AFL dying in Sydney

[NMWBloods]

I dont think the AFL have responded at all.

The quotes in my post are a selection of responses from the AFL.

[connolly]

There are a number of issues affecting interest at the moment :
1. The FTA coverage particularly from Seven is woeful. The commentary is always biased against Sydney and constantly runs Sydneys game down and the constant add breaks makes games uninteresting as you miss replays etc. It starts to feel like an addfest and you lose the feel and intensity for the game. The networks have a lot to answer for in this regard. If the game is available on foxtel, I watch in preference every time. In addition FTA night games (other than Swans games) are delayed telecast so unless you are an insomniac you dont bother tuning in as you know that it will be full of adds (due to the delayed telecast ) and as a result wont finish until sometime after midnight at best. No point watching the first quarter or half of a game. Hardly the type of coverage to inspire non fanatics in Sydney.

2. The economy is down, people arent spending and audiences at live events are down all around. Its just not affordable to go to a game week in , week out for many people - $6 beers , $20 parking, $5 dollar pies etc etc . Its just too expensive to do this all the time.

3. Sydney is a Rugby League and Rugby Union dominated town. Its not going to change just because the melbourne based executive think they have the best game going round. For example I can get tickets to my companys box for any of the socalled blockbusters (yes it is very nice thankyou). No one is even interested and half the people come along just for an interesting change so they are hardly long term supporters in the making. As Melbourne will never be a rugby league or rugby union town (yes they are different games) , Sydney will never become an AFL town. I personally think the Western Sydney AFL team will be a disaster (like the Adelaide Rams rugby league team was) and the motivation seems to me to be based on boosting the next set of tv rights returns rather than a concerted and considered decision for the game as a whole (unless off course you consider money is always the ultimate end game).

4. There seems to be this romantic notion of how the game used to be and constant rule changes to make it that way . As a long term sydney born afl supporter who has watched the game since a toddler and who used to love Fox footy channel and watched the old games on it, I have rarely actually seen these high marking free flowing games. The past always seems rosier than it was. The old kick to kick style (aerial ping pong as it is sometimes called by league fans) that some commentators and executive seem to long for is what turns many Sydney league fans off the game. I dont think the Swans game style has anything to do with attracting or not attracting fans from other codes to the game. In fact rugby fans love hard at it style games , hard hits and even thuggery and Barry Halls hit was viewed by most of my league mates as hardly worth a suspension. Theres a totally different mindset going on which AFL in my opinion has yet to understand.

Indeed Magoo. Even Blind Freddy can see that RL supporters just love hard contested football with lots of physical clashes on top please and yes we will have a punch up on the side with that. This nonsense that Bloods interest is down in Sin City because the sanitised androgynis version of Vlad and Ando netball isn't played up here, is prattled by people who have simply no contact with the grass roots of RL. Your point about the AFL commentary is spot on. Malcom Blight has to be the worst commentator for the Sydney market with his kickitlong and throwbarryhallintheruck catechism as boring as it is useless. Close behind is that ex-Richmond hack who is the most annoying dictition challenged arse clown on tele.

[CJK]

throwbarryhallintheruck

lol

[barry]

The quotes in my post are a selection of responses from the AFL.

Perhaps I should have read a bit closer, but it seems the responses are confused.

The AFL wants AFL to rate well on FTA TV because they see it as a driver for increased popularity. A very fair assumption. A drop in FTA TV ratings is something they are concerned about.

The cause of that drop can be attributed to similcasts on Pay TV. That is an issue caused by 10 and 7's deal with foxtel.... a silly one on face value, but perhaps 7/10 make more money out of it than advertising along could provide.

It is quite possible that more Sydney-siders are watching AFL On TV (pay and fta combined), but the AFL would probably rather that all were on fta tv as it would make the brand appear stronger, and cement the prime-time broadcasting committment into Sydney going forward.

The jounalist equating drop in FTA TV ratings, with drop in AFL interest in Sydney is the problem with this article.

[NMWBloods]

Perhaps I should have read a bit closer, but it seems the responses are confused.

It's the media and the AFL - hardly surprising!

[barry]

It's the media and the AFL - hardly surprising!

The original article (before Tim Morrisy view) was written by Tim Lane.

Tim Lane: Active supporter of a new Tasmanian team ahead of Western Sydney.

Expansion debates always have a lot of mud thrown, and emotional agenda's pushed. Dont expect much accuracy going forward. Even if you dont like Bigfooty, its "expansion forum" usually gets to the bottom of most articles after a few pages.

[Darren Thomson]

You couldn't be more wrong. The Bloods have a lot of interest from traditional RL supporters i know in the area i live. The viewing numbers in Sydney for all AFL teams is down, the numbers for Bloods has declined less. What the RL supporters don't like about AFL is soft matches. i believe it is the recent rules changes which has done more to turn RL supporters off AFL than anything else. The technical tiggy touchwood rules and confusing free kicks are the turn off. RL supporters do like hard intense contested football.

Now there is a point, as a bloke who grew up at Belmore Oval and now a Swans supporter, this fingernail in the back stuff is rubbish. Why do they even call it a marking contest anymore? It's not a contest, if the bloke doesn't mark it he gets a free, unless his name is Hall, of course. League supporters will go to the AFL to see Brett Kirk in and under and people breaking packs, taking the man on and showing skills. Love ROK's strong hands and contested marking, Hally's as well, Leo flying around, Tihge or Croouchy running through the middle. That creates excitement. Move the ball,boys, move it quick, I for one will never bag a player for taking chances whether it's a bad decision or not, lets just move it quicker