How the AFL can go global

Scoring a goal in soccer is far far more difficult than scoring points in the AFL that’s why.

The point I'd make by going on...... Is that the AFL can't afford to bankroll an international expansion......as an international expansion. But...even the Ireland trips....and in the 80's these exhibition games......and even getting Ricky Ponting to run some clinics in Kolkota in the early days of the IPL..... ......those are 'seeding' exercises. And - where seeds have 'taken'; the 'grassroots' establishment has happened. How to monetise? 8-10 states in India competing in annual national championships with a 'Team India' national side coming to Australia for the last couple of IC tournaments......what's that worth? A 30 year running competition in Japan with the Samurais attending all 6 IC tournaments so far. What's that worth? I'm not sure how it gets equated - - but, I'd hate it if 'seeding' were to cease. Although - ironically - seeding now can happen without any Australians directly involved. There are European expats (not Aussies, expat Danes or even Icelanders) who pick up the game in one country and take the game with them when they move. That's exciting.......it's getting a little bit like a song that got released to lukewarm success but the reworkings and re-imaginings of that song see it take on a life of its own.

#The Set Peace You are pretty well right there. Often in the past we’d seen the “Flying Boomerangs” (indigenous personal/footy development squad) travel to South Africa or Fiji. And we’ve seen the Academy squad head to NZ. The NZ national team taking on a side full of potential top draft picks. What we do know in footy is that it can be very difficult to pull a squad together and make it just work. About 10 years back the Vic Country team of the year - Maffra (down in Gippsland/Latrobe region) played NZ a couple of times and won each time.....comfortably......but had the benefit of being a country club with players having played together (successfully) for quite some time (many coming up through the juniors). The experience though is priceless.

Interesting, although that was quite a while ago.

#Brian The ‘ball’ is interesting. In Cricket the leather ball is crucial and in AFL the handmade leather footy is still the talisman of the code. Where as in other sports the balls have gone synthetic. For me - I just love the ‘new sherrin’ feel and smell. You take one of them to bed with you. Even better than ‘new car’ smell. The main issue in AFL though is the bucket of balls at each end. Ostensibly to speed up the game - allowing a quicker kick in after a behind. However - a brand new sherrin needs about a quarter of ‘kicking in’ to be at its peak. A new sherrin is quite hard, and slick......and even slicker with the advertising logos. In the old days of course with the cricket wicket square in the middle of the ground often a dark muddy bog.....the ball would by half time be a heavy/sticky or waterlogged beast to deal with. It’s a first world sporting problem to have to deal with brand new balls......

Your right the goalies are bigger and there was a push amongst some in FIFA to widen the goals. What was done instead was to change the dynamics of the ball so it can move quicker and with more spin. If it looks like Ronaldo or Messi can produce more swerve and quicker then Maradona or Pele its not just their skill its the changed dynamics of the ball to increase its speed and swerve which of course makes it harder for goalkeepers. When the AFL were trying to reduce stoppages and players crowding around the ball, one thing I believe they missed was slightly changing the ball like FIFA did. A smaller lighter ball would both travel quicker and also be harder to kick/handball as effectively. Both I would have thought would have encouraged players to kick longer up the middle akin to the older style of AFL.

Really? Where is this drivel coming from? If you want any sport to go global it has to have Olympic recognition. Simple as that. Good luck with that, AFL.

AFL will never make it Internationally until Australia start playing other Countries on a regular basis. Whether it’s an amateur team or something it doesn’t matter but I live in the UK and I assure you that no one on my street is talking about Essendon vs Geelong, but they may talk about Aus vs GB, they may take notice. A bunch of Aussies kicking around the Sherrin in London is not a grassroots movement.

yeah,few injuries you might struggle,keep your best side on the park i had you around that mark

I think we’re gonna be 3 quarts (Outside the 8.) 10th or 12th. Recruitment is ho-hum like just about all else.

I'd suspect Hoolifan is refering to some exhibition matches mainly back in the 1980s. There was a period then - perhaps spurred on by exposure on ESPN in the early days? Check the table here of overseas matches (including exhibition games). There were games in Canada and Japan, the US and London through the '80s. Of interest - the 1987 game in Japan with Hawthorn and Essendon led to the development of what is now AFL Japan and the Japan Samurais have attended all 6 AFL International Cup tournaments (2002, 2017 ever 3 years). There's a cool story about Peter Wilson (the comp best player award is named after him) came to be instrumental in the establishment of the comp......even if he didn't fully realise it there and then. I'll see if I can track it down.

going to be closer than alot of people think,i dont subscribe to crows bottom 4 talk

I think Port are on. Even if the Crows had 5 it won't be enough.

hey rowdy how many goal head start you going to give us in the showdown next week?

#AxeMaster The other sport I'd wondered about was cricket.....I thought at a point in time that the fast bowlers might just become too fast and the pitch length at top level might need revision.......but that hasn't ended up happening. It's that question though for all sports.....at what point has evolution progressed too far. So....I'm not trying to be overly critical and thanks for taking my comment on face value because I've mentioned it before and become effectively the 'shot messenger'.

You have some good points there Mike. The modern day size of the goal keeper is something I've never even considered. Like you say the keepers have been getting bigger and the goal has remained the same size, so in theory the goals could be bigger. 1 meter extra all the way around would be interesting. The only problem I can see with bigger goals is added pressure on the man between the posts >> more goals >> more verbal aggression from the fans >> who wants to be a goalie anymore? Higher scoring though for sure.

#WASS Exactly right - you can normally make up for one deficiency via a great strength in another area. That's the beauty of it overseas - people coming fresh to the game from a variety of backgrounds.....each and everyone can find a way to contribute. That's a good thing. It's a 'feature'....not a 'flaw'. That's why rucking code convert like Mike Pyke when he came to the Swans - he rarely kicked originally and there'd always be someone running by for a handball. He was an RU international.....he could kick....but his decision making was tune d yet. Once that fell into place then he could execute the skill.

No doubt the running required is massive and the only way a smaller guy like me could play. I agree on the persistance. To go back to the original premise the sport is hard to play and does require lots of varying skillsets. However in terms of getting kids to play it if I was their teacher in the UK or wherever I don't think the sport teaches you much about yourself or your opponent when compared to soccer, tennis or cricket. I grew up idolising Don't think Do (am a massive Hawks fan) but its not really something that you would encourage in any other avenue of life.

#AxeMaster It's crazy though isn't it - goalies are taller, more athletic, professionally trained etc and yet the goal mouth is still the same size.......isn't it time the goals grew? My problem is for the amount of 'attempts' "on target" that very few get through and often, often it's an 'own goal', a deflection more by chance than by design, a deflection off the woodwork etc. That's getting a bit flukey. What ratio of attempts (shots) to successess (goals) to you regard as a reasonable return on effort in soccer? 3:1? 15:1? re goals in AFL.....it's still plenty hard enough and......because a goal must NOT be touched, it means that there are 18 potential goalkeepers at any given time......and while one might be on the goal line another half dozen are making life very difficult in your immediate vicinity to get a kick away unscathed. But yes - overall it's easier to achieve the objective. That said - the AFL ground tapers in at each end - so - the nearer you get to goal the easier it is to congest and force the ball wide and so the shot at goal is rarely exposed to the full width of the goal mouth.

"I think SOO and the NRL means more to League players than an International" Not sure I would go that far. Playing for your country always means a great deal to players. There are 45 countries listed in the official World Ranking Lists. In that list. Scotland is ranked 9th though I accept that there is a very big gap in skills as you work down that ranking list. This is what I was getting at about interest in Australia for internationals. If Australia slipped to say 9th on that list, there would be a big upswing in interest in internationals. But we digress.