Girlfriend plays in a mixed AFL 9's social comp. My join up myself next season for a bit of extra fitness. Not going to get me paying attention to AFL or buying a Swans membership though.

Here in Newcastle is all Knights, Knights, Knights regardless of how crap they are going. Jets get some coverage, usually negative, and AFL is relegated to being lumped in with Basketball, Ice Hockey and Lawn Bowls.

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.

It's amazing seeing how non-existant League is down here in Adelaide. United seem to be lumped in with basketball also - go local team and such. 

But AFL is just everywhere. Good thing I dont read the newspaper, watch the news or listen to much radio so I dont have to listen to it but when I do jeez it's sickening

i am so thankful i live in western sydney

I would even consider moving to Sydney just to escape. 

it's like torture... seagulls fighting over a chip...

lol well at least there is a reason or purpose of a seagull fighting over a chip,, in my entire life i have seen maybe 4 or 5 gws jersey's in sydney, in comparison on a non football day i saw 20 wanderers jersey's and about 6 eels jersey's (eels still suck)

lol well at least there is a reason or purpose of a seagull fighting over a chip,, in my entire life i have seen maybe 4 or 5 gws jersey's in sydney, in comparison on a non football day i saw 20 wanderers jersey's and about 6 eels jersey's (eels still suck)

What a great laugh this thread is.

I've been around, and unfortunately for AFL, there is as much interest in the egg ball game as watching grass grow or paint dry. in fact, the latter 2 pursuits would be much more desirable than AFL is.

In contrast, there is significant interest in Cricket even in non Cricket countries. you see Cricket on the news and in the press often, but nothing about AFL. Zip! nada!

Even the Super Bowl has interest, but AFL.....nope.....nothing at all! 

Sorry to break it to the AFL boffins, but I did love it how they tried to put the Women's AFL in the way of Sokkah in order to stop it in its tracks.

All the FFA need to do, is polarize the A League with the following:
1) more teams - 4 new teams in the A League
2) they need South Melbourne to be one of them, and another 3 teams. 
3) A second tier semi pro (to start off with) league of 10 clubs with promo/relegation.

Then watch the AFL come up with more desperate brain waves to keep us entertained. 

Victoria has Eddie Mcguire.... racist and yet still has a job

Adelaide has David Koch, ... typical AFL trainined knob... Port going gangbusters in china... and pulling the adelaide media along for a free junket too

What many have to understand this is a LAND GRAB.

The only time I've ever seen GWS merchandise being worn by someone was last week at the derby and that was people who had been to the netball next door.
Wanderers jerseys find themselves everywhere even seemingly inappropriate places. Who wears a jersey to the museum or at the other end of the spectrum to places where they are likely to be destroyed like construction sites? 

The only time I've ever seen GWS merchandise being worn by someone was last week at the derby and that was people who had been to the netball next door.
Wanderers jerseys find themselves everywhere even seemingly inappropriate places. Who wears a jersey to the museum or at the other end of the spectrum to places where they are likely to be destroyed like construction sites? 

This is a fair enough point, and at least is made with an understanding that first and foremost, this idea is merely about taking up more and more oxygen, nothing more, and nothing less.

It actually doesn't matter whether it's good, bad or indifferent, or if people like it or hate it, what we know is that it won't be ignored - it will take up oxygen.

We've already had the Women's AFL take up plenty of oxygen for the whole of February, expect them to start their season in January in the future.

Expect the AFL to look for ways to take up oxygen from mid-Oct to mid-Nov.  It doesn't have to be a big comp, it might be a four to six week tournament featuring recently retired players, players trying to get drafted, players returning from injury, etc. etc.

For starters, they can book out their own stadium from mid-Oct to late Nov.

On top of that, they might like to play some games out of AAMI, and maybe NIB and Coopers.

Just achieving that much would be viewed as a huge success - attendances and ratings wouldn't even need to be big to be a success.

That's effectively an additional four to six weeks of oxygen, dovetailing neatly into the draft in late November which already has massive media attention.

Mission accomplished.

What many have to understand this is a LAND GRAB.
Facilities, who owns them, who controls them, who access them is the Number ONE battle ground in this Country.
If we build synthetic pitches and AFL 9's uses them once or twice or times a week WE LOSE.
One of the key reasons for the emphasis on the AFLW is a means to secure their AFL Fields in suburban Melbourne.

Remember when MR VFL told us that Port Adelaide had signed 'The biggest deal in Australian sporting history' with a Chinese sponsor, which then became more and more murkier as to any money at all that was going from China to Port's pockets for this deal....well, interesting to see this amazing deal for the game has actually cost Port 500k - that really is some sponsorship deal!

Let's see how far the rest of their money goes in a Chinese landgrab. 

Remember when MR VFL told us that Port Adelaide had signed 'The biggest deal in Australian sporting history' with a Chinese sponsor, which then became more and more murkier as to any money at all that was going from China to Port's pockets for this deal....well, interesting to see this amazing deal for the game has actually cost Port 500k - that really is some sponsorship deal!

Let's see how far the rest of their money goes in a Chinese landgrab. 

Pretty sure that was announced when the game was

If Mr VFL called it  'The biggest deal in Australian sporting history' then he was being ridiculous.  Both clubs are making money out of the game though

Fortunately not in Sydney, it just was nothing.

The AFL paying them to play there?

The AFL paying them to play there?

yes. Kochie said yesterday Port are paying 500,000 to the Chinese. That's why he is pissed off they are not allowed to wear the strips they want

Are you calling the Gold Coast "the Chinese"? 

Sorry, yeah GC - they are actually paying closer to 700k to the chinese.