The AFL is looking to stamp its authority on rival codes

[Beaussie]

No more free kicks for the other codes. Bout time I say. Well done Vlad and co. =D>

The AFL draw illustrates their desire to stamp authority on sporting landscape

Jon Ralph
Herald Sun
November 01, 2013 12:00AM

THE AFL once pretended it played nice with its fellow Australian sporting codes.

What is clear from the fixture released yesterday is the AFL wants to if not obliterate them, then a least starve them entirely of the limelight.

A football season that once stretched to roughly six months is now a 29-week marathon starting in the middle of March.

And if that’s not enough, the league will play 18 pre-season games on consecutive days in February.

Those games are practice matches with little riding on them, but the more back-page headlines the AFL can steal during the A-League and Ashes campaigns, the better.

It is part of a deliberate attempt by the AFL to dominate the sporting landscape save for two weeks over Christmas and two weeks during January’s Australian Open.

Every split round has the key timeslots filled to ensure a Bledisloe Cup or World Cup warm-up match is not handed clean air.

As Andrew Demetriou has said before, northern codes get a jump-start on the AFL with early starts to their seasons.

You can bet the AFL won’t let that happen again.

Six Sunday night and six Thursday night matches give us an idea of the landscape under the TV rights deal from 2017 on.

AFL deputy Gillon McLachlan denied there would be football fatigue yesterday, saying if the football was good enough the punters would embrace it.

“No, I am not worried. If there was fatigue you wouldn’t have the extraordinary amount of coverage through the trade period and draft.”

The perennial beefs with the AFL fixture were that Collingwood had a charmed run, and the derbies and blockbuster games ruined the chance of an even draw.

Now Collingwood travels five times like the rest of the Melbourne sides, and the new equalisation formula at least ensures the idea of fairness.

The better you were the previous year the harder your draw, and vice versa.

Geelong and Hawthorn would feel they copped the rough end of this draw given extremely challenging draws, and Sydney a sweetheart deal.

But this draw means there should hypothetically be 15 sides battling for eight spots.

Rule a line through GWS, Melbourne and St Kilda, who won eight games between them last year.

Every other club would consider themselves a chance to make the eight.

North Melbourne, which copped a shocking draw last year but shot itself in the foot anyway, has a dream draw.

The best side will still win the premiership as usual.

But with Gold Coast on the march and GWS to follow, we can look forward to years of tight, gripping football ahead.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6750889085

[AFLcrap1]

Bhaaaaaaa.

Look at us please look at us ..
Sorry north of the Murray very few care ,& are either interested in the RL world cup or soccer.
But that would make good reading in Victoria. The brainwashed fans will lap it up ,& soon be proclaiming,we are taking over.

[Beaussie]

Bhaaaaaaa.

Look at us please look at us ..
Sorry north of the Murray very few care ,& are either interested in the RL world cup or soccer.
But that would make good reading in Victoria. The brainwashed fans will lap it up ,& soon be proclaiming,we are taking over.

I know no one who is talking about the rugby league world cup. Hardly newsworthy even here in Sydney.

Look out next season when the Swans are filling the SCG regularly. Some massive blockbusters set for ANZ Stadium too. Anyone want to bet the Swans will once again be the biggest sporting club in NSW when it comes to crowds, membership and sponsorship next year? Bit like how the Wanderers are putting to shame RL clubs in western Sydney with their record crowds and membership numbers. Poor ole NRL.

[Raiderdave]

:_<> :_<> :_<> :_<>

RESPECT MA ARTHOROTAHHHHHHHHHHH

heres that Derpmetripoo now


hey bearsy

I notice the opening game between the Swines & Midgets has been bumped off NSW's biggest stage to a tiny stadium next door
why did that happen ?
ANZ is available
its Sydney's fumble bumbleball derby
the battle of the banana bread or what eva its called

is this derby ... just not up to scratch for this venue anymore ?
is it
not worthy of this venue

wow >
how far have we fallen in just a couple of years ....
do you recall the lube & tissues job you did on these pages when the first ever game was announced at ANZ between these a few years back ?

SELLOUT you screamed like a castrated banshee

SELLOUT


SELLOUT


how'd that one go for you Bearsy ?

&

how's it goin now ? :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<> :_<>


the not so mighty have plummeted haven't they ? :_<> :_<> :_<>

[Beaussie]

ANZ Stadium is being reserved for some massive blockbusters starting in Round 2 vs Collingwood followed by Hawthorn and Richmond. GWS I suspect requested a change of venue to provide a better home ground advantage in the local derby. Wanna bet we have a sellout at Skoda and massive buzz around Sydney town come Round 1?

[Swans4ever]

It's about having a full stadium so in a few years ANZ will be a viable option when GWS are competitive against Sydney's number one football club the Swans!

[Beaussie]

It's about having a full stadium so in a few years ANZ will be a viable option when GWS are competitive against Sydney's number one football club the Swans!

Good strategy too. Will make tickets for Round 1 very much in high demand and the stadium will be a buzz when packed to capacity. Am thinking along the lines of the headlines for Wanderers at a packed Parramatta Stadium this season. Good news indeed. Can't wait for Round 1.

[Swans4ever]

It's about having a full stadium so in a few years ANZ will be a viable option when GWS are competitive against Sydney's number one football club the Swans!

Good strategy too. Will make tickets for Round 1 very much in high demand and the stadium will be a buzz when packed to capacity. Am thinking along the lines of the headlines for Wanderers at a packed Parramatta Stadium this season. Good news indeed. Can't wait for Round 1.

Me too me thinks that it should have been this way from the very 1st - make it something that fans desperately want tickets for and then move to larger stadia!

[NRLCrap1]

Bhaaaaaaa.

Look at us please look at us ..
Sorry north of the Murray very few care ,& are either interested in the RL world cup or soccer.
But that would make good reading in Victoria. The brainwashed fans will lap it up ,& soon be proclaiming,we are taking over.

Dream on, Dave, dream on. And I'll keep calling you Dave until you admit you don't live in Queensland.

[AFLcrap1]

Hi No BALLS
Have you asked XMAN.
He can put you out of your misery .

[NRLCrap1]

TLPG put you out of your misery well before that. Shut down this account and go back to your own, Dave, and stop using Optus while you're about it and go back to your own provider (whoever it is - Telstra maybe?)

[Fred]

Afl crap ... If you lived in qld as I do ... Check my ip lol.. You would know afl has a following .. If you lived on the Gold Coast you would know how big the suns are ... Right up there with the titans for media and talk on the street.

[AFLcrap1]

TLPG put you out of your misery well before that. Shut down this account and go back to your own, Dave, and stop using Optus while you're about it and go back to your own provider (whoever it is - Telstra maybe?)

:_<> :_<> :_<> :_<>
reality & you are a long way apart.

[NRLCrap1]

So you say. Your reliability = zero.

[Raiderdave]

GWS I suspect requested a change of venue to provide a better home ground advantage in the local derby. Wanna bet we have a sellout at Skoda and massive buzz around Sydney town come Round 1?

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yeah sure they did

& I don't bet with welchers as we all know
plus
Skoda stadium .... its no longer called that as Skoda dropped those ********* in orange as they were harming their brand :_<> :_<> :_<>

& of course it will sell out as the Midgets will control the gate
15,000 will actually show up
& 25,000 will be announced

& almost no one in Sydney will give a fuck .. like they do about any fumble bumbleball game played there