The Harbour Views AFL

[andyn]

Hi guys,

I'm a journalist by trade, but unfortunately I don't get to write about one of my favourite topics, footy!

As a born and bread NSW boy, I'm very proud to love AFL. With GWS coming on scene, I wanted to start encouraging more NSW/Sydney based footy journalism. That doesn't mean writing articles about the Swans, but also looking at footy in general from a NSW perspective.

Truth is that we are starved of good AFL writing up here, and whilst I don't think my blog/website is anything revolutionary (far from it) - I'm happy to contribute in my own way to what I hope will be an increased interest in the sport we love.

RWO is a great forum and I don't want to clog it up with too many of my own thoughts about the game.

So if you can, please check out my blog

The Harbour Views - Sydcentric AFL

or better yet, follow me on twitter or facebook: harbourviewsafl

Maybe some of you guys can start your own.

Just two articles there at the moment, but hopefully will pen a few a week.

Thanks again for your support.
Cheers
Andy

[dimelb]

... As a born and bread NSW boy ...
So if you can, please check out my blog
The Harbour Views - Sydcentric AFL ...

Andy, you may be born and bread in NSW, but you're obviously no loafer.
I enjoyed reading your blog, especially about why some clubs have a better success rate than others. A factor to consider is coaching. Just think if we'd had Wallace instead of Roos.
Another factor is money: clubs like Collingwood, the Eagles and Essendon have vast amounts of money they pour into football departments, which do not come under the salary cap. We were leaders in this area 6 years ago and got a jump on the others.
Another is recruiting. Once you get past the top 20 or so, the draft starts to become a bit of a lottery, but some clubs have repeatedly made a hash of the top 10.
Success is hard to achieve and, as you point out, sheer dumb luck (including especially lack of injuries) is so often involved.

[Frog]

We all want a rivalry ? and I?ve already heard plenty of Swans supporters trashing the Giants, but the truth is you can?t manufacture a rivalry. Rivalries are not created; they are born out of events. As a Swans supporter and Sydney local, I will support the Giants until the moment I hate them. That might come when they start beating us, or if they steal a couple of our best players, but in the first instance all Sydney based AFL fans must back them in like a little brother.

Purely by having a competition, there is rivalry, that is the pure and unadulterated definition of both. But I think I understand what you mean by "rivalry" in this article - You'd want to see a "rivalry" match not unlike Carlton vs Collingwood, or Collingwood vs Essendon. One that fills every seat in the stadium with passionate supporters for both sides.

What we have seen in the not too distant past is that the purported "rivalries" between West Coast and Fremantle and Port Adelaide and Adelaide have really never advanced past the "Local Derby" stage. I fear that is all a Sydney Swans vs GWS match will be in the foreseeable future - A local derby. If AFL states like South and Western Australia cannot generate theirs into a rivalry, what hope does AFL in NSW have?

I stick to my "rivalry" rounds at home: vs Carlton (because my partner barracks for the Blues) and vs St Kilda (Because I hate them as passionately as I love my Swans). Other than that, I'll just sit back and possibly see the GWS experiment fail .... or work. Either way, I follow the Swans, not NSW or GWS.

[andyn]

Andy, you may be born and bread in NSW, but you're obviously no loafer.
I enjoyed reading your blog, especially about why some clubs have a better success rate than others. A factor to consider is coaching. Just think if we'd had Wallace instead of Roos.
Another factor is money: clubs like Collingwood, the Eagles and Essendon have vast amounts of money they pour into football departments, which do not come under the salary cap. We were leaders in this area 6 years ago and got a jump on the others.
Another is recruiting. Once you get past the top 20 or so, the draft starts to become a bit of a lottery, but some clubs have repeatedly made a hash of the top 10.
Success is hard to achieve and, as you point out, sheer dumb luck (including especially lack of injuries) is so often involved.

ha ha, 'bread' vs 'bred' - that's what starts happening when news organsations start sacking sub-editors! Thanks for your response I agree with everything you said about the life and death of success. Amazing to see that the cycle we're currently on is Melbourne teams are up, interstate teams are down whereas the naughties were dominated by interstate teams. You would think that there might be another swtich at some stage

[Swansongster]

I liked your blog. Keep it up. I am a Sydney boy living in Melbourne for the past 10 years. Swans fan since first ever game in Sydney (as South Melbourne).

I'd like to see a story about the history of Aussie Rules in Sydney.

When did it start? How many clubs (SFL and districts) are there? Which ones are the most successful? Who are the legends? What sort of crowds do they draw? Where do they play? That sort of thing? I had a mate who lived near Gore Hill 20 years ago and we used to wander down occasionally with a six pack and watch North Shore play but I have no idea how may years people have been doing that.

Just a thought.

[andyn]

Purely by having a competition, there is rivalry, that is the pure and unadulterated definition of both. But I think I understand what you mean by "rivalry" in this article - You'd want to see a "rivalry" match not unlike Carlton vs Collingwood, or Collingwood vs Essendon. One that fills every seat in the stadium with passionate supporters for both sides.

What we have seen in the not too distant past is that the purported "rivalries" between West Coast and Fremantle and Port Adelaide and Adelaide have really never advanced past the "Local Derby" stage. I fear that is all a Sydney Swans vs GWS match will be in the foreseeable future - A local derby. If AFL states like South and Western Australia cannot generate theirs into a rivalry, what hope does AFL in NSW have?

I stick to my "rivalry" rounds at home: vs Carlton (because my partner barracks for the Blues) and vs St Kilda (Because I hate them as passionately as I love my Swans). Other than that, I'll just sit back and possibly see the GWS experiment fail .... or work. Either way, I follow the Swans, not NSW or GWS.

very true. The 'local derby' is very different to the rivalry and in many ways it can be subjective. I too hate Carlton because of my mates and St Kilda (strengthened by some of their current players). Then of course there was the great West Coast/Swans rivalry born out of two great teams smashing out great game after graet game. And I can still remember how much we hated the dogs when Tony Liberatore was running round. This is what I mean when I say rivalries are born and not created.

I hope that in the future I can dislike GWS with a passion of Collingwood V Essendon ... the game would be the better for it! But as you say, the teams we really want to role may remain interstate

[andyn]

I liked your blog. Keep it up. I am a Sydney boy living in Melbourne for the past 10 years. Swans fan since first ever game in Sydney (as South Melbourne).

I'd like to see a story about the history of Aussie Rules in Sydney.

When did it start? How many clubs (SFL and districts) are there? Which ones are the most successful? Who are the legends? What sort of crowds do they draw? Where do they play? That sort of thing? I had a mate who lived near Gore Hill 20 years ago and we used to wander down occasionally with a six pack and watch North Shore play but I have no idea how may years people have been doing that.

Just a thought.

Thanks swansongster. I'll see what i can find out. Might need to get out there and find some people who can tell some good stories. Thanks for the encouragment and sotry idea!
Cheers
Andy

[Primmy]

To me the local Derby is us against them. i.e., Us against every other club.

Not so concerned about GWS, if we want to stick it up Melbourne (and who doesn't) then it will really have to be both of us against the rest of them. For some convoluted personal reasoning I doubt we are going to be rankled rivals for quite some years to come, unless Sheads starts something.

[Mrs Shaw]

Terrific Blog Andy, looking forward to the next ones. I'm always complaint about the lack of AFL in our Sydney media, so more the merrier I say

[andyn]

Terrific Blog Andy, looking forward to the next ones. I'm always complaint about the lack of AFL in our Sydney media, so more the merrier I say

thanks Kyles! Hopefully over the next few weeks I can rev up some people in Melbourne. Should be fun, especially given the media down there keep giving us great material to complain about!

[cos789]

What we have seen in the not too distant past is that the purported "rivalries" between West Coast and Fremantle and Port Adelaide and Adelaide have really never advanced past the "Local Derby" stage. I fear that is all a Sydney Swans vs GWS match will be in the foreseeable future .

The derbies you mention are huge .WCE supporters guenuinely dislike Docker supporters and everybody hates the Power.
If the Swans Vs GWS generates derby creates as much interest it will be a surefire winner .

The Swans have developed mini rivalries with WCE due to GFs, Brisbane as co-expansionist ,St Kilda -Fioshini affair and a string of major clubs based on historical distastes .The Melbourne thing never really gelled .probably more worrying is the lack of interest in teams like NM . Melbourne and Fremantle .

[BSA5]

What we have seen in the not too distant past is that the purported "rivalries" between West Coast and Fremantle and Port Adelaide and Adelaide have really never advanced past the "Local Derby" stage. I fear that is all a Sydney Swans vs GWS match will be in the foreseeable future - A local derby. If AFL states like South and Western Australia cannot generate theirs into a rivalry, what hope does AFL in NSW have?

Um, what? The Showdown and the Derby are both MASSIVE! They're bigger than finals for those teams. I've heard/read Docker fans saying they'd rather win the Derby than the Premiership!

[Frog]

The derbies you mention are huge .WCE supporters guenuinely dislike Docker supporters and everybody hates the Power.
If the Swans Vs GWS generates derby creates as much interest it will be a surefire winner .

The Swans have developed mini rivalries with WCE due to GFs, Brisbane as co-expansionist ,St Kilda -Fioshini affair and a string of major clubs based on historical distastes .The Melbourne thing never really gelled .probably more worrying is the lack of interest in teams like NM . Melbourne and Fremantle .

Um, what? The Showdown and the Derby are both MASSIVE! They're bigger than finals for those teams. I've heard/read Docker fans saying they'd rather win the Derby than the Premiership!

Yes, fantastic. They are rivalries. Hmmmm ... maybe not. Personally, I don't give a rats behind about either match and wouldn't waste a second of daylight (or darkness) even watching either of these games. Yet I could be persuaded to actually go to the ground to watch Collingwood and Carlton, or Collingwood and Essendon.

They really are derbies, nothing more, nothing less. I doubt they rate as well on National TV as they do on local TV. A game between the other clubs I mentioned, however ....

A game between GWS and the Swans, IMO, will only ever be a derby.


Derby ¹ (?d??b?, US ?d??rb?)
1. the Derby an annual horse race run at Epsom Downs, Surrey, since 1780: one of the English flat-racing classics
2. any of various other horse races
3. local Derby a football match between two teams from the same area

[Lucky Knickers]

Thanks for posting Andy but you haven't answered the big question. Derby or Derby - how are we going to pronounce it?

[albrotha]

A rivalry between the MIGHTY SYDNEY SWANS and the wee team gws is a great vision. There are already SFL rivalries such as Penno v ECE that date back to the Baulko days. Another dream we should have is to have a Swans V Giants grand final now that would be special and really shut up those interstate teams. Andy well done on your initiative and keep up your thought provoking articles.