I think the difference is is that far more cricket viewers are spasmodic watchers – they watch for 10 minutes here, half an hour there, one minute to check scores etc whereas viewers of soccer, league, afl and/or union typically sit and watch the whole game as a complete spectacle. Advertisers would have to be aware of this.

You ask me not to include speculation in one sentence and then follow it up with beginning your next sentence with ‘My opinion..’. Not that is irony at its best! 😉

I’m not quite certain why you placed up the Injury list. Were you trying to illustrate Maric’s absence? If so, I already addressed that argument – he was significantly injured but rather was carrying a minor injury he has been trying to cope with. Where’s the argument here. Could and should he have played in retrospect – probably. Why didn’t he, because he needed time to recover. This is not arrogance on the clubs part but more-so simple list management. Every single club does this.

As I have said multiple times, the loss was not predominately due to ‘club arrogance’, climate conditions, travel or even God. It was first and foremost caused by the amount of first line players we had missing from the game. I wonder if you will ignore this part of the argument once again or just keep trying to harp on the Maric ommission which is a dead argument? 🙂

Player frequently carry injuries through a season that hinder their game and need to be constantly managed and treated. Sometimes these injuries are not enough to keep them out of the side but are enough to disadvantage them during a game. If it was the pre-season these players would not train and would be rested but during a season where every game is crucial then they need to play through the pain and discomfort. This is exactly where Maric is at and exactly why his name was not placed on the injury list. If every player who had a minor injury was documented the list would be practically the whole squad.

Maic was injured and Maric is injured. Maric probably could have played against the Gold Coast but he would have only done additional damage and played underdone. Rightly or wrongly the club made the decision to protect Maric in a game they felt they could win without him. They were wrong, but the fact remains that just because a player isn’t listed on an injury list doesn’t mean he isn’t carrying some sort of injury. Most players are injured in varying degrees at stages throughout the season. Maric is playing right on the edge.

When it all comes down to it, regardless of your option of Maric’s health, the fact we had almost half our starting 22 unavailable has a far greater baring on the outcome of the game than the location of the game itself.

Always amusing to see how keen opposition supporters are to lay the boots into the Tigers (actually any well supported team for that matter!) when the opportunity presents itself. The Tigers didn’t take this game lightly and it didn’t rest Maric or Griffiths either for the game. They were playing with an injury for the last couple of weeks and it came to a point where they couldn’t play productively at all.

I’m not for a minute trying to argue that the conditions did not play a factor but they were far from the biggest factor.

The reason we lost the game is largely due to the sheer percentage of changes we needed to make to the side over the last 2 weeks. We have gone from the team who has made the least amount of changes to their side in the first half of the season to the side who has made the most for the year now. Does that tell you something? Teams need continuity and talent. We have lost this over the last two weeks. Losing Foley, Vickery and Grimes for the season has hurt our structure irreparably and, unlike the better sides, we don’t have the depth to cover injuries to our better players – not even close.

As I stated earlier, losing 10 of your best 22 over 2 weeks is enough to cause any team to struggle.

That loss hurt plain and simple. A team that was 0 – 14 against a team fighting for a place in the finals for the first time in over a decade and we lose after the siren. In many ways the planets just aligned for the Suns….again. The Tigers are not the team they were even 3 weeks a go. We were missing 10 of our best 22 on the weekend. Regardless of your squad depth, that figure would hurt any club. Couple this with the injuries during the games – we had only one player left to rotate – and being unfamiliar with the conditions, and you have a problem.

Credit where credit is due though, the Suns wanted the game more and played the conditions better than we did.

The question though is would we have played better at the MCG or even Ethiad? Undoubtedly. Should it have made a big enough difference that it turned the tables on the Richmond FC? No. That was caused by far more than a financially decision. The money earned from the move will buy us a better chance to develop and improve going forward. We will never be able to compete with the better sides until we have the coaches, facilities and financially clout to reach at minimum, level pegging.

As much as it still hurts to say, it was the players and coaches who have to answer for the loss well before we can begin to shift the blame to the administration.

What’s with all the pipe dream people?! I know it’s fun to speculate but this old gem is getting boring. The reality is that the League will not have any expansion teams until late in the next Rights or at the beginning of the Rights agreement beyond that….at the earliest. Even if, from the outside, it seems like a financial incentive to boost the next TV Deal, it would be a rushed business model at best. Expansion will come but it needs the proper time and foundations before making it a reality. The ICC will not cut any corners anymore.

Gallop moved his Expansion timeline to 2015 and then the ICC stated it was not going to happen in this next rights period at all.I haven’t seen anything to suggest this has changed despite potential bidders making lots of noise and promises and the media trying to sell ‘pie in the sky’s’ to naive readers.

Its all noise as far as I’m concerned until I hear anything to the contradict this from the commission themselves.

Can someone explain to e how the NRL could possible be getting the same money for their Rights yet, even with these new changes, have one less game, 50% less game time, the ratings are similar and less exposure Australia wide? Just doing the basic Maths I can’t figure this out….

Yes Planko but looking at it completely objectively forgeting the past and taking out all emotion – when you line up the products including ratings, advertising opportunities and exposure, an extra game every week etc how could the NRL make the same from there rights as the AFL?

By all reports they will but where is the extra worth/justification? As I stated earlier – I am confused by this…

The ratings figures, excluding the Regional Ratings figures, are typically very similar over a season Australia wide. NRL’s figures are more cooncentrated across two states while the AFL is spread more all states with the 4 Sounthern states the predominate viewers.

Surely maths has to play some part in the equation though – 50% longer games, more advertisement opportunities and one extra game a week. Even with the changes how can the NRL be now getting the same Rights money as the AFL when all this is taken into account?

I’m a little confused. How many additional opportunities will this create to insert advertisements in a 95 minute game? Currently I understand that an average AFL game goes for around 3 hours (is this correct?) with 3 lengthy breaks at the end of each quarter which they can play multiple advertisements in (especially half time) plus ads after every goal (20+ a game).

So just doing the maths, and with ratings fairly comparable between the codes, how can the NRL expect the same TV Rights as the AFL.

I don’t understand.

The NRL have finally awoken but it took the threat of the AFL ‘invading’ to do it. What the AFL really should have done is leave the expansion into the northern states for another decade so the NRL continued along their merry way – sinking further and further into debt, clinging to the past, having a media/club driven ruling body and watching Sydney cased teams die – and then expand. What has happened over the last 10 years is that the NRL can finally compare themselves with another domestic code and they are embarrassed. So much so that they have and are adopting many of the administrative successes of the AFL.

Really the NRL should be thanking the AFL for giving them a foot up the behind and motivating them into action. Whether they left their run too late to compete is a whole other argument…but there is those regional ratings 😉

One day we’ll move to a conference system but we are still 30+ years away from that imo. As a Richmond supporter, I am happy with the draw in terms of both opportunities to attend games with my little fellow and the teams we play. We haven’t got a easy run (we play, Carlton, Collingwood, Melbourne, Hawthorn and West Coast in the first 5 games) but we have avoided playing any of the top 4 teams more than once. I would have liked to play GWS or Gold Coast twice but you can’t have it all.

Collingwood supporters should stop complaining and be happy with the number of MCG games, Free to Air games and opportunities to generate additional revenue through large crowds against other big clubs they have next year.

Collingwood never has an easy draw you say. That is a litlle far fetched. The crowds they draw are an asset not a pressured hinderance. They play the majority of their games at their home ground. While you can argue this is due to other clubs requesting to play them their to increase their own revenue the fact remains – playing at your home ground is always an advantage. Secondly, the usual lack of travel the club has to endure is a distinct advantage too so while they have increased their travel in 2012, the lack of long flights and distruption to programs/lifestyle can not be underrated.

Collingwood fans should never cry foul. Even with next years draw more even than in the the past, the Pies are still well ahead in terms of exposure, revenue opportunities and opportunities for their supporters to see them live.

If you want to win the flag, you need to beat the best anyway.

The first mistake was with selection. While you can only pick who’s available, the clear theme this year was to go with smaller, quicker players to out run the Irish which is usually their strength. The flaw with that logic became obvious on Friday night when the Irish effectively outmuscled, out bodied and then out scored us with their superior ball skills. We will never be able to hope to match them with round ball skills but we need to ensure that we maintain our physical dominance with size and strength. We can then hope, that through sheer numbers and superior opportunities, that we can beat them.

The Australian’s ball use will improve but I just can’t see how we can turn around the result next week with the same squad we currently have.

Strategically, the coaches need to have a good hard look at themselves….

My point exactly AC. You just summarized it in a much more eloquent and intelligent manner! 🙂

I don’t believe anyone is suggesting that expansion is not a good focus for the game…it just shouldn’t be first focus. The clubs security and financial stability should be first. The competiton foundations are shaky at best so why try and build onto it only to have everything crashing down when existing clubs buckle under the financial strain.

Clubs such as the Bronco’s are miles ahead of the rest of the clubs in terms of revenue, facilities, memberships and general support (yes, I know one team city). They could afford a much larger salary cap which would stop the ‘player drain’ but they can’t can they because a larger salary cap would sink many existing, weaker clubs.

People argue that the NRL/ IC shouldn’t give them additional funding to have them throw it away on coaches contracts etc. Well perhaps the ruling body should create a provisional grant for these clubs – step in, send in some experts to assist the clubs in creating a profitiable and sustainable financial model/plan. If they want the money then they need to ensure it is spent on diminishing dept and investing in long term, secure outlays.

Any additional money raised by the NRL at the next rights deal needs to be firstly used to get their house in order – predominately in helping the clubs and grass root football. NRL supporters should be patient and not try and compete with the expansion efforts of other codes in the short term.

The IC has a mountain of work to do and I believe people like Gallop bring up these ‘pe in the sky’ plans of expansion as smoke and mirrors – to appease the masses and make them feel that the code can compete.

NRL has a lot of ground to make up and stupid decisions with money will only make it worse…..

The obsession with TV Ratings and TV Rights from the NRL and their supporters is far to one dimension. These figures demonstrate that they are but one piece of a very large pie and why expansion should be way down on the IC’s priority list. First and foremost should be the stability and financial security of the existing clubs and 3.8m is no where near enough. AFL clubs have recently been given a special grant from the ‘equalization fund’ of between 7.5 million and 3.5 million. That is on top of the normal grants gifted to the clubs but, as you can see from the discussed list, most clubs are generating a huge percentage of revenue from their supporters and investments. The NRL clubs can not hope to survive, let alone prosper, depending on pokies money alone.

Yes the comparison to our ‘powerful’ clubs to some of the American and European clubs puts things into perspective don’t you think….

The NRL appear like an amateur, unstable ramble at the moment. Everyone is thinking about their own self interests yet everyone wants an IC….as long as they don’t have to lose too much in the process. Too many old school bullies in clubs and state leagues but I can understand the clubs push….

You say the NRL are trying to match the AFL well, besides the occasional TV rating, they are light years behind them. The biggest concern for the league is money – they just don’t have any. The biggest NRL club (by a large margin too) generates only 20 million a year which is well under two and a half times the AFL’s largest generator -Collingwood (56 mill). The Swans turn over 24 million a year and even the Lions earn 23 million. Fouteen other AFL clubs are ahead of the Broncos by a fair margin. This gap is only growing too.

League fans ignore comparisons with attendances and memberships but it is the ACTIVE interest of these supporters that is generating the money directly to the clubs. TV rights money will go to the commission then a small portion back to the clubs.

I hear a great deal of talk about expanding but people just don’t get it. They look at possible increases to TV ratings and therefore money for the rights with additional teams. What they choose to ignore is that many clubs are struggling as is and without additional support they will fold. ‘Let them die and bring in new clubs then!’ but to start a new club up costs a great deal more than to keep an existing one. Additionally propping new clubs up in foreign markets is incredibly expension particularly if that money can go to saving and/or securing the future of an existing club.

NRL Supporters need to stop looking to the AFL TV Rights money and recent expansion as a model to rush to immediately. First you ned to make sure the foundations are stable and the clubs/salary cap secure.

It all starts with the supporters though and that should be the first thing the commission should be working on – getting bums on seats to help the clubs, not creating more revenue drain though expansion.

Amazing how many doom and gloomers there are surrounding the chances of some GWS success next year. Many would say it is based on how the GC went or the age of the list but the Giants have gone about assembling a list in a very different way to the Suns. I think that many of the older recruits may play out of their skins this year. What they will certainly do is lift the younger players around them through their experience and game smarts. They have absolutely nothing to lose either.

Falou is an unknown but I believe he shows all the signs of being a much better and natural AFL player than Hunt is. He may surprize many.

I’m looking forward to seeing how they go and I for one, think they may perform better than many believe or even hope…

I’m not sure about that Ian Whitchurch. If you look at all the rumoured targets they were all under 23 – Martin, Pendlbury (sp?), Thomas, etc. They never went for Swan – too old for their cause. They seemed to have a definite plan to bring in talent that would be there when the rest of the list had developed and were pushing for a flag.

Whether the Giants get their pants pulled down by 20+ goals or end up winning by a point, the fact is that the AFL are giving the side every chance at gaining as much exposure to generate supporters, memberships, sponsors and general interest in the Southern States and, most importantly, Sydney than they would ever get otherwise. Playing Sydney is a double whammy and it doesn’t hurt that the AFL is ensuring that the NRL don’t have the weekend to themselves like in previous years. The NRL will play as dirty as they can to try and hurt the Giants ratings and exposure in the next few years (ie moving games into the Blacktown region, or blockbusters to clash with the GWS games etc) so it’s nice to see the AFL saying two can play at that game.

I would love to see a time when the Giants and Swans become untainted by NRL negativity. Where the AFL is given a chance to earn supporters and interest based purely on the game itself instead of having media, NRL supporters play the ‘code war’ card, where you can only support one code or the other. Why can’t the Giants be Sydney sport lovers second team?

I’m equally impressed by GWS approach to recruitment. They are building up a formidable array of draft picks. While some may question the age of their uncontracted player targets, I think it may prove extremely fruitful. They are recruiting for the future and not the immediate future.

The idea to bring back the retired ‘stars’ is also clever. It gives the younger players space and protection to develop while also giving the team consistent leadership and direction on and off the field for years to come.

I think we may find GWS will be the team to watch in years to come.

Yes but he’s learning the art. He’s learning what it takes to be a tall forward – leading, marking and most importantly goal kicking. His goal kicking won’t change regardless of the opposition. He has the makings of a talented forward who at the very least can bring the ball to ground for the crumbers.

I would suggest that the GWS are going about building a list in a very clever manner. Gold Coast took uncontracted players that would assist in their on field performance in the short term and perhaps give the younger draftees some much needed leadership, education and protection for that period before they are left to fend for themselves.

The GWS, on the other hand, have used the uncontracted player rule to get talent younger players that will be around in the long term as well as short. These players including Scully and Ward will continue to improve with the rest of the squad. To cover the lack of leadership, size and experience, the Giants hoped to bring to the club recently retired quality players which will then stay with the clubs once their careers are fully over, as Assistant coaches. I think this is a very clever idea as they would get these older players for absolutely nothing. The only problem now being that Brisbane and the Power have caught hold of the plan and are holding on to these players and trying to force GWS to use a later pick to secure them and therefore protect their club from losing an uncontracted player to them next year.

I think the GWS will actually have far more success initially than the Gold Coast has and may in the long term too. Izzy seems the better convert option too and may actually prove worthwhile as a forward target.

Will make for interesting watching…

If the AFL sold their souls and moved their Grand Final to Sunday night and allowed the Networks to dictate what games they wished to play at certain days and times could you imagine the ratings difference then….