Fairfax's AFL troupe sour first Heart beat

Football originated in England, records show as far back as the 13th century found in church records, receipt for the hire of church hall. And please correct me, the word soccer refers to 'English' football Association only or such?

on the radio the other day one of their head honcho's indicated that MVFC had about 4000 members year one at kick off round 1, and they hoped (Hearts) to do the same, so, 2000 is half way there.

australian football. what is australian football? australian rules football or australian association football? neither can lay claim to the title in this context

There was no haste, Fig His point was directly aimed at folk like you who can't distinguish between NRL writers and melbourne talk show hosts who have no appreciation for soccer at all and a host of writers who like the game but have criticisms. They are all against soccer and the "true believers (god help us!)" And then there is the crazy belief that someone writing an ignorant article about soccer is somehow damaging the game, and indeed this is the reason that soccer isn't number one in this country. Australian football is subjected almost a "feature series" in both the Tele and the herald by league, union (that samuelson guy at least) and soccer writers. These range from crazy accusations about the independent commission's ability to control media to fool people into following it, denigration of the game itself, revisionist history about the games genisis and evolution, and even questioning of its right to call itself a code The bottom line is though this has little impact on the games development, indeed it increase people's awareness of it. What matters is massive resources it has directed to development and the people on the ground connecting with communities etc.

An excellent response by Dan and he raises some great points in reference to Davidde lack of accuracy in the article. I hope Davidde takes on board some of the comments as positive criticism as a few poorly chosen words has allowed the crux of his message to be lost. The fact is the general media reporting in Melbourne still takes quite a negative spin on football and the total volume of articles seems to have gone down over the last six months (even taking into account the off season). I am not looking for cheerleaders (seems to be the in-vouge term at the moment for any journalist that dares publish any positive article about the A-league) and am quite happy to see balanced criticism from scribes like Dan Silkstone but I think it would be nice to pick up the paper without hearing how poor the A-league is. I totally agree that the coverage leading up the Hearts match was excellent and I hope this is a sign of increased coverage with the season fast approaching. Was very excited to see articles from Oliver Milman, Jon Pierik, Laine Clarke and Adam Clark in the Age today and although not all of these are dedicated football writers (I believe Oliver Milman is the only "Football" writer in this group) the sheer number was heady. I would still like to see a few more dedicated Football writers but this will come with time. For those interested I do recommend Dan Silkstone's blog "Balls", http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/blog/balls , there is a excellent blog there from March that I think highlights Dan's approach to sport titled "Code wars: sectarianism in sport". Do yourself a favour and have a read.

Baz35 - See, in your haste to abuse me, you've completely missed my point! My one and only point is this. If a journalist is lazy and doesn't research, and have a sound knowledge of, his/her subject matter then his/her opinion is ignorant and, henceforth, whenever I get the opportunity, I will tell him/her that he/she is ignorant. I don't know if/where you learnt the art of "clear thinking", but it's impossible for a sports analyst to provide "objective crticism" of any sporting issue if he/she admits that he/she: a) doesn't understand the sport b) doesn't undertake any research into the sport - i.e. watching the entire sporting contest; not the 2 minute highlighs on the evening news. Inevitably, the AFL and NRL analysts, who make comments about Football, always inform us that they don't like Football and never watch the games and, in Rebecca Wilson's case, she publicly acknowledged that she is a "football illiterate". Now, when a sports journo proudly displays her ignorance on a topic that she has just analysed you realise: "the lunatics have taken over the asylum"!

It was a good post Fig but you completely missed the point. He was having a go at hyper sensitive types like you who can't distinguish between objective criticism and a shock jock writing a tired, cliched article that no-one is going to take seriously anyway You and your persecution complex are the problem Fig

Neil mitchell is a talk back radio host. Mick Sheehan write a load of shyte pretty much every day, and once every four years that might include a circa 1970 rubbishing of soccer. I had to put up with Dan writing a rubbish match report earlier this year for my team which showed a sub-litereate understanding of the modern game (I missed the match as well which made it extra disappointing!). Than there was the amateurish membership figures article and on at least two occassion's Dan has been the go to man for an "FFA source" trying to slander the AFL. I would prefer he never wrote about Australian football

"football" "analysts" don't comment about other sports in this country???? And you've gonna on to identify Murray and Foster! now i have heard it all!!!

cheers dan - great response and even though it's in many ways a pity you felt you had to respond, i for one, am certainly glad you did. and yes, i will check out your blog. nice one. and davidde - great article for the roar. bit of this bit of that and a good stoush in the middle. entertainment indeed! another good story which i saw in that bastion of journalism today (MX) by News Limited - Ruka three years at Hertha Berlin..... as much coverage as Henry to red bulls (worst name for a football club?)

Plenty of decent football in country Victoria roman, attempted to stop any more facilities for Australian football being built in country towns roman ??.

At the Melbourne Age: Baum is 100% AFL, Hinds is 100% AFL, Niall is 100% AFL At the Daily Telegraph: R Wilson is 100% NRL At the Herald Sun: Mike Sheehan is 100% AFL and Neil Mitchell is 100% AFL All these Football-illiterates have, at some stage, felt the urge to write 1,000 word op-eds on the underlying issue of "why they think Football is a terrible sport".

l remember Baum writing an article after the night in November 2005 where Oz finally qualified for a WC...in all the euphoria and excitement, with so much he could have focused on... he chose to dwell on the Uruguay anthem being booed by some Oz fans! He just had to find a negative... That pretty much summed up for me the negative AFL media reaction to that great night in Oz sporting history. However I do agree with Don that he has improved a little when writing about football now compared to his past efforts.

Enjoy your Football writing Dan, keep it up. But...didn't your article state that the Victory don't play at AAMI Park?

How can you possibly bring up Les Murray. Les is 100% soccer all the way. Dan is clearly 50/50 (if not more leaning towards soccer). Stupid comparison

He's been much better lately. He used to be incapable of writing about the Soccer without mentioning the AFL. The Juventus story mentioned, where he continously, embarrasingly, compared Juventus to Collingwood, is a prime example.

Excellent post, Gweeds! The reason why I get so frustrated and angry about the comments is because many of these Football critics willingly admit: a) they don't like the game b) they don't watch the game c) they don't understand the game (Rebecca Wilson even ended her article with a comment that she was a "football illiterate")! I cannot believe these journalists (Neil Mitchell, Rebecca Wilson, John Birmingham) openly admit they haven't done any research and are ignorant about the subject matter, but their editors still allow them to write 1,000-word columns on the issue! That is truly unprofessional and shoddy journalism and highlights the poor standards within the Australian mainstream sports media.

Very astute observations Gweeds. Not hard after a while,sorting the wheat from the Chaff.

I have already purchased a membership :) I think you're misunderstanding me. Unfortunately work doesn't enable me to view video However you can't disagree when I say Victory play direct football. I look forward to the Derbies!

I too was pretty surprised that Dan Silkstone was dubbed an 'AFL writer' considering the number of very favourable reports on football over the years. I also would dispute that Greg Baume is anti-football. He has written many pieces very positive about the code. I think that as football supporters we need to shift our thinking about what are articles against football or those that are justifiably critical. As the perception of the sport has shifted in the mainstream of Australian sport fans, so we need to discern what are really anti football articles to those who while negative are being objective. Many of us are very sensitive to criticism in the media, and with good reason. For decades our code was derided and ignored mainly blatantly under the 'wogs, sheilas and poofters' banner. Of course in these politically correct timeswe have the same argument now in the guise that football does not reflect the Australian character (see Neil Mitchell article as a good example). These articles are written by people that we know hate football and are somewhat irritated by all the fuss of the World Cup. When they criticise football they don't do it because they have the interest of the game at heart, in fact it is the opposite, they wouldn't like anything better for the game to disappear in Australia. But criticism can also be done in the interest of the game, and that's the big difference. I chocked on my dinners when I saw people like Rebecca Wilson who has dismissed any significant presence of football in this country or Tony Squires who derided football regularly on the now defunct 'The Fat' on ABC TV. The fact that they were asked to comment about the World Cup and in the case of Squires to go to South Africa seemed to me to be hypocrisy of the highest order. We know they are not football friends, and when they criticise the game they do it not as fans. However Rebecca Wilson has been very critical about her beloved NRL. And so the other Wilson, Caroline about AFL. But when they criticise they don't say things like 'the NRL and the AFL' have no future in Australia, something that Wilson has said for instance. They criticise their codes because they want them to be better. So if a Dan Silkstone criticise football, I believe he is in the same situation as Caroline Wilson criticising the AFL. We as football supporters must now make these distinctions. As we shift to a mainstream code, we also have to accept critical examination...as long as it is done for the right reasons. Football supporters have a reputation for being indignant and react strongly to anything written against our code, as I said before that's understandable, but if there is something negative that has to be written we should not fear exposure.