Is Parramatta Eels' pain Western Sydney Wanderers' gain?

Someone can correct me if im wrong but for a long long while now Parra"s emphasis in improving their premiership chances was to buy stars ' rather then look to /develop their own juniors to lift the general quality of the side - i would hazzard to say that this approach has had long term negative consequences for them and there seems yhat it will be very long time for this to get any better even if they start doing the right things now

That my honest experience too DCO. Whenever there's an article about NRL expansion, or NRL broadcast deal or NRL stadium use...those articles mention the AFL almost obsessively. The same does not apply in reverse.

GCS made money last year and that loss over 10 years includes Auskick etc. The Storms junior budget went to the players pockets illegally I seem to remember during the salary cap fiasco.. It appears there are less adult RL teams in Melbourne than 10 years ago

I think my examples show a distinct farifax bias whereas yours are just mythical. Can you explain my examples then??. What Fitz writes once a week is irrelevant to the coverage the rest of the week and even RL writers were bagging RL for certain events over the years. You remind me of the labour politician Egan many years ago that said the herald wasn't biased because the editorial said don't vote for State Labour on election day. He neglected the fact that Labor had got favourable coverage in the rest of the paper for 4 years (of course the Telegraph has the other point of view). You cant comment on Melbourne media because you live in Sydney and don't watch all of it. or get the printed versions of the paper. I would take resident Boomshanka's view over yours (just)..

The thread was about Parra's pain and WSW gain, so my pertinent point was that part of the WSW gain has been from the NRL focusing all their energy into anti GWS tirades and ignoring the threat that WSW posed, thereby giving the WSW an easy ride into the western suburbs - much as I've been saying for a few months now, so it's encouraging that others, like kellet, share my view that Football is gaining in the west. Whether the gain continues if Parra start winning themselves is open to speculation.

a lot being said about A League struggling because unlike NRL, AFL and Super Rugby it's not the best in the world. GWS is one of the top 16 Aussie Rules teams in the world. why does it struggle to pull in even half decent crowds despite this status? Panthers are similar in world wide standing but can rarely get 5 figure crowds. are Sydneysiders just stupid and unaware of the excellence right on their doorstep?

So, you retract it, and then you restate it, LOL, apologies that you were seriously offended by me calling you a fruitcake. LOL

CC: having lived in Sydney, Melbourne and London for more than five years each, I think your points are absolutely ill-informed. Clear Anti-AFL chip on your shoulder. Ask 99% of Melbournians and Londoners what code wars means and they wouldn't be able to tell you. Come to SYD, and the masses that support the city's number one code, RL, froth at the mouth when any code war conversation starts up, particularly by the most sensationalist paper in the country, DT.

If name calling and getting away with it on a rl thread rocks your boat Mark so be it.It does little for your statusand is plain childish.. FFS more than 40% as cited by Matthews repeat more than 40% accounted for by Canberra ,whilst 14 local area GWS managed 25%. If you can show me that more than 15% are from the rest of Sydney to at least match or exceed Canberra ATT,go ahead and make my day. And being a rl fan,won't lower myself to call you names.Nor would I deem to do likewise on an AFL thread. So retract the name calling.

Please Horatio.I am not about to provide you with years of recording the Offisiders . I am specifically @ aiming my thrust at the Offsiders as I watch it regularly B) the fact that positive and promo stories about rl are far less prevalent in Melbourne than vic versa in Sydney for the AFL. Where have I praised Masters ,some of his work is cringeworthy.I admitted to a couple of the AFL snipers here that Masters has a shot at AFL,sometimes he is way out of line,sometimes he is correct. I have on many occasions stated the SMH has a leaning toward ru and to a lesser degree AFL. The Herald of late has been more user "friendly IMO than in the past. Did you bother to note my point Ïf you get the media on side you are nearly home and hosed. I can take also articles at random to reinforce my point eg Weidler and his continual promo work on Danks and the sharks(my club) I provided on a prior post a detailed list of examples,none of which was contested by AFL posters.You have given me two examples ,which have zilch to do with Melbourne media. The Storm were sarcastically supposed to average 3,000 when they first came into existence.Averages are taken over 12 games not a selective few. The Rebels are domiciled in a city where ru has had a far bigger presence than rl for years.FitzSimons advised us ,their crowds would exceed the Storms from day one and the storm would be relocated to the Central Coast.The gent in question regularly contributes to the SMH and regularly bags rugby league..So much for bias.

" CC, i said Sydney, not Western Sydney friutcake, the split is roughly 3,000 in Canberra, 8,000 in Sydney, 1,000 elsewhere, country NSW, Vic etc. Your info is obviously from last year, they have an extra 2/3k of memberships this year. Retract your statement.

Your mate double dutch noted"the thread is about soccer and somehow the AFL got dragged into it".Then starts raving on about usual NRL suspects doing so.The usual suspects did not simple as that. So perhaps he needed to be made aware of the fact,that no rl fan started it. In fact the initial offering /story made no mention of it. The thread was about Parra's pain and WSW gain I would have thought.

So she effing doesn't like the game and pushes the point and if you are in denial you can't see the point. I watch the show regularly. The kitchen appears so hot,you have to resort to name calling and get away with it.So much for moderation.I won't lower myself to that standard. I don't give a tinkers whether she writes for the Daily Bugle ,it is what she and others state on TV.You know the medium that doesn't involve printing. Spare me days.

I introduced GWS because it has relevance to kellet's article - The Wanderers gain he mentions was made easier because the NRL was focusing their energy on combating GWS, who weren't really a threat to leagues market share out west, instead of the Wanderers who were. Who has had greater gains out there - Football or AFL?

dear oh dear Mark,always happy to oblige.Nothing wrong with the membership figures BTW. "Talking Footy.from David Matthews . Despite comprising just 25% of its inaugural membership,the 3,000 local Greater western Sydney foundation members were a good start,according to CEO David Matthews When the AFL's franchise finalised its memberships on Oct 31,it had 12,165 paid up supporters,Canberra-where the club will play there matches next year -accounted for more than 40%,whilst the 14 GWS local govt areas managed 25%.the rest came from elsewhere". so blame Mr Matthews who stated 40% ATT for Canberra and 25% for GWS local area ie Sydney. On that basis how can I,nor should I retract a statement made by an AFL club CEO . I did not just pluck something out of the air. Now we can be pedantic about the figures prevailing ATT.But they were spelt out then ATT,if we apparently all know they are wrong,who is telling porkies? We all or Matthews.?

It is interesting that people look on football as a "new" sport on the Australian landscape,it was actually quite popular in Ipswich QLD back in the sixties when I was growing up there.I remember we had two really popular clubs, Snt Helens and Blackstone Welsh.

Swans seem to make a small profit usually, which is then usually reinvested back into the club.

@ CC Please provide some sort of half believable link that states that there are more memberships for GWS in Canberra than in Sydney. If you cant, retract your statement, which we all know is wrong.