The AFL is the undisputed, pound-for-pound champion of Australian sport.
It’s an all-encompassing juggernaut that, on the back of last year’s $2.5billion broadcast rights deal, is dominating todays sporting landscape like no other.
The final siren of the 2016 AFL season rang out more than three weeks ago, but the pride of place that the AFL has continued to hold in the eyes, ears, heads and hearts of the Australian public is simply amazing.
And they’ve done it in a variety of ways.
Full-fledged attack-mode on the most talented young sportsmen and women in the country. Bold, yet tactical administration and brand maneuvers. Smart and savvy planning in places they never thought to tread. It’s been a guerilla assault on the Australian sporting landscape.
If we zoom in on the end of the 2016 season, we get a perfect snapshot of why the AFL has such a strong stranglehold on not only the Australian public, but the title of our nations premier sport.
Obviously, and deservedly, the Western Bulldogs time in the sun is still going. Nearly an entire month, and some, of tributes and accolades about the ‘Peoples Champs’ has been great to see.
Spectators are drawn to the game of footy itself, but fans are drawn to characters and a sense of romanticism. Bob Murphy, Luke Beveridge, Tom Boyd, Jakey Stringer and Tom Liberatore have provided storylines over the past few seasons that have helped create the feel-good vibe that helped carry the Doggies to the title. And boy didn’t the AFL love it?
However, less than a week after Luke Beveridge and Easton Wood proudly held the premiership cup aloft, confetti raining down from above, the AFL had another reason to stay glued to your television, newsfeed or Twitter account – The NAB AFL Trade Period.
Two weeks of ferociously feverish wheeling and dealing where clubs fortunes could rise or fall; or player’s careers splutter or skyrocket after a simple swap. Hourly updates, daily wraps, trade period verdicts and actual AFL induced rumour and innuendo swept through just about every AFL fan.
It all came to an end today, but not before it was live streamed around the country, five days a week for nine hours a day. The AFL’s number one journalist Damien Barrett and footy guru Terry Wallace lead the broadcast, and the entire NAB AFL Trade Radio team managed to captivate a collective of loyal listeners right up until the very last seconds of the trade deadline.
They even stationed the broadcast right outside Etihad Stadium for periods of time, where they were privy to meetings, conversations and one-on-one interviews with recruiters, players and their managers alike. It made for great theatre and a was great advertisement for the sport.
In terms of shock value, it certainly helped that this trade period had it in spades. The seemingly unfathomable decision by Hawthorn to push club legends Sam Mitchell and Jordan Lewis out was front-page news.
The epic chase for Gold Coast midfielders Dion Prestia and Jaeger O’Meara was front-page news. Heck, half of the nations media outlets ran stories about potential stories that didn’t even end up being stories, all on the front page.
The NAB AFL Women’s Draft also took place on October 12th and gave the AFL another vehicle to capture the attention of a sport-loving nation thirsty for entertainment. It managed to take a stranglehold on headlines months before a ball will even be bounced.
And it doesn’t stop if we look ahead. The NAB AFL Draft will be held on November 25th, with the pre-season and rookie drafts being held a few days later. It doesn’t take Nostradamus to predict that the next fortnight’s news will be dominated by the lingering effects and chaos of the last few weeks, coupled with talk of prospective number one picks.
Before you know it, pre-season hype will start to begin. Then the women’s competition will kick off. Shortly thereafter the NAB Cup will have hit our screens, probably before most of us realise the cricket is even on. It’s a relentless wave of content modelled on successful sporting bodies like the NBA and NFL.
Pretty soon the AFL will be everywhere, if it’s not already, because who will stop it? And why would you want to anyway?
It’s absorbing. It’s fascinating. It’s leading the way.
Kudos to the AFL, you’re delivering knockout punch after knockout punch, and every other sport is wobbling their way towards the canvas.
Bob Brown
Roar Guru
http://www.schoolsport.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ASSNFC-History-1923-2015.pdf
Bob Brown
Roar Guru
What part of Sydney are you from, CarIton or ColIingwood, or maybe Footscray?
Bob Brown
Roar Guru
Mate, I played MeIbourne RuIes in Sydney when I was in primary school. In fact, I represented the Sydney and NSW Primary Schools rep team and played in tournaments in Canberra and MeIbourne. Its not the game, its the big BS you people go on about.
Agent11
Guest
Up here in QLD plenty of people looking forward to the cricket, RL tests, NBL/NBA and various football comps. No one talking about AFL, even die hard Lions/Suns fans would rather forget about it. Its all the Victorian expats wobbling their way to the canvas as they realize there is a whole world of sports out there.
clipper
Guest
The hypocrite strikes again 'Grow up and embrace all Australian sports' !!! - you're hardly embracing Aussie Rules, are you? Please don't speak for Sydney - I, and many others on this tab live here and our opinion is just as valid.
Bob Brown
Roar Guru
This article and most of the comments prove beyond a shadow of a doubt what we've always thought up here in Sydney about MeIbourne RuIes and its fans. Football is the biggest sport on the planet and we don't need to write articles like this. You will never, ever knock other major sports onto the canvas. Grow up and embrace all Australian sports.
prince igor
Guest
I find it quite amusing that lesser sports like RL even try to argue about crowds the AFL is so far out in front as far as crowds against ANY other sport on the nation its not even funny. AFL Crowds #1 AFL Memberships #1 by a country mile AFL TV income # 1 AFL TV ratings #1 AFL overall income #1 AFL Sponserships #1 The list just goes on and on LOL
db swannie
Guest
Lol More afl propaganda
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Interestingly, I just noticed a sports editorial in the Canberra Times mentioning how the AFL dominates the sports news during the 2 week trade period. Maybe you're right that none of this makes it into Qld and NSW (although Fox Sports News is national), however, the overall sponsorship dollars suggests that someone is taking notice. Also, when you're talking about website hits, online radio, podcast downloads, etc, it's the total number which matters.
db swannie
Guest
& how much of this interest is in QLd & NSW where over half of the population live? Because something AFL related is big news in the southern states doesn't automatically mean it's big news in the northern states . A common misconception held by the brainwashed southerners . It's barely a ripple up here . But don't let that get in the way of a good propaganda piece .
Mike
Guest
Cat says,, "If NRL ratings are truly so much better than why is the NRL TV deal worth less? TV deals are largely ratings dependant yet the AFL gets paid more." On dollar for dollar terms the AFL is slightly in front, and I mean slightly. If you break down content time RL is way in front. AFL broadcast's go for at least one hour longer that RL games. Per time content RL is easily the winner.
Mike
Guest
Perry says, "One thing many people ignore in ratings is that a lot of the numbers pushed are the ‘average’ viewing audience. However – factor in the extra hours of content from the AFL – matches/broadcasts generally run 40-60 mins longer respectively. That means the AFL average audience is measured over a longer broadcast. It’s not apples with apples the AFL vs NRL comparison." So there you have it. Even though the AFL demonstrably got multi million less viewers this year than RL Perry says less actually means more!! Gotta give it to these AFL types - they can twist and contort anything. You must be an accountant Perry.
Mike
Guest
Haha, you're one of em'!!!! Pat your mate on the head and feel good about the world.
Cat
Roar Guru
If NRL ratings are truly so much better than why is the NRL TV deal worth less? TV deals are largely ratings dependant yet the AFL gets paid more ...
BigAl
Guest
You actually might be touching a bit of a nerve there Karl ! - one reason why I just can't take The Australian Republic movement (or whatever it's called these day) seriously is that it is being led by that raving rah! rah! boy Peter Fitzsimmons.
Bill
Guest
In terms of what is a better spectacle is open to opinion and interpretation, but you would have to be a fool to think union or league or better marketed or run than AFL. And I enjoy watching all theee games.
Bill
Guest
Yes. I think the players were too hungover or couldn't be arsed going to Balarat.
Perry Bridge
Guest
#Mike One thing many people ignore in ratings is that a lot of the numbers pushed are the 'average' viewing audience. However - factor in the extra hours of content from the AFL - matches/broadcasts generally run 40-60 mins longer respectively. That means the AFL average audience is measured over a longer broadcast. It's not apples with apples the AFL vs NRL comparison. Also note - individual NRL matches often top individual AFL matches however, the AFL FTA broadcast is splintered more so than the NRL broadcasts. The NRL is a single time zone. The AFL often has different matches broadcast into different states around the country that completely splinters the numbers. Both AFL and NRL get very good ratings and both have different strengths and weaknesses.
Perry Bridge
Guest
How about this - Cronulla 2016 members, 14,074 Western Bulldogs 2016 members, 39,459 NRL 2016 members 295k (they were hoping to break the 300k barrier for the first time) AFL 2016 members 875k (up from 836k in 2015). Now - Cronulla average home crowd was over 100% relative to total members. The Doggies average home crowd was around 77% relative to total members. What that tells me is that the AFL is clearly more 'global' versus 'local'. Cronulla is far more likely to have a localised fan base. And are pretty well working to capacity. And that's the NRL - it's a localised Sydney game with reasonable outposts in QLD and an expeditionary force regularly sent down to Melbourne. Noting the 3 QLD NRL clubs have a combined membership of around 65k (36k for the Broncos which ironically equates to the combined tally of the Suns and Lions for the AFL). So, 101k combined memberships in QLD across 5 teams, avg 20k each but only Lions (incl old Fitzroy Vic based members) and Broncos exceed the avg. AFL has combined 72K for Sydney and GWS, but again, GWS is spread including Canberra based. The Swans though with 56.5k members (incl old SthMlb Vic based) exceeds the best NSW based NRL side - the Rabbitohs by about 24k). The best AFL clubs Haw, Coll and Rich have 75, 74 and 72k respectively. Throw in the Eagles at #4 and a combined and the top 4 AFL clubs have almost eclipsed the total NRL club tally. So what does this all mean? It means that actual bums on seats is only so much of a measure - as there are many bums not on seats each week who are in some way or other paid up. The 'virtual bums on seats' or VBoS's. AFL wins by the more than the length of the straight - the AFL has lapped the opposition.
Mike
Guest
So you just ignore ratings?? Typical self promoting AFL response. If you add ratings and crowds together the NRL is still 7 million in front. I know that is hard for you AFL types to comprehend but it is the facts.