I keep telling people that the state leagues still play an inter league “Origin” style game every year and its great. You get to watch a fun game against one of the old enemies (and a new one in the NEAFL) and support your local league at the same time, and boy could they use your support these days. It may not be the biggest draw card with a lack of top shelf AFL talent but local footy still matters and supporting these games is a great way to let those in charge know that even if you aren’t making it down your local club every week.

“the ageing Charlie Cameron”

The guy is 20. Perhaps you meant Eddie Betts…

“to think that the people of Western Sydney will just roll over and become instant fanboys.”

You sound as though you believe the Giants are somehow attacking your way of life. It may be that the Giants, and by extension Australian Rules, are never anything more than niche in western Sydney but what does it matter. They provide a choice and some people will be fans, some will not but you shouldn’t allow your perception of one man to colour your perception of anything other than that one man. In 10 or 15 years will you still loathe the Giants just because of what this plank said in the early years? There are and will be plenty of good reasons to like/dislike a sports team, but Sheedy running his mouth doesn’t seem like one to me at least.

Firstly the massive improvements in safety are a good thing, no one wants to see drivers dying or suffering life changing injuries pursuing their career as happened quite regularly in the past. And its not the improvements in driver safety that have led to an increasingly stale championship, that comes down to the way the sport is administered and the ridiculous disparity between funding of the teams, and in some cases outright favoritism toward the big teams.

Secondly I don’t believe that F1 is necessarily struggling to attract the younger demographic as opposed to just struggling to attract new fans in general due to the problems already mentioned. As you say a lot of this comes back to Bernie Ecclestone. Despite people complaining about the engine sound, last year was actually an improvement in terms of entertainment as there was generally pretty good racing throughout the field instead of a procession of cars round the track, relying on the pit-stop undercut to gain places. If F1 can get the financial disparity issues sorted and bring about great racing again it won’t be a problem bringing people back to the sport. Social media, in real terms of engagement with a sport, means nothing.

I don’t disagree, that wasn’t supposed to be some snarky swipe at your previous comment but there in lies the problem of determining tone from text. However, I do think there is a need to stage these kind of events from time to time (obviously not too frequently) until the AEG’s proposed expansion of Hindmarsh and the players should be good enough to adapt.

“The club needs every thing we can control to be in our favour come finals time given our appalling record in finals games:(”

Maybe we should just go all Tonya Harding on the opposition next time, might actually get us back to the GF again lol.

Well you can be at ease that we won’t play at AO again bar finals if you thought it was that bad friday night, I was there as well as previously stated and I didn’t, and there have been games at Hindmarsh (even against the Victory) where the atmosphere was poor. Atmosphere comes from the fans and fans can create a great atmosphere in any stadium no matter how far from the pitch they are, the Rome derby springs instantly to mind as well as many South American ones. Also it has been shown at times in the past the a raucous crowd, even at Hindmarsh, can feed the Victory players just as well and inspire them to get one over us so I’m not sure the result would have been any different. I think Adelaide were the better team overall during the match but a draw was probably a fair result given the number of good chances both teams had

As for satisfying the number counters, in this case it is a good thing as it shows our appetite for football is greater than the confines of Hindmarsh stadium’s 16-17k, if we can get bumper crowds for most of the rest of the season it may well convince AEG (the group that owns Hindmarsh) to bring forward the plans for renovation of the stadium.

I think you’re stretching to say the atmosphere suffered because the game was at Adelaide Oval, the place provides great acoustics for the crowd to make themselves heard, the steep high stands trap the noise in and even smaller crowds can become amplified as I experienced during the SANFL finals series and friday night as well (not that I’m implying that crowd was small). The only problem was the Red Army being at the open northern end which I’ll grant does let the sound out easier, meaning the Victory fans occasionally sounded louder than our boys even though we weren’t sitting too far away. And besides its not everyone’s style to sing and dance the whole way through, some prefer a more organic style of support, cheering and reacting to events on the pitch as they happen. Being closer to the action is great but its not necessary to create atmosphere, some of the most famous and revered stadiums around the world have huge distances between the fans and the pitch.

I love Hindmarsh, some of the most memorable and exciting sporting experiences I’ve had have been there but I for one believe it was a good choice to play this game at the Oval for the “prestige” of the fixture as it says to the average SA sports fan who might not follow the A-League (yet) that this is something special and worth seeing, plus on a week night its far easier for many to get to the Oval than to Hindmarsh which was surely a contributing factor as to why you saw a record crowd for the fixture.

The hard pitch argument is rubbish. Yeah the pitch was hard, so what? Its the same for both teams, and you are professional footballers, adapt your game.

I’m always baffled when people bring up the “no history” argument with regards to supporting a team regardless of the code. Are we only allowed to support a team once it reaches a certain age? If no one supports it before then do you really think it will reach that age? And what if there was no team in your location prior to the founding of a new team, why is it somehow diminished that the team is a new enterprise?

History is great, and being able to talk about the history of your club is also great but it is in no way a prerequisite for supporting a club. Now I know it won’t ever go away but I sincerely wish this is the last time I have to hear/read someone say that a person’s choice in sport/team/whatever isn’t valid because it has “no history”

Never saw any of the Australian variant but did see the occasional game from the US and Canadian leagues on Fuel TV and most games were a joke as you say but there were two or three teams who were actually quite skilled and exciting to watch, I had never seen a guy play as hard as some of the good girls in those games.

Normally I treated it like throwaway American pop-culture but when I saw those outstanding games I found myself wanting the participants to actually be wearing proper uniforms and the general presentation to be more professional as it would of been marketable as a genuine respectable sport, perhaps not as instantly popular with the average sports fan but it was way more exciting than Arena Football League games.

People love to go on about how poor recruitment has been for Melbourne but I’m not entirely convinced that is the case. The real problem has been a lack of ability to develop those young raw recruits into top line AFL talent. Now not every player will get there, there will always be a place for the work horse like player and there will be more still that never amount to anything, its the ability of a club to develop their playing list that will result in quality teams.

Take any of the so called poor high draft pick recruits for Melbourne, had they been drafted by a club that had a modern and professional attitude toward player development there is a good chance they may have become stars in the AFL, conversely players that have gone on to become stars at other clubs may have amounted to nothing at all had they had the misfortune to be drafted to the Dees. For Melbourne fans’ sake I hope the MFC administration can wrap their heads around what it means to run a modern football club otherwise the future will remain bleak to dull at best

The split between the clubs that initiated the Premier League and The Football League had nothing to do with Murdoch, this was not the Super League fiasco, it was inevitable considering The Football League’s policies on revenue were not popular with many clubs in England at the time. For all his evil dealings you still can thank Murdoch’s money for helping to grow the Premier League into arguably the world’s best though, without Sky’s buying of the television rights English football would still be playing catch up to the (then) bigger leagues like Serie A.

Not exactly a local derby but Marshmallows vs Sherbets sounds awesome lol

I think if the Sharks are relocated then Adelaide would be the better option over Perth if the NRL isn’t planning on a new team in SA. Southern Sharks has a good ring to it I think and they could inject some SA red into the kit and call it the “Blood in the Water” jersey

Aston Villa’s failure to sign Tom Cleverly is partly down to interest from Everton in acquiring his services as well as reportedly high wage demands (not likely to get high wages from a club currently up in the air in regard to ownership) which was enough to put the brakes on the deal. In the end though he will join Villa on a season long loan deal with an option to buy in January. Not sure El Ahmadi is actually the biggest out for us though, maybe in terms of money received yes but there have been some promising young players let go or sold to lower div clubs as well.

Have to agree with Cac above too Lukaku is definitely the biggest signing for Everton this season, this guy is pure quality and unlike Eto’o they’ll probably get quite a few years good service out of him

Don’t feel too bad no one can match the Great and Powerful Les Murray lol. It’s kind of hard to express pronunciation through text unless you know the other person is familiar with IPA, however:

Morgan Schneiderlin – doesn’t have a d on the end
Vincent Kompany – pronounced more like KOM-pan-y not like our word company
Stevan Jovetić – pronounced more like YOV-e-titch not JO-ve-tik
David Silva – I heard this right and wrong (can’t remember who was which as I was listening while working) but its more like Da-VID not DAY-vid
van Gaal – again heard this wrong and as close to right as can be expected from a non-Dutch speaker but its closer to van HAAL not van GARL
Jack Grealish – more like GREE-a-lish not GREL-ish
Bayern Munich – more like BUY-urn not like BAY-urn

Like I said I can get super pedantic about this kind of stuff and sometimes a bit superior but I mean well I promise 🙂

edit: accidental double post

Good podcast but got to check your pronunciations of names, especially if its of a player on a team you support, I find that incredibly irritating (yes, I really am that pedantic…).

As for Villa sitting pretty in third, I’d be more than happy just to call the season right now after the last few years of pain and the run we’ve got coming. But who knows, we’re back to playing some good football and so might snatch some points if the confidence levels stay high though the fadeout in the last 20 minutes against Hull has me just a little worried that the boys aren’t quite ready for a high tempo style of play week in and week out.

I think this is a much better way of doing it if this system were to get the go-ahead. Personally I don’t think there’s too much wrong with the current system beyond there being too many definite fixtures that the AFL needs to schedule around.

Having said that though, in my ideal world the AFL would ditch finals altogether and go with a first past the post league format with every team playing every other home and away (possibly the Foxtel Cup could expand to become an FA cup like comp) but I accept that this season would probably be too long for a game that can be so physically demanding at times. I know some would react to this suggestion like they had just seen their parents naked, thinking “it’s too much like Soccer” or whatever but it is the ultimate for a truly fair draw.

Lambert and the new CEO have stated publicly that Vlaar will not be sold, so that locks him in for the Villa thankfully, at least for this window. I know everyone is down on us this season but being a Villa fan and having watched every game for as long as I can remember (including preseason) I can honestly say that this years Villa team looks stronger than the last two seasons, or they will do once they start getting the likes of Benteke and Kozak back from injury anyway.

I think my early favourites to go down would be the same as yours (especially if Neil Warnock really gets the palace job), however, I think it will be a close run thing again this season, even if not as close as last season.

edit: immediately after posting this eurosport popped up on my phone to say Neil Warnock got the job so…

Interestingly despite being a powerhouse in Asian football Japanese (and Korean to some extent) commentators were noticing a worrying drop in interest in continental football in the early 2000s. What rejuvenated the interest was Australia joining the Asian confederation, Suddenly there was an upswell of interest in continental football both international and domestic from the non-hardcore fans. This also roughly coincided with the growing reputation of Chinese football and suddenly there was more than the J-League and the European leagues for Japanese football fans to take an interest in.

The point being that interest in a Champions League format is not automatic, there needs to be a reason for the more casual fan to take notice, as you say some ex-EPL players might shift the needle a little here in Aus but the recipe for long term success is not always black and white and may take a considerable amount of time to really break through in a market saturated with not only football but sports viewing opportunities in general.

I doubt the FFA is too concerned about whether a majority of fans of a given club are of a particular ethnicity, the problem comes when fans of another ethnicity are not welcome. I had some unpleasant experiences with Adelaide City fans, even being told one time I wasn’t welcome at the game (I was still a kid) because I am English not Italian, though I didn’t have any problems during the days of West Adelaide Hellas, though I’ve always found Greek fans more welcoming than Italians. Still neither of these teams were “mine,” and consequently it was only when AUFC rolled around that I started to take an interest in local football again.

Crowd parity and support levels can be mutually exclusive, after all you could have more supporters than are able to get into your ground. That being said though these two teams we’re talking about are in different sports, there is no reason that people who like the Wanders, or Panthers, Eels, Tigers, Bulldogs etc can’t also be Giants fans in the future. Uniting the whole of western Sydney under your banner of support (as is the Wanderers aim) is theoretically the road to a far greater fan base than the Swans, time will tell if this ever crosses the realm from theory into reality though.

Great name btw lol

I think soccer is great and it was still obvious to me lol….

“Memberships are far from the only way to support a team.” Exactly right, does it make me any less of a fan because I cannot afford to buy a membership? I don’t think so, and if I could afford to buy a membership to all the teams I follow across all the sports I would be a very rich man indeed, and would get even worse if Rugby or Rugby League ever decide to put a top level team in Adelaide or Birmingham for me as well.

As for the merchandise, this is probably one of the best ways to support your club if you can’t get out to all the games as it provides a significant revenue stream year round, there’s a reason why clubs offer so much variety in merchandise and “supporter wear,” more options means more sales which means more revenue, and you can wear it round town or sitting in front of the TV even when you can’t afford to attend the game live, you’re still supporting your club just in a different way.

On a side note I used to have one of those old woolly Balmain jumpers that I wore to Glenelg games in the SANFL as a kid, I’d be keen to grab a new one these days (though obviously not the woolly ones) anyone know if they still sell those?

He is talking about his own personal experience when he’s saying that. ie “Because Soccer is a global game I had had previous exposure to it in America and decided I did not like it. Unlike the other sports which I was not exposed to but have come to enjoy now that I live down here in a far better country.”