Roar Rookie
Joined August 2009
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There was a time when international cricket consisted of intermittent series of Test Matches between the Test-playing nations. In 1971, One Day Internationals (ODIs)…
Prior to the start of this year’s A-League competition, all the talk was of the two new clubs, Gold Coast United and North Queensland…
I would argue that is because Rugby League had an existing pedigree in the area. While growing football in the area may seem admirable upon first glance, there is little for the FFA to gain in fighting for the scraps in an already small market.
Having a football team in Townsville is crazy
If I can continue the trend of statistical misuse for a second – the Fury have lost 33% of their games by 5 goals and have scored a goal in just 33% of their games. Looks like they were outclassed to me!
The Fury have an average crowd of 7,706, Townsville a population of 150,00 thousand. You are out by a factor of 10 when you say “50%”. We might have to agree to disagree as far as the Jersey is concerned – personally I think it screams “90s”. I know this is a sport forum and not a fashion guide but I personally love the look of the Central Coast and Phoenix shirts – traditional yet modern.
Having a football team in Townsville is crazy
Looks like it won’t be secret for long (if Tuqiri has any wish to play in the NRL).
The Tuqiri saga: what was all that about?
I can tell you now that the “strong football heartland” in Canberra is non-existent. Rugby Union is king here (with League a close second).
Does Melbourne need a second A-League team?
It is not an issue at all that a team is occupying last place if they are at least pulling in crowds (the Phoenix pulled in off in Version 3). What concerns me about the Fury is that there is little on the horizon. They have not just been beaten in their three games thus far, but hopelessly outclassed. Perhaps it is to early to extrapolate this to a whole season but I am struggling to see how they are going to turn it around. For mine it is all looking ominously New Zealand Knight-ish (or
,being from Canberra, Cosmos-ish).
Having a football team in Townsville is crazy
I’m not sure Canberra could yet support an A-League club – the market is already pretty saturated and the Brumbies and Raiders both have fanatical support. Wollongong could probably do a passable attempt (football already having something of pedigree down there). I think it is safe to say that any club establishing themselves in Tasmania is doomed to a quick demise for four reasons: 1) They have a very small population 2) The very small population is heavily fractured 3) The place is AFL mad 4) The state is not particuarly affluent. Personally I would be looking towards consolidating the Melbourne and Sydney markets with an extra team in both cities.
Expansion, while important, isn’t a race. There are no prizes for getting to 12 teams (especially if some are going to be financially troubled). We all saw what happened when the NRL saw empty spaces on the map and tried to fill them with teams (Western Reds, Adelaide Rams).
Having a football team in Townsville is crazy
A Blues side TODAY would blitz them all – they certainly would have won the Ashes and would beat a World XI on their day.
1) Hughes 2) Jaques 3) Katich 4) Clarke 5) Haddin 6) McCullum 7) Watson 8) Hauritz 9) Lee 10) Bollinger 11) Clarke.
A Blues side from the past decade would blitz them all
Hopefully you appreciate that I said that with my tongue firmly in cheek. It was merely to point out how dangerous it can be to misuse statistics – especially when talking about a very small sample size. By no means do I expect the Fury to lose a third of their games by that margin! You will note I have not yet declared the Fury a failure – I have however pointed out that should things continue as is there is no doubt where the Fury will end up.
Having a football team in Townsville is crazy