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I was propelled to write this article in light of AFL legend Dermott Brereton’s recent comments, where he seemingly fired a broadside at the NRL and its fanbase by suggesting GWS will win a premiership in five years, and in so doing would bring about the death of rugby league in Australia.
Of course, in Brereton’s eyes (and perhaps the eyes of the AFL), every code that is not Aussie Rules should be very scared of the AFL war machine that intends to roll itself across Australia, conquering everything in its path – the NBL, the A-League and even the Super Rugby. They should all watch their backs.
Here’s one very amateur journalist that is very indignant and un-phased by such blatant stirring.
It would be the fool that would say the AFL is not the marketing, financial juggernaut that it so obviously is, but just like any traveling sporting team, they are very much out of their depth when they’re playing away from their home ground of Melbourne and its suburbs.
You need only ask the boards of the Lions and Swans to feel the struggle radiating from their exhausted bodies.
The western suburbs of Sydney are not about to turn into a battlefield where the weapons are sponsorships and TV ratings, as the AFL and its spokespeople are hinting at.
To be perfectly frank, they are grossly under estimating not the popularity of league in Sydney, but the limitless amount of vitriol and ridicule Aussie Rules receives in NSW and Queensland.
I’m leaving you with a bit of homework: walk into any pub in the Sydney area, western suburbs or otherwise, and try and gauge not just the reception, but the understanding of the sport of Aussie Rules in the good people of NSW, as reluctant as I am to utter those words.
I would show incredible restraint in suggesting the same thing in Queensland, where the questioner is likely to walk into a barrage of tongue in cheek insults and humiliation, even in the streets of Woollangabba.
In conclusion, the man who puts it on the public record that he believes either football code in Australia will kill the other had better be prepared to look a bit foolish.
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