How will Andrew Demetriou be remembered?

Demetriou has been excellent. The game has never been more popular, in the face of many challenges from international codes. The pressure for him to go seems to be racially motivated.

As a North fan/member I supported Gold Coast if the alternative was bleak for North. We'd once been proud and inovative but had lost that. Upon declining the offer 2 cool things happened. North reasserted themselves off the field to actually stand for something. And the AFL pushed ahead on the Gold Coast and with the buy in of the footy community up there have grown organically a local club that instead of relocating a club plus its baggage instead introduces new faces and ideas. It also means locals could all adopt their local side as a 2nd team if they wish. Probably be a first team for the younger generation. I also liked the side effect of 2 new teams being more innovative recruiting and talent pathways including internationally beyond just Ireland. Mike Pyke may not have happened otherwise.

I feel that Andrew Demetriou has done a great job and made himself the highest profile CEO of Australian Sport. I'm not in favour of the 18 team competition yet support the addition of the Suns and GWS. There was talk of Melbourne or North Melbourne being relocated It's not going to happen but I would have preferred the relocation for example of Melbourne to Gold Coast and being the Gold Coast Demons, Richmond being the Sydney Tigers and North Melbourne the Tassie Kangaroos. All of these teams and cities are interchangeable But the success of the Sydney Swans and Brisbane Lions shows that people accept success. A 16 team competition has to be stronger than an 18 side competition. As a person living in Brisbane I've always felt that Brisbane could host a second team at the Gabba. A relocted Melbourne team of course. Interestingly Brisbane has one AFL side and one NRL side, which means basically it has the Lions one week and the NRL Brisbane Broncos the next week. Whoever makes the decision to have a game in the capitol city each week gets the upper hand. I digress. Good job Andrew Demetriou.

The situation now is that you can watch more live AFL in Sydney than NRL - what a total embarrassment for NRL administrators.

It should be noted, DH, that the SCG has had reduced capacity for the last few years, being virtually a building site. The crowd avereage should grow once it is completed. From the models, should be a great stadium for AFL and Cricket.

My mate James - it is true that league can't boast 'international' credentials, but it is quite easy for the players to jump over to Rugby if they want to play an international game. The strength of a mostly local game like Aussie Rules, NFL and league is that you get to see the best players in your home country every week.

"I highly doubt fans want to go back to dilapidated old suburban grounds such as Windy Hill or Morrabbin over the MCG or Etihad – nonsense comment." I put it to you that you never watched footy at Windy Hill.. it wasnt dilapidated when it was being used. ;-) Perhaps you could have a chat with the members of North Melbourne, Western Bulldogs and St Kilda about the joys of playing at Etihad.... Im sure they will enthusistically endorse your comments... lol Most of the year I live in Asia, and ABC Asia pacific televise the games. Every weekend its the Skodas and Gold Coast on TV. It really becomes tiresome being forced to watch a team that would struggle to win games in the WAFL... perhaps thats where the Skodas belong.. the Sydney local league. The Skoda's receive ten million a year or so in financial support dont they? Id be happy to be proven wrong on that, don't clubs who have been supported for over 100 years also be deserving of similar largesse? But then again, Mike Fitzpatrick doesnt have shares in the consortium that own Moorabin, so its unlikely the Saints will be receiving anything like what the Skodas are getting BOO-YAAA!!! I think one thing is very clear, the difference between me and you is this; you like to watch footy from behind large glass windows in the sponors area, while you sip chardonay and eat cucumber sandwiches. The thing that concerns you most is not who wins the game, but making sure you dont get any crumbs on your $1000 Italian suit. Guys like me stand in a que for a ticket (like most other people) and dine on cold pies and warm beer. We dont give stuff if we spill sauce on our tracky dacs and ugg boots ;-) Enjoy your mocha soy latte and have a great day.

Lroy - There is plenty of footy at suburban grounds across the country you can watch, the AFL has moved on. It is the top tier of the sport and as such plays the majority of its games in the biggest, best and most modern stadiums across the country. I highly doubt fans want to go back to dilapidated old suburban grounds such as Windy Hill or Morrabbin over the MCG or Etihad – nonsense comment. From a TV perspective – you get Foxtel or the AFL app on your phone or tablet you can watch every game every round. Not sure how this is not the best possible outcome for fans across the country. I doubt you would be watching both Gold Coast and GWS regularly on TV unless you lived either in QLD or NSW at the same time. I can say from a QLD Free-to-Air perspective we get every Friday night game (none involved Suns last year) and both Suns and Lions games every weekend so at least 3 live games every weekend. Sometimes we also get the Saturday night game if it does not involve the Suns or Lions. In NSW it is the same situation with Swans and Giants. So there is now way that you are forced to watch Suns and Giants games unless you are actively watching them on Foxtel or you happen to live in either QLD or NSW (but not both). Those who play sport on a Saturday afternoon, including nearly every AFL suburban comp across the country can’t make Saturday 2:30 pm kick offs. As mentioned above you can’t please everyone.

SANFL is the highest level ?.

#Lroy Those who play on a Sat themselves love footy on at other times. Can't please everyone. Re suburban grounds mostly the soccer stadium fires and tragedies like the Hillsborough disaster in the UK were the death knell of local grounds with old timber grandstands. There just was not the money to upgrade them all. But in recent times you could see the Bendig Bombers play now and then at Windy Hill if you really wanted to. Nothing lasts eternally and certainly not a wood framed grandstand. Re Tv games for me it is always Collingwood and that is the wrong color stripe.

Every fan I know wants footy played on a Saturday afternoon.. fact... yet all the big games are on Friday and Saturday nights to accomodate TV scheduling. No games are played at suburban venues any more to accomodate sponsors etc. Fans would love to head back down to Windy Hill or Moorabin etc to watch a game... Ill throw it back to you, tell me how as a fan I have benefited from these TV deals? Every time I turn on the TV they are broadcasting games featuring the Gold Coast, or GWS.. 2 teams I do not want to watch, ever. ;-)

#Punter Are you able to distinguish between a worst case possibility and what would happen? Demetriou was illustrating that a worst case loss of MCG AND Etihad might put a season in jeopardy. It seemed reasonable to make this point. Gallop at the same time rejecting the FFA's proposed work arrounds. For the AFL they were frustrated by the lack of openness and how much had to be left to after the bid was won to then negotiate with FIFA. The AFL was frustrated by the FFA going behind their back n Etihad let alone hearing that the FFA had investigated/costed an MCG reconfig. Yeah Buckley later asserted it had been rejected as too dear. That wasn't the point. The AFL was clearly uncertain where the FFA plans would start or end and needed clarity on Etihad. It was the anti AFL agenda to run with the worst case comment as a coverall. And from there the whole debate disintegrated. Btw the soccer media via Lynch and Cockerill were somewhat to blame. Went a bit early and predicted capital city lock outs for rival codes etc forlonger than anticipated. Made a lot of people nervous.

#Mal Yes you are partly right. Most people are partly right on this topic. The rules written in early 1859 certainly predate federation and even predate the first Australian cricket team but that predated federation by some margin so I suggest in commom useage there were collectively 'Australians' well prior to federation of colonies. Re the rules. Yes there was reference to school rules - journalist and rules committee member James Thompson came armed with copies from Eton, Rugby, Harrow & Winchester. Some rules were more logistical considerations more so than game play dictates. These themes being common to all rather similar to a recipe for bakng defining the temp to set the oven and the size of the baking tray. Regarding game play there did appear to be a number of unique twists. First for a handling game that throwing was and remains illegal. Second that a goal must not and still must not strike the post or other players. No one suggests the general notion of a goal was invented. However the specifics to achieve it were uniquely crafted. Just as the complex try plus kick back looking for a marker etc Rugby school method to achieve a goal was disticntly different. Invented?? By the time 4 years later the London rules emerged and their goal had now cross bar. The earlier Cambridge rules that played a large part into morphing into the London Assoc rules stipulated a cross string under which the ball must pass. Was the Melbourne method unique enough to be 'invention'? Compared to 'bases' in Harrow football. Eton field game defined referees 1845. None of their terminolgy or concepts appear. Niether rouges or fouls or bully etc. Perhaps the early 'goal sneak' is related to Eton 'sneaking'. Other terminology differed. There was no 'touch'. The ball went out of bounds. And the game evolved too - like cricket - to employ umpires rather than referees (but umpires were not done in 1859). I do suggest that the total package even of just the first set of ten rules was certainly unique both in total and in a number of parts. It was therefore more than simply an amalgam/combination of existing school games in England. For sure those games were undeniably a reference point. In some cases what is omitted is more significant and that includes 'off-side/on-side'.

#Punter Surely you've noted the new and upgraded stadia that have come along over last 4 yrs. There were soccer fans suggesting the AFL had no case for compensation because stadium upgrades and doubtfully any new ones on a time frame of 2022 should be sufficient. Do you see how ludicrous it would have been? Let alone the FFA via Lowy were so determined to get Etihad (despite other options and that we could bet Sydney would be the multi venue city ahead of Melb) but watch the space. On a 2022 timeframe don't be surprised if the AFL future fund will be buying out the stadium 3 or so yrs early if a decent deal can be done. Otherwise in 2025 it's the princely sun of $30. Given too the AFL HQ is part of the building and with FIFA's draconian demands for clean and vacant stadia may well have req'd AFL out for the tournament. Demetriou had effectively done all he reasonably could to help the bid. And govts knew that too. Just not old man Lowy. Etihad was always put by the AFL as off the table but Lowy just had to fight a battle that didn't need to be faught. Either of AAMI Park or Kardinia Park could've gone #2 to MCG.

Apologies for being so blunt SportsFanMelb, I just took exception to you calling my comment weak because I didn't provide evidence to back something up which I presumed was common / general knowledge. I would argue it is much weaker to not know if a statement is incorrect factually while proceeding to pronounce a statement is weak and presume the person just doesn't like the sport, when in fact the person does like the sport! It is after all a comment section to an article where I thought you are allowed to make off the cuff comments based on your knowledge / opinion. If you don't have the knowledge to challenge something go ahead and do the research yourself then rejoin the debate when you are more informed!

Hoopla, if you read my comment carefully you would realise that I actually partially agree with you however you must pay more attention to detail. Firstly: when the rules were written there was no Australia or Australians only 6 separate British colonies. Secondly: the rules were a combination of many games played in the UK and in that sense it could be argued either way as to 'ownership' and 'invention' of the game.

Mal, you are wrong, the rules were written by Australians in Australia, its not debateable, only people like you, with a cross to bear and a chip to carry attempt debate. And Mal, your statements are ironic, but in no way amazing.

SportsFanMelb, 1. IMO membership ranks a clear third to attendances and TV viewership. Of course it means something, but memberships have been basically diluted to $50-100 donations basically these days. GSW has 10k members but averages 6k crowds in Sydney, doesn't mean as much if they aren't going through the turnstiles, buying merchandise or watching on TV to increase the next TV rights deal. 2. Do you have the ability to analyse the stats yourself? Start by looking at these pages for attendances and let me know when you catch up to an informed level to join the debate properly. http://stats.rleague.com/afl/crowds/swans.html and http://stats.rleague.com/afl/crowds/gws.html. 3. Noted. 4. Noted. Don't really have the time to do a proper analysis for you now, would you care to do some analysis yourself to prove my claim wrong? From memory a recent draft had no NSW based players and a very small number of Qld based players in spite of having academies in place. Pretty sure the 80's and 90's would have had a similar at worst percentage of NSW and Qld players. Demetriou's NSW / Qld growth strategy was highly expensive (albeit they could afford it) and so far has proven little growth in return. For example, the lavish spending on Falou and K. Hunt could backfire big time (esp. if Hunt returns to NRL next year), as it will basically say to the kids of NSW and Qld that yeah we are over that sport and at the end of the day it was all about money.

all the crap about Melbourne having to become a police state, hooligans occupying the state , etc etc daily reports in the afl sun were not written. people dont have a chip on their shoulder . they just hope that one day afl sun and the like of ad will not have a large bogan population to peddle their garbage to.

Hoopla, the irony of your statements are amazing. As for AFL being indigenous - that is debatable. The original game was made up from an amalgam of English games in existence around the 1850's. The only indigenous part is that different rules from all these games were thrown together and played as the game of Australian Rules out here.