Swans upbeat ahead of AFL finals: Mumford

I don't know if any one has noticed, but in relation to about 90% of all sport played across the globe - ain't really a lot of people paying good money to watch it (except maybe for big one off events). We can conclude that for the most part, humans find the majority of sports played across the globe as quite boring, and would happily watch a 1940s war movie for the 10th time than watch most sports out there. There are exceptions of course. There are sports out there with a capacity to galvanise a whole nation. To encourage hundreds of thousands to turn out to games, not just as a one off, but on a weekly basis for six months of the year, with millions more watching on TV on a weekly basis. Quite obviously, such sports will attract the commercial spoils. That's the way things work in a market economy such as ours. If large enough numbers of people wish to pay for something, then what it is that they are paying for will flourish, and everyone else will fall by the wayside. In Melbourne, the corner milk bar has been a victim of the modern economy, and that is more worthy of our sympathies than most of the world's sports which attract no interest in this country. The people have spoken. TC

Secretly I love the game!!!!! Can't help myself.

Need to give it a few years, but the derbies should do well in Sydney and Bris.

That was in 1996. Move on. Been trolling the AFL ever since. :)

@jVGO, is there something wrong with you, i never stated that sailing and rowing are girly sports, i stated that they are private school sports, and i stand by that statement, and FWIW great sports to particiapte in but in reality not great to watch. Please pay attention, and if anyone is small minded, it's you, and i will say it again, your argument is shallow and flawed. I guess you can go back to manning the barricades at Birchgrove Oval and checking kids football to see whether they are the right shape or insignia on them.

Brewski. look at the evidence regarding the impact of AFL and RL/RU respectively on our other international sports. It seems pretty clear to me what the respective effects are despite your unsupported denials and clearly dominate across the board. The AFL states are of course clearly very good at...yes...AFL.

I just read that 7Mate is currently in second spot amongst the multis (up from 4th last year). No doubt, the AFL's very good ratings in Sydney and Brisbane are part of that mix. Also, Fox Footy has dominated Fox ratings since the start of the footy season, being the most watched pay channel every single week by a country mile (in some weeks getting double the aggregate ratings of its nearest rival). Sydney and Brisbane make up about 24% of all Fox metro ratings, and thus both cities are making a significant contribution to Fox Footy being number one. With AFL games being the highest rating shows on Fox the past two weeks, this effectively translates to Sydney and Brisbane providing 80,000 of those viewers for each of those games the past two weeks. That's pretty good. TC

IW, my contention is rather that Sydney should be allowed to get on with the sports in which it has always carried the load without the obsessive badgering by southerners who know little if anything of these sports, and currently contribute even less, and who somehow feel we don't play enough AFL.The fact is that Sydney more than holds its own in AFL anyway. And I mean seriously calling rowing (even though we didn't win any gold medals in it) a girly sport, and also sailing which is a brilliant Sydney pasttime. Most of the derogatory BS comes from them and other small minded individuals like you IW.

@ Ian, JVGOs argument is incredibly shallow and flawed, and your first point is the crux of the whole matter. No-one can complain about AF robbing our international sports whilst having RL as your favourite sport. The fact is that this country is blessed with so many sports and the different options available to kids.

People, remember that 1. You are only allowed to play sports JVGO likes, and 2. FTA ratings for AFL in Sydney will clearly make it unable to get a $200m pa TV deal.

Brewski, you are getting yourself too worked up over the AFL in Sydney again. so worked up that you missed the whole olympics aand thought we won gold medals in rowing. Sorry Brewski but that was NZ which is not part of Australia that did that. Anyway I don't hate AFL, I think it is a great part of Melbourne life, and those other places too, I mean what would those AFL in Sydney obsessed desperados have to do without it? But your insistence that we don't play enough AFL to satisfy you doesn't make sense. Sydney already kick your butts in the AFL and yet we have all these other sporting responsibilities too, and if we don't look after them who will, sure as hell not you.

JVGO - yes, it is true that England were quite powerful in league in the 50's and 60's - which makes it even sadder to league supporters to see how far it has fallen internationally the stronger the NRL has become, to the extent that France, who were also once a force, are now 250-1 to win the world cup. I am not advocating for AFL to become an elitist sport and have commented a few times how they and Rugby should get out to the Western Suburbs, but it is there for the long haul and at present the strongest support is in the more affluent suburbs. Punter, the northern beaches may have more of a league presence because of Manly, but since the Bears left, the rest of the North has declined league wise.

Whilst that may be true JVGO, it certainly is not the case anymore. So you can stop this whole 'Sydney doesn't care about defeating Melbourne suburbs and insignificant towns (Adelaide, Perth), we care about the international sporting scene'. Because it would appear that you care about neither. Rugby League and to a lesser degree Rugby Union is part of the culture so you take a passing interest and might flick on the TV, outside of that the support is not great. By the way I never suggested that Sydney will or should become an AFL city, it obviously is never going to happen, but stop putting the AFL down for being a domestic competiton, the NRL is exactly the same, albeit a not as successful one. And I would argue your point that Sydney does what it does very well, it is put forward as the face of Australia because it is the oldest and most iconic of citities, but people from overseas would seldom have much of an idea about the inner-workings of the place. They see the harbour, the beaches and the opera house, and get painted this picture. In reality, that is but a small part of Sydney, a part that is inhabited with rich people who do not really seem to follow sport all that much. The real Sydney is the urban sprawl out west, the cesspool choc full of shootings and drugs. You can keep it. I would say the real teller would be what people within Australia think of the place, for they're the ones that know a bit more about the place. And the facts would tell you that less and less are travelling to Sydney, and more and more are holidaying in Melbourne. (and I don't even live in Melbourne).

@ JVGO, under 20's basketball Victoria has won the last 3, Victoria Under 16s, 8 out of the last 11, including last 3. But at any rate, do you have a day off from patrolling the streets of leichardt looking for sherrins to pop, your arguement is doomed for failure because the sport you follow is hardly any more international than than the sport you hate, yet you decry it because of its lack of international status. You or your ridiculous argument is not dinkum. But you got it right with one of your statements .... Sydney is different LOL.

@ Clipper, I live on the Northern beaches & this is very much to my despair as a football fan a very much a Rugby League area.

Sorry Michael, but RL is an international sport and for the majority of its existence Great Britain dominated Australia in the rivalry, particularly in the era when RL entrenched itself as the dominant professional sporting code in Sydney and it drew huge crowds to international matches. You may think it is a joke but it nevertheless appears to be real. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ashes_(rugby_league) The consistently biggest drawing events in Sydney would be RU internationals by the way Michael. Anyway Sydney is just different from everywhere else in Australia and figuring out why it is like that may involve some thinking or some sort of historical analysis or maybe even living here or growing up here or something Michael. Believing that it will become monotonously AFL obsessed in the way that Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne are is fairly naive I'd suggest. By all means do what you always do but get over the fact that Sydney does what it does, we in fact do it pretty well, people from all over the world seem to think so, except for people from Melbourne of course.

Clipper, promoting AFL as a sport for the rich and the elite is the surest way to irrelevance in Sydney. Maybe this is why the Swans crowds have declined by 30% over the last 5 years even though they are now a consistent premiership threat. AFL is becoming increasingly and relentlessly elite, as is RU with the Waratahs. They are in a death grapple spiralling toward the ultimate in elitism Clipper when there will be just you and whoever else you can find in the couple of pubs that you visit.

JVGO you are a joke. I love this 'international' line that Sydney likes to push. The most popular sport is League - this is not international. You can carry on all you like, outside of the north of Engalnd and the south of Aukland no one cares. If you really cared about the international sporting scene than Soccer, tennis, basketball would be the main sports. But they're not. Rugby league is, because it's been inbred in the culture, just like Aussie rules has been in Melbourne. But this is all beside the point, because the original point was that Sydney does not support it's teams to the same degree as the other capital cities.

Punter - it all depends where you are in Sydney. I was at a pub during the Swans - Hawks game and the interest was great enough for it to be on the big screen and have the league relegated to the smaller screen. As Michael reiterates the point I often make 'Outside the western suburbs, league isn’t that big. The people with money from the inner-city, east and north don’t care for it much.'

Not true Brewski, your facts as usual are completely unreliable. NSW Metro failed to win the Australian U18 Basketball Championships since we won in my year in 1977, but NSW Metro has won the last 3, hence the dominance of NSW boys in the current Emus squad. It seems something has suddenly changed as the Vic Metro women are still dominant, although NSW Metro won this year, the Vic Girls still dominate the national teams. http://www.basketball.net.au/index.php?id=423 The real reason that Sydney is not that interested in AFL is simply that its focusd is elsewhere on a myriad of international sports and rivalries. the idea of beating Geelong or Essendon in anything hardly gets the pulse racing for any Sydney person. This is historically part of Sydney's character. We are the oldest colony and our great rivalry was always with the British in those sports, not with the other colonies. Sydney is an international city that looks outward and which is the focus for people overseas when they think of Australia. It leads the way and represents Australia on the international stage. PS Brewski when describing girly sports AFL is pretty high up on the list of girly sports for Sydney people so I wouldn't really try and point the finger like that. And by the way we didn't win any gold medals in rowing in London but you probably didn;t notice because you were busy with the AFL. Did they even bother showing the Olympics in the Southern States Brewski? Why would you want to watch all those NSW & Qlders anyway when the footy is on.