New ground will be broken in the AFL when the Gold Coast Suns and Port Adelaide compete in the first premiership match to be contested outside of Australasia this Sunday.
The match will be played at Jiangwan Stadium in Shanghai, with the local starting time of 1:20pm allowing the match to be televised by the Seven Network live into Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.
It will not be the first time an AFL premiership match is played for premiership points outside of Australia, though, with St Kilda having played three matches in New Zealand on Anzac Day between 2013 and 2015.
It will also be the second time any Australian rules football match is played in Shanghai, after Melbourne and the Brisbane Lions played a post-season exhibition match at Sunday’s venue in October 2010.
Due to its obligation to play eleven home games at Adelaide Oval per season, the Power had to purchase a home game from the Suns to make this fixture possible, costing them $500,000.
What it means for the Suns is that they won’t play a proper home game until Round 11, with a trip to play Melbourne in Alice Springs to follow on the other side of the bye, which for both the Suns and Power will come next weekend.
After seven rounds, Port Adelaide has the best percentage and defence of any other team in the competition, and are also ranked second in attack, with only the Adelaide Crows scoring more points (even so, the Crows have scored nearly 100 points more than the Power).
(AAP Image/David Mariuz)
Despite this, they sit seventh on the ladder, having gone down to the West Coast Eagles by ten points at the Oval last Saturday night when a win could’ve lifted them up to third on the ladder.
It was their third loss for the season, following previous defeats to the Crows and the GWS Giants in rounds three and four respectively.
Still, Ken Hinkley will be happy about how his side is tracking as the Power seek to return to September this year after two years without finals action.
The Gold Coast Suns, on the other hand, have turned a corner in the past month since being embarrassed by the Giants by 102 points in Round 2.
After copping some severe criticism for his poor showing against the Giants, former captain Gary Ablett Jr has hit back hard at his critics, rediscovering the form that saw him win his second Brownlow Medal in 2013.
In each of his past five matches he has earned at least 32 disposals with his 45-disposal game against North Melbourne in Round 6 the best of the lot.
It’s a fair bet to say that he will have earned at least 12-14 Brownlow Medal votes across those five matches, and he could even be in the lead at this point of the season when the votes are read out on September 25.
He will turn 33 on the day of the match against Port Adelaide, a team he has tormented many times as a Cat and at least once as a Sun, in Shanghai. It will, however, be the first time he has faced the Power since 2013.
He is also due to play his 300th AFL game against Carlton in Round 13.
While the former skipper will line up for the Suns this Sunday, at least three of his teammates won’t.
David Swallow, Matt Rosa and Callum Ah Chee won’t be boarding the plane to China due to injuries, while several others could also miss the trip across the equator owing to recent pollution issues in the country.
Coach Rodney Eade has said he will not risk his players’ health as he seeks to assemble what he hopes is the first Suns winning side against Port Adelaide since Round 5, 2011.
That match marked the Suns’ first ever victory in the AFL, while for the Power it was the lowest point of a season which saw them narrowly avoid the wooden spoon in the final round, finishing above only the Suns.
Port Adelaide clearly haven’t forgotten that defeat, winning the last six meetings between the pair dating back to 2012. The closest result (apart from the Suns’ two-point win in that aforementioned 2011 match) came in Round 21, 2014, when the Power snuck home by just nine points.
The Suns plan to fly from Brisbane to Shanghai via Singapore, stopping over at Singapore’s Changi Airport, where they plan for their players to use the swimming pool to mitigate the effects of travel, before completing the journey to China’s most populous city.
(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
The Power, on the other hand, have already sent some of their players up north, while the rest of the squad will fly direct to Hong Kong today before finally landing in Shanghai in time for a training session tomorrow.
As far as the weather is concerned, players can expect temperatures nudging thirty degrees, while there are reports that a sandstorm could hit the city later this week.
Due to the extended flying time back and forth, both the Suns and Power will have the bye the following round, while the remaining 16 teams will have their byes in rounds 11-13.
Both clubs will then resume their seasons with away matches against Melbourne (in Alice Springs) and the Geelong Cats (at Kardinia Park) respectively in Round 10.
The historic match will be televised on the Seven Network nationally, except in Sydney (which will receive the North Melbourne versus Sydney match live) and Perth (a delayed telecast of the Richmond versus Fremantle match).
Redb
Roar Guru
The soccerinas have got themselves well and truly wound up over Boak's comments - too funny.
Paul D
Roar Guru
http://aflnz.co.nz/blog/2012/11/02/afl-look-for-long-term-new-zealand-growth/ From 2012. It doesn't make for great reading, haha But AFL chief operating officer Gil McLachlan said on Wednesday that the game’s bosses have thought about the potential of the NZ experiment. “Long-term, who knows where it goes – I think there’s 30,000 registered AFL players in NZ right now,” he said. “The dream maybe is that one day you could have a team over there, that’s the long-term future. “There’s no time frame, it’s just a dream, but in the short term it’s taking our product into NZ, our near neighbour. “It would be wonderful to have some talented kids coming out of NZ, being drafted.” McLachlan added it made sense to expand the AFL into NZ. “The time zone works, the travel works, they have a similar-minded, sports-mad group of people who will get behind our game,” he said. “It’s just incredibly exciting, playing a game in NZ. “It’s a real reflection about the growth and scale of our game … I’m optimistic we’ll sell that game out. “To see a game played for premiership points in another country is a big step for this code.”
Cat
Roar Guru
Can you please provide a direct quote, with source, for that alleged statement?
Mat
Guest
Wow. The ignorance of AFL types never ceases to amaze me. You must have believed Gilligan when he said there were 30,000 AFL players in NZ. Lol. By the way: I've got a few bridges I'm selling cheap. Let me know if you're interested.
Slane
Guest
They do have a national AFL team. They play in the International Cup every 3 years. Why would a national competition have a club from another country competing in it?
Agent11
Guest
then why doesn't NZ have a national AFL team or a team in the AFL? surely if the low insignificant game of League can manage that then AFL can? NZ has given League such names as Sonny Bill Williams, Benji Marshall, Keiran Foran etc. I wonder if anyone in NZ could name a single AFL player from NZ.
Elliott Wrigglesworth-Smith
Guest
The Suns won't be used to playing a home game in front of 10,000 people.
Al
Guest
A city of 25 million and they pick a decrepit suburban park to play at. Obviously the local interest is huge!
Lionheart
Guest
Brisbane Roar v Shangai Shenhua playoff for ACL spot recently had 125 mil viewers worldwide
clipper
Guest
Wouldn't surprise me if more people play AFL in NZ than league - outside of South and West Auckland and the Polynesian population, there is very low participation rate. Not saying the AFL is high and that there is probably some figure massaging, but that is the reality - around 1% (compared to bowls at 4.3 and table tennis at 6.3%)
Brian
Guest
There's an oval in Florida where the West Indies and India played some T20
pauly
Guest
Far out Lynchy was actually quite tame. Get a load of this http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/afl-in-china-reaction-port-adelaide-captain-travis-boaks-comments-mocked-by-football/news-story/128c40c34906c23108fa17b12c60a180
pauly
Guest
Interesting article in The Age from Lynchy.... http://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/fly-me-to-the-moon--is-it-as-far-as-shanghai-20170510-gw1bu3.html By all means celebrate this but don't think it's something revolutionary. And stop with the bleating. Get on with it! Also Rodney Eade complained about the lack of direct flights to Shanghai. There's a direct flight from Brisbane to Shanghai with China Eastern that operates four days every week. To make life easier for the GC Suns, there's even a direct train from the Gold Coast to Brisbane Airport. Everybody wins. I sincerely hope they weren't being tight and flying with Scoot out of OOL instead.
Andrew
Guest
Ah Perry you compare apples and oranges and try to win an argument on not much reality, yet when the same facts are thrown back at you it is a silly argument. Yet you compare a crowd for a one off game against crowds averaged across a season of 13 or more home games. Hence I did exactly the same with Real Madrid and the AFL and it is an unfair comparison, then you ask why I brought them up. Yet, even in your response you bring soccer into the conversation "and the crowds are pretty damn good compared to the local top team of the national game of Rugby Union or the sole representative in the biggest soccer comp in the region." I suspect that St Kilda played as many games as these teams did in Wellington they would average less than 2K if not less over a season, but hey you keep comparing Apples and Oranges and telling us all that only your AFL view and comparison is correct but no other makes sense. The logic you use is flawed but why let the truth get in the way of a good story. Perry tell me, if these games were doing so well with crowds and the AFL considers expansion into NZ as an option why then would the AFL not have continued with the games ? Did the Wellington council pull funding because they finally figured out there was no benefit to them in hosting game? The AFL being the massive sporting organization they are, could they not have funded it? I know as does everyone else the game in China will follow the same road as NZ and be a failure but AFL BS of the success will still be spruiked out of Victoria.
pauly
Guest
Australia v China at Asian Cup 2015 supposedly had 200m viewers so 4m for AFL isn't too bad....
spruce moose
Guest
"….I don’t think that there are enough Oz expats in communist China – maybe they’ll all fly in?" Guess again mate.
spruce moose
Guest
Who could possibly rag on herringbone seating? It's actually the best, and you get more space. Cathay business has an ungodly amount of space.
GJ
Guest
Thanks for caring, much appreciated.
Macca
Guest
The post you have now deleted expressing how terrible herring bone business class seating is - I felt your pain all the way back in my luxurious 1 square foot of space in economy and thought the quote would help you to endure.
GJ
Guest
What are you talking about?