Buckley "spreads " the AFL word in the West

[SWANSBEST]

Reality bites. These Collingwood trips to the West are a good idea for promotion of the game but also brings home to the Vics what a difficult task the AFL has in developing the game in the Western suburbs. IMO people like Eddie and co have previously had no concept of the difficulties that the Swans have had in establishing the club and code in Sydney. Salary cap allowances and draft concessions have been attacked without any real analysis of the potential benefits of developing the game in the long term. Maybe, a different attitude could result from these trips if the comments by Buckley re the Swans success are to be taken as a guide


Magpies skipper spreads word
By Damien Barrett
February 6, 2004

IT would be impossible for Nathan Buckley to walk into a school in Victoria and be greeted with a "who are you?"

Yesterday in some of Sydney's primary schools, he was hit with the question dozens of times.

Collingwood players have visited more than 30 schools in the area since arriving in Sydney on Tuesday as part of the series of AFL community camps.

"It's different," he said. "Young kids - not many knew who I was. A lot of them don't even know what Aussie rules is.

"It's amazing to us, but it doesn't surprise me. It is the tradition and what they are used to. The generation teaching them or the generation that is parenting them have been here so long, even before football was in Sydney and that is what you are battling against.

"You get another generation ahead, and with football already being here for 30, 40 years, then there will be a bit more interest in it and knowledge of it." Buckley and nine teammates, as well as Magpies coach Mick Malthouse, addressed more than 200 coaches, umpires and players at an AFLNSW-organised football forum at Telstra Stadium on Wednesday night.

The team relaxed at Manly Beach yesterday afternoon.

Though his identity and choice of football code remained a mystery for most of the schoolkids yesterday, Buckley said he detected an improvement - albeit slight - in AFL recognition levels between this trip and the corresponding camp last year.

"More kids know about AFL this year than they did last year and the only factor I can put that down to is the Swans' success," the skipper said.

"Auskick has made inroads into schools. The better the Swans do the more Sydney people will take notice. It's a bit like the Storm in Melbourne. I know I was paying a lot more attention to them when they won the grand final."

http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,8597727-23211,00.html

[Charlie]

It made me laugh last year about how they got so excited about getting 400 people to a training session. Let's think about this - there are 4m people in Sydney, ignoring the areas like Newcastle and Wollongong. So their 400 works out at one in every 10,000 people. This was a once-off training session, so do you think those people would include a relatively large number of expat Pie fans? Of course! I'd be surprised if, of those 400, 50 were non-Pie fans making the trip for look-see at a once-off session. Well done, Pies. You guys are HUGE!

[robbieando]

Originally posted by Charlie
It made me laugh last year about how they got so excited about getting 400 people to a training session. Let's think about this - there are 4m people in Sydney, ignoring the areas like Newcastle and Wollongong. So their 400 works out at one in every 10,000 people. This was a once-off training session, so do you think those people would include a relatively large number of expat Pie fans? Of course! I'd be surprised if, of those 400, 50 were non-Pie fans making the trip for look-see at a once-off session. Well done, Pies. You guys are HUGE!

Well, the truth is most of the 400 who made their way out to Telstra Stadium were schoolkids, there for an Auskick clinic run by the Magpies before training.

[Charlie]

Originally posted by robbieando
Well, the truth is most of the 400 who made their way out to Telstra Stadium were schoolkids, there for an Auskick clinic run by the Magpies before training.

Ok then... doesn't change the fact that they were spruiking about inconsequential numbers.

[JF_Bay22_SCG]

Originally posted by Charlie
It made me laugh last year about how they got so excited about getting 400 people to a training session. Well done, Pies. You guys are HUGE!

i'm not laughing so hard Charlie. Rather this exercise shows in my eyes how frustratingly little the Swans do (at least publicly) in terms of this sort of thing. Of course Eddie McMedia lures publicity like cowdung lures flies, but I find it highly alarming that it is Collingwood going to visit Western sydney schools and not us.

I have contacts out Blacktown way. They have been saying that it is very frustrating going to watch Collingwood run a meet-the-payers function as Westpoint Shopping Centre when the furthest west most of our snobs in Red White is Cleveland St. But tell the people in the office this and they snort their noses up at you.

I ventured out to Kingsgrove the other day,. Whilst in Newtown you always get the feeling that there is a strong awareness and support for the Swans, out that way all you EVER seem to see are Bulldogs & St George stickers on cars and trucks. And that the NRL is as strong as it ever was visibility-wise. "AFL, what's that?"

JF

[footyhead]

thats why the afl will ultimatley need a team permenantly situated in the west of sydney if it is to ever really develop the code out there.
And it will take 20 years of clinics and development and presence and commitment and detrmination, before footy becomes any significant part of the social fabric in sydneys west.
If a second Sydney team never happens, then Afl will always be inexorably linked to the flight and fall of the performances of the Swans from seasone to seasone, and as such will continue to be a very interesting novelty at best, with peoples interest and commitment being incedental and wildly variable from year to year. Hell the Swans only make the back pages of the Stdney papers if they are blitzing the entire competition.

[floppinab]

I have contacts out Blacktown way. They have been saying that it is very frustrating going to watch Collingwood run a meet-the-payers function as Westpoint Shopping Centre when the furthest west most of our snobs in Red White is Cleveland St.

Probably being a little bit harsh there JF. The Swans do venture out west reasonably regularly (remember it was a potato field out at Campbelltown that James did his knee on), granted not as much as they should compared to the home territories, but to say they completely neglect the region is not true.

Auskick has made inroads into schools.

This bugs me the most, the AFL focus on Auskick numbers, while Under 14 and other higher age comps stagnate and in some cases go backwards. Getting kids into the game is one thing, keeping them in is what needs to be strengthened.