Australian football has more solutions than problems

it was a state school, it happened every year in primary school.

Roger, the biggest troll on here is UK(sic) Steve. As much as people got stuck into Fussball a few months ago for questioning some VFL crowd figures, this guy I can almost guarantee will be on this site every day come October with "proof, PROOF I tell you "that soccer IS dying" because of the Gold Coast United's poor crowd figures. Funny thing is, there are Aussie Rules fans from all over Australia, Adelaide, Perth etc, but it only seems to be the Melburnian VFL clowns that consistently peddle the Soccer is dead or dying mantra and one has to wonder if they are doing it so we can hear it or for their own ears? It seems to me to be a peculiar blend of arrogance and insecurity bordering on psychosis in its blending. FWIW Here's my detailed tip for s7 crowd wise: we can come back to this next year and see how I did I suppose:): the theme for s7 will be: a season of continued evolution rather than big bang revolution. less mid week games(MWG) equals a better overall HAL average the historical data shows that only Adelaide recorded similar crowds for mwgs as for wkend games, all other teams suffered drops at the box office at mwgs. leaked versions of this seasons draw have less mid week games which will help with more fans getting to the games IMO. Hopefully this year will also see a Summer of less rain especially in NSW/SEQ and perhaps some level of promotion from the FFA?. Thus from historical evidence and allowing for the changes of this year to take effect(less midweek games etc) I predict a decrease in aggregate attendance(one less club of course is logic at play) and a corresponding slight rise in average attendance Club by club: AU 11.5k same as previous 2 seasons, ave only a modest increase - depends on how many games are scheduled for AdOval instead of Hindmarsh Stadium. BR 11k a good increase based on better pricing this year, the very sexy football last year leading to s6 championship MV 17k about the same as last year, a slight increase if they get the 2 home derbies rather than MH MH 8k a slight decrease if they only get one home derby vice last years 2 home derbies NUJ 9k a slight increase (less mwg) and better community promotion on the back of Tinkler's takeover WP 8k a slight increase for the same reasons already given. SFC 8.5k this is probably my most optimistic prediction given the harbour city's shocking record of crowd support in any code when placed against other cities in Australia. Wouldn't be surprised to see a few crowds in the 5k range from the sky blues:( CCM 8k a slight increase same reasoning as above PG 10k a slight increase based on less MWG GCU will get a GRAND TOTAL of 60,000 attendees this coming season over 13 games giving an average of 4615-odd. How did I get that number? Last year they had an aggregate of 51k over 15 home games. = ave 3434 in a season of such shocking weather with mwg this year just has to be better(I guess you could call me an optimist. 4.5k is still a better average than very many old NSL clubs..figures to come Monday when I finish crunching them. Overall prediction The culling of NQ Fury will drop off the 65k who attended in Townsville, leaving an aiming point of 1.15million fans over 100 games leaving a season average of approx 11,500 per game. If football were to achieve this it would still not be a record average(14,610 in s3), but would hopefully put an end to the downward trend over the last 2 seasons and the 'bump' would put the death-riders back in their box. Again, call me an optimist:) but I firmly believe that this season will be a turning point for the better for the domestic game in Australia. Even the Eurosnobs were hard pressed to fault the quality of Brisbane's football last year and those that watch the game every year will tell you that the standard has improved every year that the league has played. There is no obvious reason that cant continue. My prediction based on the evidence and historical figures so far is to see s3 14,610 1,227,853 s4 12,180 1,023,147 * high water mark* s5 9,796 1,322,475 s6 8,393 1,384,857 * historic low point average and high point in aggregate* s7 11,000+ 1,200,000 * predicted bounce in average* No reasonable person could conclude a radically different outcome or even render sane judgement on my predictions until the end of season 7 unless they have insider knowledge of the s7 fixture I am not privvy to.

Grand final colouring competitions? I wish I had gone to that school, sound like fun.

Thanks for the input PeterK. Well I live in Melbourne, have my whole life. Never been a fan of the AFL, matches bored me to tears as I could never see a real strategy - just a rabble of highly gifted athletes chasing a ball and kicking it across the field hoping for the best. For a long time I didn't think I was a sports fan because I didn't like AFL, even though it was forced down my throat throughout my school years "Ok class, everyone use the colours of your AFL club for this activity" or "What, you don't go for anyone? Where are you from? Ok, you go for Footscray", Grand Final colouring competitions, etc etc. What's my point? AFL is deeply ingrained in the Melbourne culture, and whether it's a conscious thing or not, we are trained to be AFL fans from the get go. If that's not keeping other codes down, I don't know what is. And dare I say (at the risk of being attacked), it doesn't stop at the overall culture.

Well it seems that every second AFL fan I see here on the Roar has the attitude of "soccer must die/is dead/only a matter of time/AFL is the only important code/[insert ridiculous belief here]" But I guess perhaps that it's mainly the trolls who venture onto the Football section of the Roar.

UK steve. When and here's the kicker you get back to me when Aussie Rules represents my nation seriously.

Bondy - all that says to me is that soccer is mainly an immigrant sport in Australia. Those 9 players had parents that came from soccer playing countries and they are just playing the sport that their father's played. It is nothing special that soccer is doing in Australia. If millions of Aussies immigrated to a country then you would probably see Aussie Rules clubs popping up everywhere.

UK steve. Nine of the eleven who qualified for the 2006 World Cup who played in Sydney against Uruguay came from multicultural backgrounds. To me that illustrates modern multicultural Australia thats something that other sports hope to achieve in what 30-40 years time.

Would it be fair to say that those 50% of socceroos from AFL heartland states come from Southern European immigrant families? I don't think that soccer or rugby league people from Western Sydney need to be overly concerned about the AFL for the time being. The AFL are probably targeting the next generation. The AFL push has probably made everyone raise their game a bit which is good for supporters of all codes. Yep, CL final in about an hour and it is sunny skies in Southern England, which is good news.

UK steve , You know i have cable to watch football, UK steve A.F.L. has no overall bearing on my life i dont go onto their thread, im not into ratings and generally dont know how many turn out for it. I'll just make a point with the A.F.L.s push into the Western Suburbs of Sydney it bears no relevance on my sport , why because 50% of the Socceroos have come from traditional A.F.L. heartland states Vic and Adl for the past 30 years and the rest of the Socceroos have primarily and ironicaly have come from the Western Suburbs of Sydney i think you know that the A.F.L. doesn't frighten us we may taunt one another here at times but who's shi**ing themselves about the A.F.L. UK steve where DO you reside by the way. Sport can be complicated what if i was to say to you when the Gold Coast Football Club play in the A League what if in my eyes i see 50,000 there. Another hour or two and the European Cup will be on steve.

Buckley was Demetrius right hand man. Work it out you non amalgamating Euros

I'm not concerned about A League crowds on the Gold Coast, I just made a comment about the crowd at the GCS v Geel game. Didn't mention the Gold Coast Fury(?). Seems to me that soccer supporters are overly concerned about AFL crowds and tv figures. As soon as a game gets a poor crowd or poor tv figures, they can't wait to make a comment. Can't believe you don't have cable! Does this mean that you don't watch any A League matches?

UK steve. Look i believe your from the United Kingdom steve (cough) , but what i do find perplexing is that your concerned about how many people turn up to a game of A League football on the Gold Coast, when you suggest your watching A.F.L. form somewhere in the U.K. it's bizarre behaviour, do you count how many people who attend the French Tennis Open ?.

Actually it was live on ESPN in the UK. How's that for making a connection with another country?

UK steve. I hope your enjoying your game unfortunately i dont have cable tv so i'll take you word for it. Their not secretly giving tickets away again are they. Gold Coast F.C .will be ready for H.A.L. season 7 , you know that steve because your waitng to count the crowd numbers . I shall be off i'll leave you to make a connection with the rest of the world steve.

To be fair, its probably I long while since many of them have had a chance to watch a game of AFL locally since they moved up from the south.

Kasey. Good question, remember the Boateng brothers Jerome and Kevin both played in our pot at the World Cup,but for different Countries, but Bernie will know and realise that there is no greater Nation or opportunity than to play for Australia. Which wasn't the case 10 years ago.

Thanks Titus, see this is the sort of thing that marks me as 100%fan and would prevent me from becoming a proper football journo/analyst! After all my years of following football, I still don't know what goes through a lad's head when he has the chance to don the Green n Gold, to represent our great country, but he can't "makeup his mind and commit" to it. Bloody hell, I'd give my left nut to be in the same situation,and you'd better believe I'd be busting my hump to improve until I earned a senior Socceroos call-up. I mean its not like we're still stuck in the beat up on the coconut-nations of OFC then fall to Uruguay/Argentina, never get to the World Cup 4 yearly international cycle we used to be! Australia or Nigeria, If Bernie hasn't, someone should throw him a copy of the great book about African football "Elephants Lions & Eagles"by Filippo Maria Ricci for a lesson in just how messed up and chaotic African football is and it surely wouldn't be a difficult choice:)

Yeah, I think he can still switch if he does it before he is 21.

Roger, apart from a few complete tools, the Roar has comparatively few "who cares it's only Soccer" and "I cant wait to see Soccer die" type of AFL-trolls. I actually find this site only occasionally frustrating in that way. You would expect AFL fans to stick up for their code if someone takes a pot shot at it. Peter Wilson is very passionate, but I sometimes think he lets his passion for football cloud his observations of Aussie Rules Footy. I'm going to be very interested when s7 of the HAL kicks off in October to see how many death-riders we see appear on this site studiously analyzing every tidbit of attendance/TV rating data to 'prove' to us how "soccer"is dying and that we should all just give it up. Australian Rules football is an interesting code of football to watch, but I much prefer the SANFL to the 18 on 18 stylized outdoor basketball that I feel the AFL's constant rule tweaks have turned that comp into. Add to that the hopelessly compromised fixturing and endless quest to "out maxtreme each other (isn't this just the BEST game you've EVER seen Dennis?etc, every week it seems!) and I just couldn't be more turned off the AFL if they had set out to do so. I think I'll stick to my beautiful world football, with occasional trips to my local SANFL ground in between HAL seasons to tide me through the long off seasons:( At least last year we had the World Cup to watch/attend in the HAL off season!