Folau to Western Sydney

[Big Al]

Has the AFL successfully converted you to the code as your sport of preference?

My Dad was a sports nut who followed ALL codes of footy (Souths,Collingwood,Liverpool) so I took after him to some extent. I am a Wests Tigers and Swans member(Yes 2005 was a decent year ) and love that I get
to indulge both passions through the winter. My love for AFL comes from parental influence and nothing to do with any thing the VFL did. Although my support for the Swans was only entrenched through the Edelsten era. You make some good points and as I said, I hope I'm wrong and that in my lifetime, I get to see 2 powerful AFL sides in Sydney.

[Damien]

How funny, I am Wests Tigers too (Balmain was the team I adopted when I moved up to Sydney in 97). Three people in this thread had a great 2005!

[Big Al]

How funny, I am Wests Tigers too (Balmain was the team I adopted when I moved up to Sydney in 97). Three people in this thread had a great 2005!

I'm from the Wests Magpies side of things. I live 5min from Campbelltown Sports ground. (50 - 6 on Friday was a great night at the footy)

[Damien]

^ Campbelltown has been an OK area for Aussie Rules I think? I remember the Swans used to play a casual pre season match out there and the Campbelltown team was very strong in the old SFL and moved into the Canberra league at one point and there were a number of juniors from that area. I haven't heard anything about the area and AFL for a few years though, is there a presence at all??

All the talk re: GWS (other than the obvious) has been about Pennant Hills etc, the North West.

BTW Great ground for a suburb ground, and love how close it is to Leumeah Station.

[Big Al]

^ Campbelltown has been an OK area for Aussie Rules I think? I remember the Swans used to play a casual pre season match out there and the Campbelltown team was very strong in the old SFL and moved into the Canberra league at one point and there were a number of juniors from that area. I haven't heard anything about the area and AFL for a few years though, is there a presence at all??

All the talk re: GWS (other than the obvious) has been about Pennant Hills etc, the North West.

BTW Great ground for a suburb ground, and love how close it is to Leumeah Station.

It's not as strong as it used to be with Soccer dominating the junior side of things these days.

I love both our traditional home grounds. Leichhardt on a Sunday afternoon with 19,000 people is as good as it gets in any footy code. As you say Campbelltown being a short stumble from the station is a great venue as well.

[Cheer Squad]

Wow.

What's happened today is sheer marketing brilliance for the AFL. The Israel Folau defection is a huge coup for the code in Sydney, not just Team GWS. Now I can see how the AFL just might be able to make the move into western Sydney work.

Folau's move will make people in the region really sit up and take notice of just how serious the AFL is about them. Look at how much money they're thrown at him! You can bet that's been discussed over more than a few dinner tables out west tonight. I wonder what other league players they're working on at the moment?

Imagine an AFL team composed of a few ex-NRL stars. You couldn't pay an advertising agency to come up with a better marketing strategy.

I'll certainly be going to the first game Team GWS plays for premiership points, just to see how Folau handles himself. I'll never forget his performance against NSW in Origin last year when he smashed his way through the Blues like they weren't even there. He is a major talent.

[Glenn]

Good luck to Folau for being offered that kind of money without playing a game, time will tell if it is money well spent or not.

[Adelaide Swan]

I am sure he is a supurb athlete..but have you seen him kick? Unless he is a link up player and will just handball his kicking will be a major factor.

Twice this year i have seen passages of play where he tried a grubber or to kick the ball and he shanked it.

I'd like to see how he can handpass and work out the different tackling techniques as well.

While he may be an athlete, I too think he will struggle.

If he ever does make it to AFL level, then he better stay away from North's Scott Thompson after what he did to Barry Hall in the Bulldogs game a fortnight ago.

It's just a ploy from an arrogant AFL to think they can take over the world.

All I see it doing is hurting us in the long time as league supporters from the west who may get into AFL will go to GWS.

It marginalised our support base in a big way.

We all know that football is nowhere near the No.1 code in Sydney so hopefully we don't have an NBL style situation on our hands.

We know what happened to the Sydney Kings when the NBL brought in another team and marginalised the support base.

[goswannie14]

Oh god, how good was the "If guys really believe in your game, get a side into WA, SA, Tasmania and go for it, don't have a go at the AFL for coming to Sydney and having a real go at it"

They have tried WA and SA and both failed, although one of them was a SuperLeague club.

[KirkysSocks]

Wow.

What's happened today is sheer marketing brilliance for the AFL. The Israel Folau defection is a huge coup for the code in Sydney, not just Team GWS. Now I can see how the AFL just might be able to make the move into western Sydney work.

Folau's move will make people in the region really sit up and take notice of just how serious the AFL is about them. Look at how much money they're thrown at him! You can bet that's been discussed over more than a few dinner tables out west tonight. I wonder what other league players they're working on at the moment?

Imagine an AFL team composed of a few ex-NRL stars. You couldn't pay an advertising agency to come up with a better marketing strategy.

I'll certainly be going to the first game Team GWS plays for premiership points, just to see how Folau handles himself. I'll never forget his performance against NSW in Origin last year when he smashed his way through the Blues like they weren't even there. He is a major talent.

LOL

You really think so? A money grabbing qldser is thrown to NSW people in order to make them salivate at watching rules..you really think that NSW will warm to the way the AFL has so arrogantly marched in and decided that the people of GWS want no make that have to watch AFL. I spoke to a few friends in Sydney last night and not one gave a @@@@ about it. Not one. These are not snobs and they watch sport, soccer league and whatever else is offered but not once have they sat down and watched AFL.

I have an aunty who was married a few years ago, she lives in the core area for GWS and she doesn't want her son to play rules. I can only imagine what the opinion of other young families are.

But yes convince yourself, like the AFL has brainwashed you, in thinking this is the best marketing coup ever..when really it has a 90% of embarrassing the AFL in the long term.

I am pissed off at the way melbourne people seem to think they know the sydney sporting landscape, expect everyone to obsess over afl and don't understand that in other states its irrelevant and how blindly some knuckle draggers think this is like a marketing dream.

[KirkysSocks]

I'd like to see how he can handpass and work out the different tackling techniques as well.

While he may be an athlete, I too think he will struggle.

If he ever does make it to AFL level, then he better stay away from North's Scott Thompson after what he did to Barry Hall in the Bulldogs game a fortnight ago.

It's just a ploy from an arrogant AFL to think they can take over the world.

All I see it doing is hurting us in the long time as league supporters from the west who may get into AFL will go to GWS.

It marginalised our support base in a big way.

We all know that football is nowhere near the No.1 code in Sydney so hopefully we don't have an NBL style situation on our hands.

We know what happened to the Sydney Kings when the NBL brought in another team and marginalised the support base.

What about those kids or teenagers who missed out on a spot or a chance to play AFL and some boofhead who has never ever hand passed has just been offered 6 million bucks.

What i find very surprising is that no one is holding the AFL to court over paying such an inflated salary. That a load of money for someone with not one single bit of experience is just puzzling. And the AFL is trying to convince everyone that the publicity itself will pay for itself, typical reaction from a corporation they know will really struggle..go on the defensive straight away.

Does the AFL really think that RL scribes are going to give israel glowing reviews? Do they really think that papers like DT and CM and SMH will now all of a sudden devote 18 pages on AFL and on the development of israel? Not at all if anything it will give the NRL people a bigger mouth piece to ridicule the code and the player.

And the Kings example is a perfect one..the AFL should have studied the demise of the iings and the NBL towards the end. With the kings winnning back to back the damage was already done and sydney people didn't want a part of it.

[KirkysSocks]

How funny, I am Wests Tigers too (Balmain was the team I adopted when I moved up to Sydney in 97). Three people in this thread had a great 2005!

I'm a parra boy from way back then..i wish we beat the cheats

[Mr Magoo]

Heres a scenario to think about in relation to the Folau signing:
1. They get Folau in and it creates the publicity its created.
2. They pay way over the odds for him. Lets face it all RL players are mercenaries anyway.
3. Rugby League "experts" start panicking that AFL is going to steal all their stars and push for the salary cap to be abolished or altered to pay current stars big money to stay in Rugby League.
4. Due to this outbreak of panic of the perceived evil from the south they allow an open slaary structure in the NRL.
5. Most RL clubs cant afford to compete with the rich few such as Brisbane , Easts , etc and start to lose star players and or fold due to overstretching themselves.
6. Suddenly RL takes on a english premier league feel where your poor club fights out the battle for the wooden spoon or positions 6-8. Fans lose interest.
7. Besides Folau and maybe one other marquee AFL player GWS comes back into the fold of the normal salary cap within a couple of seasons and starts to become a viable alternative to my struggling western sydney club.
8. Folau decides he doesnt like AFL after struggling for two or so years and defects to french rugby or back to a rich NRL club like Brisbane.
9. AFL continues to thrive in a properly structured competition and NRL interest falls as people lose interest when there club can never compete with a few increasingly richer clubs.

[Melbourne_Blood]

Wow.

What's happened today is sheer marketing brilliance for the AFL. The Israel Folau defection is a huge coup for the code in Sydney, not just Team GWS. Now I can see how the AFL just might be able to make the move into western Sydney work.

Folau's move will make people in the region really sit up and take notice of just how serious the AFL is about them. Look at how much money they're thrown at him! You can bet that's been discussed over more than a few dinner tables out west tonight. I wonder what other league players they're working on at the moment?

Imagine an AFL team composed of a few ex-NRL stars. You couldn't pay an advertising agency to come up with a better marketing strategy.

I'll certainly be going to the first game Team GWS plays for premiership points, just to see how Folau handles himself. I'll never forget his performance against NSW in Origin last year when he smashed his way through the Blues like they weren't even there. He is a major talent.

I personally don't think we're going to see large amouts of money chucked at too many more league stars, if any. KH and Folau are exceptions because of the marketing strategy and the generating of interest for the two expansion clubs in RL communities. They are not being paid for their talents, which remain to be seen in this sport. There being paid for their profile in RL, which is a direct by product of their talent in that code. If other RL players convert, they'd be dreaming to think they'll get anywhere near what Folau and Hunt are getting , and if they were to get sums anywhere near these, well that would be the real insult to AFL players.

[Melbourne_Blood]

Also a team with a few ex-NRL stars is likely to be a team on the fast track to failure. It's gonna be challenging enough putting the time and resources into teaching one player from the club who's never played the game how to play , let alone a few players