Folau to Western Sydney

[Mr Magoo]

Lets face it the whole GWS exercise is all about TV rights. And the only person who cares about the amount of money received from tv rights is demetriou and the AFL executive whio are probably remunerated on the basis of what they achieve in this area.

Its not for the good of the game as a whole as the game is already well run , popular in its traditional heartland , getting record crowds ,played with high skill and wealthy as a competition. Its not like we need to do this as otherwise RL will take over the hearts and minds of aussie rules followers.

At the end of the day what does it add to put a team in GWS. Its really no different to the yanks putting an american gridiron team into Aus with unlimited amounts of money and taking the attitude that if they add a few aussie sporting stars in , then if they leave the team here long enough, it will become popular. It just wont happen and the average gridiron fan in the states wouldnt care. Its the same with the GWS team. We are being told we need it, but really there isnt a grass roots following (in fact their is grass roots ignorance and loathing) or calling for it and if GWS folded tomorrow, no one would really care.

If they really wanted new teams to grow the league then Tasmania and Darwin would be better options BUT the only reason they arent is because they wont get much in the way of additional money for tv rights. The AFLs problem is that they got way way over the odds in the last rights deal and they can see that with the current financial markets , there is little chance of getting that money again unless they take measures such as this. BUT so what. What does it matter if the rights deal is less. All it will mean is less money to clubs and possibly players and thats about it. I dont think it will mean that fans will leave the game nor will young guys stop playing.

[KirkysSocks]

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.

you mean:
like giving massive bias to vic clubs
fixturing a draw again to help struggling vic clubs make money from games againt the big sides
reward interstate sides who finish top 4 by having to play at least at the MCG once regardless cause of contractual agreements
allow struggling melb teams to sell their home games interstate..like a bribe in a way for interstate clubs so they don't have to travel every 2nd weekend
tinkering with the rules every year etc etc the list is endless.

The AFL has so many flaws atm and is in danger of drowning in it's own arrogance.

[KirkysSocks]

Lets face it the whole GWS exercise is all about TV rights. And the only person who cares about the amount of money received from tv rights is demetriou and the AFL executive whio are probably remunerated on the basis of what they achieve in this area.

Its not for the good of the game as a whole as the game is already well run , popular in its traditional heartland , getting record crowds ,played with high skill and wealthy as a competition. Its not like we need to do this as otherwise RL will take over the hearts and minds of aussie rules followers.

At the end of the day what does it add to put a team in GWS. Its really no different to the yanks putting an american gridiron team into Aus with unlimited amounts of money and taking the attitude that if they add a few aussie sporting stars in , then if they leave the team here long enough, it will become popular. It just wont happen and the average gridiron fan in the states wouldnt care. Its the same with the GWS team. We are being told we need it, but really there isnt a grass roots following (in fact their is grass roots ignorance and loathing) or calling for it and if GWS folded tomorrow, no one would really care.

If they really wanted new teams to grow the league then Tasmania and Darwin would be better options BUT the only reason they arent is because they wont get much in the way of additional money for tv rights. The AFLs problem is that they got way way over the odds in the last rights deal and they can see that with the current financial markets , there is little chance of getting that money again unless they take measures such as this. BUT so what. What does it matter if the rights deal is less. All it will mean is less money to clubs and possibly players and thats about it. I dont think it will mean that fans will leave the game nor will young guys stop playing.

Thats what i have been saying all along. If GWS does fail and it will, they will just relocate a struggling melbourne team. The infrastructure is already there.

Less money for the rights will be a huge blow to many teams in melbourne. It's like going from doing ok and trotting along, to being filthy rich and arrogant and then having to go back to how things were before but with huge debts and an expensive lifestyle created from those boom times. The AFL would have to kill 4 Melbourne clubs or get them to merge if the next tv rights are less that the current batch, which i think it will with the way FTA tv is struggling atm.

Tassie is just not commercially viable for the AFL..they have done the numbers and the $$$$ support is not enough.

[Adelaide Swan]

The thing worth noting here is GWS has an uphill battle on three fronts.

Not only is it NRL heartland, we are also dealing with rugby union and soccer as well.

Pennant Hills was used as an example, the Hills has been a strong rugby union area for years and is littered with private schools where rugby is religion.

Parramatta for instance has a strong following for both rugby codes as Parramatta is home to the well known rugby school, Kings.

All it is is an exercise of arrogance from Demetriou and his cronies and the way Sheedy has been carrying on has hardly endeared himself to his prospective area.

[KirkysSocks]

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

Money that could be spent on REAL talent and in development of young kids. Sorry to say but israel does not capture the imagination of kids in WS and even more so when the two major scribes are pro RL. Have you seen the way Israel presents himself? Sure he is shy but he is hardly articulate enough to start floggin every product under the sun for the AFL, cause let's be honest he won't be doing it on the field.

6 million big ones..i wonder how the swans would be feeling today?

[KirkysSocks]

The thing worth noting here is GWS has an uphill battle on three fronts.

Not only is it NRL heartland, we are also dealing with rugby union and soccer territory as well.

Pennant Hills was used as an example, the Hills has been a strong rugby union area for years and is littered with private schools where rugby is religion.

Parramatta for instance has a strong following for both rugby codes as Parramatta is home to the well known rugby school, Kings.

All it is is an exercise of arrogance from Demetriou and his cronies and the way Sheedy has been carrying on has hardly endeared himself to his prospective area.

Don't know who they paid for market research but they got ripped off. And sticking a QLD in an area like WS when he is from minto and didnt want to play for NSW! Stupidity at its finest.

But you know whats even funnier? The amount of AFL idiots who have gobbled up the "done for marketing purposes" spin from the AFL. Brainwashed fools..and they think they know this area well. FFS the AFL don't even have to try with their propaganda..brings a tear to the eye of Goebbels.

[Adelaide Swan]

Don't know who they paid for market research but they got ripped off. And sticking a QLD in an area like WS when he is from minto and didnt want to play for NSW! Stupidity at its finest.

But you know whats even funnier? The amount of AFL idiots who have gobbled up the "done for marketing purposes" spin from the AFL. Brainwashed fools..and they think they know this area well. FFS the AFL don't even have to try with their propaganda..brings a tear to the eye of Goebbels.

I agree, getting Kevin Sheedy as coach was ridiculous as well.

I was stunned when he came out and said he had never heard of Parramatta RL star Nathan Hindmarsh.

Every single person in that region would've been shaking their heads at that comment.

What surprises me is some of our supporters claiming it's a good thing to have them and will create rivalries.

For me that's complete bollocks.

For a start, fans that may have wanted to follow Aussie Rules out there would normally come and watch us and now that will be lost.

Our crowds have dropped in recent years and GWS will only shrink it even further.

I've supported the Sydney Kings long enough to realise that having two teams in an area where the game isn't huge is a recipe for disaster.

[Melbourne_Blood]

It's generated a @@@@ load of interest in Victoria, and will do for a long time to come. What it's probably difficult to realise down here though ,is while we're ( and the print and broadcast media) buzzing with talk of how these RL superstars on mega$$ will go playing AFL, like you guys from Sydney say, the majority of folks from your neck of the woods couldn't gives a F@%$ about AFL. So while it appears to us to be a fantastic decision for marketing purposes, we're only talking of the interest generated here. While it certainly can't hurt to have people interested, regardless of where they are from, it's really beside the point whether or not Victorian Footy Fans are interested.
What's the climate like up there with this news?

[KirkysSocks]

I agree, getting Kevin Sheedy as coach was ridiculous as well.

I was stunned when he came out and said he had never heard of Parramatta RL star Nathan Hindmarsh.

Every single person in that region would've been shaking their heads at that comment.

What surprises me is some of our supporters claiming it's a good thing to have them and will create rivalries.

For me that's complete bollocks.

For a start, fans that may have wanted to follow Aussie Rules out there would normally come and watch us and now that will be lost.

Our crowds have dropped in recent years and GWS will only shrink it even further.

I've supported the Sydney Kings long enough to realise that having two teams in an area where the game isn't huge is a recipe for disaster.

yep true.

Swans fans in sidders are desperate for bigger coverage of AFL than they already get. When i lived in sydney i wanted non stop coverage as well and used to find it frustrating the lack of AFL news or culture up there..then i moved to melbourne and got to experience the madness. Embraced it at first but you quickly learn to despise all melbourne teams and really unless you are supporter of a melb based team, living in melbourne is hell, just like it would be living in perth or adelaide. No swans news and lack of respect for the team is paramount.

Now i miss the times in sydney where i could just escape from footy for one day..even if you try to ignore it you are sucked in down here. Everywhere and everyone wants to tell you how good their team is and dump on yours. Your opinion is worth squat cause of the perceived lack of knowledge that swans fans have..i then have to rattle out historical references to prove myself..but i don't anymore.

And IMHO rivalries are formed organically rather than synthetically, which is what GWS is. It's got a "Bad News Bears" smell about it.

[Adelaide Swan]

It's generated a @@@@ load of interest in Victoria, and will do for a long time to come. What it's probably difficult to realise down here though ,is while we're ( and the print and broadcast media) buzzing with talk of how these RL superstars on mega$$ will go playing AFL, like you guys from Sydney say, the majority of folks from your neck of the woods couldn't gives a F@%$ about AFL. So while it appears to us to be a fantastic decision for marketing purposes, we're only talking of the interest generated here. While it certainly can't hurt to have people interested, regardless of where they are from, it's really beside the point whether or not Victorian Footy Fans are interested.
What's the climate like up there with this news?

I know many league fans believe it will backfire on the AFL badly.

It'll turn more people away from AFL

RL fans will not switch, in fact it'll make them hate the game even more and AFL players and juniors will be p'd off about 2 blowins earning more money than any other player before kicking a ball.

This will backfire big time.

[KirkysSocks]

It's generated a @@@@ load of interest in Victoria, and will do for a long time to come. What it's probably difficult to realise down here though ,is while we're ( and the print and broadcast media) buzzing with talk of how these RL superstars on mega$$ will go playing AFL, like you guys from Sydney say, the majority of folks from your neck of the woods couldn't gives a F@%$ about AFL. So while it appears to us to be a fantastic decision for marketing purposes, we're only talking of the interest generated here. While it certainly can't hurt to have people interested, regardless of where they are from, it's really beside the point whether or not Victorian Footy Fans are interested.
What's the climate like up there with this news?

Well the people i spoke too i had to ask rather than them tell me. They couldn't give a hoot and tbh league ppl are used to this sort of thing happening..it seems to be an annual event for NRL. Last year it was SBW.

And you are right it's got melbourne buzzing but pointless really and very amateurish.

[Adelaide Swan]

When all this started, with Hunt, I looked back to 2003 when RU were buying RL's best players and their administrators making claims that there would be only one code of rugby in XX amount of years. They had the intention that it was going to be RL that would disappear and it only got stronger. Over the years, Ratings have slipped, crowds have dwindled and all in the face of a resurgent NRL.

They spent so much money on players not because of their ability but because of their profile. The AFL has fallen into the same trap and will probably suffer the consequences.

[KirkysSocks]

When all this started, with Hunt, I looked back to 2003 when RU were buying RL's best players and their administrators making claims that there would be only one code of rugby in XX amount of years. They had the intention that it was going to be RL that would disappear and it only got stronger. Over the years, Ratings have slipped, crowds have dwindled and all in the face of a resurgent NRL.

They spent so much money on players not because of their ability but because of their profile. The AFL has fallen into the same trap and will probably suffer the consequences.

Exactly!

I remember this period vividly..was around the time of the 2003 WC and the ARU had money to spend. The same logic and spin was used about it drawing new kids first and new supporters to the code. 2010 and the ARU is no longer swimming in money, the code hasn't really grown at all even though they introduced new super XX franchises. Exactly the same thing except those RL players had more chance of crossing over due to both codes being similar in ball handling.

Israel can't even kick.

The AFL won't disapear down here but it has a chance of being dulled out in sydney and that will piss me off b/c at the end of the day the swans will suffer the most in all this! Yeah so much for friggen rivalries.

[laughingnome]

Thats what i have been saying all along. If GWS does fail and it will, they will just relocate a struggling melbourne team. The infrastructure is already there.

Less money for the rights will be a huge blow to many teams in melbourne. It's like going from doing ok and trotting along, to being filthy rich and arrogant and then having to go back to how things were before but with huge debts and an expensive lifestyle created from those boom times. The AFL would have to kill 4 Melbourne clubs or get them to merge if the next tv rights are less that the current batch, which i think it will with the way FTA tv is struggling atm.

What grabs me to this style of thinking (and I'm not saying that it will happen) is Fitzroy in 1986. There was some hints in Melbourne that Fitzroy should movie to Brisbane in 1987 like South moved to Sydney, rather then putting a new team up. Fitzroy declined and in the end were forced up 10 years later in a merger. Now we have (and I'm sorry to say this because he's a really nice guy) James Brayshaw, who won the North Presidency by refusing to move to the Gold Coast and has resettled the club in Melbourne. But financially they are still hard up, and what's to stop history repeating and seeing North forced into a merger with Gold Coast or GWS?

[Adelaide Swan]

Exactly!

I remember this period vividly..was around the time of the 2003 WC and the ARU had money to spend. The same logic and spin was used about it drawing new kids first and new supporters to the code. 2010 and the ARU is no longer swimming in money, the code hasn't really grown at all even though they introduced new super XX franchises. Exactly the same thing except those RL players had more chance of crossing over due to both codes being similar in ball handling.

Israel can't even kick.

Exactly mate.

I know there is already bitterness in the Lions camp about the AFL signing league players.

Our stars deserve big bucks too: Michael Voss | Courier Mail

Basically the school of thought among league fans is basically stuff him, The Broncos should throw Folau a big bon voyage party and wish him all the best.

No point in moaning about his leaving the NRL and instead it should be looked upon as creating an opportunity for another young player to come up and play top grade.

One thing the NRL has never been short of is finding replacement "stars" to highlight the game.