Can code switching be a success for players and fans?

You're way off track there - after one year in the system, Hunt is still working hard to increase his aerobic capacity to play at the elite level. He'll have to do another pre-season, and play most of next year to reach it, he's well off it right now. He only recenlty stopped cramping up half way through the 3rd quarter. Yes, plenty of breaks for aussie rules players, because the amount of gut running they do is absolutely insane.

Rugby league requires higher levels of fitness than Aussie rules. A rugby league player expends a lot of energy on hard tackling and trying to bust through tackles. That's when they're not sprinting back 10 metres to get onside for the next play. Aussie rules players just run around. The amount of interchanges that are made in Aussie rules proves that the players aren't as fit as people like you make out.

Change their body shape to go back to RL...what you mean significantly increase their body fat and reduce their aerobic fitness?....you think they'll have difficulty going back to RL..you must be kidding....they just need to eat more pies and throw a few weights around at the gym... bulking up is hard for some but Folau/Hunt are the right body types to put on weight easily...

That might be true about their ability to go back (As I said I have no real knowledge of RL) but they will be offered much more to go back than they will be to stay and they will have more success at RL than they will at AFL

I have absoultely no interest in NRL and I'll tell you the biggest reason I am opposed to Hunt and Folou, spots on AFL lists are like gold, every year many many very talented players have their dreams smashed because they are a little too short or slightly to slow, or their verticla leap isn't quite enough or any number of minor reasons and yet Hunt and Folou can hardly play the game and are given this amazing gift just because it generates headlines with no guarantee it will translate into extra supporters and they will disapear back to the NRL as soon as their contract is finished. As for the negative publicity regarding the storm, making the NRL look like a joke has hardly and had the local team playing for no points for a year hardly got a massive increase in support for NRL in Melb. As for Sheeds, I thik the GWS will look back on that as the biggest mistake they made, they chose a coach who's final few years at Essendon and the list he left behind demonstrated just how much the modern game had passed him by and yet just like Folou they went with someone who can generate headlines rather than the best coach. At least the Suns went with a young talented coach in Mckenna.

Macca Okay so your an AFL/NRL fan then, much like myself. Doesn't change anything with regards to this topic. We can argue all we like on the validity of the audit I mentioned. The fact is even if this audit has been fudged to a certain extent, it does highlight the very fact on a commerical basis the notion of poaching 2 NRL stars does work financially from an advertising point of view. Whether this then translates to bums on seats and TV viewer ship, well only time will tell and that would be a very difficult thing to prove one way or another. The point about negative publicity you have taken the wrong way. I was pointing out how all the negative publicity the NRL has sustained over the past 3 years I believe has helped the code. It has given it some spot light attention, even down in Melbourne. Negative publicity is not always a bad thing if you can use it right, which is why I then made reference to the Ben Cousins situation. Please don't mention Tony Abbot either. Every time I hear his name, I have really bad images of him in lycra pants, it is not a good look. But on the subject of politics I will mention this. On Q&A nearly a year ago, Kevin Sheedy was one of the panelist along with Julia Gillard when she was still the Deputy. Do you know who got more air time talking crap and I call it crap because I'm not the biggest Sheedy fan. Sheedy, more people were interested in the AFL expansion than anything Gillard had to say. The main focus was on Folou for the better part of it and I must say he defended himself quite well considering. This was prime time viewing by a more sophisticated audience as apposed to the the bone heads who watch the NRL footy show. Nothing wrong with these people either, but it does show you how one issue can capture such a large diversity in a demographic TV audience.

Also doesn't your point regarding how powerful negative press is support my point that spending $10m on negative press (ie Hunt flops again or Suns get smashed) is worse than spending $3m on positive stories?

AFL Guru - Where on earth did you get the idea I am an NRL fan, I live in rural Victoria and support Carlton. As for PWC and the accuracy of the Audits it's more about the framing of the parameters to ensure the result is what the client wants, after all the AFL pay PWC massive amount of money and if the AFL were to get a "pie in the face" what do you think would happen to that money it would of gone to Delloittes or some other big 4 firm. It's just like the firm that "audited" Tony Abbott's books before the last election, they used different assumptions to the treasury and came up with the figures the Libs wanted, change the assumptions change the result.

Ohh Macca if indeed you are an accountant you WILL be fully aware that as a client you only want the research that demonstrated the answer you are after, infact the numbers may even be a little bit fudged. Does PWC do this, possibly, I'm not going to put a blanket statement out there on any company saying they do the right thing 100 percent of the time, but they are the most respected when it comes to large company audits. How do you get such a reputation? Simple, you need to show time and time again that you are reliable and credible. Did you also know that if PWC is approached for an audit they have to publicy announce that result for all to see regardless of whether the AFL wants it shown? I work in the medical field and when any credible research is conducted it must go through the gold standard of research which is random double blinded control trials. All research has to be submitted to the university which will be publishing the results, but the kicker is for it to be credible the results have to be published regardless of the results. This is to stop LARGE pharmaceutical companies from commissioning endless studies to prove one of their drugs works, at the same time negating negative press from all the negative studies. PWC does the same thing with large audits such as the one done for the AFL. Had that audit been negative it would have been pie in the face for the AFL, so you can say what you like about it my friend, but if you are an accountant then you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. As for the negative press. I would have thought as a NRL fan you would know just how powerful negative publicity can be for the game. Hell I don't think I've ever seen such negative press here in Sydney over the past 3 years when it comes to off field scandals in the NRL. I'll tell you one thing though. The AFL is much better at covering bad press up and using it to it's advantage. I'll site you one example. Ben Cousins the golden child of the AFL, brownlow medalist, premiership captain, one of the best to play the game, girls have him pinned up their walls, the poster child for all young teenages in AFL states. This was tragic, it realy was, not to see another drug addict fail, but such a tallent wasted. Unlike Johns, we didn't get to see such a tallent play an entire career. However... the AFL banned him for 12 months, he went away and cleaned, even made a 2 night programme about it which rated extemely well both in Melbourne and Sydney. The AFl 2 years ago promoted the return of Cousins with his life line at the Tigers. The first game of the year, CArlton vs Tigers usually attracks about 60 k crowd. This game attracted 89000 for one simple reason. The AFL gave the guy a second chance and used ALL the negative publicity around it and turned it to PURE GOLD. The fatal mistake you and many other NRL people are making is the fact you do not know how your negative comments can and WILL be turned to pure gold by the AFL. You keep thinking that, because thats exacly what the AFL wants.

Great so we get 55 minutes of league blokes bagging out the new expansion teams to league supporters how many tickets will that sell to the games? How many extra viewers does that generate? Not many in fact it is likely to have the exact opposite effect. There is a massive difference in what is termed "value", the value of the air time spent on the AFL because of the 2 defections in terms of cost of purchasing that air time might be high, but the actual value of that air time in terms of generating income isn't as high if it is all negative, spending $3m on positive stories would have much more impact than spending $10m to get negative air time The PWC analysis also didn't tkae into account the possibility that recruiting a decent mature age player say a crameri or a Duigan or a Curnow who might actually contribute to the side being competitive would lead to higher crowds because of the increased liklihood of success. And one last thing what will the "value" of the publicity be for the announcement that Hunt and Falou are returning to the NRL? I would also point out that as an accountant I am more than aware that firms like PWC get paid to d research and studies that demonstrates the answer the purchaser wants

Macca Did you know that Price Waterhouse Coopers did an audit on what they felt the media value was worth over a 4 week period following both Karmichael Dumps and Isfail Folous announcements. Well surfice to say this is what they valued the media at if the AFL had to pay for it (also money can't even buy some of the publicity it got). Karmichael Hunt: valued at 7.7 million dollars Isfail Folou: 8.5 million dollars The two of them if you read between the lines have cost the AFL about 1.8 million a season and I believe the dumps is a 3 year deal and Folou a 4 year deal. Now you do the maths my friend, but even if they never play a game they still have worked out financially and that's not including all the publicity since. I'll give you an example of recent publicity. A few weeks back on the MMM breakfast show hosted by Matty Johns they spoke about the first Suns game. The first thing Johns said was, "look this is a league talk back show so we don't want to harp on about the AFL for to long but did anyone see that pathetic performance from the Suns and the Dump?" The three of them then proceeded to talk about the AFL and all it's contraversy for 11 minutes before one of the unbiased journalist on the show said, "hey guys, do you realise that we have been talking about the AFL on a league talk back programme for over 10 minutes?" You would think that they would have ended it there but Matty Johns then said, "well we have started it we may as well finish our 2 cents worth". They proceeded to bag out the choice of Hunt for a further 5 minutes, thus illustrating further the stupidty of many of the NRL personalities and the wisdom employed by the AFL to help induce such debate on a league programme. The best one was when Folou got announced and Fatty on the footy show had to settle the panel down for such outrage at a second NRL player being poached. For 45 minutes on a 90-120 minute programme was devoted to this topic and about 30 minutes 12 months prior on the footy show with Hunts announcement. This is prime time HIGH rating TV we are talking, time slots the AFL could never haver bought even if they wanted to buy it. Now you tell me this MACCA. Do you think Andrew Demetriou is worth the 2 million dollars a year he is getting paid? I certainly do because he is a hell of a lot smarter and ruthless than David Gallop. people who think this little stunt is about poaching player tallent really are blind to the truth. Why pay 1 million a season to advertise on TV and the paper when you can spend 1 million on a player and generate 8.5 million. Ohh don't believe me though, go to Pricewaterhousecoopers website and check it out yourself. They are only the most respected third party audit company in Australia.

You can buy a lot of media coverage for what they are pating Hunt!!

How many Ian - I didn't see the game and want to know. And at least Toy will still be playing AFL in 3 years.

So the goal is to bankrupt the NRL? "Hunt is turning into a better than decent defender" How many goals has he had kisked on him so far this year? "Foloa is very simply being played out of position in the backline (dont overthink it, he’s big and tall and can jump and catch. Play him at full-forward)." - From everything I have heard he absolutely no game sense, how could he play as a forward if he doesn't know where to run?

Fez's are cool - Port Moresby! How could they afford a NRL licence - most of the population are living in poverty. Do they even have a stadium, and who could afford to go to the matches except the Australians living there. Christchuch won't be on any ones radar for over a decade, and there aren't many Polynesians living down there like there are in Auckland. I thought the Gold Coast had quite a large AFL following, especially with the Southport AFL club, very well off financially and with 40.000 members - although no doubt partly due to the evil poker machines.

"Not much of a [sic] Adelaide NRL groundswell." Unlike, I assume, the massive groundswell in the west of Sydney?

Contrary to popular opinion. I think poaching players can win you new fans. I was a one-eyed league fan until Dell, Rogers and Tiquiri went across to Union. I initially watching union to see how the players would go... and before you know it, I was playing Union at school and continue to watch the Rugby internationals and catch the occasional super 15s game. What helped, I suppose, was the similarity between the two games in gaining an appreciation for the 15 man code. Also the fact that I now work with old boys from GPS schools. I might be in the minority, but you can get the occasional fan here and there.

People still dont get it do they? Would an Ammo attract any attention in the QLD media for the Suns?

The flood of Essendon possession through the midfield was not Hunt's fault.