"Where AFL football is about to be taught a lesson".

[wolftone57]

So whats that say about our attendences? We need other victorian teams to prop up our avg? That no matter what we have a dissapointing membership in Sydney?

The article is spot on. I don't expect AFL diehards to understand.

I was in Sydney recently and i didnt see much enthusiasm for the code, if hardly any. I drove past a school with afl posts and they were being used by a group of lads as soccer posts.

What a load of rubbish! We don't have a disappointing membership in Sydney at all! You are looking at a city of between 5 & 7 million people from a Melbourne perspective. You have Aussie Rules Goal Posts everywhere and you expect to see the same here. Sydney has a VERY STRONG Rugby League base and it will take decades to eat into that let alone compete with it. RL started in Sydney that is a major point you are missing. The Swans have been and are still very successful here and given time and good promotion and development GWS will be too.

The fact is Sydney is a large enough city to encompass all codes quite comfortably and will do that given time. While Soccer is the most common sport played at junior level many that play at junior level never play at senior level. This may be due to the Senior clubs expecting players to pay a fee to play and 'A' League clubs expecting up to $20,000 from a junior to get listed.

Our game is expanding in the North Eastern states but this has always been a long term plan not a short term fix. The development of Aussie Rules in these states is different from the Southern and Western states due to another code being incumbent and dominant.

The crowd on Sunday, while being disappointing, was not terrible. Many of the members probably didn't turn up and didn't give their seat to someone or on sell it. The SCG Members area was almost empty, if it had have been Pies, Bombers, Eagles, Hawks, Cats etc we would have had a full house. North don't draw up here and a lot of Swans supporters are a little funny about North and refuse to go to see a North game even if playing the Swans. This is due to them trying to poach our members way back without making any commitment to Sydney.

[WeHaveTheGoodes]

As i said i don't expect AFL diehards to understand let alone form an objective opinion. As soon as anyone dares to suggest some home truths about the code up north with some actual facts things turn very nasty. We victorians are very sensitive to any kind of critique towards our code.

The gay fl comment might not have been needed but the reality is there, kids and adults and bogans call the code that. Just as many victorians call rugby league thugby or just simply call it rugby without bothering to differentiate between two codes.

The reality is, Sydneysiders don't care about the code as much as we, in Victoria, would like to think they do.

[WeHaveTheGoodes]

From what I can gather reading Mr Atkins material is that he is a right wing journalist in the same vein as Andrew Bolt. The difference with him and Bolt is more restrained in his comment and therefore doesn't get taken to the Anti-Discrimination Commission. He is pro uranium etc and writes a blog called 'The Shadowlands'. He was also 'Asian Correspondent' for a newspaper. I don't know what his credentials are as a Sports Journalist as he seems to have none. This seems to be his only article on this subject but I may be wrong and he can at any time refute this if he has the guts to post here.

It's an opinion piece dude. You might not agree with it but no need to start getting all hurt because somebody wrote an unflattering article about Aussie Rules.

Stop being so dam sensitive.

[jono2707]

The reality is, Sydneysiders don't care about the code as much as we, in Victoria, would like to think they do.

That is quite true, although I would probably say 'most Sydneysiders....', as this site can attest that some of us do care. However, AFL is just another sport vying for attention in this town, and it is a long long way behind Rugby League, and to a lesser extent Rugby Union, in terms of this city's psyche. The AFL's ignorance and arrogance in plonking another team in this city and thinking that they can change the whole fabric of the place by throwing a huge amount of money at it is just breathtaking.

[stellation]

So whats that say about our attendences? We need other victorian teams to prop up our avg? That no matter what we have a dissapointing membership in Sydney?

We don't normally draw a large crowd against North, and the weather was poor; if that makes our membership disappointing then I'd suggest most teams in the AFL are in trouble as it's a pretty consistent theme.

[stellation]

As i said i don't expect AFL diehards to understand let alone form an objective opinion. As soon as anyone dares to suggest some home truths about the code up north with some actual facts things turn very nasty. We victorians are very sensitive to any kind of critique towards our code.

The gay fl comment might not have been needed but the reality is there, kids and adults and bogans call the code that. Just as many victorians call rugby league thugby or just simply call it rugby without bothering to differentiate between two codes.

The reality is, Sydneysiders don't care about the code as much as we, in Victoria, would like to think they do.

So you're suggesting that we are AFL diehards so cannot understand nor hold an objective opinion, yet seem comfortable that you are above that generalisation and can, as a Victorian, inform those of us in Sydney of what's really going on?

I don't think anyone here, or in the AFL, is particuarly suggesting that Australian Rules is the dominant code in Western Sydney (or will be in the near future)- but it's not exactly the doom and gloom wastelands that the article suggests, either.

[wolftone57]

It's an opinion piece dude. You might not agree with it but no need to start getting all hurt because somebody wrote an unflattering article about Aussie Rules.

Stop being so dam sensitive.

Where is the sensitivity in that material. All I was doing was establishing the man's credentials. In other words he is not a sports journalist. Sports Journalists, as much as you might not like them, spend a great deal of time studying their sport. Bruce McAvaney, as much as some people don't like him, is very knowledgeable about sport. I was at Radio School with Bruce and he is a likeable and very intense person who's job is his life. He spends hours of his own time studying sporting events and records.

My point about Mr Atkins is that he is not a sports journalist and just that. The point you made was exactly my point. By the way he is also a big RL supporter.

[WeHaveTheGoodes]

It's an opinion piece. So he can write about whatever he wants.

[wolftone57]

[B]So whats that say about our attendences? We need other victorian teams to prop up our avg? That no matter what we have a dissapointing membership in Sydney?[/B]We Have The Goodes

Back that statement about poor membership in Sydney up please. Where are your figures? The majority of Swans memberships are held in Sydney for your information.

You consistently knock AFL Diehards as ill informed. Yet you make statements about Sydney on one visit.
Where is your evidence of your trip? Did you take photographs?

Have you got the figures of teams playing Aussie Rules in Sydney?

Do you know the change over rate of Soccer Players that jump to other codes when they reach teen years?

Have you ever looked at the Strategic Plan for the AFL in Sydney?

What is your experience in research and development?

You don't live here, have you ever lived here? I live here and most of RWO probably do too. We are very aware of the battle of the codes in Sydney. Nowhere in Australia is it more evident. Please read my 11:00am post to understand a little more.

Sydney will not be developed in a day, it is a long term project. Laying the infrastructure is the first level of this plan and while at the moment some of that infrastructure is underutilised I would rather that it is there than not. In time all the infrastructure will be utilised, in say ten years there will be hundreds of kids kicking an Aussie Rules Ball around every park in Sydney. I took a bus ride last weekend and saw no less that thirty Junior Aussie Rules matches in the Eastern Suburbs alone in less than 30 ks.

[WeHaveTheGoodes]

30 years and the iron chief still outrates the swans on TV.

Thats proof right there.

Now you could spin it all you want..but the fact is AFL is like a passing interest (if that) to 3/4 of sydneysiders.

Last time i was there i tried to talk footy with some people and got a polite answer but thats about it. The same does not happen in Melbourne.

Sure there are the swans diehard and i am proud of the fact that we have so many in sydney but apart from the core 25k there isnt that much interest in the code..and if it took us 30 years..

And the article is right..the majority of fans up north seem to be ex pats.

[Cheer Squad]

Sure there are the swans diehard and i am proud of the fact that we have so many in sydney but apart from the core 25k there isnt that much interest in the code..and if it took us 30 years.

On that topic, we currently have 26,403 members.

Does anyone know how many of those members live in Sydney, and how many interstate?

Just how many members do we have in Victoria, QLD, SA, WA, Tassie etc?

[WeHaveTheGoodes]

Isnt there 10k in melbourne on top of 26k in sydney?

And the last "survey" conducted had us at 1 mil fans, the most of any team.

I know i know it was flawed..but still it made the pies and bombers really upset.