured to the draft and the trading of AFL players, but at least Chris Judd lived in Perth when he played for the Eagles. The sense of local representation in the BBL is artificial.

Then there are the question marks relating to the nature of T20. Will this modification of an established sport stand the test of time as a game in its own right?

Specifically, I'd pose the question in relation to the contest between bat and ball. T20 bowlers are often little more than lambs to the slaughter. To watch the Bash Brothers tear into the Hurricanes at the Gabba a week ago was exciting, but in the same way as seeing an old boxer torn apart by a hungry contender is exciting. There's something compelling about it but the enduring potential of that kind of mismatch is questionable.

Another reasonable query about T20 is the diminished currency of wickets. The most dramatic moments in the traditional form of cricket come when a wicket falls. The real excitement of the short-form lies in the big hitting, whether classical or crude. In keeping with the modern tendency to want to put a number on everything, the best shots are now determined by distance travelled. Will the excitement of this endure or is it a viewing pleasure that will fade with time?

Regardless of its lack of "purity", though, the short form is booming and in most countries in which cricket is played, the long form is losing crowds. There can't but be a connection. The idea that T20's popularity inevitably nourishes the traditional game is dubious. Administrators who genuinely care for the traditional game must surely find this an uncomfortable reality.

All the while, from cheap seats and armchairs, the jury will consider its verdict on the BBL while watching it over years to come. Their ultimate answer will provide a clearer idea about the factors which forge the bond that cause some teams, and the competitions in which they play, to go on being endlessly loved.

Competitions like the BBL and soccer's A-League have been able to piggy-back off the development of the AFL without having to endure the growing pains involved in that competition's early development.

What? 
This reads like the journo lives in an AFL bubble.

^ of course, its Tim Lane from Melbourne.

Tbf the hal lives in an afl bubble.

Some of what tim lane says definately applied to the early seasons, I said yesterday I felt uncomfortable going to the first derby game and seeing the Victorian team split in 2 and then later on Victorian players joining other teams..Brad hodge playing for Adelaide was a weird one. This is now irrelevant though, years have passed and people don't care anymore. Just as people don't care that victory or city hardly have any Victorians and that James troisi did a number on his own city last night, those days in all sports are finished. Plastic as they may be these franchises are gaining traction, the renegades fb page last night went into meltdown over the teams garbage bowling attack which let the stars score 200 runs, fans questioning tea, selections etc, whilst in the other camp the green mob were gloating, I don't follow a team in this comp but this idea that nobody cares who wins is ridiculous, if nobody cared they wouldn't turn up or watch in record numbers on tv, it's that simple.

With the amount of money going into the IPL, T20 won't be going anywhere internationally. The Big Bash and T20 internationals a broadcasters dream, providing primetime sport over summer that allows for a ridiculously high percentage of ads per match - and so they will keep pushing it in Australia.

And if anything - it is helping bring back players to the sport internationally. Places like the West Indies are rubbish these days because their national team has no money and so for the past 20 years everyone ended up playing the American sports instead (basketball mainly). But now they can make big dollars by playing cricket and make an international name by playing club T20 and thus the numbers are flocking back.

I hate T20 but it won't be going anywhere and if anything, is increasing the reach of cricket internationally.

Ahh, that'd explain it. Being from Melbourne he's probably not paying attention to sports like rugby union, which is why his article is missing the big reason for T20/the BBL's existence.

T20 is the just the ICC copying the IRB and 7's. The whole thing exists so a bunch of old boys can talk about winning gold at the Olympics and cricket administrators securing funding in countries that only fund Olympic sports. It doesn't matter to them if the BBL fails in Australia after 30 years because by then there will be richer T20 leagues in bigger countries to take its place.

a number of people have countered this ridiculous comment but lets take a look at the "western" sydney team in the afl the most multicultural(at least one of them) area's in Australia



now lets take a look at their 12 fans

Thunder boss is right! Till there is fta and more options in teams, it will stay this way. Same teams play each other all the time. There can be six teams in BBL yet not cannot be only 10 teams in sokkah, it's a different game that needs more teams, its just how it is, along with a show that shows the highlights and chat-on fta.

Yep, your one isolated photo says more than all the other evidence combined.Using the new bullshit franchise in AFL hating Western Sydney as the only example

Say what you want about AFL, but in Melbourne, at least, AFL is followed by everyone, of every nationality. There is NOTHING Anglo-centric about it whatsoever. 

In the Aboriginal communities, it's pretty much the only game that counts. It has been embraced by the Greek and Italian, and pretty much every other ethnic group in Victoria.

The only bullshit here is your photo being put forward as some kind of evidence of something that is patently untrue...

That photo is what's called a primary source.
What you've posted are anecdotes.

Yes, well done, a photo IS a primary source! Which of course are highly prone to misuse based on which agenda they are attempting to serve.

However, you need to do more homework on what an anecdote is, as opposed to using validly collected statistics. You don't need to believe me, go look at the data...

If you're claiming those personal opinions are 'validly collected statistics' I think you're going to have a rough time. Not necessarily in this thread but throughout your life in general.

edit:
VVVV And there we go...

Thanks for the life advice, champ. But I don't think I need it

You stick to your delusion that AFL is an Anglo-centric pursuit despite all the evidence. As I asked of you, go look at the statistics. I am familiar with them. Every statement I have made is factually based on data. You have refused to look at the stats, instead choosing to come back with some trite smug life advice, the last refuge of the internet nuff nuff. That's the end of the story

AFL is multicultural and in previous years has been multi-species.

darwin's theory of evolution is proof there are sub species...*

* Most likely perish, come the time when adaptation is demanded**

** Needs a great purge to fast forward the process

lol pretty much look at all the major voices in AFL, apart from one woman who they love having fantasies about drowning her they are all oldish white males

No I don't think Sticks is sub human, more like an alien entity.

if they are sure of the BBL franchise format why hasn't it been branched out to the domestic one day and test comps?

It's equally true that nobody in Western Sydney gives any shit whatsoever about AFL, and the few who do are mostly white WASPy people from Castle Hill (who already follow the Swans). Rugby League and Football are still the kings in that part of Sydney.

The Big Bash was a direct attempt to attract new audiences to cricket. Six years ago the average cricket fan in Australia was an older male, mostly white (except for subcontinent fans). If you look at Big Bash crowds they are absolutely full of women, boys and girls under 12, families, and casual sports fans. Sydney Thunder crowds don't look too different from your average Rugby league crowd.

It has absolutely grown the market for cricket.

Are you sure? People here hardly even think about the AFL...

The saddest part of that article is the BBL was not even an idea when the HAL commenced

In the space of 5 years it has caught and overtaken us by so much they cannot even see us in the rear view mirror anymore

How the FFA  has allowed a comp that was set up as a fun slog to overtake our game and at the rapid speed it has is an absolute joke.

Expansion is far too slow by the FFA .......and football remains the only footy code in summer

This is a genuine insult to football and an example of football standing still in the last 5 years whilst BBL has cashed in on an inadequate administration at the FFA 

I'm not even a cricket person and am enjoying it 

david attenborough can be the judge of that

Imagine if the indians and chinese watched afl


1 they wouldnt have them 

2 the white australians would dessert if the indians and chinese encroach in their public space (just like how public spaces and transport work im australia) lol

I think what this disastrous thread shows is that football needs to become more anglosaxon to truely succeed. I want us to become the best in the world but at the moment theres too much ethnicity holding it back.

Id like to reiterate my support for an all Anglo Saxon Socceroos:

Ryan
Risdon sainsbury wilkinson Goodwin
Milligan
Mooy Mckay
Kruse taggart burns

All this, nail on head.