AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou addresses the media during an AFL Media Conference at AFL House, Melbourne. Slattery Images
AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou is not every sports fans’ hero. Many AFL traditionalists bemoan a “softening” of the game under his stewardship. Fans of other codes see him as overly aggressive in his promotion of Australian Rules Football, to the detriment of our recent FIFA World Cup bid.
Though it is unlikely the bid would have got up even if Demetriou and the AFL had co-operated fully with all the FFA’s original wishes.
But a speech Demetriou gave recently to the Diversity Council of Australia gives a deeper insight into the AFL chief’s values – values he wants the code he oversees to embody.
In it, Demetriou draws on his own cultural heritage (“As some of you may know, my parents are from Cyprus and I’m very proud of my heritage. I’m even happy to be referred to as a Greek”) and how footy helped he and his brothers integrate into suburban Melbourne in their youth.
He lauds the AFL’s progress with integrating and helping indigenous Australians and their communities. But he notes the AFL has a great challenge to bring migrants from Asia and Africa to the game.
Implied in his speech is a goal to change Australia’s suburban and country culture, to soften not only the old head high biff out of the game on the field, but the once (and too often, still) intolerant and insular attitudes in clubs, leagues and suburbs across this twenty-first century nation of immigrants.
He concludes with: “As the son of migrants, I know first-hand how Australian football helped my brothers and I connect with the community. To meet people and make new friends. And to explore new opportunities. The same way it did for Jezza, Dipper and Kouta. And in the same way it’s now doing for Majak Daw, Bachar Houli, Jamie Pi and Ali Faraj and, I hope, many others in the years to come.”
Whether you think Demetriou is “AD, the wrecker of our once great game”, or “Vlad, the impaler of other codes”, or simply a Greek Cypriot immigrant lad who was an average AFL player but a quite visionary and fiercely protective AFL exec, the article is an insight into where he wants Australian Football as a code to go, and what he wants it to do for Australia.
It is worth reading in full before commenting below.
methysticum
Guest
As most immigrants to Australia now come from Britain, New Zealand, South Africa and the Pacific Islands what percentage of them take up Australian Rules? I would guess very few. Those few, in percentage terms, African refugees who land in Melbourne or the southern states might be tempted to take up Australian Rules or basketball or soccer but if they come to Sydney or more points north it would be Rugby League or basketball or soccer. There is no intrinsic reason why immigrnants are more attracted to Aussie Rules than any other sports and Andrew Demetriou's recollection of his own Greek/Cypriot upbringing in 1960s Melbourne has as much relevance to current Australia as Yuri Gagarin's exploits in space at the same time.
MyLeftFoot
Roar Guru
agreed.
Koops
Guest
Totally agree, some posts last week were disgraceful, bordering on defamatory, but the poster in question never seems to be moderated, Australian football posters must tread extremely warily or they are moderated, whilst other seemingly have free reign.
Republican
Guest
Jason 'Banal' meaning overused and trite which in my opinion your comment was. Why, because you defend the 'rooond balls' less than ordinary performance in capturing the imagination of the Australian sporting public at the elite spectator level, despite it's many years of variations on a theme. Soccer has had more than enough time to endear itself to the Australian market at that level beacuse, as those who support it keep reminding we rather more insular sorts who just don't get it, it is the world game. This means it assumes a distinct advantage over what is clearly a very insignificant domestic product in Australian Football. Soccer has the largest profile of any sport around the globe and is the most powerful sporting lobby on the planet and yet these sorts of pathetic analogies and excuses continue to be trotted out by those i.e. you. Your less than subtle motive to discredit and devalue our great game exposes what I term 'cringe'. I say this because it seems that the sole thrust of your contribution to this thread and those like you, is to inflate your own codes status which is probably Union and not Soccer truth me told, at the expense of the Indigenous code. You are simply anti AFL and will use any means at your disposal to defame the Australian game. Good night and good luck.
Republican
Guest
Is 'Roar' in the main, a Rugby inspired site? I have always felt a certain sense of cultural bias against the Australian game on these forums. I also am bemused by just how many Kiwis contribute esp. on Aust Footy threads, which certainly gives further weight to what seems to be the disproportionate scrutiny by trolling, our code receives, compared to other codes represented here. NF is of course correct, this takes place across all codes however far more so in respect of our game I believe. Cheers
MyLeftFoot
Roar Guru
for ever there's been the footy or cricket choice to be made. Nothing new here other than that Cricket Victoria if in selected cases going to offer a 3 year contract (in this case, still less than what he might have got with footy). We've seen Jamie Siddons years back, debut for the Swans in a 'night match' but opted to stick with cricket. Craig Bradley played cricket for both SA and Vic, but, stuck mainly with footy. Since then, the decision has been brought forward to effectively the draft. Young George Horlin-Smith was an Aust U16 cricket rep - but, opted for footy and was picked up by Geelong in the recent draft. 1-1 then, Keath vs Horlin-Smith. Nothing new here (just ask messers Keith Miller, Shane Warne, Max Walker and many many others - it's all about choice.)
Australian Football
Roar Guru
Koops----again I absolutely agree with your sentiments. Ron Barrassi's ignorance or whoever the Aussie Rules guy were to think they could beat us at our game truly was wishful thinking on their part.. Was it 7-0 at half time? As you know I don't place too much attention to those sort of games like Fuss, but it must have been humiliating for them to approach us real Footballers to change the rules they set down at the beginning of the Charity Match... Nevertheless, well done both teams in drawing in a full house to witness the Real Football exhibition match that was played in a Real Competitive Spirit..
Australian Football
Roar Guru
Koops----who said it was this year we held the collection..? Once again you flatter your self with too little knowledge of the GCU supporter's generosity..
Australian Football
Roar Guru
And what bucket would that be you are referring to?... Be careful of labels JP
Australian Football
Roar Guru
Yes I thought that comment was worth a laugh too... :lol:
NF
Guest
No different when AFL trolls on rugby league,league trolls AFL or when AFL trolls football or when football troll AFL it's just another day on the roar lol. Where the 'code war' lives lol. Gotta love this site.
Dingo
Guest
What is this comment doing here? Typical rubbish from the usual trolls on the AFL tab. Level of education appears to be about grade 7.
TammyS
Guest
Im not just talking about this thread. AFL fans and seem to go nuts over stories like this all the time even though there are stories like those in a lot of sports like the Jarrod Saffy example above. I mean good on the AFL. I think they've been a lot better at making sure people are aware of the good they do than other sports are, even those sports may work just as hard and are achieving the same sorts of things. Like I said, its just an observation
Joel
Guest
So in the context of this discussion, providing a link to a story of a migrant playing Australian football is making a song and dance? I don't think so, but in any case so what? Are you saying that the AFL works harder to attract or market to migrants than other codes?
MyLeftFoot
Roar Guru
Jessica - the 'bragging', or is it purely human interest. It takes a heck of a lot more for a kid from an Islamic background to be the trail blazer for his community into a code - such as El Mazri in the NRL or Houli into the AFL. That's human interest. Similar to the latest diabetic managing his way as a professional athlete. 'Human interest' again. Good role models. Positive role models. For you to moan about making a 'song and dance' about positive role models is pretty shallow really. Surely we should ALL be celebrating positive role models across the broader spectrum of sports (and other pursuits). Note too - Australian Football is unique in this country. It does NOT recieve sports read migants. The other codes do. Realistically, any RU migrant is far, far closer to RL 'ready' than any other sport other than RU itself. Comparing a kid from South Africa transitioning to RL from a background of RU is hardly comparable to such a kid transitioning to Australian Football. The leap b/w the Rugby codes is pretty narrow and has been successfully jumped a thousand times where code hopping is commonplace. So, again, let's NOT bemoan good news stories that encourage active participation, broader participation, people trying and succeeding in 'new' (non-traditional) sports for certain 'ethinc' backgrounds.
MyLeftFoot
Roar Guru
some how I doubt it (re "...a different discussion may have emerged.") ;-)
MyLeftFoot
Roar Guru
agreed Joel. Alas - the original article has become irrelevant to the regular hijacking and same old arguments from a now regular band of anti-AFL posters. It must annoy them that the WC bid crashed and burned without a chance to blame the AFL - so, now they'll just go the AFL about anything and everything. It's tiresome. It demeans this website in the extreme. Especially when there has in the past appeared some astounding double standards. Oh well. How did your club go with the draft and last weeks rookie/PS drafts? Not many articles about those on here.
TammyS
Guest
Not dismissing the story. Im just making an observation. I just find AFL fans make a bigger song and dance about about stories like that than fans from other codes. According to some of the posts above AFL has been adopted by migrants for over 100 posts so I just wonder why fans still feel the need to constantly brag about this sort of stuff
ruckrover
Guest
The speaker was Demetriou, whether he wrote the whole thing himself or like a prime minister or president has a speech writer is another matter, but clearly he wouldn't read it if he didn't as CEO fully agree with it. It is a very good speech. Rather than 333 comments - many of off topic criticism of Australian Football as a code - Roar readers could as I said, read Demetriou's speech before commenting and a different discussion may have emerged.
Joel
Guest
And so you should be. In answer to your completely disingenous question, yes broken legs occur in Australian football. It's amusing that on the one hand we have someone saying the game is too soft (needs more broken legs) and on the other we have you trying to suggest that game is too hard (too many broken legs). Happy medium?