­Matthews said: “Nothing will change that. The Suns might win premierships, that’s not the issue. I don’t think there is a demand for two teams in this part of the world,” he said.

It's pretty obvious the AFL just doesn't care about football in QLD.

They did care, until they saw westerm sydney as the key to won the so called war against every code in oz

The Giants are killing it and the stadium is still 3/4 empty.

Shocking.

the problem with the giants is there is a huge anti afl and anti gws attitude in western sydney and they are not even based out of western sydney they are dominating but only got 8000 ish to their last match

the afl put a gws sign up that sign goes "missing", gws actually go to parramatta with players and they are ignored, ignoring match days the entire time both clubs have been around i have seen 2 or 3 people with gws gear and in one non match day i saw 20 people in wanderers gear

hell even free tickets are thrown out, personally i think afl can be fun to watch and i could have supported gws if they actually represented western sydney, i am not anti afl but i sure as hell am anti gws

Edited by swarth: 17/5/2016 03:47:21 PM

Very true. The mrs is a big Geelong fan and her witch of a mother supports Collingwood so I watch a bit of it.

GWS have done a Clive Palmer. DId they even try and incorporate local clubs into the formation of GWS?

So if there's no room in that part of the world, will they AFL actually expand to Darwin? They fucked up Tasmania by putting North and Hawthorn there. Should have had their own team. Missed the boat big time. This is where the FFA needs to act.

the problem with the giants is there is a huge anti afl and anti gws attitude in western sydney and they are not even based out of western sydney they are dominating but only got 8000 ish to their last match

the afl put a gws sign up that sign goes "missing", gws actually go to parramatta with players and they are ignored, ignoring match days the entire time both clubs have been around i have seen 2 or 3 people with gws gear and in one non match day i saw 20 people in wanderers gear

hell even free tickets are thrown out, personally i think afl can be fun to watch and i could have supported gws if they actually represented western sydney, i am not anti afl but i sure as hell am anti gws

Edited by swarth: 17/5/2016 03:47:21 PM

Ultimate example of a failed top-down approach relying on throwing money at an issue to try and fix it.

I think GWS was doomed to failure, the minute this happened:

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/mcguire-misses-the-mark-with-land-of-the-falafel-jibe-20110210-1aotl.html

Depends how you measure things.

If you care about a genuine aussie rules area, who have produced many great players, finally being represented on the big stage, then yes - the AFL has missed the boat.

If you care about "metrics" - TV audience, sponsorships, commercial attractiveness, then no. Tassie is just too small to be of value.

This is the inherent problem with how the AFL do things. Everything, and I mean everything, is sacrificed on the altar of maximising revenue.

I think the final 2 expansions will be a Vic Country team and Tassie.

Malthouse: Gold Coast is a failure
Justin Talent | 18 May 2016, 01:52PM
SHARE
image: http://www.sen.com.au/media/7841/gettyimages-531339030-1.jpg


The AFL’s decision to place a team on the Gold Coast has been a complete failure, says Mick Malthouse.

The three-time premiership coach says that the history of other failed sporting franchises in the region, combined with a lack of interest shown by the Gold Coast public should have made the League look elsewhere in its expansion planning.

“The Gold Coast has never been a really great club land. It’s failed in basketball, it’s failed in rugby and I think it’s failed in football,” Malthouse said on SEN Breakfast.

“As a transitional society, outside of a handful of people it’s basically people on holidays, they have short stays there.

“Cairns would have been more logical and Tassie would have been better.”

Malthouse says that the Gold Coast Suns will be supplemented by the AFL for years to come to be able to survive, and that the club will struggle to keep elite players if the region continues to show a lack of interest.

“The moment you’re on the nose and rugby is high, then the gap just broadens. It must be so hard for the blokes who are trying to win money to balance the books up there because there are going to be handouts from the AFL for some years to come. That’s how I see it,” he said.

“It’s very difficult to control players. Players want to move back into the mainstream football (states). Don’t worry about free agency, their players will put their hand up and say we’ve got to move. It’s going to be damned tough for them.”

The former Collingwood coach also touched on the form of Travis Cloke, labelling him as mentally tough and calling on his former side to play him further up the ground.

“I always found him mentally tough. He was the sort of bloke who could absorb a fair bit. I had no doubts about his mental toughness at all,” said Malthouse.

“Ox, you played as a key position, there were times of famine when you had to get through it and there were times of lush pastures coming into you.

“Maybe he has to play a bit higher where he has to work a bit harder. Playing him higher and having him come to meet the football further up the ground may take away that pressure of him needing to kick all those goals.”

Hawthorn fans must be wondering where the free kicks inside 50 were tonight? Maybe the Swans out-bribed the umpires :lol:

Fuck i hate Hawthorn.

I will happily perform sexual favours for Brendan Bolton. With our draw and constant improvement, we are a sneaky chance at 8th spot.

Victoria was just too good tbh. Fans in the other states only turned up for Vic games, and Vic fans were happy to watch their club instead, despite losing one or two stars on SoO weeks.

Now that each state is represented by two teams (bar Tassie) we will unfortunately never see it return.

I want to know what happened to state of origin in the afl?

They have three states, vic, wa and sa that keep the sport afloat, is it because its harder to have three teams? the populations of perth and adelaide dont add up to the one of melbourne's? :-k

Clubs would just force players to feign injuries so they didn't risk losing stars in an exhibition match. Plus as, you can see it in rugby league, it is making the actual club football irrelevent. Not a fan of state of origin and I'm a new south welshman

the players (99% of them) are vic, sa and wa of origin, so it still works

I have read somewhere before is that is declined after WCE came in then AC.
Before WCE enter the league the WAFL was popular, but when the WCE came in it pretty much became a state team. Same in SA. So the state team was playing against Victorian teams week in week out etc.

You get the idea.