Roos warns of Sydney "catastrophe"

[SwansFan1972]

AFL need to avoid Sydney &squo;catastrophe&squo;, says Roos | The Daily Telegraph

From today's DT. Roos speculates on what impact low ladder finishes by the Swans in the lead up to West Sydney would have.

The subtext to the AFL surely is - tell the umpires department to get off our backs and give us a fair go, or you'll be putting your West Sydney money up the wall for sure (as opposed to just maybe!)

Going the orthodox path about umpire bias has achieved nothing, so Roos needed to be creative! Wonder if the message will get through!

[Bear]

AFL need to avoid Sydney &squo;catastrophe&squo;, says Roos | The Daily Telegraph

From today's DT. Roos speculates on what impact low ladder finishes by the Swans in the lead up to West Sydney would have.

The subtext to the AFL surely is - tell the umpires department to get off our backs and give us a fair go, or you'll be putting your West Sydney money up the wall for sure (as opposed to just maybe!)

Going the orthodox path about umpire bias has achieved nothing, so Roos needed to be creative! Wonder if the message will get through!

This is one of the many reasons why we desperately need a second team in Sydney, so that the game of AFL does not rely on one team, which will naturally have ups and downs.

You can't have all your eggs in one basket in the country's biggest market. Thank God the AFL has the courage to rectify this unacceptable strategic situation for the long-term good of the game.

The club is bigger than the individual, and the game is bigger than the club.

Bring on 2012 so we never have to hear the Swans whinging about "not being able to rebuild" again.

[ShockOfHair]

He wasn't talking about the Swans or the umpiring, but about west Sydney.

They could have a disastrous effect on the Swans on the footy field. Colless made the same point a month ago about the Swans' finances.

That will be bad for the league. Bad!

Scare tactics. But they might work.

[SwansFan1972]

He wasn't talking about the Swans or the umpiring, but about west Sydney.

hmm - not so sure about that. Realfooty is now carrying a more complete version of Roos' comments

AFL can't let Swans fail: Roos - RFNews - realfooty.com.au

Roos is quoted thus:

"The challenge for this footy club and the AFL in bringing in a second team is, if we go down for three years, it could be absolutely catastrophic," he warned.

"So it's not just our problem, it's an AFL problem that we just have to manage. (The AFL) has to be sitting there thinking, 'We can't afford the Swans to be finishing 13th, 15th, 16th prior to bringing in a second team', and I think we'd all agree with that."

Asked if there were any realistic measures that could assist the Swans in maintaining a competitive and attractive team in the years ahead, the 2005 premiership-winning coach said it was up to the game's governing body to find the solution.

"I don't know how they can do it, but I suspect there'd be people in there having the same thoughts, because we are the brand in Sydney until the second team," he said.

"If we finish 16th in 2011 and 17th in 2012, you'd hate to think the bottom-of-the-ladder match in 2012 would be between the Sydney Swans and west Sydney. It wouldn't be a great marketing tool."

Roos admitted that much of the responsibility for not dropping away would have to be shouldered internally, and said the club was already planning where it could gain an edge."

So barring further salary cap concessions, additional draft picks and more money from the AFL (any of which would have to overcome the opposition of Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon et al - ie, won't happen), what exactly is Roos suggesting the AFL should do?

Everyone accepts that they are putting West Sydney in no matter what, so the only other thing the AFL can do is to give the Swans some relief on-field.

Surely the AFL would have got the message loud and clear earlier this week that the club feels Hall in particular, and the Swans in general, don't get a good run with the umps. As the masters of sending out subliminal messages, the AFL would surely understand that there are few ways they can directly help out - but getting the umpiring house in order would be one obvious one!

[Bear]

He wasn't talking about the Swans or the umpiring, but about west Sydney.

They could have a disastrous effect on the Swans on the footy field. Colless made the same point a month ago about the Swans' finances.

That will be bad for the league. Bad!

Scare tactics. But they might work.

Agreed, it has nothing to do with any umpiring subtext - a strange take on things from SF1972.

But, it has everything to do with the Swans being the be-all and end-all for AFL in this city. This is a very bad thing for our game. We need another team to boost the profile, interest, sponsorship, media exposure of the game in Sydney. To grow the 'product'.

The Swans have failed to generate real interest in the West and NEVER will, for a range of geographic and psychographic reasons.

WSFC will be a massive boost for the Swans and the AFL in Sydney - on and off the field - having a cross-town rival generating further interest for the game in all these areas will boost revenues for all involved.

The Swans will be much better off and it is a big shame Colless & Co are being so selfish and short-sighted about it.

[Kanga]

being able to barrack for a local side that may play imaginative and progressive (not shutdown) football.

Bring on the Westie's!!!

[Chilcott]

May be my take on things is a little too 'simplistic', but I don't understand why Roosy is so worried about the club bottoming out.

What is the worse thing that can happen?

- We finish lower on the ladder (the negative).
- We receive some lower draft picks and the chance to rebuild the list with some quality youth (the positive).

- We have lower crowds/membership and lower revenue for a period (the negative).
- We receive handouts from the AFL (as other clubs do), which will ensure the club remains sustainable (the positive).

There is alot more things in life to be concerned about than spending a few years near the bottom of the ladder.

It has happended before and it will happen again.

[ernie koala]

I don't know where Roos is going with this crap but I'm sensing a little panic! The club is in a corner with no obvious way out. Finally he is starting to see his aging list for what it is. While staring down the barrel at years of compromised drafts with a bunch of untradable old players, and very few mid tier players worth trading. It's obvious, to most, that the rebuild should of started 2 years ago, coinciding with 2- 3 uncompromised drafts. Whinging to the AFL is pointless and embarrassing.
Roos has got us into this mess with his 'no bottoming out' policy. And I don't agree with the constant...'fickle sydney market' talk. All clubs suffer at the gate (some more than others) when their team is low on the ladder.
You are never going to capture the publics imagination, and bums on seats, with year after year of mediocrity. Sydney loves a winner just like all sports fans. But last years attendance to the final against North Melbourne shows there is more to it. What does capture the publics eye is the underdog coming good. IMO a few years in the wilderness rebuilding, followed by a rise up the ladder will garner much more interest, and money, than plodding along with an largely unchanged list and gameplan finishing somewhere in the middle. The thing I do agree with is that 5 or more years in the wilderness will be catastrophic, and at this stage that's certainly not out of the realms of possibility.

[Lucky Knickers]

I am going to be a founding member of our cross town rivals so I can sit in the best seats with my Swans scarf at our derby's.
What I hope is that the AFL realise is your have to market market market your games here in Sydney or indeed any market. We should have sausage sizzles and players in Martin Place trying to get people to the Pies games giving out Swans stuff, free tix. The TV and other media advertising is virtually non-existent.
In addition, once people go and realise HOW MUCH FUN the footy is with the clapping and cheering and excitement of the game, entrance and membership needs to be priced reasonably to get people back.

[SwansFan1972]

Agreed, it has nothing to do with any umpiring subtext - a strange take on things from SF1972.

But, it has everything to do with the Swans being the be-all and end-all for AFL in this city. This is a very bad thing for our game. We need another team to boost the profile, interest, sponsorship, media exposure of the game in Sydney. To grow the 'product'.

The Swans have failed to generate real interest in the West and NEVER will, for a range of geographic and psychographic reasons.

WSFC will be a massive boost for the Swans and the AFL in Sydney - on and off the field - having a cross-town rival generating further interest for the game in all these areas will boost revenues for all involved.

The Swans will be much better off and it is a big shame Colless & Co are being so selfish and short-sighted about it.

There was nothing in that article to indicate selfishness nor shortsightedness, it was about keeping the Swans healthy in the lead up to West Sydney entering the comp. Selfishness and being shortsighted may well be a charge to level at the Swans (or indeed any club - they actually need to be both in some measure to have any hope of success really), but not on what was in the article.

I'm 100% in support of growing the product, and I do think the west Sydney venture is far sighted and would love to see it succeed, but I can't shake the belief that it might just be the region will NEVER show any interest, in the Swans or their own manufactured team. What then?

Most people outside NSW/QLD (and most importantly the AFL commission) just don't understand why the masses in those two places don't love the game. I'm NSW born and raised on league (tuning into the AFL only after much badgering by a mate, who himself had seen one game, to go along and give it a go). That was 96 (and before the bandwagon tag gets thrown at me, the game that hooked me was the draw against the Bombers - when the Swans season looked as sick as the previous few years - not that we had any clue). For the one of me and others like me who got hooked, there are loads more who have a taste of the game, and for whatever reasons they don't come back (their loss, of course), but that's what happens.

Anyway, the main point is that the lack of support here isn't due to an inaccessible or irregular product. Having one game per week is most likely to dilute the existing support, rather than grow more.

The game is on here basically every second weekend (which provides reasonable access), it is broadcast reasonably well now (with Fox providing good coverage of nearly all games per round - lots of households in the west have access), and every Swans game is live FTA, yet it still fails to pull an audience. Anyone who thinks that having a team other than the swans in that equation would make a difference is seriously deluded.

The new GC club is only being manufactured on the strength of TV ratings there - which are driven by Victorian retirees who settle there. At least it is a seed of interest, which isn't replicated in west Sydney. It will be interesting to see how many of them convert to GC members and traipse out to Carrarra, rather than stay in their slippers in front of the TV. It isn't that there is a pocket of renegade Queenslanders in that south east corner who love AFL.

The people out west are committed rugby league fans, and they just aren't interested in embracing AFL. The reasons don't really matter - ultimately, the AFL is attempting to reverse market the product. "Every signal is telling us the demand isn't there, but, dammit, we know best and we're going to give you the product anyway!" There isn't a business, sales or marketing model in the world to suggest such an approach is a successful one to take. It's all fine while the money flows, but if times tighten up, West Sydney would be the first financial sinkhole to feel the chill winds. How will that look to the Sydney market then?

PS - so what was the point of Roos comments about Sydney needing to be strong, when elsewhere he is warning that the next two games are make or break for the season? Might have to ring up and ask him!

[Yakety_Yak]

S'F'1972 excellent passionate post

We all would love to see two teams AFL in Sydney!

AFL (Melbourne based) .......premature specjulation!

AINT GUNNA WORK! unless every wind blows the right way!

But they are "blowing a gale" the other way..... for the forseeable future!

[Bear]

I'm 100% in support of growing the product, and I do think the west Sydney venture is far sighted and would love to see it succeed, but I can't shake the belief that it might just be the region will NEVER show any interest, in the Swans or their own manufactured team. What then?

Well i guess if you were in charge we would simply give up and tolerate the situation as it is... and never grow.

Luckily the AFL has a much more positive and courageous agenda.

BTW, the "manufactured" team in Western Sydney will be a grass-roots team born and bred in Sydney at a local level - unlike the Swans. It will have a better chance at success than the Swans ever had.