In Melbourne, AFL is the only game in town

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By Pippinu, 7 Aug 2008 Pippinu is a Roar Guru

Tagged:: Adelaide, AFL, Collingwood, Collingwood Magpies, Eddie McGuire, football, Geelong, Geelong Cats, Melbourne, Melbourne Victory, Storm

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I have blogged for a few years now and I see myself as a bit of an oddity in terms of the enthusiasm I have for both football and Aussie Rules, something I don’t come across too often in the blogosphere.

One exception I am familiar with is the Melbourne Victory forum where, while you might find the odd World Game aficionado who has a complete dislike of the indigenous game, generally speaking, they enjoy talking about their favourite AFL teams.

And there are even whole threads dedicated to each Victorian club.

Indeed, this phenomenon is only too well known to the Melbourne Victory administration, who are more than keen to cultivate links with followers of all AFL clubs in Melbourne, and this is one element of Melbourne Victory’s success in attracting a very large membership so early in the life of the league.

I have written this article because I am sometimes bewildered by some of the views that emanate from bloggers who live in Sydney, and the sorts of conclusions they reach in terms of where the various codes are going.

As a keen supporter of both football and Aussie Rules, a recent catch-cry amongst football enthusiasts designed to denigrate the other codes, which has also confounded me in equal measure is, “Smell the fear.”

I have mentioned in other forums that it clearly is a sentiment that could only ever make any sense in Sydney (if at all), and that residents of Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Hobart, Launceston, Geelong, Darwin, and even Albury-Wondonga and Wagga Wagga, would be left scratching their heads as to why that sentiment was being conveyed.

As a small example, let us look at this morning’s The Age, a fine publication with a long history of quality journalism.

On the eve of the Olympic games, we quite rightly see references to the games in its masthead.

But what do you think pretty much occupies the first two pages of the paper? And I’m not talking about the sports lift-out. I’m talking about the news section proper.

It’s pretty much all Aussie Rules, most significantly the shocking news that Collingwood player, Alan Didak, lied to his club president.

Didak almost got away with it, except for the small problem that there were some 20,000 witnesses to him sipping a few sherbets. If you’re a Collingwood player and you want to go on a pub crawl through Melbourne, you better wear a pretty good disguise.

All this is to simply underline that in Melbourne (and the other southern capitals), there is really only one game in town. And for anyone to suggest otherwise is to live in a fantasy world.

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The Crowd Says (28) | Page 1 of Comments

jimbo said | August 7th 2008 @ 12:35am | Report comment

Pip,
despite the payrolled press in Melb, the great thing about Melb is that you can see a whole lot of sports there including top racing, NRL and A-League action at world class venues. AFL isn’t the only game in town.

The real wonder of your Melb AFL fantasy world is not that the press ejaculate so much about AFL (with sound commercial reasons), but that despite all the orgasmic groans about O’Marngrook in the press, radio and television the other sports continue to thrive.

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Redb said | August 7th 2008 @ 8:28am | Report comment

Pippinu,

Good article.

It’s interesting isn’t it. Even Jimbo’s comments above display a certain lack of understanding of how footy is embraced in its home town implying it must be a press conspiracy or its cash for comment. This is to somehow rationalise the almost religious attachment Melbourne people have with their footy teams and football.

I love the sporting calendar in Melbourne. Winter is football, Spring it’s football finals and racing, Summer its cricket, tennis, basketball and now soccer, Autumn cricket, start of football. Throw in F1 Grand Prix, Melb Victory games, and a myriad of other one off events including rugby league and union games. However, AFL is number 1 and then daylight.

A packed MCG crowd come September is a enthralling experience the hairs stand up at the back of you neck as the crowd roars and it is roar! We are indeed lucky.

Redb

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jimbo said | August 7th 2008 @ 10:08am | Report comment

Redb,
I certainly understand how football is embraced in its home town.

Substitiute football or A-League or rugby league or rugby union or doncaster handicap or hockeyroos for AFL and we get the same feelings.

AFL is not the only game played in Melbourne, Pip should change the title of the article to “In Melbourne, AFL is the only game reported by the media in town”.

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Pippinu said | August 7th 2008 @ 10:23am | Report comment

Jimbo

I know there are choices in Melbourne – I myself played lots of sport apart from aussie rules growing up in Melbourne (including soccer and lacrosse), and I’ve also watched lots of different sports – but has Redb says, it’s essentially AFL and then daylight.

To think, on the eve of the Olympic Games, the two front pages (as well as the sports lift out) can be dominated by this story of a Collingwood player lying to his President – let’s be honest – we’re talking about something well beyond the norm!!

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Redb said | August 7th 2008 @ 10:26am | Report comment

Jimbo,

What came first the chicken or the egg?

Redb

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Cpaaa said | August 7th 2008 @ 11:04am | Report comment

a good non-biased article pippinu, i rarely visit afl articles but saw your name and had a read. you are the sort of people i refer to as the UN of this cold war football war. what you say is fair melbourne is the capital of afl, but as i understand it melbourne is fanatical of all sports. its just happens to be that afl afl afl is rammed on the news, the papers all the time because they are the inventors the game. part of their culture yes but so is sport as a wholle in australia.

if this idea of “smell the fear” from football fans is disturbing other codes then it only is so because it has some element of truth to the idea. An example of this is when peter fitzimons wrote down his top 10 sporting moments of the week and forgot to mention australia was playing qatar at a packed sfs. oh our first ever asian cup qualifier as well. 3-0. i dont mean to pick at the fitz files but this is simply one of many reasons “smell the fear” has come to be.

for many years the only news football fans had the pleasure of watching was ethnic violence and a midnight game. to be kept in the closet for decades and finaly released, football fans should feel free to express themselves, what dosnt kill you makes you stronger. football fans just wanted their place in the australian landscape, it wasnt given and even though it is now better it still has a long way to convince commercial media groups. which is probably why melbourne and sydney fans are the loudest in their views.

so lastly i’ll say “smell the fear” is not an attack on other codes. it came about being more confused as to why certain media groups and personalities still refuse to open the door, to world football.

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Pippinu said | August 7th 2008 @ 11:29am | Report comment

Cpaaa
thanks for your well considered note – I don’t have any problem with anything you have said, and I agree that the Socceroos have deserved more space in the sports pages for a long time.

Re “smell the fear”, in terms of the Southern capitals, I honestly don’t think they would find it disturbing or confronting, rather they would be quite perplexed – in their context, it simply wouldn’t mean much to the average punter.

As I say, it’s likely to resonate more in Sydney which, as many experts have stated, is probably the most competitive sports market in the World and where the rugby codes have far more to fear from the football surge. AFL only occupies a niche market in Sydney, and that’s unlikely to change one way or the other for a very long time (if ever).

In Melbourne, many AFL fans love the idea of going to watch the Victory at the Dome during their “off season” – and that is something that the Victory has definitely cultivated, and it can be seen in the raw numbers.

In the long run, in all likelihood, we will see one additional A-League team in Melbourne, and we will probably see one less AFL team in Melbourne – but as the Fitzroy experience shows, the drop in overall interest will be minute.

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Edward Bowman said | August 7th 2008 @ 11:45am | Report comment

Pippinu is exactly right, Melbourne is AFL mad. The various media outlets are flooded with articles about the AFL. It dominates the news bullitens on the prime T.V network news, its influence in the Melbourne papers is beyond belief.

Melbourne, the sporting capital of Australia, supports a great mirade of sports, but support the AFL unlike any other sport.

It isnt just the press that have an infactuation with the AFL but the Melbourne Sporting public relish this sport like no other, evidence of this is through the attendance levels throughout home and away season, 2 clubs that dont have huge supporter bases attracted 86,000 people to a friday night fixture.

Melbourne is sports mad. Their is the AFL and then daylight between the other sports that are played in Melbourne

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Slippery Jim said | August 7th 2008 @ 2:13pm | Report comment

Really Pipps? What’s all this about MV leading the way in memberships, support base etc etc ad nauseum. After reading this article I’m not sure whether you were kidding football fans then or are kidding Grookballers now…I think it is clear that your loyalties are always more on their side than that of football fans, as this article shows, so it is hardly unbiased.

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Redb said | August 7th 2008 @ 2:28pm | Report comment

Slippery,

You’ve just perfectly demonstrated exactly what Pippinu was talking about. Congrats.

You have to pick a code in your eyes? Have you considered Zealouts R Us?

Redb

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