Richard Hinds: Why AFL is the envy of every code
Richard Hinds
The Sunday Telegraph
July 28, 2013 12:00AM

REMEMBER the World Cup bid? That sobering lesson in FIFA economics that revealed $48 million is worth one vote.

Remember how the local socceratti did not train the guns on their own naive and misguided bidders but blamed a rival game? How they claimed this jealous little domestic code had torpedoed their grand vision by refusing to make stadiums available and - the horror - wanting to keep playing while soccer ruled?

Recall last time you were at ANZ Stadium for an NRL or soccer game? How you still can't warm to a ground where the seats are too far from the action because it was configured to accommodate that southern interloper?

Then you ponder the state government money spent to redevelop the nearby Showgrounds, when other codes can barely get enough taxpayer money for a lick of paint? Except the SCG, where that other game is also played.

What did you think when it was revealed footballers from rival codes found to have taken banned substances might be treated differently. Have you wondered why there seems to be one set of rules for one game and a different one for others?

In each case, you don't have to go all CSI Moore Park. The AFL's fingerprints are everywhere. Ruining our World Cup bid. Grabbing Sydney taxpayers' dollars to build stadiums for their fringe-dwelling game. Making back-room deals to ensure their own drug users get parking tickets, while ASADA knocks up a gallows for the NRL. Or so some would have you believe.

Of course, as even the NRL administration - and perhaps the past FFA administration privately admits - the truth is quite different. Rather than cheating the system, the AFL has usually proven far more cunning and professional in going about its business. The AFL has used sophisticated and persistent government lobbying to get what it wants. Name a significant federal, state and even local government sports body, and the AFL will have a paid lobbyist sleeping on a camp bed outside his office door.


http://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/richard-hinds-why-afl-is-the-envy-of-every-code/story-fndv2kok-1226686778388

Not sure what this has to do with Australian football?

This.

-PB

Without reading the article yet..... Is it......

The alleged drug cheats?
The alleged rapists?
The alleged corrupt boss who tips off clubs with privileged info?

Best god darn game in the universe!!

Wow! What a nothing article. V confused.

I think there may be an AFL lobbyist under the bed .Lol
Presumably this article is about the lobbying abilities of AFL over League and Football.But talk about a garbled rant.
Agreed,it is strange that ANZ Stadium can't be reconfigured for League,Union and Football and it is strange how easily a baseball stadium gets revamped to Skoda stadium for AFL.But CSI Moore Park and ASADA references are bizarro.
Ray time for a nap.

Its not cheating the system but it is cheating the people, why should NSW taxpayers pay hundreds of millions of dollars on a sport they don't even like?

Edited by clinton: 28/7/2013 12:11:04 PM

That didn't make any sense whatsoever. I'm confused

YAY! More small man syndrome.

huh? me so confused by the article

UU tea eff.

Nice to see a sports journo who hates ALF as much as I do.

That was a ramble and a half.

Pretty sure ANZ was configured for the Olympics.

It reads like a pro NRL anti AFL rant that somehow had football sucked into it. Or is that the other way around.... Derp much?

if he got paid for this 442 should hire me because I could write a better article in 30 minutes. it is a rant that hardly makes sense. it seems pro AFL until the second last paragraph, then it is anti AFL with a pro AFL last paragraph.

it is hard to even know which aide he is coming from when he says "What did you think when it was revealed footballers from rival codes found to have taken banned substances". is the rival code AFL or NRL and why is football even in this when non of our players are under investigation (I think).

also saying 'rival codes' includes football which is probably normal now but a few years ago (early A-league) we were seen nowhere near being a rival code so he is also recognising the growth of football

lel wot iz this i dont even

It's by an NRL journo and seems to be written from a league fan's perspective.