Baby steps in AFL for Sheedy's Giants

the facts are, where are we going with this afl expansion. what benefits is it giving back to the nation. do we have international games against countries such as europe or say south america. the excitement of a world cup, competing against the might of the world. people crowding bars ,casinos, sporting venues. look at the excitement that was felt by the whole nation in the 2006 world cup. there was a REAL GOOD FEELING AND A COUNTRY THAT EMBRACED THE SOCEROOS AND MADE A NATION FEEL PROUD. this email is not about afl bashing its simply facts. afl is a provincial game and will always be. it was born in melbourne and its simply a victorian game. kind of like the tasmanian tiger only lives in tasmania and its a tasmanian tourist attraction. 1.2 billion dollars to the afl. this is a tragedy. we could be developing world class football players , but instead we are just inflating andrew demetrious ego swimming in his little goldfish bowl that he is the best sports ceo in the world. lets get real.

i cannot be the only person to see the irony in this post, not so long after the memorable thread you started on the afl and its pokies.

I've been vindicated by the gambling population. Carlton is money back to beat GWS Giants this weekend - that is, if you bet $1 on them to win you just get back your dollar. Or put another way, GWS is 100% certain to lose, according to AFL punters.

If they put a third team in Sydney before they put a third team in WA I will burn down AFL House.

A third team in WA should be based in Mandurah IMO, playing out of a smaller stadium (Rushton Park) and catering to the growing population of WA'S southwest. This would distinguish it from the 2 Perth teams, the only other option is Joondalup and that is essentialy another Perth team.

Bhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. correction the NRL were poorly organized..till now .we have some very smart people on the IC After they negotiate a great deal for RL then they will set about fixing the problems in & out of the game. 3rd Sydney team.. Oh my.

Within 20 years the Giants will be the 2nd largest football club in the Sydney metro area after the Swans AFL team. Most reasonable people who acknowledge this as a given. The reason is NRL is just poorly organized and AFL is capitalizing on it. Soccer is just a mess at club level and union is a private school boy game. Might even take less than 20 years. Question is, will there be a 3rd AFL team in Sydney within 20 years?

Given there were a lot of travelling fans in their colours were amongst the 19k just how many non aligned Tasmanians attended the game anyway?

People might be aware that the game on Saturday was the Prime Minister's Cup, or something, and she was on hand to present it to Matty Boyd. On the day, she also announced that the Federal Government was matching the ACT Government's $2.5 million to install broadcast quality lights at Manuka. Not only will this allow Manuka to host night games, but opens the door for a Canberra BBL team. It's destined for 2013, you'd have to think that Canberra is a shoe in for the next expansion of the BBL, and finally, Canberra will home to a cricket team in a national competition, after at least one false start.

Wow thats good as Victor Harbours population is only about 12,000 and wangaratta's is 17,000. People in the east probably do not realise how fast these cities are growing - mandurah's population has increased ten fold since 1990, Bunbury has more than doubled, Busselton has tripled. As Perth is a very expensive city to live in and WA having strong interstate migration figures these cities populations are increasing even further. Expect the south west, traditionally a very strong breeding ground for AFL footballers, to be home to half a million people by 2025. Certainly makes more sense than the suggested northern perth suburb of joondalup for the 3rd WA team.

MFB from your perspective, yes, perhaps you're right. But I think you probably fit into the JVGO school of thought that the only important sports are the ones you like personally, and everyone else should fit because, well, just because!

Thanks for the link. I agree that 3,124 ACT members is probably a fair proportion of the 8,804 total memberships sold. They'll probably get to 9,000 by the cut off, maybe 9,500, and then it's probably a battle to keep them all for the second season, because your'e going to lose 10 to 15% straight away with your usual churn rate. It will be a long, slow, hard slog. The game in two weeks time against the Suns might be a beauty, both young teams, and GWS will have the belief that they can go with the Suns for the full match - well worth watching that one.

The honest truth is that no one really knew what a Giants vs Bulldogs fixture at Manuka would mean. I hoped for 10k, if fell a fraction short, but it could have been any number, it could have been half that - who knows what to expect?? It was 2,400 better than what turned out at Blacktown, so I guess that's a plus.

preaseason games at Victor Harbor have got 10,000, and dont forget Wangaratta sold out for 11,000. Dont think we're expanding to these areas on that basis though

well they kept getting the same crap teams - the Bulldogs arent an awe inspiring team.

I think Gold Coast and Tasmania would have been a better fit this time around, and GWS in a few more years. Tasmania would have made the money that Gold Coast is expected to lose, meaning that from a revenue standpoint at least, we could have had GWS within 5 years.

I think my sarcasm detector broke

The AFL has some input when it comes to marketing and presumably overall expenditure, but internal working and recruitment for the club would be handled in house.

well apparently bagging the AFL makes you a special kid, why cant we all feel special together.

Because it makes him feel special.