It’s that time of the year where the state and regional bodies begin to put out their annual reports. The first this year is AFL Sydney.
With Greater Western Sydney coming in 2012, along with the reputed ‘AFL invasion’, there are a few things of interest in the report.
In short, the Annual Report confirms what some of us have believed for some time: that Australian football is alive, well, and growing in the suburbs of Sydney.
In 2007, 19 clubs fielded 62 teams. The Sydney AFL now boasts 22 clubs fielding 78 teams. This is a far cry from the lows of 1998 when 38 teams took the field.
Where in 2007 total playing numbers were 2155, in 2011 they stand at 2914 (a 35 percent increase). The league has gone from seventeen to nineteen under-18 teams in the same time. Senior playing numbers have risen by 530 since 2008 (up 30 percent), and the under-18 teams have also risen by 114 (Up 20 percent).
Eleven clubs have at least four senior teams. The league itself is split into five divisions, and two under-18 divisions, with promotion and relegation systems for the lower divisions.
The annual report states that the AFL itself spent money improving facilities at Drummoyne Oval, Picken Oval, Pioneers Park, Gore Hill Oval, Hensen Park, Mahoney Park, Monarch Oval, and Olds Park.
For those claiming to have never seen an AFL oval, its also worth noting that 35 venues were used for AFL Sydney matches in 2011. The grand finals for all divisions were played at Blacktown.
AFL Sydney continues to benefit from some coverage on Foxtel with an hour-long highlights package shown on Foxtel’s Main Event channel prior to the Friday Night AFL broadcast.
Against this backdrop, the East Coast Eagles participated in the inaugural Foxtel Cup where they were duly slaughtered by Port Adelaide at the SCG, thereby confirming everyone’s suspicion that the league standard may not be as high as in other territories.
In 2012, they will again face off in the Foxtel Cup, although they start with what could be a relatively close match against QAFL club, Mt Gravatt.
East Coast Eagles – now Sydney Hills Eagles – will join Sydney University and the Swans and Giants reserves to form the Sydney AFL contingent in the 2012 NEAFL Season, featuring teams from the AFL ACT, and matches against clubs in the NEAFL (Northern Division).
In 2011, the Sydney area was represented only by the Swans reserves and the GWS Giants.
From its beginning as the New South Wales Football Association in 1903, through to its 1980 renaming as the Sydney Football League, to its present incarnation from 2009, Australian football continues to endure in the Sydney Area.
11 clubs took the field in 1903. Despite many clubs coming and going in the 108 years of its existence, the league is still here today.
With the arrival of Greater Western Sydney, and the continued work of the Sydney Swans, not to mention resources and funding from AFL House, it’s easy to believe that Australian football is driven purely by the big boys out of Melbourne.
The fact is there are thousands of Sydney-dwelling players, umpires, and club volunteers who are just as responsible for the growth of the game as anywhere else.
Yes, helped immensely by an AFL that in 2009 was lambasted by the Swans for not paying enough attention to Sydney, after leaving promotion of the game in the New South Wales capital entirely up to the Swans for years.
Helped along by the AFL spending money on facilities and promotion, but the backbone of the operation remains the people who go out to the grounds week in and week out. They staff the canteens, they operate the scoreboards, they umpire the goals, direct the parking, and God alone knows what else, to keep these clubs running.
That the number of teams and players is growing is undeniable. Will it take over Sydney? No. Will it be around another hundred years? Who knows what the sporting landscape will look like a hundred years from now. We can safely say, though, that the immediate future looks rosy for Australian football in Sydney.
Note: A minor correction to this article was made after updated information was provided by AFL NSW/ACT
Lachlan
Roar Guru
Upon the departure of the Gosford Tigers (WildCats) this year in the 1st Division (previously Reserves) and U18's a new team will be entered into their competitions Maitland Saints. Which means That'll take the total Newcastle based teams to 7 and Central Coast based teams to 3. In the U18's Singleton will be included (last year pulled out few weeks before season began). In the BD Cup (formerly First Grade) Nelson Bay will enter a team, taking the total of teams in the BD Cup to Newcastle 6 and Central Coast 3.
Jaceman
Guest
My point was that I'm not sure how much Rugby of either code was played during the war when you were at least half occupied for some of it and fully occupied for the rest of the time. The Vichy were ousted and despised after the war so I dont think the interruption to their game was as large as made out. But I wasnt there...Everyone had to rebuild after the war.
Redb
Roar Guru
Its taken awhile for AFL HQ to focus on the Sth Pacific but really this should be priority number one as far as overseas development.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Sheeds reckons Izzy is ready for round 1: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/afl/greater-wester-sydney-star-israel-folau-ready-for-round-one-kevin-sheedy/story-e6frexwr-1226246730335 GWS kicks off the season by hosting the NAB cup first round at Blacktown, in a triangular lightning format against Collingwood and the dogs on Feb 18 - I predict huge ratings on Fox.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Fruther to the AFL Englan National Conference, the latest news is that Scotland will enter IC14 in its own right, which might mean the end of the British Bulldogs. Not sure if Wales will follow suit, but with the game continuing to grow there, they probably will.
stabpass
Guest
@ TC and TW. Day 2 resumed to a bit more normality with the 3 traditional strong areas of Murray, Riverina and ACT South coast all winning. http://www.aflnswact.com.au/index.php?id=5&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=848&tx_ttnews[backPid]=4&cHash=17cee96725 If you are interested in seeing where the squad members come from , this link will tell you, there is plenty of scope for new teams to enter this comp, Northern Coast for EX picks players from the central coast all the way to the border, Sydney South, from south of the harbour to around Kiama, these are areas with huge population bases. http://www.aflnswact.com.au/index.php?id=5&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=843&tx_ttnews[backPid]=4&cHash=33c5f063de
The Cattery
Roar Guru
TW thanks for the link, these are amazing results: Sydney South 4.5 (29) def Murray 3.3 (21) Western Sydney 7.4 (46) def Riverina 3.2 (20) two years ago, Murray and Riverina would have been giving their Sydney opponents a drubbing - it really is a reflection of what has happened in two short years. It's just the start.
TW
Guest
Back on the original topic of this thread -- The Joss AFL NSW State Championships are being held in Coffs Harbour again ATM. Something has emerged at this comp that is very encouraging for the future growth of footy in Sydney and it reveals the positive influence the formation of GWS has had, in its very short life. Give the club another 5/10 years and its influence will have grown further on our sport up there. Traditionally the southern regions of Murray and Riverina in NSW have dominated the Champs. However "times are a changin" it seems. Read on --- http://www.coffscoastadvocate.com.au/story/2012/01/16/rain-doesnt-spoil-afl-trials/
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Following on from TW's post above,which refers to the AFL's desire to limit their international development to Sth Africa, PNG and the Pacific Islands, here is an alternative view coming out of AFL England's National Conference 2011, which goes over accomplishments for 2011, and plans for 2012. http://www.worldfootynews.com/article.php/20120113235036934 AFL Great Britain will change its name to AFL England, to along side the already existing WARFL and SARFL. AFL Europe now covers 21 countries, with 16 full members and five associates. Plan to have the European Legion U21s play the AIS-AFL team on an annual basis. Discussion on a junior academy and improving umpiring standards. The cost of the GB Bulldog's partiicpation in IC11 came to nearly 60k pounds.
Jaceman
Guest
Vanuatu is a good get because they are smaller Melanesian people rather than larger Polynesian. I think the AFL has been burnt before on O/s expansion where they fund a comp in a country only to see the comp flounder after a few years.. What is this Westpac game in 12 days?? - Remember the AFL put money into Westapc Stadium.. I think the Pacific expansion was tied when the stars aligned ie TV rights deal, NSW/QLd expansion in 2010-12 and of course the fortuitous arrival of Hunt (Hunts girlfriend/fiancee brother AFL Harding) and Folau growing up in SW Sydney - fantastic alignment of events...
The Cattery
Roar Guru
this is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srOLWVXwxSI
The Cattery
Roar Guru
There's a few of these clips floating around from IC11, here is the South African team warming up before one of the finals. The singing is beautiful of course, but just as beautiful is watching a non-Australian team go through the sort of warm you'd see by many aussie rules teams, short passing the footy left and right foot, taking it cleanly in front of the eyes, even spinning the footy in the hands to make sure you kick it laces out - when you start doing that sub-consciously - you know you're a footballer. Now these blokes are low amateur standard, so I'm not trying to overstate things, but there's clearly something there to work with. The beauty of it is that 10 years ago, there wouldn't have been a team like this coming out of South Africa.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
The AFL dedicates next to nothing on overseas development, so what little it does spend, has to be targetted for best bang for buck. At the moment, that means Sth Africa, PNG and a few of the other Pacific islands (Nauru, Fiji, Tonga and Vanuatu). They already have good advantages. South Africa already has some provincial government support, plus the use of ovals. PNG and Nauru have a good grounding in the game, and places like Tonga, Fiji and Vanuatu have shown good numbers and good onfield results in a very short space of time, plus we already have close links with these places.
Fitzy
Guest
I think biggest problem for Nth America and nth hemisphere is that if they play they are playing after collage football so theres no real juniors. Juniors is after all the way to go, I would like them to conduct a 2-5 year experiment in somewhere like LA set up 6 auskick clinics and see if the kids and parents want to play competitive footy. If it works on small scale then expand but close to that area and say 6 auskick centres every 2 years. No use trying to build Rome in a day. After all took easy 100 years before people started playing in Nth America.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
What Kevin Sheehan is saying is plain common sense, we are too small to look at a lot of areas at once. PNG could match Queensland and NSW for playing talent in the very near future, and the development in a few Pacific Islands in just a few short years is nothing short of astounding, it's in our neighbourhood, it's cost effective and we already have two years of Pacific championships to build on. With South Africa, the fact that it's based in a few provinces is a good thing - you need a bit of concentration to get a decent critical mass - that's better than having a few players scattered far and wide who can't play against each other. The other impressive thing about South Africa is that they too have come a long way in a short space of time with very few ex-pats involved (almost none). Very encouraging. To double participation overseas from 100k to 200k in the next five years is very achievable.
TW
Guest
This will be off topic but is about expansion and I consider NSW and QLD as "new territories" for our game. It appears that finally the AFL has decided to really concentrate on the South Pacific and South Africa for mass talent expansion. Kevin Sheehan the AFL Talent Manager has come out and said publicly that the Northern Hemisphere is a bit too hard for mass talent growth - He included Ireland, USA and Canada in those comments. This of course will not rule out some talent from those regions. A figure of 100,000 international players was quoted which will include Auskick programs which is not mentioned in the article. The mention of South Africa was a surprise to me because our game over there appears to be anchored in 4 Provinces for quite a while. Does this mean a renewed expansion over there. The South Pacific is a no brainer - And just 12 days to that match at Westpac Stadium in Wellington which is a big breakthrough for Aussie Rules over there- It takes the game from the open parklands and fields of NZ to a first class enclosed Stadium. Link to article on the South Pacific push http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl/pacific-the-target-for-expansion/story-e6frecjc-1226244409907
The_Wookie
Roar Guru
Punter, would it be wrong to assume thats becasuse the lower echelons of the soccer community are paying for a lack of funds at the top? Or is there some other reason for it?
Punter
Guest
Registration in my area Manly Warringah for football outstrips all other sports in the area put together. You can put our A-League attendances down in comparison to the AFL attendances, you can put our shameless adminstration (especially pre 2004, but even since) compared to AFL admin. But for participation (soccer mums, like playing football watching AFL, don't really care), but we win hands down & you cannot compete. Imagine if the FFA were smart enough instead of charging liked a wounded bull for registration, especially those good enough to make rep sides, they made it cheap to play, how many more players they would have & add a players pass to an A-League match to boot. What I like about the GWS side, is they are aware the need to spend to make it a success, football in this country also needs to spend.
Punter
Guest
The_Wookie
Roar Guru
I remember telling my exwife that i would pay for our sons club registrations and his soccer registration and gear came to about 480 for the year, because it turns out he was half decent he qualified for rep soccer...and had to pay more for the privelige. He was in a rugby program at his school which just got cancelled, and will be fronting up for a local Australian football club next year with fees totalling...$60. (hes in under 15s)