What the AFL has to do to become king

Okay, I'm a person who loves to watch Australian Rules, Rugby League and the round ball game. Even though AFL is my fave form of football, I am open minded enough to understand that Soccer is the most important of them all and AFL is very unimportant by comparison. For expansion after GC and GWS they should have a Hobart team and have Hawthorn continue playing home games at Launceston. Have North relocate to Ballarat and have another team at either Auckland, Canberra, Darwin or North Queensland.

I tend to agree Mister Football, although I do think Union and League have skills much broader then the ones you mentioned. It is extremely hard to keep that ball in hand when you run into a brick wall of players. And catching a pass that is going across your body is harder than catching one going into your body or in front into your hands (NFL players don't pass sideways much because it is lower percentage stuff). But I do think there is a lot of skill involved in all sports. I do think the aim to be the NFL of Aus is a stretch as the American calendar works so that the sports are spread out without conflicting too much. But AFL and NRL (the 2 leading the "code war") are both conflicting right against each other. Almost starting and finishing at the same time.

Rugby league isn't a foreign game any more than Australian rules is. Most rule changes and tactics in league have come from Australia. Your code is foreign too. "Ausse Rules - the most English game" http://clubtroppo.com.au/2010/06/03/aussie-rules-the-most-english-game/

No need to call me a fool. At least we agree that despite all the money spent on promoting Aussie Rules in NSW and QLD the attendances and TV ratings are falling and well below the peak of a few years ago, when the AFL started spending up big to expand and promote Aussie Rules up here. $100M spent already "accelerating the growth of AFL in NSW and QLD" $140M committed for the next 5 years "expanding AFL into NSW and QLD" $200M already spent and committed over 5 years to establish the GWS team in Sydney. $200M already spent and committed over 5 years to establish the GC17 team in the Gold Coast. TOTAL = $640 Million - Aussie Rules Punters' Money The Aussie Rules game in Sydney last Saturday had an OzTAM rating of 7K and in Brisbane the same game had an OzTAM rating of 1K. Any comments? Even A-League games played in Sydney - which are not FTA and only shown on PayTV have never had an OzTAM rating lower than 100K. Rather than praising Demetriou for the great work he is doing - I would be very worried that despite spending $640 million expanding Aussie Rules into NSW and QLD he is getting absolutely pathetic results! :)

Yeah agree about Saffa but not NZ. I know this country only too well and to be honest, despite that they may offer some potential talent, as with anywhere in the world, I just think they are too deep seatedly anti Australia for the game to succeed there. I can say with some accuracy that many Kiwis do state that they won't play or support the game - because it is Australian. I for one would fight tooth and nail to stop any move to compromise it's branding in appeasing them in this respect, since that is what our game is - Australian. They are the ONLY country by the way, that take an exception to the naming of our indig code which is quite telling I would have thought. Cheers

Republican I remember reading about 8 months ago that it was planned to be just the World 18 (or whatever it was going to be called). Now if you put together most of this Pacific side. plus a few of the better World players (Sean O'Kennedy, Josuf Lo Bulok and Immanuel Irra for starters), I wouldn't have been surprised if they won the carnival. The AFL does need to look at more exotic ways of Recruiting players, but that does not mean plucking them out of their country at 16-21 and teaching them the game. The AFL needs to make serious investments in the Pacific islands (especially Nauru and PNG) at grassroots level, and sustained compition from Auskick to U18's. New Zealand and South Africa are further behind on priorities list. But they are the most important thing behind the relatively untapped Polynesian people.

Re. the Pacific being 15 goals better than the NT, we will have to wait and see but yes, the writings on the wall given all the above deducing mate. As I continue to state, putting aside the tinkering around the edges with future Championships over age disparity, this does expose serious concerns around the grass roots given ALL the criteria I have previously outlined. There is NO excuse for this Pacific side beating any of our state sides. There pedigree albeit superior to the World 18, is not that much better and if it is how did they arrive at this point so rapidly, or more to the point, what is going on in grass roots Australian footy that allows them to be THAT competitive in such a short time? Cheers

REpublican - it doesn't though mean that there may not be some quality kids in NZ - - and now, should another Nick Evans come along, he may well opt the AFL path rather than being the 2nd best All Black in his position. NSW/ACT may just have had a really off day. May have had an injury or two early to key players. QLD may have just clicked. NSW/ACT have come out and beaten NT by 6 goals - - - so, do you figure that makes Pacific a 15 goal better team than the NT?? IF that transpires - - perhaps it'll tell us that the first step is to next year pull the age limit back at least 1 year for the Pacific team (or reduce the number of 'over age' players available). Main thing is - and as per the other thread dedicated to this - - this is just the beginning, and IF these too international sides can compete each year, within about 3-5 years, hopefully it'll all be bedded down properly.

P.S. Yes that fella is always talking up NZ footy. I am not sure what his agenda is but he is full of the hyperbole. I attended a number of Barassi Cups in Canberra and I can assure you the Kiwi rep sides were less than ordinary albeit they were tough to the ball in a Union sort of way but extremely agricultural skill wise. They were also given much licence by the umpires in order to stay competitve. The ref WFN makes courtesy of this particular contributor, is dubious in that it is unlikely that these were full strength ACT state sides which is all too often left out when all the chest thumping begins. This was a one off that this bloke tediously refers to ad nauseaum. I would take great pleasure in watching a Kiwi side pitted agianst a full strength ACT rep side now, same age thanks and see what transpires, suffice to say I don't believe we would be hearing from the WFN fella as a result. These sorts of events tend to be structured to give the illusion of competitiveness as with this current NAB Championship. I would dearly like to see the age disparity adressed in establishing the true state of play and given the Pacifics performance, this should be obvious. I do maintain however, that our game must be easy to master given this suprisingly premature achievement by them. Cheers

Fussball and others - a reminder this post is about AFL. It is not acceptable to have the same code-v-code debates on The Roar. You are now on moderation. A reminder to all - please REPORT code flames as soon as they appear and we will delete them and place the commenter on moderation. Zac The Roar

Fact is Michael, in NZ's case anyway, they are only exposed to footy in their off season which is a very small window in which to skill up on the game compared to us. It is a novelty code for the Kiwis for heavens sake and yet here we have a situation where they are contributing to this Pacific rag tag mob, almost knocking off an elite Qld state U16 side who flogged the NSW/ACT state side - yes I will say it again, 70 points! You are in pixie land mate, if you can't hear the warning bells already.

Don't be so down on it. AFter all - the World 18 got spanked by 89 pts (4 scorings shots vs 33, so, could've been much worse). There is relief that it wasn't 200-0 though. That the Pacific team is competitive with a fair sprinkling of 17 yr olds and a couple of 18 yr olds - - is not that great a surprise. We've seen the Pacific team already in the match vs Nth QLD up in Cairns at the Pac Leaders forum. We've seen PNG juniors and sides competing more and more in the QLD system. We've in the past seen some good performances from under age NZ sides (before the best players focus purely on Rugby!!) re NZ - this is in the comments on WFN: in 2003 the New Zealand Junior Falcons Under 16's side (as they were called then) played 3 games against ACT (1) and (2) and Nauru in Canberra and won all games by a fairly big margin. The NZ Under 20's also played 3 games against the Queensland's Under 19's in 2003, but lost each game by small margins. In the years before I went to NZ their Under 21's played over 6 games against TAC teams in Victoria and won a game against Sandringham in 2000/2001. btw - we all know enough about footy that QLD beating NSW/ACT by 70 does not now make Pacific a 55 pt better team than NSW/ACT.

that's mainly because teams are kicking fewer and fewer goals as the seasons roll along and AFL slowly begins to look like Rugby Union

Well, it seems our game is incredibly easy to learn or our grass roots talent in the minor states is simply woeful. In todays Pacific v Qld game at the U16 National div 2 championship, the Qlders got up by just 15pts! I know the excuse will be that they were pitted against giant 18 and 19 year olds but seriously, these blokes have hardly grown up kicking a Sherrin and yet they can already qualify for National accolades based on this effort. Does this not strike any of you out there who advocate internationalizing our code as extremely concerning? What does this tell us, especially when you consider this Qld side destroyed the ACT/NSW side by 70 points a couple of days earlier. It certainly exposes the game in Qld, NSW and the ACT as being in big trouble, becuase the Pacific appear higher in status than the ACT, NSW, and the NT based on results thus far - and on par with Qld! I am afraid I find it very difficult to celebrate what some believe to be an exciting opportunity for our game to potentially present as a competitive option to those O/S countries who currently dabble in the game, for the novelty and in their spare time it would seem. In the build up to this NAB Championship, the international sides had been talked down and we were lead to believe they were unlikely to achieve anything beyond the exposure they would glean in being pitted against some of our best young footy U16 talent. What an absolute farce this is turning out to be and I can already hear those anti Australian Footy nay sayers having a good old go at our expense - and why not!

yet still they choose not too!!!

most AFL players can't kick 50 meters with a drop punt any more much less with a foot (stab) pass. let's not forget Illija Grgic who never played the AFL game until he was 16 and by 19 was playing senior AFL for the Bulldogs and you delusional vegemite lovers think it is a skillful game!!!!!

magnificent analogy in reference to the AFL

Hi Redb Yes they don't go to the game... but they stay home and watch them on TV. And that is the ace in the hole for them, they rate really well! Have a good one mate

"I don’t want to “factually prove anything to you” in relation to Football." If you don't want to prove anything, why do you consistently use the word "analyse" ?? I can see plenty of your posts where you attempt to assert opinion as fact, you do it without even realising. "For some reason only AFL fans and commentators... feel the need to tell everyone how great their sport is. Such behaviour reeks of an inherent feeling of inferiority and is quite nauseating to hear." I agree. But I'm not the one making these charges so why bring it up? Projecting, are we?