Swans vs Giants - general match discussion

[royboy42]

The Lions one is sad, their "merge" was just a shotgun marriage of convenience and from what I gather the connection with their Melbourne fans has been strained.

Roosy was interviewed by Sheehan and apparently the previous genuine relocation had unanimous support from the player group, and they still had a pretty good team at that stage. Then their dick of a President, Leon Wingard I think, went on some hare-brained scheme to save them.

Briefly off topic,but..my brother went to every Fitzroy game in Victoria for 35 years....never went to another AFL match from the day the Lions died. Boss of Brisbane on the Footy Show after the 'merge' was announced, made dreadful, disrespectful comments about Fitzroy..that cost the merger thousands of old Royboys who were prepared to accept Brisbane as partners. Reluctant acceptance of the move turned to active hatred of the Brisbane Bears..He had a lot to answer for.

[The Runner]

You mightn't be dead, but things aren't as much fun. They released the latest census recently and you can see from
that that the ethnic make up of Australia, and especially areas like western Sydney really has changed substantially in the
last twenty or so years. We have all kind of figured this out already, but seeing the numbers in black and white shows
the true scale of the change. I think for any code to grow in such a crowded market as Sydney they will really have to
embrace to use the current buzzword this changing demographic. For the Sydney AFL clubs, this will be more of a need
for GWS than the Swans because of our existing support. It's not just GWS, I'm sure there are areas of Melbourne where
the population has changed a lot too, and that must effect growth prospects for some of the clubs there too.

The demographics paint a significant challenge for all codes. Soccer has a head start due to its familiarity. Their problem is it's a global game - who wants to watch the A League when you can watch the European leagues so easily (the disastrous EPL rights aside). Unless they can secure a World Cup here soon (not unlikely as historically with tv viewing times thru Asia), then where is their next cash injection coming from? Once you're off FTA, you exclude ~70% of the market.

Rugby League is interesting. They're addicted to the SOO drug. The product is made for TV and short mobile viewing, they have a base of loyal fans. They just can't sort out their governance.

Rugby Union is cooked. And they have themselves to blame.

Watch the NBA to continue to grow quickly.

All of this points to the importance of growing the game and a successful GWS is so crucial. Hate them as an opponent but understand their role on the bigger chess board.

[Blood Fever]

Briefly off topic,but..my brother went to every Fitzroy game in Victoria for 35 years....never went to another AFL match from the day the Lions died. Boss of Brisbane on the Footy Show after the 'merge' was announced, made dreadful, disrespectful comments about Fitzroy..that cost the merger thousands of old Royboys who were prepared to accept Brisbane as partners. Reluctant acceptance of the move turned to active hatred of the Brisbane Bears..He had a lot to answer for.

Remember the disrespectful arrogant comments he made Royboy. Kicked all the Roy's supporters while they were down. Ordinary individual who made a terrible situation even worse.

[KTigers]

On this subject of the value of sports TV rights, there was a news report a couple months ago where bankers
were urging Channel 9 to drop their cricket coverage because they were losing between $30M and $40M a year on it.
Channel 10 is basically insolvent so you wouldn't imagine they will be putting their hand up for it.
Free to air TV is clearly struggling everywhere, print newspapers won't last much longer, and the whole media
landscape is much more fragmented because of all the new technologies coming in. And so the way media pays
for sport rights will change substantially, if indeed they pay for it at all down the track. It wasn't so long ago
that new technologies meant people had the choice whether they paid for music, and mostly they decided against it,
and the traditional record industry was wiped out. The music industry and footy will continue but the way it is
monetised is and will be substantially different, and not everyone will be happy about it.

A club or league first mentality: GWS is bad for the game
A code first mentality: GWS is essential to survival and growth.

The exponential growth in sports rights is over. Cricket, rugby, soccer etc are in for a tough time over the next decade financially. What the AFL did to secure the financial stability of the game will set us up as the premier code for a generation.
Once you stop growing, you're dead.

[AnnieH]

GWS were created because we failed, or weren't interested, in developing the west of Sydney.

Artificial or not, they partly are our creation.

What a long bow.
You must have sore arms.
Believe it or not, a LOT of our members live west of King Street, Newtown.

GW$ are not developing the west of Sydney either... they train in the inner west; and they live in cushy Breakfast Point... hardly doing it tough with the battlers.

[Boddo]

Not quite as black and white as you state.

Fitzroy did not drop down to the Ammos as you say. University Reds dis-associated themselves with Melbourne Uni and became the Fitzroy Reds which had no official connection with the Fitzroy VFL club. They then renamed themselves as simply Fitzroy Football Club and took the whole livery of the old Roy Boys and formed an official connection.

I imagine that some old Fitzroy fans follow the Brisbane Lions as their old team, some will see the Ammos as the natural continuation and many would regard the club as completely dead and are just neutrals now.

Fitzroy merged with the reds in 2008

Fitzroy Football Club | The Merger

[Swanny40519]

Wow - I live in the west and have supported Sydney for over 30 years and drive across the Anzac Bridge to the SCG for every home game.

I recall Swans players coming to our local footy club on cold Thursday nights for years to try and boost support for AFL which was really struggling to gain support in the 80' and 90's.

GWS were created by the AFL to stop Sydney becoming too powerful and also to even up the team numbers so there was not a bye each weekend.

[barry]

Briefly off topic,but..my brother went to every Fitzroy game in Victoria for 35 years....never went to another AFL match from the day the Lions died. Boss of Brisbane on the Footy Show after the 'merge' was announced, made dreadful, disrespectful comments about Fitzroy..that cost the merger thousands of old Royboys who were prepared to accept Brisbane as partners. Reluctant acceptance of the move turned to active hatred of the Brisbane Bears..He had a lot to answer for.

Geez, sometimes you've just got to move on.

[0918330512]

Geez, sometimes you've just got to move on.

Move on?! ANZ, McVeigh? Pot. Kettle. Black.

[barry]

Move on?! ANZ, McVeigh? Pot. Kettle. Black.

Have I not accepted ANZ, especially now that GWS can service the west's needs?.

McVeigh: one swallow does not a summer make. I.e. he's had one half decent game this year.

[0918330512]

Have I not accepted ANZ, especially now that GWS can service the west's needs?.

Indeed you did ... after strangling the life out of the grand old girl ... but credit where credit's due

McVeigh: one swallow does not a summer make. I.e. he's had one half decent game this year.

[Bill Posters]

Never mind soccer, rugby or any of those other boring games. I went to my first ice hockey game the other day and LOVED it! It's definitely the next big thing. I'm going to invest in an ice rink.

[Legs Akimbo]

On this subject of the value of sports TV rights, there was a news report a couple months ago where bankers
were urging Channel 9 to drop their cricket coverage because they were losing between $30M and $40M a year on it.
Channel 10 is basically insolvent so you wouldn't imagine they will be putting their hand up for it.
Free to air TV is clearly struggling everywhere, print newspapers won't last much longer, and the whole media
landscape is much more fragmented because of all the new technologies coming in. And so the way media pays
for sport rights will change substantially, if indeed they pay for it at all down the track. It wasn't so long ago
that new technologies meant people had the choice whether they paid for music, and mostly they decided against it,
and the traditional record industry was wiped out. The music industry and footy will continue but the way it is
monetised is and will be substantially different, and not everyone will be happy about it.

Actually, media fragmentation has made sports broadcast rights more valuable. It draws a mass audience and engaged viewers across the demographic spectrum in a way that is increasingly difficult.

[YvonneH]

Am I the only one that hope we play in the white strip as the Giants will certainly play in their mostly orange home strip?
I find it hard to differentiate between red and orange on the tv.

[Meg]

Am I the only one that hope we play in the white strip as the Giants will certainly play in their mostly orange home strip?
I find it hard to differentiate between red and orange on the tv.

I agree.