What are the harmful side effects of Meldonium ? A quick search of the internet doesn’t show any drastic damage that long or short term use can do.
The only reason to ban a drug ( like anabolic steriods ) is if it is harmful.
WADA is starting to act like a govt’ dept’ that is running out of things to do and is having to justify it’s existence.
Ask yourself, if babies could be immunised at birth for measles, AIDS, hepatitis etc with the side effect that in their teens they could run 100 m’s in 8 seconds and they would all live to 120. Would WADA ban it ?

Beans
The AFL’s strategy for plugging money into the junior game has begun show signs of cracking. Last year ( 2015 ) was the first time in over 25 yrs that there was no U16’s comp in Sydney. At least one club had U17’s and U15’s teams disband for want of numbers after only a few matches. Some are saying that the draft might be causing this drop in numbers in the late teens ( ARL has people pointing out to 15 & 16 yr olds that at least in league you can get to pick who you play for ). Others are claiming that no genuine ” club ” atmosphere is the cause as there is no community engagement eg. The masters sides don’t play at home always away.

It’s been a few years since one of my kids played rugby but in the past Sydney junior grass roots was organised thus.

Village clubs were feeders to District Clubs.
eg 1: Eastwood District Junior rep teams came from Beecroft, Epping, Hillview etc.
eg 2: Gordon Junior rep teams came from Lane Cove, Linfield, Wahroonga etc.

District Clubs are Premier Shute Shield Clubs ( except for Syd’ Uni’ )
Not all Village clubs have subbies teams ( eg: Hillview, Wahroonga, Collaroy etc )
Not all Subbies Clubs are village clubs ( eg: CBOBs, Knox Old Boys etc )

Junior rep teams and competitions are supported and organised by the District ( Shute Shield ) clubs

Claiming that Shute Shield teams have no Juniors is disingenuous at best.

RWC final winning 5/8ths
1987 Fox
1991 Lynagh
1995 Stransky
1999 Larkham
2003 Wilkinson
2007 James
2011 Cruden/Donald

2015 Steady or Mercurial ?

Gallop seems to have missed the point about the boycott, to not pay your players for 2 months as part of a negotiating tactic in a pay deal and then expect them to toe the line for less than the minimum wage is a high risk punt to say the least.

The players statements all revolve around being treated with respect, Gallop’s insistence that the PFA have some kind of Svengali like control over the Matildas is clearly out of touch with the team.

In the 1980’s I worked for a company based in Sydney owned by Equitycorp. On one of my early trips to NZ for an internal group management meeting I sat next to a bloke at dinner who worked in their HR dept. His sole job was to look after the families of the school boys from the Pacific Islands who had landed scholarships, this included organising rental properties, making sure Dad had a job [ usually storeman or forklift driver ] within the group, liaising with the school to make sure every thing was on track and ensuring the spotter was happy.

I couldn’t believe the amount of time and money was invested in this and was told it was all about being a good corporate citizen in the eyes of the NZRU and the govt.

This was clearly a sledge aimed at a Knox old boy in the Brumbies front row, it was not a result of a grubby culture from a provence with an openly gay club in their sub district comp. Given with how this has been handled I’m sure all of the Brumbies future opponents will now use PC terms to put him off his game.

Click on the little black triangle for previous years.

Ok I’m pretty sure I said last year ( 2013 ) there was only 5 U15 AFL teams in Sydney. This year ( 2014 ) they didn’t have the numbers for an U16 comp. If you don’t beleive me look it up on sporting pulse.

OK Should have said ” number 2 after soccer in the football sports. ie: not hockey, cricket,basketball,netball,baseball,volleyball,handball etc etc.

Not sure why so many people are death riding Rugby in Australia.

If soccer could get into the top 20 international rankings you would never hear the end of it.

If League had a international scene half as good as Rugby news corp would the screaming from the roof tops and Phil Gould would be opening up a club in the states.

After all the millions the AFL has squandered in Sydney they still haven’t dropped roots into the community ( last year they had only 5 U15 teams in Sydney, this year they had to roll the U16’s into the U17’s comp as they couldn’t get the numbers ).

Rugby seems to survive despite the ARU treating the grass roots like ungrateful tax payers.

Rugby’s biggest strength is that world wide it is number 2 after soccer and has an international trade in players.

Does anyone really know the AFL’s long term goals are for GWS ?

What are the dreaded KPI’s ?

Is it numbers of kids running around in weekend comp’s ?

Is it fans turning up to watch ?

Is it premierships won ?

Or is it the size of the television contract ?

Glen
If you are travelling by train to the Olympic stadium and you live between Hornsby and Epping on an average weekend you need to catch 4 trains. 1) catch train to epping. 2) change at epping for train to strathfield 3) change at strathfield for train to lidcombe 4) change at lidcombe for train to Olympic Park. If you live on the north shore there is another train to catch to either hornsby or chatswood. The train link to Homebush is not PRETTY GOOD.
If you lived in Sydney and caught the train you would know this.

Brendon
Where the SFS beats the Olympic stadium is public transport and the surrounds. If your taking your family getting into the ground is easier ( especially if one of the kids is on crutches the staff go out of their way to be helpful ) or if your meeting a few mates you can meet up at your favorite pub and get a few decent beers at a reasonable price and roll up at the gate with 5 mins to start time and get in your seat just before kick off.

Public transport to the SFS requires 2 trains and a bus from the hills and takes less than an hour or 1 train and 1 bus for a 65 min trip. Going to the Olympic stadium requires 3 or 4 trains and can be over a 90 min trip.

Also people did whinge about Concord and voted with their feet by not turning up.

The 2 biggest problems with the Olympic stadium are transport and surrounds.

Getting there by car from the hills is around 20 mins. By train for a major event it’s 50 mins, non major event 90 mins. Getting home again you wait about 45 mins in the car park and then travel for about 25 mins or catch the train and take about 105 mins with 2 or 3 changes of train. That is as long as there is no track work then it’s a 150 min trip home. It’s quicker to get to the SFS ( train and bus ) than catch 3 or 4 trains to the Olympic stadium.

The surrounds are terrible, long queues, pricey crap food and lousy drinks , thats before you get in. Once in the staff are at best surly and at worst just plain rude.

Flick
In order for AFL to be established in Sydney as a legitimate sport it has to do a few things.

1) Engage with the community in a meaningful way. This means spending money on established clubs with dedicated ovals. Don’t worry that the council will still own the buildings, they won’t kick the clubs out. This will enable the clubs to get a liquor licence and provide a social environment on Friday nights and week ends. Nothing beats letting the mrs have a glass of white wine watching the kids run around. This also means the club has to pay for a few RSA tickets for new adults or parents, but it has to be done.

2) Don’t let another North Rocks Suns occur. ( One of the early expansion junior clubs that folded ) This left a very bitter taste in the mouth of the people that left Pennant Hills to help out.

3) Whilst the AFL management people are pretty good some of the supporters come across as overly pushy. Acting like members of a cult puts people off. It’s just a game that gets the kids out of the house and lets them blow off steam.

4) Stop being fixated with numbers, the AFL’s quoted numbers are no longer believable and no one regards them as such. It’s better to have 12 strong clubs travelling all over that 24 weak clubs struggling for numbers.

5) Get the Dads running around in an over 35’s comp at their home grounds. Even if only once or thrice a year it builds a family atmosphere. Don’t keep score in these games, every game ends in a draw. If this means strong clubs have to swap players with weak clubs do it.

6) Don’t worry if the game is regarded a second sport, lots of kids play 2 or more sports in each season. Kids doing the HSC should not be told that training is compulsory or you won’t get a start, let them play making sure that everyone gets equal game time where possible.

7) Come up with a better story about abandoning the U16 comp this year, too many people know that last year there were only five U15 teams in Sydney. It’s better to say that AFL has to consolidate numbers than have some story about transition to seniors from 19’s is easier than 18’s. If they are not doing it in Melbourne it is not a believable story.

8) Finally, stop using the Jack brothers as examples of how AFL is taking over RL in it’s home town. Garry Jack is best known in Sydney not as a former ARL test player, he is best known as the bloke that sledged the only openly gay league player with a homophobic taunt and got the living tripe punched out him.

Flick
Your’e not helping because cruising the internet and quoting sites to win your argument is like a christian quoting the bible hoping to convince people the sun revolves around the earth. The junior clubs aren’t going to put in their annual report that they struggle to make the numbers every week and rely on kids playing up an age to get the minimum numbers. AFL is growing in Sydney but nowhere near as fast as you are making out. We don’t have 10,000 juniors running around every weekend and if there was it would still be less than a fifth of kids playing rugby. Not league, rugby. AFL will only grow and thrive long term by engaging the community in a meaningful way. Like alot of people interstate you have no idea that rugby and league are different games. AFL runs a poor 4th behind soccer,league and rugby. Until people start engaging with AFL clubs as a social exercise it will never take off. Over 35’s or masters is one way that this can occur, I know of a junior rugby club which just over 10 years ago started a golden oldies team. Since then they have turned a tiny brick shed into a great clubhouse ( built by working bees and fund raising efforts ). It is a great meeting place and attracts junior players because of this. People appreciate what they have built more than what they have been given, AFL should stop throwing money at clubs for uniforms and council rent and start mentoring office holders about how to become a part of the community.

Flick
Please stop, your’e not helping. Any Sydneysider with a kid under twenty would know that Auskick was a program put in by the AFL that went through all primary schools in Sydney. For a few bucks the kids got a back pack, water bottle and some branded clothing. It then helped out with the after school care at many schools and has morphed into the young kids at the junior clubs. The AFL got caught out a few times by quoting these numbers to councils to gain ovals.
If you want to help get the AFL to do something about the masters concept in Sydney. Having it centered at Kelso Park every few weeks does not help the clubs. Masters league rotates between the junior clubs all around Sydney and the Central Coast every few weeks and is a great money spinner for these clubs and helps pay for ground and infrastructure improvements. Rugby’s Golden Oldies is less organised but each club plays every few weeks at home or away and this also raises much needed funds. Pennant Hills is regarded as having some of the best facilities in junior AFL and it has a few brick sheds at Ern Holmes oval. Rugby, League and Soccer clubs are more involved with the community, it is not unusual for junior clubs in these sports to have Friday night drinks watching the kids run around. This pays for things and makes the club an active part of the community.

Flick
You are obviously not a Sydneysider despite your claims of living in Manly. To claim that Pennant Hills is only a senior club just shows that you have no idea of the current and past of AFL in Sydney. Clearly you are just a well meaning but misguided person sitting at a computer interstate that has no concept of the challenges facing AFL in Sydney. AFL will survive in Sydney but it is not going to thrive until there is a way found to engage at a community level the way it does in the southern states.

Oh wait, now I get it. Write FLICK in capitals and the li becomes a U. Very droll !

Flick
You are either new to Sydney or new to AFL in Sydney. The Pennant Hills Demons was founded in the 60’s and has been the backbone of aussie rules in Sydney north of the harbour since then. They are a senior and junior club with teams in all age groups up to U17’s plus seniors. Hornsby has been around for about 10 years and was club of the year in 2012/13. This year they didn’t have the numbers for an U15 team at all and the U17 team folded into Pennant Hills as they couldn’t mantain numbers. The AFL is going great guns up to U14’s but is falling away after that. The AFL is starting to look like the emperor and his new clothes. Something has to be done about this drop !

5 Divisions with a total of 27 teams across 2 age groups is good? After all the money and effort that has gone into promoting AFL? That is less than 300 kids per age group in a city of 4.5 million ! Junior AFL was played on saturdays for years and the only explanation that has been given for moving to sundays is allowing boys playing other sports on saturdays the opportunity to experience AFL. Quoting the number of divisions but not the number of teams is sweeping the problem under the carpet. It is not nonsense !
The AFL has to really start to look at this, GWS was supposed to capitalise on the success of the swans, what has happened ? Hornsby and North Rocks are going to end up merging with Pennant Hills just to survive, the push into the schools is not working as the majority of kids playing are the sons of expats from the southern states. Leagues biggest advantage are the licensed community based clubs, not all of them are pokie palaces, they are venues for cheap family meals in a safe enviroment.

Go for a drive down Pennant Hills park on a saturday in winter, the AFL oval has been taken over by junior soccer. The locals don’t care about transitions to seniors from 19’s, all they know is the AFL doesn’t play on saturdays on the local oval, there are no longer enough juniors for a full Under 16’s comp, all these expansion clubs are just sucking the life out of the old clubs and the AFL hasn’t worked out that under 17 and 18’s are studying for the HSC. More under 15’s and 16’s are playing rugby in Melbourne than AFL in Sydney and Rugby treats grass roots like dirt. The AFL has to rethink whats going on in Sydney, propping up the Swans and the Giants can only go so far, soccer and league are going to turn AFL back into a minority sport in Australia’s biggest city. Including Auskick participants in player numbers no longer cuts it as local councils want to see details about who plays before handing over ovals to sporting clubs.

The AFL should start looking at what is happening in Sydney before wasting money on overseas pipe dreams. This year despite all the money pumped into the game in Sydney there is no Under 16 comp for the first time in over 30 years. In the old days you could understand no under 11,13 of 15 teams running around as the junior clubs didn’t have the player numbers, but no under 16’s in 2014?

I was a bit surprised at all the talk about the line outs as I thought the problem was fixed at half time. After watching the replay of the match I noted that in the second half NSW had 5 throws after the break won 4 and put enough pressure on the QLD line out to win 1 on their throw and get 1 not straight.