State and local league premiers in 2004

[David Votoupal]

Well in 2002, the SANFL got 35,000 for a Centrals vs Sturt GF, and the WAFL got over 31,000 for an East Perth vs West Perth GF. I think it shows that interest in those leagues is still strong, but you need the teams with big support and an occasion to match it in order to draw a big crowd. And also pray for clear skies

[Norris Lurker]

Like David V I'd love to see more grassroots footy on TV. It's unlikely to happen to any great extent due to production costs, but a highlights show during the week may be workable.
The VFL, SANFL and WAFL matches of the week are televised live on their local ABC stations. In 2003 when Fox Footy had 2 channels they televised replays of those games nationally; so if that sort of footage can be made available to Fox Footy it may be able to be compressed into a combined highlights package.
The other league to be televised is the Sydney AFL on Fox Footy - that is a production put together by a small team of dedicated volunteers on a shoestring budget, but they do a great job. Fox Footy doesn't pay for the production, although they're more than willing to provide the airtime every week.
Unfortunately I doubt we'll see any other leagues televised - it would cost too much money to set up camera crews, commentators etc.

Anyway, some other league results from NSW (several of these results taken from Timelord's http://www.philsworld.com.au ) :
Sydney AFL premier division - North Shore
Sydney AFL Division 1 - Wollongong
Sydney AFL Division 2 - Sydney Uni Blue
Canberra District Division 1 - ANU
Canberra District Division 2 North - Goulburn Swans (in their debut season - we might have to get Destructive to go to one of their games next year and give us a match report)
Canberra District Division 2 South - Woden
Black Diamond AFL - Cardiff
Central West AFL - Bathurst
Coreen AFL - Wahgunyah
Farrar AFL - TRYC
Hume AFL - Holbrook
North Coast AFL - North Coffs Harbour
Northern Riverina AFL - Tullibigeal
Riverina AFL - Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong (original home of Daniel McPherson)
Sapphire Coast AFL - Batemans Bay
South Coast AFL - Bomaderry
Summerland AFL - Byron Bay
Tamworth AFL - New England

[David Votoupal]

Originally posted by Norris Lurker
Like David V I'd love to see more grassroots footy on TV. It's unlikely to happen to any great extent due to production costs, but a highlights show during the week may be workable.
The VFL, SANFL and WAFL matches of the week are televised live on their local ABC stations. In 2003 when Fox Footy had 2 channels they televised replays of those games nationally; so if that sort of footage can be made available to Fox Footy it may be able to be compressed into a combined highlights package.

Well that would be a start, but I still think the state leagues warrant better coverage than only a highlights package every week, unless it's like the Monday night EPL show in which the biggest games of the weekend are given extended highlights.

The other league to be televised is the Sydney AFL on Fox Footy - that is a production put together by a small team of dedicated volunteers on a shoestring budget, but they do a great job. Fox Footy doesn't pay for the production, although they're more than willing to provide the airtime every week.
Unfortunately I doubt we'll see any other leagues televised - it would cost too much money to set up camera crews, commentators etc.

Well here's food for thought- up in Newcastle the local Newcastle Rugby League GF was televised. Up in Toowoomba the local TRL comp gets radio coverage IIRC.

Hence the case would be made for similar coverage to be given to leagues like the O&M, GVFL, NTFL, etc.

[Thunder Shaker]

I think a 15-minute highlights show for a local league can be put together on a small budget, and shown on community television (like Channel 31 in Melbourne).

Such a show can present highlights, and also show the scores for all matches.

[David Votoupal]

If we were to do a ranking of leagues beneath AFL level, I'd sort them out in this way (this topic, BTW, has been done to death on another forum ):

- The second tier consists of state leagues, which are the SANFL, WAFL and VFL
- The third tier consists of the stronger suburban, country and amateur leagues
- the remainder of the leagues could be sorted into fourth, fifth and sixth tiers (depending on how many levels are needed!

But before doing any ranking, we'll have to separate all the leagues into the following categories (below state level):

- Victorian country leagues (the largest category, as each region of country Vic has a major league followed by a couple of district league)
- Melbourne metro leagues
- Amateur leagues (VAFA, SAAFL and WAAFL)
- WA leagues
- SA leagues
- other states/territories leagues (NSW, ACT, TAS, NT and QLD competitions)

[SimonH]

I would subscribe to Fox Footy (which I don't do now) if they (re-)played the SANFL match of the week in full. Their costs of doing so would be three-fifths of freak-all, as the ABC already covers the thing, so they'd just need to give the ABC 20 bucks and a slab (of Cooper's, not Export- this is gunna be a classy operation)for the rebroadcast rights.

And the opportunity cost for their broadcasting schedule? That's right- they'd need to cut out replaying the 1996 round 7 Essendon v St Kilda clash for the 85th time. Let's face it- they have 24 hours a day to fill, and nowhere near enough original content to put in there, which makes it even more of a crime that state leagues get ignored.

I'm in a minority, but so what? Diehard AFL fans are a minority of all Australians- but it's them that the footy channel should be catering for, if it wants people to shell out. Passive or occasional followers already get more than enough coverage on free-to-air.