The AFL - a national competition? (split thread)

[barry]

Controversial opinion time, but I think there is too many teams, Victorian teams specifically. There is 18 teams, 10 of which are Victorian. 16 teams was the perfect equilibrium in my opinion.

I genuinely think GWS have a serious future in Sydney, but Gold Coast I'm not so sure about.

COnsidering where new drafties come from a 10:8 victorian ratio is not too far off the mark.
Once GWS and Gold Coast have established themselves in the next 10 years, then the next change of teams will be relocation of a melbourne club to tassie.

This will be a titantic shift, because then it will be 9 vic, 9 non-vic, and the non-vic clubs can form voting blocks to get through the reforms a lot of us have been harping on for years.

Thats the most likely scenario.
Alternative realities is that we get some hard arse like Peter V'Landy's in to run the show, and he gives norf and st kilda the flick in his first year.

[KTigers]

There is a thread on BF called "The younger generation is just not that into you" and that title sums up footys greatest challenge.
Footy is like Japan. It is the best game on earth and Japan is the greatest country on earth (we are like fourth or something) but
both have dwindling populations. The older footy followers who are dying off are just not being replaced by new ones. There are
a bunch of reasons. Smart phones and social media are near the top of the list. Economic inequality is in there too. Anyway, the
gist of it is that footy just has way too much competition now for the hearts, minds and the money of the population.
It's fighting a battle that it will never win. The teens and twenty somethings of today just don't care. I'm with Bob Dylan on this
one. In twenty or thirty years they are going to running the shop. We'll all be hiding out somewhere trying to not get what
the new coronavirus of that time is called. The sooner the AFL accepts reality, regroups and cuts four teams from Victoria the
better. They are already the walking dead.

[Mr Magoo]

There is a thread on BF called "The younger generation is just not that into you" and that title sums up footys greatest challenge.
Footy is like Japan. It is the best game on earth and Japan is the greatest country on earth (we are like fourth or something) but
both have dwindling populations. The older footy followers who are dying off are just not being replaced by new ones. There are
a bunch of reasons. Smart phones and social media are near the top of the list. Economic inequality is in there too. Anyway, the
gist of it is that footy just has way too much competition now for the hearts, minds and the money of the population.
It's fighting a battle that it will never win. The teens and twenty somethings of today just don't care. I'm with Bob Dylan on this
one. In twenty or thirty years they are going to running the shop. We'll all be hiding out somewhere trying to not get what
the new coronavirus of that time is called. The sooner the AFL accepts reality, regroups and cuts four teams from Victoria the
better. They are already the walking dead.

What backs up your statement. Outside of covid I would have thought that the evidence is that vewiership and attendances have never been better in AFL. While there may be compeition between mediums as to how the content is delivered , I wouldnt have thought the game is in that much trouble. I have teens and I dont agree at all that they dont care. In fact they lap up the content , just in a different way. For example , while watching the game last night , my teen boy was watching an online stream of sam groth and davo at half time rather than the tv discussion.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

There is a thread on BF . . . . .

What a horribly dystopian vision KTigers, "1984" "Brave New World" "Brazil" "Hunger Games" "The Lego Movie" and now this

[Ruck'n'Roll]

I wonder whether the Soccer word cup in Australia will have a deleterious affect on AFL?

I could have specified AFLW but I'm trying to think of the game in a holistic way.

[Ludwig]

I wonder whether the Soccer word cup in Australia will have a deleterious affect on AFL?

I don't think it will have an impact on the AFL, but might affect the Australian Scrabble League.

[Nico]

There is a thread on BF called "The younger generation is just not that into you" and that title sums up footys greatest challenge.
Footy is like Japan. It is the best game on earth and Japan is the greatest country on earth (we are like fourth or something) but
both have dwindling populations. The older footy followers who are dying off are just not being replaced by new ones. There are
a bunch of reasons. Smart phones and social media are near the top of the list. Economic inequality is in there too. Anyway, the
gist of it is that footy just has way too much competition now for the hearts, minds and the money of the population.
It's fighting a battle that it will never win. The teens and twenty somethings of today just don't care. I'm with Bob Dylan on this
one. In twenty or thirty years they are going to running the shop. We'll all be hiding out somewhere trying to not get what
the new coronavirus of that time is called. The sooner the AFL accepts reality, regroups and cuts four teams from Victoria the
better. They are already the walking dead.

Not the case with fans in Victoria. They can't get enough of it and I did read recently TV audiences are way up. It is a religion down here. You just have to see how many women's team have sprung up in recent years. They hardly have enough grounds to play games. A lot of women's games are being played on private and public school ovals.

[KTigers]

Not the case with fans in Victoria. They can't get enough of it and I did read recently TV audiences are way up. It is a religion down here. You just have to see how many women's team have sprung up in recent years. They hardly have enough grounds to play games. A lot of women's games are being played on private and public school ovals.

I guess I think all professional sports here are going to struggle as younger people seem to have an ever increasing number of
options to spend their time and limited money (due to stagnant wages growth, high housing costs & increasing unemployment)
on. Footy in Melbourne may be an exception as you point out though. It seems to me that interest in what was the major summer
sport, cricket, is way down. Union and the A League are really struggling, likewise the NBL. With League I can't tell. It always
seemed to exist in it's own belligerent bubble even before the bug came along. The endless squabbles between broadcasters and
the different sporting leagues over money say to me that all is not well when it comes to audience numbers, though possibly
that is also partly due to the broadcast industry changing.

[KTigers]

There are some interesting comments from Andrew Pridham in today's SMH re what he sees as the very real threat AFL in the
northern states faces from Peter V'landys and the re-born NRL. He sees them as a formidable and increasingly powerful competitor,
as most of the people and money that has left rugby union has gone to the NRL, and implies Gill & co down in Melbourne are over
estimating the strength of Australian rules in the northern states. Worth a read.

[Ruck'n'Roll]

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/afl/swa...30-p557nd.html

[mcs]

There are some interesting comments from Andrew Pridham in today's SMH re what he sees as the very real threat AFL in the
northern states faces from Peter V'landys and the re-born NRL. He sees them as a formidable and increasingly powerful competitor,
as most of the people and money that has left rugby union has gone to the NRL, and implies Gill & co down in Melbourne are over
estimating the strength of Australian rules in the northern states. Worth a read.

There is always a bit of alarmism in the way our club talks about these matters - always has been, always will be. There are some elements of truth to it, but the idea of a 're-born NRL' is nothing but a myth. They haven't done any better out of the extended TV deal they got (actually its worse on a season by season comparison), and while they now have a loudshooter at the helm, he is prone to doing as many idiotic things as he does good things.

Whether anything has been changed will only show when things return to something approaching normality and unlimited crowds are allowed back in the stadiums.

None of that is to say that the AFL can afford to take its eyes off the ball in the Northern States. But I'm not convinced much under the surface has really changed.

[Blood Fever]

There are some interesting comments from Andrew Pridham in today's SMH re what he sees as the very real threat AFL in the
northern states faces from Peter V'landys and the re-born NRL. He sees them as a formidable and increasingly powerful competitor,
as most of the people and money that has left rugby union has gone to the NRL, and implies Gill & co down in Melbourne are over
estimating the strength of Australian rules in the northern states. Worth a read.

There is definitely something in what Pridham says. I take an interest in Melbourne Storm down here and have found myself switching over more from the AFL to the League games which are on at the same time. There have been some terrible AFL games that are pretty hard to watch and last night's Roosters Storm game was brilliant. Also, I am really over the AFL panel shows where the experts take themselves so seriously as gurus whilst the rugby league equivalent shows are more lighthearted and humorous but still analyse the games quite well. Especially like the Matty Johns podcast which can be pretty basic but they come across as real people, not phonies. Remember that McGuire lasted a very short time in Sydney- they identified him as a dickhead very early on.