AFL fans, I love you to bits but god you can be damn foolish about these two teams.
I think by now everyone and their dog is in agreement that Tasmania deserves their own team in the AFL, finally giving every state a team in the national competition. However, the Kangaroos and the Suns are as important to the AFL as they have been impotent in recent years. And, for the record, I have no bias here as a Collingwood fan.
North Melbourne
The simple fact is that Victoria is never getting another team in the AFL, no way, no how. So keeping a club in the city that makes the most money, is the lowest in cost to put on a game for the AFL is valuable in and of itself.
In 2015 ,which was the last season the Roos made finals, they averaged 25,682 in attendance. 25,000 people at Marvel is a tidy bit of cash nine times a year for the AFL, and in 2021 they broke their membership record with 45,133 members in a year where the majority of their fans had no hope in going to the games.
So what if they haven’t won anything since Wayne Carey left? The same was true for Melbourne and the Bulldogs and unlike those teams, and the Saints for that matter, the Roos are debt-free, and just last year broke their membership record, despite finishing with the spoon.
They are an important part of the AFL tapestry and moving the team to Tassie is a harm to the AFL as well as all their fans. So, next time you’re changing the bath water, double check that you’ve taken out the baby first.
Gold Coast
Oh my god. This one’s worse than the first.
I don’t care that they’re a basket case – they’re meant to be. It has always been a 30-year plan with them, cradle to grave they are there to break into the market of a city full of retired Victorians starved for football and with a population greater than that of the entire state of Tasmania and a lot more money too.
The Suns’ primary competition is the Titans, not any AFL team, and at the moment they’re kicking the NRL side’s arse.
Suns last year had 19,460 members. In 2019, they had 13,649 – that’s some outstanding growth. The Titans, on the other hand, have yet to release 2021 data and in 2019 only had 6517 members. Hell, they even have better attendances than the Titans, 19,810 to 11,085. Safe to bet the AFL was very happy with those numbers.
This team will not win a premiership for at least another six years, so what? They are there for the growth and expansion of the game we love and we get more football out of it so I’m not going to sit here complaining. They don’t play 22 excellent quality games yet, but they will someday and they’re going to make a profit and be a great thing for the city of the Gold Coast. So stop saying we should move them, you’re all just being myopic.
Don’t touch it – you’ll break it
The AFL is set to be the dominant sporting code in this country for at least the next 20 years. Pre-COVID, the game was growing at rates never seen before, female inclusion and outreach into the community are at an all-time high and it’s the clubs that facilitate that so we don’t want to lose a single one of them.
So, in short, shut up. You haven’t thought this through at all.
Ac
Guest
News of the death or shakey ground of the NRL are grossly exaggerated. The swans get a good following at theSCG but tv audience is poor. The GWS giants get no one at the ground and no one on tv to watch.
Ac
Guest
GWS boast huge membership - yet 4014 turned up last weekend. Swans get 36,000 at a game but only have 30,000 watch on TV in sydney
Felix Stone
Roar Rookie
yeah, but the giants are 10 years old, there's another 20 years to go before we can say if the giants are a failure, the league clubs have what they have and are unlikely to grow much more than population growth
Bludger
Guest
Disrespectful to the rusted on NRL and soccer brigades, who are never going to go near football, but not the rest of the people which clearly there are many by looking at the woeful, non existent attendances.
Bludger
Guest
Compared to a country town's footy team, but not in the realm of pro sport. REALITY.
Randy
Roar Rookie
Parramatta Eels have more members and larger crowds than the Panthers and all 4 West Sydney nrl clubs get more people to games than the Giants...
Felix Stone
Roar Rookie
well supported is doing some heavy lifting there, Penrith is the only team that’s seriously been able to leverage their supporter base, I do think another Sydney team is a bad idea though I’d give Perth another team seeing as the eagles have more members than seats at the stadium
Randy
Roar Rookie
what are you on about, there are 4 NRL clubs in west sydney, all very well supported.
Randy
Roar Rookie
probably should wait until the Giants can fill half their tiny stadium before talking about another sydney team
Bludger
Guest
To hell what some old NRL following clown's opinion is, he is a dying breed that is being replaced. Move in, take over the joint.
josh
Guest
Comments like these are actually disrespectful to the people that live there, and are a perfect example why the Swans have a support base in Sydney and the Giants don't.
josh
Guest
Just like they've been intending to do with the Giants? Is this normal AFL behaviour to just barge in uninvited? Has it ever occured to you that people in that region might not actually want the sport there?
PC Virtue Signaller
Guest
Tasmania will get a new franchise, the league have already said that. No need for anyone to move or whatever. The pie gets increased by bringing more money, the Tasmanian people's coin into the equation. With a 19th club, we then need to consider where we will go with the 20th club so we then get 10 matches a week. I'd be looking SW Sydney or Canberra by 2030/35 ish. NRL and soccer in that region is shakey at best so the area is ripe for the picking.
Bludger
Guest
Who would have know that people would like eating American hamburgers before McDonalds turned up in Australia? We already had hamburgers. If the population is large, migrant based then it is a fait accompli. The NRL idiots had over a century and couldn't make a fist of it. Kick the door down and the whole rotten structure will collapse someone once famously said. And that's what the AFL intends to do sport.
1dawg
Roar Rookie
You seem Thom Rokerish :laughing: :stoked:
RT
Roar Rookie
That last sentence sounds like cr*p to me.
Brendon the 1st
Roar Rookie
For all those reasons, yes
josh
Guest
Why would SW Sydney want a team if Western Sydney doesn't?
christy olsen
Roar Rookie
Good article, Stone. People need to just stop all this nonsense about clubs being shut down or moved. Your article won't change anything, but if something bothers you, and you need to put off real work, I say write a piece for the Roar. That's what I do. It makes you feel better and gives you the serenity to ignore all those stupid commenters going on about moving clubs to Tassie. And, let's be honest, opinion pieces are the most fun to read anyway.
Bludger
Guest
I don't think Tasmania would accept either a relocated GC or North to be honest. North has a bigger following than any NRL club in Australia, so they are not 'big' in AFL terms, but massive in Australian terms. So, they stay in as far as I am concerned. Melbourne's population is growing exponentially and adding a Hobart every year in population, so no need for them to move. As for Gold Coast, I thought it was idiotic to plonk another club in that graveyard of sporting franchises. But, they are there, the QLD government spent a lot of money on facilities for them. There is a population in that region that follows the game, but it needs a lot of time. So, I would stay now as it is likely the NRL team will wither away, so they could take the region off that code. Tasmania will be getting the 19th license. Maybe in a decade they will give another license to SW Sydney, north Sydney, Canberra or even a Ballarat. Who knows where populations will go in the future, with mass migration.