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Rodney Penny

Roar Pro

Joined May 2011

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They should finish in the lower part of the top 8.

They’ve added a few talented players and they’ve lost no-one out of their best 22. The signings of Boak, Ebert, Wingard, Wines, Westhoff, O’Shea and Pittard will ensure that their minds won’t be preoccupied with contract stuff this season.

Look out in 2015 and beyond. This team has the makings of a champion side; premierships and all. I honestly mean that.

AFL season preview: Power surge halted in 2014?

I’m glad the SANFL withdrew their approval of the guernsey.

The people have spoken and won!

SA state guernsey should be sacrosanct

Yeah, I agree with you Cam.

I particularly enjoyed your remark that “fans of the team that is the victim of a supposed missed free kick are always going to go beserk, but frankly, the opinion of anyone emotionally attached is irrelevant”.

To be honest, the whinging about the free kicks is one of the worst things about supporters of our game.

I personally think Adelaide supporters are shocking with the umpires. The umpires apparently cannot do anything right.

I remember one game in particular. It was the Round 5 Showdown last year (incidentally the same game where Jay Schulz got his eye torn from its socket and the Crows fans acted in an absolutely disgusting manner towards him) and even though the free kick count was relatively even (20-17 Port’s way), you should have heard the uproar. Booing when a decision went against them, and Bronx cheering when something went their way.

People talk about Port fans being feral. That’s nothing but a stereotypical load of crap, aimed at poking fun at the coincidental predominantly comfortable middle class Port Adelaide supporter base.

I actually think Adelaide fans are more “feral”, based on their actions at games.

The point being that the football public has a hell of a lot to learn about how to act when supporting their team.

Football public stupid when it comes to free kicks

I’ve seen Mark Neeld on Fox Footy talking about how he goes about his business and what he plans to implement. AFL Insider has shown Melbourne’s structures and they’ve looked solid and cogent.

Coaching any AFL team is never easy. Mick Malthouse has publicly stated that Neeld has one of the best footy brains he has ever seen. And I know that this may come as a shock to you, but a bloke who’s been coaching for decades and has won multiple premierships in the Australian Football League probably has a better understanding of what makes a good coach than you do.

Melbourne’s midfield, as I said, have the capability to form the basis for a good one. Players like Sylvia, Jones, Viney and Jack Trengove are all capable footballers. They just need to put in more effort and gain some confidence. Once Melbourne start recruiting well, they’ll be able to rise up the ladder.

And I think you may be the clueless one. You look at results as being the sole determination for a coaches’ worth. There are so many variables in sport, well in life really; which means that you need to think abstractly before making absolute statements.

Think about it this way: An architect may be able to design a really nice house, but unless you get a team of good builders around you and use quality materials, the house won’t be a strong one.

The coach needs to be given time to implement his plan, and with a group who actually wants to put in the hard yards. That much is a certainty.

Melbourne Football Club is a disgrace

You’re giving Port a bit of a rough deal, aren’t you? As much as Melbourne were bad, Port were excellent. The work rate from Port was outstanding, and their pressure forced Melbourne into making errors.

I think Melbourne were insipid at times, but there were a couple of periods during the game where they played a bit of so-so footy. Everyone’s getting up in arms because they lost by so much against Port and not a team like Sydney.

To be quite honest, it’s disrespectful to almost completely ignore Port’s effort on the weekend. That was their most complete performance I’ve seen in the past five years.

Melbourne Demons the horror story of opening round

I’m sure if we did get it back, we’d do a better job at running it than you Victorians!

I do appreciate the feedback from everyone, though.

State of Origin is such a contentious issue that it won’t be able to go ahead and still make everyone happy.

We’ll have to wait and see how it all folds out.

Time for the AFL to bring back State of Origin

Match attendance isn’t the only variable pointing to success. I don’t know if you remember, but someone posted a video of the RBB chanting and singing on the comments section on a Wanderers article. On the train, in pubs, down the streets, outside the stadium, inside the stadium and after the match. Pretty much non-stop for several hours. I haven’t seen that level of support for the Giants as of yet. You can measure success any number of ways, and those several hours of chanting and signing are a good example of success.

And by the way, I don’t troll. I say it how I see it. I don’t make comments just to degarde a code. I support the AFL more than any other code, and while this article may be stating the obvious, I thought the fact that the Wanderers are doing so well was worth a mention.

Other people may be content with slamming other codes whilst compromising their integrity, but I am not.

Giants are miles behind Wanderers for support

It’s not just about the attendances, which by the way, are helped by the 38,000 in Round 1 for the Sydney derby. It’s about what happens at the games. The RBB supporter group is highly vocal, whereas the Giants games are pretty quiet.

Like I said, culture plays a large role. Which means the Wanderers don’t have to use tacky methods to gain support.

The Wanderers also had 14,000 against the Mariners on the weekend. Not a bad turnout.

Plus, look at what happened with the Suns. They had an average of 19,000 in their first year go down to about 13,500 for their second year. So the second year blues might take hold and the novelty of a new AFL club might wear off.

It’ll take time for them to gain a decent following.

Giants are miles behind Wanderers for support

It doesn’t matter how dangerous something is; if it’s the law then it can’t be broken.

Going 120 km/h on the South-Eastern Freeway is probably considered a safe enough speed. But as the speed limit is 110, going 120 would be breaking the law. Understand?

The reason I’m being condescending is because some people just don’t get it. I live in Adelaide and I’ve seen how heated United-Victory games can get, particularly after the match.

I agree that mainstream journalists go overboard in the way they deal with soccer and its fans, but you can’t honestly say that the fans are always well behaved.

If you do nothing wrong, then you can’t get into trouble or be criticised. Simple.

Why is mainstream Australia scared of active fans?

Expect Norwood to thrash the living daylights out of everyone. If anyone saw the way they played this year in the SANFL, every other team should be wetting themselves.

Haha, kidding. The new system is good and I like the idea of a playoff for the smaller clubs. I think the Foxtel Cup has relevance and should grow to become an integral part of the footy calendar.

The 2013 Foxtel Cup preview

You know, I’m not so sure.

Primus wasn’t given the necessary resources to coach an AFL club. Primus had to work with a part-time senior assistant and a bunch of inexperienced assistant coaches, which is far from ideal.

There wasn’t a lot of money for football department spending either, which then translates to disadvantage with the player group.

You can’t coach to your best without a state of the art football program.

Trust me, if he flat out couldn’t coach like you’re implying, then Port wouldn’t have hired him in the first place.

Port Adelaide needs to start from scratch

Yeah, valid points.

But it’s a little far-fetched to suggest Port Adelaide had only 1/10th of the supporter base in SA. They were by far the biggest club in the state, with success both on and off the field. It’s more likely to be around 20-25%.

Their attendance average in 2005 was a touch under 33,000 and their record membership figures have actually come this year (37,279).

And I honestly don’t believe it was a betrayal. The AFL came and said, “Hey, come play in our league”. I’m sure playing against Essendon at the MCG would have seemed a better proposition than playing Westies on a cold Sunday afternoon with perhaps a few thousand people there.

Port Adelaide were popular enough to sustain a team in the national competition. There were and still are able to. So I honestly don’t see much wrong with it.

Plus, the Adelaide Crows were formed on a basis of hypocrisy. The SANFL screamed “NO!”, ever so determined to not get involved with the AFL. They were against it to the point that Port Adelaide were almost sent into exile when they put a bid in to join.

So the Crows were formed quintessentially out of spite for the Port Adelaide bid, which begs the question, why all the hatred towards Port for their supposed act of betrayal?

Port could have handled it better, but Adelaide were in the wrong too. The whole saga was messy, but it was both the SANFL and Port Adelaide’s fault. By that simple logic, people should just get over it. I’m a Crows supporter and I couldn’t care less.

And now, Port are in this mess. Let’s hope it doesn’t have a sustained negative impact on the club like what happened in 1990.

Port Adelaide needs to start from scratch

Yeah, I do agree.

I was pretty pumped, not only for Karmichael but also the Suns. It’s fair to say a win was well overdue.

The kick wasn’t terribly difficult, however the level of pressure was immense and it took a guy with real composure to put it through the sticks.

Don’t listen to anyone who says that Karmichael hasn’t earnt his keep. He’s had a very big influence on that football club, especially Harley Bennell who was about to walk out due to homesickness. But Karmichael took him into his home, gave him guidance and now look how well the yound lad is playing.

Well done, Karmichael.

Karmichael Hunt, take a bow

You raise a valid point actually.

Dustin Martin has been suspended for two weeks, and the Tigers’ next two games are against Melbourne and Gold Coast.

I’d like to think Richmond would suspend him no matter what, but I can’t help but think it’s all a little too coincidental.

Irrespective of any coincidence that ties in with this situation, Richmond still did the correct thing.

Were Richmond right to boot Connors and Martin?

Yeah, I’m all for capitalisation, but when it unfairly acts to deprive lower profile clubs of their chance to play on the national stage, then that’s where I take issue.

It’s something that needs to be looked at. I’m betting that Collingwood and Essendon would still get good crowds to a Saturday twilight fixture. Actually Collingwood got 63,000 people to their Saturday twilight match against West Coast; an interstate team 3,000km’s away.

So that wouldn’t hurt the AFL too much taking Friday Night games away from the bigger clubs.

Do you think Port Adelaide would get the same amount of people to a Sunday afternoon game as it would on a Friday Night? I very much doubt it.

It would boost the league’s popularity and promote equality, something Australians value highly.

And your “Two Friday night games” idea has real merit. But I don’t see it working. The idea of the Friday night game is to have a stand alone game in which it draws a good crowd and good television viewership.

Two games would have to simultaneously take place, or at the very least overlap with each other. AFL games are roughly 3 hours in length, and to give people time to get from work or home to the game would require a start time of around 6pm. Say you run another game straight after the first game. That means you start the second game at 9pm and finish at midnight, hardly an ideal situation.

The reason it works in the NRL is because the games are much shorter, so they can put two games on one after the other. Add to that the culture of the AFL’s Friday night history and it’s preference on a stand alone game and you can soon figure out it just won’t work.

That’s not to say your idea isn’t a good one, it’s just something that probably won’t be changed in the future.

Every city deserves a Friday-night fixture

Brisbane probably came off worse for wear, I think we can all agree.

Pick 12 got them Sam Docherty who’s yet to play a game. He could be a good player, who knows. But they also got Billy Longer at pick 8, who I’m sure will be a fantastic player.

I also didn’t like the way Mitch handled the trade negotiations last year. He did seek a trade home and then went for the big dollars somewhere else. Probably not the best way to handle yourself as an elite sportsperson.

Maybe he wasn’t happy at Brisbane, you don’t know. Maybe his poor attitude on field was a reflection of what was going on off it.

I don’t see why he moved to Melbourne and not back to Western Australia apart from the money. Brisbane are a far better side than Melbourne.

But irrespective of what happened last year, he’s been nothing short of outstanding this season.

Demons' Mitch Clark is worth the money

I get where you’re coming from.

Actually, late last season, Mitch was undergoing surgery on his knee and then he left not long after. Surgery is pretty pricey, so that wouldn’t have pleased Brisbane.

But the thing is it’s commonplace for players in the modern era to be developed by their club and then move to another club just before they hit their peak performance. Gary Ablett, Tom Scully, Chris Judd just to name a few.

We get annoyed at players who chase the dollars and “abandon” the club that spent so much time, effort and money on developing these players. But that’s because the Australian Football League is one of the most loyal competitions in the world.

You always see one-club players, and the majority of AFL players don’t play for more than two clubs over their career. Soccer players change clubs all the time, particularly in Europe, so we’re pretty lucky to still have a lot of loyalty in our game.

I know it’s frustrating for Brisbane supporters. But sometimes these things happen, and it’s unfortunate. But a club like Brisbane is going in the right direction. They’ll be alright without Mitch Clark.

I think Big Sauce Merrett has found a niche up forward anyway!

Demons' Mitch Clark is worth the money

Yeah, I’m sure rain plays a part in lower attendances, as I stated in the article. And I also stated that Sydney is so spread out, that’s it’s a hard place to get around.

By the way, I don’t write these articles to gain a false sense of entitlement and success by the number of readers or comments. If I wrote an article with the title reading “Billy Slater is a tosspot”, I’m quite sure the Leaguies would be on here having a crack at me, and there’d be 500 or so comments.

I write these articles to provoke thought and opinion in a constructive manner. Such as this article. I’m honestly wanting to know peoples opinion, and what they think on the topic at hand.

Trust me, I’d rather have an article with 20 comments filled with insight and well balanced opinion than one with 150-200 comments with a negative and hostile tone that really add nothing to the conversation. Luckily, this article has been good for some honest opinion, and I appreciate that.

Why are GWS' crowds so underwhelming?

No, you’re right.

I forgot the ACT Brumbies in Union and Newcastle and Central Coast in the A-League. That’s my bad and I apologise.

And I also agree with you on the GWS playing in Canberra. I think it is a problem. I wrote an article last week saying that clubs need to sort out their identity crisis and fixate on the region they’re supposed to represent. In this case, GWS should be playing in Western Sydney. I don’t care where in Western Sydney. I know people whinge and say “Oh, but Homebush isn’t Western Sydney, it’s Inner Western Sydney” and whatever. It’s complete crap. By representing such a large area with a population of two million, the Giants simply aren’t going to please everybody. But they live in Western Sydney, they train there, and play the majority of their home games there.

Aside from the fact that they play a few games in Canberra a year, they’ve done a lot of things correctly in connecting with the community.

Lets not forget that GWS don’t owe these people anything. People can support the team if they wish, but at the end of the day, they don’t have to go to the games. Irrespective of what’s happening now, I’m sure in time, GWS will be a successful club on and off the field.

Why are GWS' crowds so underwhelming?

I based the “20 year plan” statement on your first comment.

For the record, former club CEO Dale Holmes wanted to the Giants to represent “ambition and aspiration- in time becoming a successful club and a big club”.

Kevin Sheedy also wants their new stadium to be a place where “other clubs dread to visit” and has stated that he wants the stadium packed in the years to come.

I’m aware those comments are from GWS themselves, however I’m sure it’s all a part of the masterplan for the AFL. Why wouldn’t it be? I doubt the AFL would say “Oh no, that’s alright. Don’t market your brand, continue to get low crowds, and we’ll continue to foot the bill”. Now that’s what’s illogical.

The AFL have KPI’s that they want clubs to adhere to. The AFL may be funding them and they do have specific expectations of the club. But they do realise that the club and its administrators can figure out some things on their own. They are in it for the long haul, and I never stated they were going to fail.

You seem to keep missing the fact that this article wasn’t meant to be spelling doom for the club. It was an analysis of GWS crowds and why they’re quite low.

And I got the links for you, as well. Enjoy.

http://www.smh.com.au/afl/afl-news/greater-western-sydneys-big-plans-20101116-17vwa.html

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/afl/teams/skoda-stadium-gws-giant-new-afl-showpiece/story-fn7ec9f5-1226364952565

Why are GWS' crowds so underwhelming?

I’m not saying they’re doomed.

I was forming an analysis as to why their crowds are pretty sub-standard. And irrespective of what you think, 7,500 to a match for any professional code in any Australian city, especially one with 4.5 million people isn’t something to be content with.

What you don’t understand is that the AFL’s “20 year plan” is for GWS to be a big club, selling out games and making a good profit each year. Trust me, if the figures don’t get up to an average of 15-20,000 people per match in the next few years especially with predictions GWS will be finals bound, then there will be a major cause for concern.

All I’m doing is analysing exactly why GWS draw such low crowds at present. Pretty simple.

Why are GWS' crowds so underwhelming?

It’s a shame that this has happened. Don’t get me wrong, if Lance is guilty, by all means, the UCI or whoever’s in charge should do what they need to do.

It’s just a shame that a guy that so many people look up to is having these allegations put against his name. I hope he’s innocent, because then all of his titles will be justified.

But if he’s guilty and you add Alberto Contador’s situation into this one, the sport of Road Cycling will be far worse off.

Is this the end for Lance Armstrong?

Haha, I’m not quite sure where The Cattery is. I’ve been waiting for him to throw his two cents worth in.

No, I don’t mind all the regular AFL Roarers. Quite a peculiar bunch, but they still have a few good ideas and opinions to throw around.

I’m a big AFL fan, but I think the biggest thing to strive for in writing is to have a balanced, non biased opinion, irrespective of whether it annoys people or not.

Being the voice of reason is probably a better way to go than making a few silly, parochial comments just for the hell of it. But then again, The Roar wouldn’t be the same without all the regulars, so here’s hoping Cat jumps on board and has his say!

Why are GWS' crowds so underwhelming?

I’m not so sure. I do agree with you on the Swans in 1996/97. I think in 1997, they had an average attendance of 36,000.

I can’t really comment about Wests in ’05 or Parramatta in ’09 as I’m not all that knowledgeable on Rugby League crowds.

But you look at the Sydney Swans. They’ve been such a great side for many, many years. I think they’ve missed out on the finals three times in the past seventeen years. They’ve been a beacon of success, and while they get pretty good crowds, for such a successful team, they should be getting more.

If they win the premiership, I’m sure there’ll be a spike in interest. However, for how well the Swans have been travelling, there’s no doubt their attendances should be higher.

But then again, it’s the Sydney culture.

Why are GWS' crowds so underwhelming?

Well I simply discussed why GWS crowds were underwhelming.

Culture, travel and examples of other Sydney teams and codes formed an analysis behind my thinking.

As an observer from Adelaide, I certainly don’t profess to know everything about the sporting landscape of a city some 1,400km’s away. I’m just yearning for a balanced opinion about a certain topic, that’s all.

Why are GWS' crowds so underwhelming?

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