I refer to Roy Masters’ piece in the SMH on the 28th September. He mentions that another NRL player has signed to the AFL. The player is apparently a Sydney based player with an AFL background.
He was to attend the AFL grand final, but was playing that evening (either a Storm or Broncos player).
This appears to be another blow for the NRL, but if you think about it, the ARU have signalled an end to recruiting NRL players and the AFL have simply taken their place.
Plus, of the players off-contract recently (Hayne, Benji, Lockyer, Inglis), only Hunt has defected.
Hopefully a better TV deal will increase the salary cap to about $6m. That averages $240k for your top 25 players, which is roughly the same as what the AFL are paying.
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October 2nd 2009 @ 10:48am
AndyRoo said | October 2nd 2009 @ 10:48am | Report comment
I don’t really understand why they hate league?
I know the Daily telegraph has a go at AFL on occassions but they have a go at everything. League, Futball and AFL fans all think they cop an unfair pasting from that paper.
But by and large I think we are accepting of AFL in NSW/QLD. I bet we watch a lot more AFL (as our 3rd or 4th fav Football code) than Vics watch Rugby League.
That said give the Storm 15 years and if they have a team of mainly Vics (sorry Michael C but some of them will have Islander backgrounds) maybe it will be different.
October 2nd 2009 @ 11:20am
Pippinu said | October 2nd 2009 @ 11:20am | Report comment
I should add that growing up in Victoria, it’s true that the focus was primarily aussie rules in Winter – but right up through secondary school and university – played stacks of different sport – thinking back – a bewildering selection: lacrosse, European Handball, basketball, volleyball, baseball, cricket, tennis, squash, along with the more popular aussie rules and soccer.
In fact for a few years I was the shuffleboard champion of West Sunshine.
October 2nd 2009 @ 11:22am
Dogs Of War said | October 2nd 2009 @ 11:22am | Report comment
Really, League needs to get touch/oztag into schools, and promote as it non-contact Rugby League, it’s one of the areas that I believe that League doesn’t do enough to promote that the game doesn’t have to be a contact sport to be enjoyable. Not to mention that by playing that game, you may just unearth the next Benji Marshall who honed his skills playing these games.
October 2nd 2009 @ 11:29am
Redb said | October 2nd 2009 @ 11:29am | Report comment
I played touch (tag) football in Primary school.
October 2nd 2009 @ 2:24pm
The Link said | October 2nd 2009 @ 2:24pm | Report comment
Benji still plays rep touch footy for Wests
October 2nd 2009 @ 11:44am
Pippinu said | October 2nd 2009 @ 11:44am | Report comment
Actually, I’ve told this story before, but it’s worth telling again.
I remember when a new kid to our primary school had just moved down from Queensland.
He brought a rugby ball to school one day which was quite a novelty, so we spent the whole lunchtime playing rugby – which consisted of us throwing the ball to each other quarterback style (that’s rugby isn’t it??)
October 2nd 2009 @ 11:54am
oikee said | October 2nd 2009 @ 11:54am | Report comment
When you really hate something so much, its either good, or it gets under your skin because you know its good, this is why i dont hate AFL.
You might think that all mexicans hate league now, wait until they see the storm playing to 20 k crowds week in week out next year. Their is people in Melbourne who love league, weather that be Mexicans or others, (kiwis nswelshmen qldanders living their) , rugby league only needs a 10 thousand crowd to make it look good. They have at least 13 now, the new stadium will change everything down their, sorry to upset the victorians,,, it should attrack a full house 1st game, then the numbers will die off to a average, around 15 to 20 thousand.
Which in turn, puts them right up with the best supported clubs. 
See how simple it is.
They have already sequired the rights to a trans tasman test, a origin game and a 4 nations game. And the bloody thing has not even been finished yet. No, the Storm is going to be a powerhouse club, weather the vics like it or not.
October 2nd 2009 @ 4:34pm
Mick from Giralang said | October 2nd 2009 @ 4:34pm | Report comment
Oikee: Melbourne people hate league so much nearly 600,000 of them tuned in to watch Storm in last year’s grand final…
October 2nd 2009 @ 2:59pm
Pippinu said | October 2nd 2009 @ 2:59pm | Report comment
While I remember, the AFL mark of the year 2009 (along with the contenders):
October 2nd 2009 @ 3:03pm
Pippinu said | October 2nd 2009 @ 3:03pm | Report comment
..and the goals of the year:
October 3rd 2009 @ 3:49am
Rocky Mountain Man said | October 3rd 2009 @ 3:49am | Report comment
Does anyone else think it’s ludicrous that Roy Masters is purporting to know that a Sydney-based rugby league player has been signed to play Australian football with the new Western Sydney AFL club and the news story hasn’t been broken in the press? The AFL did a terrific job of keeping the Karmichael Hunt signing confidential, and I reckon any signing of such delicacy in Sydney would similarly be kept under wraps. Masters is simply throwing out claims that a signing has occurred, as it likely will if Team GWS goes down the same route as GC17. But to claim that he knows who it is and is keeping it to himself is laughable.
I think the AFL is doing a great job of developing Team GWS and GC17. The new Australian football training facility at Blacktown looks impressive, and they are going through a club development process that is different from any other that I’ve seen nationwide in allowing the clubs to recruit and field teams in junior and second-tier competitions before entering the AFL. It gives off a more organic feeling to them – as opposed to just placing a franchise in a competition without any lead-in period and hoping that they are a success. And the Australian football development programs that are running in NSW and Queensland have been steadily increasing the pool of locals who have participated or been exposed to the sport over the past 10 years or more.
October 3rd 2009 @ 11:57am
Mick from Giralang said | October 3rd 2009 @ 11:57am | Report comment
And despite all this commendable work by the AFL interest in the game in Sydney in terms of crowds and tv ratings has gone into decline.
October 5th 2009 @ 12:58pm
Redb said | October 5th 2009 @ 12:58pm | Report comment
The Swans TV ratings have dropped in line with their on field success.
No-one seriously beleives any different . It is a common sporting phenomen and happens in all sports especially in expansion teams – its called the bandwagon factor.
AFL WS will have the opportunity to build their own bandwagon.
October 5th 2009 @ 1:00pm
Redb said | October 5th 2009 @ 1:00pm | Report comment
Excellent news re grass roots in Sydney. This needs to be happen it is vital to develop a niche for AFL in Western Sydney.
October 5th 2009 @ 2:42pm
Michael C said | October 5th 2009 @ 2:42pm | Report comment
Agreed – I love the ‘organic’ nature of it, which is why I was quite happy that the AFL didn’t get their way of having a team relocate to the Gold Coast – - I reckon we’re far better served going through these ‘organic’ processes. Apart from anything else – the examples of the improved performances in U16 and U18 nationals by NSW and QLD rep team is highly encouraging and only validates the process so far.
October 3rd 2009 @ 1:26pm
bever fever said | October 3rd 2009 @ 1:26pm | Report comment
Rocky MM, good post, Roy Masters does not write many articles without in some way mentioning AFL as the arch enemy of rugby league. It really is quite juvenile.
Why is no-one demanding that he put up or shut up about this supposed rugby league player signed by the AFL, he is just stirring the pot and the bulk of his readers lap it up, next week he is writing a article about how the AFL are going to eat all your kids.
As i have said before the AFL does not need one RL fan to jump across and support the AFL, the population of Sydney(west) is large enough to support teams from across all the football codes.
M from G, the free to air tv ratings for the swannies have gone down but i believe that most of their games are on fox, if i had a choice and i had fox thats where i would be watching them.
Dont know whether their crowds are down, would imagine maybe a little, do you have the numbers.
Junior numbers look good, this link shows how strong or weak they are in different places around Sydney.
http://www.sportingpulse.com/assoc_page.cgi?c=1-3445-0-0-0&sID=44477
October 3rd 2009 @ 1:47pm
Mick from Giralang said | October 3rd 2009 @ 1:47pm | Report comment
BF: Gone from 35,632 (average home game) in 2007 to 30,506 this year. Still very good compared to most rugby league teams but underlines Roos’ concerns about the introduction of a second team into Sydney.
October 3rd 2009 @ 1:49pm
JF said | October 3rd 2009 @ 1:49pm | Report comment
Patrick Smith and Caroline Wilson – equally juvenile anti RL commentators.
October 5th 2009 @ 12:07pm
Michael C said | October 5th 2009 @ 12:07pm | Report comment
Yes, Patrick Smith and Caroline WIlson make a lot of silly comments – - – and I’ve yet to see Australian Footy folk on theRoar do anything but bag out on them too.
Strangely, the same can’t be said for RL advocates who seem unable to question Roy Masters.
btw – Mick from G:
the 2nd team in Sydney WILL have short term impacts, both good and bad. Without doubt.
The GOOD is to have a game a week – potentially lock in a time slot that all Sydneysiders know they’ll be able to go and watch a HOME AFL match.
There’ll be twice the number of locally based AFL players to get out and about in clinics and schools and club visits,
and there’ll be twice the number of Syd based games for local Auskick kids to play half time grid games etc.
WS18 will encourage local talent like never before (for several reasons we need not go into here).
They are all GOOD things.
In 50 years time, I reckon the judgement will be made taking into account the benefits of the above.
October 5th 2009 @ 12:39pm
AndyRoo said | October 5th 2009 @ 12:39pm | Report comment
“WS18 will encourage local talent like never before (for several reasons we need not go into here).”
This is actually the key though. You should talk more becasue if this team isn’t full of mainly NSW players they shouldn’t bother. Just move the Swans to homebush.
If however this is going to be NSW’s first real AFL team then it should be good.
October 5th 2009 @ 1:57pm
Michael C said | October 5th 2009 @ 1:57pm | Report comment
This discussion includes various factors – some complex, some more overdue than anything,
but, include that the AFL had ‘ignored’ large areas of NSW (Great Sydney) for quite some time, and now has invested in grassroots, in infrastructure, in developing elite pathways and greater talent identification, getting into schools and developing indigenous academies (Campbelltown & Blacktown) etc etc……long overdue much of that, and the WS18 will hopefully help to consolidate the works done, and help sustain growth into the future………i.e. if the AFL doesn’t introduce WS18, then, much of the investment would seem pretty pointless. 2 teams in all of NSW shouldn’t really be that big an ask (after all, the central hub of the leagues economics is based OUTSIDE of Sydney, unlike the NRL – it’s not as if the AFL is trying to take on the NRL one for one within Sydney).
The AFL has been encouraging more NSW talent via the successful NSW scholarship program…..this has perhaps served it’s purpose for clubs OUTSIDE of NSW for now. The WS18 needs to be able to target these sorts of kids.
Just how many NSW kids need to be in the squad??? How many need to be Sydney locals?? We know we have about 80 odd players native of QLD and NSW in the AFL and yet many non AFL folk deem that as not worthy of being classified a ‘national’ league!?!?!? (as compared to how many non NSW/QLD folk in the NRL – - not talking about Kiwis and PI’s).
WS18 will need to access the best available – - at least for the up front run on senior side. The development/project players and rookie list may well be chock full of local NSW lads. Again, we see Storm by comparison has zero senior side representation by Vics, and only 1 of the Toyota Cup squad lists a Vic team as his ‘junior side’. This after 12 seasons now….and 3 flags…..and limited Victorian ‘acceptance’,…….compared to the Sydney Swans who have had a number of NSW captains…..if ‘only’ from Albury (twice) and Wagga….but, still proud NSW lads. With only 1 flag in 28 seasons, but, seemingly better ‘acceptance’ into the Sydney market….but, still a struggle………
…..that makes you wonder what’s more important…….on field success or being able to ‘relate’ to and engage with a market. A bit of both no doubt.
So, perhaps, the key for WS18 will be NSW captain….a Lenny Hayes or Mark McVeigh type?? or lure Justin Kosichtzke or Hamish McIntosh? I reckon the Swans will be eyeing off captaincy roles for either of K.Jack, C.Bird and or J.McVeigh in the future – to continue the ‘home grown’ captaincy.
And, at the end of the day – the other prime benefit must be having a local ‘rival’, to allow 2 ‘local derby’ matches each year, and bragging rights even if both miss the finals, and, obviously, double the chance of a Sydney/NSW side at least into the last 4 of the season.
btw – how good for NRL everytime Storm makes the GF and they play and Melbourne is in an inter-season (b/w footy and cricket) lull with nothing else going on….the promotional boon that is for the NRL…..whereas the AFL GF is up against NRL prelim final weekend, with 4 teams still engaged. If the NRL GF were up against the AFL prelim finals….you know very well that it’s ratings would quite likely be cut in half.
October 6th 2009 @ 9:57am
AndyRoo said | October 6th 2009 @ 9:57am | Report comment
Michael
Taking the moral high ground with the Swans 28 years 3 token captains (Paul Kelly is no token obv) from country NSW while the rest of the squad is imports compared to the Storm (only been in the comp 11 years) is along bow. The swans are based in Sydney and I think have had one sydney player in 28 years.
The Storm and the Swans are pretty much the same, with only their time in the marketplace the difference.
West Sydney is the AFL’s first chance at a real NSW team and I would suggest the ratio of home grown players should be similar to what the Eagles and Crows entered the competition with.
If it’s like you are suggesting an imported side with a NSW token captain then don’t bother. Just move the swans to homebush we don’t need two Victorian teams in Sydney.
A team full of imports that go on to win the flag wouldn’t actually pull that much more new afl fans to the game than if they don’t win the flag, the swans have done that. The team is going to lose money anyway so play the NSW kids even if they finish in the bottom 4, that way the AFL actually has a chance of being successful in the long run. If NSW finally have a club that doesn’t trade away it’s NSW kids for short term success it would be fantastic. Hird and Carey toiled away for Vic clubs and instead we got Brereton and Caper…… that doesn’t breed a footy culture.
It would mean their would be a team in the AFL that have poor crowds, poor performances and poor tv ratings for a while. Don’t think the AFL ego could cop that but as soon as that team started to turn it around that would be the first AFL game I would attend.
October 6th 2009 @ 10:02am
Redb said | October 6th 2009 @ 10:02am | Report comment
I agree with you AndyRoo. Western Sydney has the chance to be the first NSW team from the bottom up. The Swans will still have their diehards – they’re like the tradtional club versus the new kid on the westie block who hopefully gives them a black eye in the first game.
October 7th 2009 @ 10:49am
Michael C said | October 7th 2009 @ 10:49am | Report comment
I didn’t think I was taking a moral highground – - – just pointing out a fact and I DID recognise the country origins of the 3 NSW captains of the Swans.
The point being that EVEN WITH that to boast of, and a fair array of NSW ‘talent’ over the journey, that the Swans 28 yrs on still are no more than niche on a week to week basis over all (i.e. attendance is great by Sydney standards, but, most other factors or much more ‘mild’ – - i.e. corporate, ratings, sponsors, local members etc).
Perhaps still the greatest ‘miss’ by the Swans was Longmire and Carey – - – had they been ‘retained’ by the Swans then who knows, could you imagine a Sydney team thru the ’90s with Kelly, Carey and Longmire all ‘local’ products….so to speak. It was good for North to get Greg Miller and via him those boys, and bad for the Swans and bad for the AFL.
WS18 will have to build via whatever means it can. They no doubt would wish to target home grown talent both via the available juniors and via trading. But – does that mean half the squad from NSW? Or 6? Or what? How many people measure Sydney FC by the number of home grown Sydney lads play for them? The interest in that side peaked with D.Yorke…..certainly no local.
At any rate – I do much prefer the current scheme of the relatively home grown TAC U18s first followed by the VFL team for a year and then launch the AFL side. It at least gives every opportunity – to a generation of youngsters whose interest in AFL otherwise might have been swamped by other codes. On the ‘good for football’ front, I’ll be cheering on GC17 and WS18, and for amongst other reasons that they will have forced new ideas, new cultures, new thinking upon the AFL/clubs. We’ve already seen clubs look more seriously to PNG and such places, – - – more willing to look outside the square and work harder at talent development. It used to just be ‘crazy’ folk like Ron Barassi (Irish experiment and 5 yr plans) and Kevin Sheedy (some of his favourite project players and playing arround with an American amongst other what at the time were ideas that were probably scoffed at.).
That’s a good thing – - so, bring it on. ANd if that draws your interest then fabulous – - I hope you have fun (no need to be ‘converted’, just to enjoy!).
October 7th 2009 @ 12:09pm
AndyRoo said | October 7th 2009 @ 12:09pm | Report comment
I am not racist but I would want the lot of them to be NSW boys
But more realistically whatever amount hey can viably play. I would really want the team for egample to take a 100 gamer NSW lad over a possible 250 game Victorian in the draft.
The AFL with Brisbane and Sydney are locked into teams that have to try to make the top 8 every year and have to be successful on the field. Replicating that swans culture is a waste of money.
By having a lot of NSW lads after they should be able to afford having a few bad years. I would consider it pretty bad form to bag out what would be basically a NSW rep team rather than a franchise.
It’s just a shame they can’t call them the Sydney Blues.
The AFL are very good at the Australian style marketing, playing up players origins and grass roots interactions. Give them a team with real Sydney players who went to school in NSW and they will actually have some firepower in NSW. Having a team of NSW boys might not be very successful at first but it would be a massive point of difference between them and the Swans.
I think a lot of fans would buy into their success and I know the Brisbane public would be very jealous (once their succesful) of NSW having basically a state team in the AFL