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OzFootballSherrin

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Joined October 2010

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One might’ve thought that Long John Baldry might’ve made first ruck?

btw –

now Stevie Wright, or Paul Kelly or Russell Morris??

and the rockin’ footballers themselves – Capper, McKenna and Jacko.

Musical maestros play it hard on the field

My main thoughts on this front :

A. if you already have a presence in a market, then, is it expansion or consolidation? (i.e. the AFL seeking to consolidate within NSW and QLD state markets with a 2nd team in each and thus the doubling of the number of market relevant matches etc)

B. the US is a privately owned franchise system (in the main, NFL wise the Packers being somewhat of an exception) – the wealthy owners would have very little interest in more and more franchises being made available, as it might dilute the value of their existing investment. THe money in the NFL is pretty good as is – although the players again thwarted the owners just recently in grabbing an extra chunk.

C. the NFL is 30 teams – perhaps they don’t see a functional need/reason to expand further.

D. In the US scenario – the College system (American Football, Basketball etc) is such a major player that it can’t be ignored.

E. the AFL has the advantage of sorts, of not having off shore bench marks, so, 800 players can be in the league and the standard is simply the ‘contest’ between two clubs on any given weekend. For now – it’s an expansion of ‘career opportunity’ within the game. Less elite, more egalitarian.

Is the AFL's expansion strategy misguided?

Note too – the USA has around 100,000 active participants playing cricket – – not a massive number but nor is it inconsequential. The US cricket association claims there are between 15 and 20 million cricket fans in the US.

Again – not an inconsequential number.

However – the top talent has in the past been rarely US born. So what!!, how many non UK born England reps have there been, let alone looking at ‘minnows’ like Canada, Netherlands and various Ireland and certainly UAE – there’s been many overseas born (India/Pak/SthAf) players in the top side.

and they at least have U19s squads attending U19s WC’s…..included the wonderfully named Akeem Levar Dodson, born in Queens NY!!

After football, which is the most important World Cup?

re crunching the numbers – this article

http://www.smh.com.au/business/afls-success-in-black-and-white-20110308-1bmk6.html

is pretty well instructive on the topic.

And to a degree puts Roy Masters back in his box a tad bit.

Crunching numbers on the code wars

it’s an interesting article that one you’ve linked to….I heard Eddie McGuire happily referencing it this morning on the radio……no surprise why.

The for the comparisons –

the avg viewers per club – you ought put the 4 codes in given you did on the avg spectators per club:
SO, as the article states “On Australian Television”
AFL 14.64 million viewers per club.
NRL 13.81 million viewers per club.
A-League soccer clubs average 1.5 million viewers per club,
and SuperRugby clubs just 958,000.

the reason I reckon you need these included is that along with the average spectators per club (per season),

you need to factor in the number of games to achieve that.
on the most recently complete HAL season,
we’re talking
HAL – 30 games per club
NRL – 24 games per club
AFL – 22 games per club

now, the RU in particular? is that Australian spectators? I’m not quite sure how to factor that one, and of course noting both the NRL and HAL have a slight potential variance due to a single NZ side in each.

What’s clear re the finances of SANZAR is that the Australian market in a tri-nations tournament such as the Super15s is only so relevant stand alone.

Anyways, it’s all a bit of apples vs oranges vs pears. And re all the Collingwood stuff in the article……..it’s kinda both impressive and scary at the same time!!!

The A-League’s annus horribilis

Seriously – and from the AFL perspective, – it all sounds like a good idea, but, the season is long enough as is, and in real ‘collision’ sports (unlike say basketball or soccer) – you just can’t keep adding more and more (semi-) serious games. NRL season length surely must be an issue already, esp when you through in SoO and the odd international.

However, I’m a bit of a fan of ‘lightning premiership’ scenarios, I didn’t mind the first round of the AFL NAB cup this year – however, I recall back in 1996 the AFL ran a single weekend lightning premiership out at Waverley and it piddled down and was cold and awful and stuff all people turned up and the AFL never went back to that well for water again!!!

The reason I mention that ’96 one is it failed on a key deliverable of the preseason – – and that is the trial games that go regional. The NRL does it, and the AFL does it with the losers out of the NAB Cup who play NAB Challenge games in places like Bunbury, Mt Gambier, Morwell, Albury, Coffs Harbour etc etc. Whatever happens in the pre-season – – I reckon this is the one thing to NOT lose for either the NRL or AFL.

NRL needs a pre-season competition

“the nights become cooler, footy boot sales rocket and office football related gossip flourishes.”

and footy tipping comps get finalised and supercoach and dreamteams sorted…….and suddenly people are looking for smokies and rookies most likely,

that and trying to find out how to fit BOTH Ablett and Swan into your midfield.

what WILL be interesting though, is Ablett won’t have the same support, ball feeding and blocking support that he had at Geelong. He’s still a class player, and Ablett’s evasive and extraction skills in heavy traffic are legendary – – however, he’s also likely to cop a whole lot more ‘close attention’.

I do also wonder, how much Gary might play forward, even alongside his brother? For the Suns, having some real quality forward finishing might be crucial with all the young lads.

Daniel Harris in the midfield, set for game 150 in Rnd 2, will be super important too as the elder statesman of the team!! It’s a long time since he was Vic Country captain and drafted to North Melbourne at the same time as Dylan Smith.

How will Ablett fare as leader of the Suns?

relevance is boosted by –

professionalism,

media buy in

key rivalries,

NRL world cup – – whilst quite limited does tick off these 3 factors in Aust/Eng/NZ. Media ‘buy in’ in MORE ways than one!!! (media ownership).

After football, which is the most important World Cup?

ICF –

congrats on a well written article that avoided the temptation to throw barbs at other codes. Good stuff!! (esp re the ‘perceived lack of supprt’ line – that was good respectful and non-judgemental language).

(just so you know that I’m not a negative nelly and appreciate good work).

The A-League’s annus horribilis

ICF –

re ‘high profile drug cheats’

clearly the answer to your assertion is a pretty obvious NO. The AFL 3 strike illicit drugs is NOT about drug cheats – – that’s what the WADA testing (administered by ASADA) is all about.

Do you even know what we are talking about? or are you just throwing stones helter skelter? Please take a leaf from the article author who has allowed himself to be educated about the topic rather than just being mindlessly anti AFL.

btw –

the AFL additional testing is commissioned by the AFL to a single company, Dorevich pathology. When the AFL annually releases the higher level results – were the AFL fudging figures then Dorevich would be able to assert otherwise.

The NRL by comparison DOES NOT release any information, and each club is able to individually commission testing, so, not even the NRL as a ruling body really oversees it.

And the FFA……don’t have such a policy.

Should one strike be enough in AFL?

Hoy –

re the not everything but most…….sad thing is,…..we just don’t know. I’m not sure if she does anymore.

And when she feels she only owes an apology to Sam Gilbert – – it does show that she just doesn’t get the implications of what shes done.

That said – the clear lesson here is that a deceiptful teenager is able to exploit social media (and a willing print/online media) to completely discredit (in the short term), individuals, a footy club and a footy code (in the eyes of some). Not bad ‘power’ to wield at that age. The force is strong in this one……..

Hell hath no fury...

if as a team, you are able to (esp in RU/RL with the off side rules and limits on forward passing), so, if you are able to so decieve and defeat your opposition in general field play that you end up with someone seemingly alone effectively on the goal line for what looks like an easy ‘tap in’,………it rarely is.

However, just like in golf, don’t show the 1 foot putt,…..show the glorious tee shot or the superb approach shot onto the green within a foot of the pin.

The outcome is the result of the process.

Does rugby's scoring system need changing?

FIUL –

My post was in answer to “WeAreTheReds” who brought it up and finished with

“Over to you Roarers…”

After football, which is the most important World Cup?

I’m really not sure what your point is Swampy?

the girl lied from the outset,

this issue blew up when first she lied to her school principle claiming she was pregnant to a St Kilda player that she met at a school clinic………..both false…….and yet that was enough for the papers to go wall to wall and for Peter Costello to recall ONLY what has turned out to be total lies.

she DID get involved with a Sam Gilbert in Sydney (a long way from a suburban Melb school) posing as a 19 yr old athlete from the AIS in Canberra. Again – lies, deception.

To this point – – she’s the only one doing anything wrong.

Now – Ricky Nixon is another thing, and I totally don’t want to be seen to be defending him.

re the ‘secret way’ the AFL is run?? that’s a laughable comment that.

In all of this, I’m just not too sure what people expected or wanted the AFL to do?? please, give us some answers – what should the AFL do?

(i.e. NOT StKilda, NOT Sam Gilbert, Not Kim D, Not Kim D’s family/friends/doctor/lawyer/manager??? – – but, the AFL who I don’t see as having any real responsibility here at all and have done well to cop criticism that they know has been unwarranted but at the same time NOT going public with information that would only further discredit the girl. Which she has now done with a 5 figure pay out involved from Ch.9)

and Hoy’s correct, it was Schultz, not Klink.

Hell hath no fury...

nor is basketball and yet they have 3 pointers.

it’s a ‘qualitative measure in the scoring system.

look at soccer – no qualitative component – – anything and everything in the onion bag is a 1 pointer. In Rugby (both, and grid iron), the Try is the full width of the field…….

you should get a bag of lollies at least for touching down under the x-bar!!!!

😉

Does rugby's scoring system need changing?

I’ll take this partially seriously – – the relevance relates in much part to professional vs amateur, and purpose of events.

the AFL international cup – – given that

A. it’s not proclaiming to be a ‘world cup’ as Australia does not participate, only hosts, and it’s outright amateur so that not necessarily the BEST represent each nation, just those who are citizens (and not expats) and who can afford the time and money. It’s a mile from a pinnacle of the code contest.

B. calling it ‘international’ is an obvious fall back to the point that it IS international,……but, now with the 4th installment approaching, save for Australia – – it could lay claim to representing an (Australian) footballing world (not huge, but, nevertheless, could lay claim to it). After all – – ‘world’ get’s used a bit loosely at other times, the old World Series Cricket was an obvious example……a tri-series,……that ought’ve been ‘ISC’ cricket surely??

An important question to answer is : What’s the purpose of the event?

For now, the AFL international cup is purely amateur, unlike the ‘REAL’ world cups – it doesn’t permit expat Aussies to fill up teams, or people to qualify for a nation they have never been to but their mum might still hold a passport of. However, the AFL international cup IS NOT able to lay claim to AFL graduates,….for example niether Mike Pyke or Shae McNamara have come through this system. Also, there are separate approaches in Aust to the ‘multi-cultural’ perspective of recent arrivals.

However, perhaps that day is coming as PNG DOES have several ‘graduates’ on AFL international rookie/scholarship lists with a number of players not that far off at the 2nd tier level. However, within a few years, PNG might be too far progressed to still be competing with the majority of nations in the IC because they might just be TOO good. Again – – the need to clarify the purpose of the event and future eligibility criteria. At very least, the challenge will be for divisions or the like going forward. The IC format needs to be a bit fluid……it’s just fun after all. (although for PNG, runners up to Ireland and NZ in the first two, to win in 2008 was a highly valued and rated effort). If PNG though were to benefit from half a dozen AFL or VFL trained/experience rookies who didn’t quite make it but are 20 times the player of anyone else in the IC……?

What’s more important for developing talent are regional junior tournaments. For Aust Footy presently, the IC is nice, it has a nice roll call of nations, BUT, what is more important in the ‘future’ scope is events like the Oceania Cup u16s (2nd installment recently completed) and the 2 international U16* sides in the Aust U16 nationals, and the PNG involvement in QLD state titles and Oceania in the NSW state titles. While PNG dominated the Oceania Cup (they have a footy academy at De La Salle in Port Moresby), there were strong showings from home team Tonga (the King wants a footy academy there too) and Fiji (good momentum, and leverages of Fijian descent Rodan, Carlise and Naitanui in the AFL). Surprising recent growth from Solomon Islands and Vanuatu see Nauru, Samoa and NZ suddenly facing more junior competition within the region.

This is were ‘relevance’ to the code comes into it – – because it’s a ‘development phase’. IF all goes well and a handful of AFL level talent progresses through the system over the next few years – then the logical flow on is that the senior sides in the IC will improve from such nations. However, the IC can only be in the foreseeable future, can only be a nice side show curiousity,……a really ‘NICE’ carnival atmosphere tournament.

The relevance though – – is juniors and development.

However – – what that helps illustrate is how the wants and needs of the top level professional incarnation of a code dictates the ‘importance/relevance’ of an event. The top level AFL comp might rate some relevance should PNG for example graduate to join in stand alone Div 2 of the nationals (u16s/u18s), or if PNG enter into the NEAFL.

Stand alone though – for the IC – more people probably should get a bit of a kick out of seeing the Canadian ruckman going up against the Finnish ruckman at the start of a passionate national battle on a far flung field (in Melb and/or Syd this year) in a game foreign to most of the combatants countrymen. Even if an Australian isn’t a massive footy fan – they should still have a bit of pride in a smallish global community with it’s ‘Mecca’ based in Australia (and it’s not hurting anybody after all!!!).

After football, which is the most important World Cup?

for a cricket tragic to go out in front of the cricket on tele after a game in the arvo……….is some consoldation at least.

Am obviously shocked and I extend my sympathies to his family and friends and colleagues. TheRoar is most certainly lesser for his loss.

Vale Vinay Verma: a titan among cricket writers

Jaredsbro –

it’s odd that you try to sell cricket short (by scaling degrees of popularity) given that you’re pushing RU.

RU is hardly a national passtime in Australia, coming about 4th in the football stakes, and perhaps is only ‘insanely popular’ as you put it in NZ and Sth AFrica…..mebbe Wales.

Paint the picture with the same brush!!!

After football, which is the most important World Cup?

Please……NO!!!

Can Collingwood go back to back this season?

Given that the original aim of Rugby was that crossing the line allowed you a ‘try’ at kicking a ‘goal’ (i.e. ‘goal’ of the game) – and that tries were NOT worth anything,

everything since then has been moving further and further from the notion of a game of football with goals as the objective,

What I find odd – is that some people seem to hate ‘goals’ (but, this may be the epitome of the diametrically opposed games of soccer and rugby, one uses no hands and only scores goals, the other uses hands, rarely kicks and has made goals almost secondary).

For me, I’d hate to see RU go down the RL path too far.

Surely, in RU, if you remove the threat of field goals, by devaluing them to such an extent as to only be used as a tie breaker with 20 seconds on the clock – then, within general play the game would actually become more contested and bogged down because offense would be more limited, and defence could be even MORE structured.

How about instead, award double points for someone able to kick a goal UNDER the x-bar, or double points for a try run in under the x-bar…….’SUPER-TRY’s’.

Does rugby's scoring system need changing?

personally I don’t see that the AFL or NRL should be nearly as ‘responsible’ as some segments of the community seem to think,

The whole what defines ‘mis-conduct’ and where and when and just how much a big brother/big mother the employer must be is interesting.

The NRL do look to have got it about right – – however, it’s whether the media is sated that seems to count.

The day common sense prevailed in the NRL

Over the past week the England v Ireland game seems a perfect example,

thinking back further,

in cricket, in 1984 at Old Trafford, England got the mighty West Indies to 7 for 102, none of the 7 batters dismissed to that point had reached double figures (a combined tally of 32 between them). England completely on top, just needed to wrap up the tail (and or remove Viv RIchards).

Alas for the Poms, they didn’t manage to remove Richards who went on to 189 not out, Baptiste (26) provided support for a 59 run partnership, and then an unbroken last wicket stand of 106 with Holding (12).

The shellshocked Poms managed only 168 off 50 falling 104 runs short.

A different example as the turning point happened in the first innings – however, at 7-102 the Poms must’ve thought the hard work was near enough done.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

The Neale Daniher game as you mention, or back to ’76 was it for the Malcolm Blight game getting up over Carlton with 3 goals to himself in the last few minutes.

Collingwood made an era of it in GF’s, 1966, 1970 and 1979 in particular.

North v Ess 10 years back when we were up by 12 goals midway through the 2nd qtr and still went down.

Essendon managed to grab defeat firmly from the jaws of victory in 1999 prelim…..that and the Fraser Brown tackle.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

Hawthorn……..

go the Tassie Hawks………the thorny Launie Thawks……

Which non-Victorian side will be first to challenge for a premiership?

Initially I thought to feel more sympathy for Benji than I do now.

He really should know better, and should have contained his response.

What he did earlier in the evening is 100% irrelevant – – there was no license to assault handed out.

All that said, in the ‘good old days’ nothing more would’ve come of this and we’d all be getting on with life and droobers would’ve been put back in their places – – but, times have changed (and were the good old days all that great anyway?) and Marshall is responsible for being suckered in.

Fair hit, Benji

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