Hilarious

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,26685931-5018851,00.html

But South African and PNG will provide a number of players over the next few years who will have learnt the game in their own country.

Pretty good IMO for a game from the arse end of the world that historically has had a hard time getting over the Murrumbigdee let alone transversing continents.

We are not talking about a game with the obvious benifits of British migration that took soccer, hockey, union, league, tennis, cricket etc around the Commonwealth and world.

Spain has a similar climate as well, just thing of the potential!

And don’t get me started on South America, that place is ripe for AFL talent.

At any rate i am sure their would be stacks of aussie rulles footballers wishing the Melbourne Storm all the best in their indeavours.

Fittler could be right about Australian football wanting to rule the world, today GWS … tomorrow … Rome !!.

Surely he could have used the famous step instead of that reply.

This is the first ever from scratch NSW team. Sheedy is (was) a Victorian but he’s not your normal Melbournite, he has vision for a start . You can never put a number on it, I would prefer 100% but obviously you have to be somewhat competitive. They just have to be genuine in their desire to favor NSW kids, but they have to work within the system. I would like to see the number at 50% of the stating line up and only going up.
Perhaps they can get away with grabbing the exclusive rights to NSW because they aren’t worth much now and they can get something in place so that when they are worth a lot (say in 8 years) their still locked up and they will win a few priemerships before they have to give them up and then turn into a normal team (even allowing Vics to play for them).

It just depends how ambitious the AFL is. If they just want a team that they can use to get a niche of juniors, decent crowds and contribute a little to the TV audience then proceed with Swans mark 2. The game will remain a poor cousin to rugby league though and remain the vicball stigma (all the players, refs, admin and big events occur interstate).
Play up the NSW side of it though and you have a point of interest for the casual sports fans and I think a more interesting rival for the Vic public too. More of a gamble sure but a genuine us against them feeling would be the only way I see AFL getting the real traction in NSW.
It’s not like their going to be a huge success right away commercially so I think it’s less of a crazy gamble than it sounds.

http://sportal.com.au/League-news-display/folau-hopes-afl-thrives-85535

I wonder if AFL already have a contract for him. Maybe their “new” signing, he is from Minto after all (for you victorians, that’s as western sydney as you get.)

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/a-bad-sign-for-league-recruiters/story-e6frexnr-1225827300932

A couple of articles from the daily terror in Sydney with some info about TV rights and GWS junior footy.

I didn’t like this bit obviously

”When you know they are there, that’s where you have to go if you love your own game. Harry Kewell – he might have been a fantastic midfielder if we’d have been here a few decades ago. Tim Cahill … we just needed to be in the marketplace.”

But still have to admit a great signing. As a kid I knew f all about AFL but I knew Sheedy and Malcolm blight.

and likewise the QLD and NSW sides,

whether it’s enough for BOTH GWS and Swannees to get by with perhaps 8 NSW lads on the senior list, as often as possible a ‘local’ NSW lad as captain (even if from Albury or Wagga), and perhaps half a dozen rookie listed NSW lads allowing for a constant flow of 1 or 2 per club per year…….is that enough?

Or, would you be more talking about at least 15, 20?

just curious.

It’s not like other sports where there are plenty of NSW lads all over in other teams, having NSW kids in the team is a way of showing ownership over the game. Otherwise I see no reason why people shouldn’t just support the Swans. Their a nice team and the SCG isn’t that much further than Homebush.

I am probably not the target market though… but if it was a NSW team I would actually care if they won.

Redb

Well – you just never know,

and I guess that’s the thing with all this – - the penalty for NOT trying may be greater than for trying.

Big crowd for a practice game …. who knows GWS may have a few fans after ALL, surely SWANS fans would not venture that far west.

http://www.smh.com.au/afl/afl-news/new-frontier-brimming-with-western-promise-for-sheedy-20100206-njrq.html

This is vintage Sheeds.

Redb

Yes its him , its also the same John Ryan who sent a email to radio staion 6PR yesterday bemoaning how AFL player misdemeanors are hidden by the press but RL players are publicised.

Sound familiar, the guy certainly gets around.

The tribal nature of WS may very well prove a hard nut to crack however – those League clubs that profess to represent the West of Sydney are anything but local. That’s the way of it these days, crickey who would have thought a Kiwi would coach the Wallabies but there you have it, blood is no longer thicker than H2O it would seem.

Andyroo

Does local even rate in the brave new ‘global’ scheme of things? it does for me however I don’t see it happeneing in reality?

The closest thing the GWS will get to homegrown will be from the ACT nursery and that is why Sheedy was in Canberra this week, trying to drum up support for GWS in the capital. I believe the GWS will recruit a good deal of Canberra lads given the fairly high calibre of talent to come out of this region over the years.

Sheedy’s comments on that the Boomerangs v Saffa contest should also be put in context i.e, U16′s v Seniors for starters and as I have already suggested in previous comments, a very much dumbed down, controlled and staged affair in promoting the game to potential o/s markets, which is understandable.

That said, this Sheedy hard sell is already becoming a little chunderous and more akin to ‘California Dreamin’ me thinks.

Go the mighty Bullants for season 2010!

Cheers

He was joker and full of hot air when he was a Vic but not he lives in Blacktown you guys better start taking him seriously.
He seems pretty keen on the NSW players thing, he only needs to put sleeves on the jumpers and mission complete.

Club song for GWS just announced (they have a 200m budget so why not) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yammJn1vaVg

From Wikipedia
The song is mainly about the dark side of Hollywood. The track also makes references to the decline in Western society (West Sydney), and even some pop culture references Star Wars (“and Auburns not far away”), and Star Trek (“West Sydney the final frontier”).

This new challenge holds no fears for Snoop. “If it’s flipping hamburgers at McDonald’s, be the best hamburger flipper in the world. Whatever it is you do you have to master your craft.” Well said Snoop and Good Luck

A few premierships, captains and brownlow meddalists in that group!!

Legends all of them and only one of them played for their home state (I am including ACT as part of NSW)

(Note: Jessa played pre: Swans but doubtfull given that record he would ever have played there).

Go Sheeds!

This is what it’s all about, kids having choice – by his own admission, he wasn’t quite suited to soccer, and perhaps he’s better suited to something else.

That’s fine.

There’s no need for anyone to make a value judgement about that – let kids play whatever the hell they want – it’s all good – beats the hell out of playing with your Wii all day long.

“The best kids will stay here from now on.”

This sounds pretty good to me.

this can only be good for a region that is more populous than Perth or Adelaide and located within the Greater Sydney region on the eastern seaboard (such that, even as a ratio of Perth/Adelaide, GWS SHOULD be serviced even more highly due to ‘location location location’).

And hearing SHeeds on radio a couple of times over the last couple of days – he’s just having a ball up there. For him – it’s a great opportunity.

“This is one of the first steps of it, to not allow NSW kids to play anywhere but NSW if we get it right.”

it’ll be interesting to see how they progress – most the kids in the squad are already signed ‘NSW scholarship’ holders with other AFL clubs – but, I presume GWS will get some form of priority access to them??????

With the Rovers coming on line as well – it’s an exciting time for professional sport in West Sydney.

Not all about California folks.

Note this is AAP report/article. Sheedy = sound byte.