Is Sydney finally an AFL town?

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Is Sydney finally an AFL town?

Post by Beaussie »

Great analysis of the new reality in Sydney. Really good points raised in the context of proposed stadium rebuilds in NSW too.
Is Sydney finally an AFL town?
By Malcolm Knox27 April 2018

The contrast was cruel.

On a perfect balmy autumn Friday night, nearly 50,000 people descended on the
Moore Park precinct. Even the Tibby Cotter Bridge seemed to be leading somewhere. This
was a night to gladden those interests that want to siphon public money into new stadiums
for our glorious sporting city.

Almost.

We were part of the majority, the 38,017 fans crushing into the Sydney Cricket Ground to watch the Swans play the Adelaide Crows. The Crows do not have a huge supporter base in Sydney, and nor do Port Adelaide or GWS (so far), but this was the third time in April that the Swans had drawn more than 34,000 to the SCG. Wait till they host Richmond or Collingwood.

It wasn’t just the number of people that was noteworthy but the atmosphere: as Bill Lawry would call it, a big crowd, a happy crowd. (Bill has never seen an unhappy crowd; maybe it’ll be different when he’s watching Channel Seven.)

But wait – there were others, in the shadows. A shamed minority in light blue were skulking off to some underground alternative, downcast and, against the glow and bustle of the Swans crowd, apparently physically stunted, shrunken into their own scarves.

You wouldn’t call them a crowd, more a remnant; and officially, Super Rugby hasn’t yet called
them a crowd. It’s scarcely possible to find an official attendance for the Waratahs-Lions match last Friday night, played simultaneously with the Swans match. What an embarrassing scheduling snafu that was.

Observers put the Waratahs-Lions attendance at around 10,000, which possibly means 8000.
Perhaps rugby’s modesty is being hidden under a figleaf. It wouldn’t need to be a big one. The headline was that the Waratahs, on the field, were nilled. Off the field, their code was also nilled. You see this kind of embarrassment at writers’ festivals: Andy Griffiths in one room, a literary novelist in the next.

Afterwards, their lines at the book-signing desks are not pretty. It’s brute commercial reality. Andy Griffiths sometimes sends patrons the other guy’s way. The AFL isn’t so generous.

Ruggageddon, then? Has Sydney finally declared itself an AFL town? I’ve got to say, as someone who grew up playing rugby, I’d never have imagined a night like this. I’ve seen future, and it is … Melbourne. And it made me, to coin Donald Trump, sad. Very, very sad.

And then the roar of the AFL crowd brought me back to the invigorating present. Unpacking the figures, the picture for Super Rugby is even bleaker. The national Foxtel ratings on the night had 300,000 viewers for Swans-Adelaide against 57,000 for the Waratahs-Lions. Add another 584,000 nationally watching the AFL game on Channel Seven.

So, whereas the live AFL audience outnumbered Super Rugby by four or five to one, the TV audience ratio was more than 15 to one. AFL is not just winning in the grandstands, it’s winning on the couch.
. It looks even worse for rugby when bandwagonny factors are taken out. The Swans are going fairly well this season but are borderline premiership contenders, and were beaten by the Crows.

The Waratahs, meanwhile, had been enjoying something of an on-field revival after their dire 2017. If rugger people were going to get off their butts and attend a game, this was the night. No go. And you can’t blame Israel Folau for this one, although he might have to look no further than Corinthians to see God’s plan for Super Rugby.

The decline of interest in Super Rugby over the past few years is well documented. The excision of the Western Force was meant, by some logic, to stanch the bleeding, but it only seems to have opened another vein. Rather than concentrate the depth of Australian rugby by 20 per cent, the absence of the Force seems to have drained the pool from both ends.

The ludicrous Super Rugby draw, giving Australian teams the benefit of playing most of their games against each other, is fooling nobody. Rugby will presumably find some bottoming-out point.
It has too much support from the big end of town to disappear. Super Rugby, however, is fast coming to resemble the Sheffield Shield, a competition that is talked about and has some importance, but that fewer and fewer people watch.

Cricket can survive that, because of its hugely popular other formats. Can rugby? Are the Wallabies a powerful enough shop window, over the long term, to stop the code from receding into its private school ghetto, a recondite physical activity like lacrosse or polo?

It is quite possible to imagine a future where rugby is the game they play in other countries, a kind of gap-year jollity for future lawyers and bankers, but not a serious professional code in Australia. I’m sure rugby has a plan to revitalise itself, beyond its excellent start of renaming itself Rugby Australia and ordering new stationery.

But a lot of the talk from the top seems as wishful as Raelene Castle’s suggestion that Folau could have been more ‘positive’ about his message from the bible about other people’s sex lives.
How can you be ‘positive’ about your code heading down the gurgler? Pretend that, like the crowd figure from last Friday, it just didn’t happen?

The generational problem for rugby, unlike cricket, was illustrated just across the road on Friday.
Rugby has a monstrous competitor. I don’t know if the folk at the Waratahs match could hear the roars from the SCG, but it must have been a brutal and lonely exposure to the strength of a code that is well organised at grassroots level, set up like an invading army in its vast bureaucracy, spectacularly successful as a form of show business, and bent on destruction and domination.
You can almost hear the AFL-o-saurus: rugby, you have left a garlicky aftertaste; league, we’re coming to eat you next.

Another of the curious questions raised by this watershed moment – and the watershed has been repeating itself for a few years now, it wasn’t just last Friday – is why, given the inexorable rise of the AFL, the NSW government is throwing so much money into the rectangulation of its stadiums.

I don’t want to step into the middle of someone else’s fight here, but when the plan of rebuilding the Sydney Football Stadium and reconfiguring the Olympic Stadium is done, the Sydney Cricket Ground and Spotless Stadium will be left as the two biggest ovals in the city.

This seems odd. The Giants will eventually pull more than 20,000 to regular season games and finals. Under the current plan, they will have to play those games at the home ground of their arch enemy.

Thirty years from now, when all those Auskick kiddies and AFL families are multi-generational Swans and Giants fans, where will they all go to watch a big match? Well may they ask what on earth the NSW government, circa 2018, was thinking when it took away an 80,000-capacity oval ground? Time for another rebuild?


I wonder if the course of history would be changed if those in power were out at Moore Park last Friday night. I mean really out, not in a corporate box and government car, but out in the bus queues for Central and Circular Quay after the matches. So many AFL fans, so many red Sherrins. And ta-ta Tahs. If it weren’t for the terrible public transport connections, you’d have thought you were in Melbourne.

Australia is changing. Ten years from now, according to demographers, Sydney won’t even be the country’s biggest city. In sporting terms, it will be one of Melbourne’s northern satellites. With a bunch of obsolete rectangles.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/is-sydney- ... 4zbzl.html
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Re: Is Sydney finally an AFL town?

Post by pussycat »

They were getting 30 thousand crowds when I was at high school. nearly 40 years on and they sill got the same 30k followers.
As for the Giants eventually gaining a following :(/ :(/ :(/ :(/ :(/ :(/
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Re: Is Sydney finally an AFL town?

Post by AFLcrap1 »

Lol
BEA now quoting a Rah Rah loving RL Hating journo .

Same old shit just a different author .

Oh & there are threads from about 7 years ago sprouting the same rot .

Yet record crowds are from 15 yrs ago .
Ratings have gone backwards from a decade ago .

So in what reality is this article anywhere near factual.


Reminds me of the classic thread on LU
QLD is now an AFL state .
I wonder which poor misguided sap stated that laughable quote


Simple fact NSW is a RL state
SYD is a rL town.
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Re: Is Sydney finally an AFL town?

Post by Terry »

The Swans get good crowds because they have tapped into the AFL's game attending culture. Their Sydney TV ratings are way below every NRL team in the city. That is the real indicator. And when they inevitably spend a few years propping up the bottom end of the comp watch the crowds very quickly disappear.

As for GWS: what sort of a crowd will they get today? First home game in Sydney for the year. A prime family friendly time slot. Been at or near the top of the comp the last 2 years. No RL on in Sydney today. Its all set up for 'em to pack the joint out.
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Re: Is Sydney finally an AFL town?

Post by AFLcrap1 »

Terry wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 1:25 pm
The Swans get good crowds because they have tapped into the AFL's game attending culture. Their Sydney TV ratings are way below every NRL team in the city. That is the real indicator. And when they inevitably spend a few years propping up the bottom end of the comp watch the crowds very quickly disappear.

As for GWS: what sort of a crowd will they get today? First home game in Sydney for the year. A prime family friendly time slot. Been at or near the top of the comp the last 2 years. No RL on in Sydney today. Its all set up for 'em to pack the joint out.
What sort of crowd .
Lol if they give a figure above 5k then you know they're lying .
It's a ghost town around most of the ground .
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Re: Is Sydney finally an AFL town?

Post by NRL&NFLweLaughATafl »

Would you expect anything less from a pro AFL journalist.
I knew it would be Malcom Knox.

The Giants are playing at Spotless stadium in Sydney at the moment and the stadium is less than a quarter full.

Yet some how they think they will need the stadium next door which is 3 times the size???. :hmm:

yep that makes a lot of sense =D =D :lol: :lol:
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Re: Is Sydney finally an AFL town?

Post by NlolRL »

NRL&NFLweLaughATafl wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 4:52 pm
Would you expect anything less from a pro AFL journalist.
I knew it would be Malcom Knox.

The Giants are playing at Spotless stadium in Sydney at the moment and the stadium is less than a quarter full.

Yet some how they think they will need the stadium next door which is 3 times the size???. :hmm:

yep that makes a lot of sense =D =D :lol: :lol:
unlike the NRL, the AFL has 2 teams in their 2 expansion cities. The Swans get larger average crowds than ANY Sydney NRL team!!! :(/
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Re: Is Sydney finally an AFL town?

Post by docker24 »

Wait whats this? NRL fans laughing about low crowd figures? :(/ :(/ :(/ :(/ :(/
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Re: Is Sydney finally an AFL town?

Post by NRL&NFLweLaughATafl »

NlolRL wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 6:06 pm
NRL&NFLweLaughATafl wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 4:52 pm
Would you expect anything less from a pro AFL journalist.
I knew it would be Malcom Knox.

The Giants are playing at Spotless stadium in Sydney at the moment and the stadium is less than a quarter full.

Yet some how they think they will need the stadium next door which is 3 times the size???. :hmm:

yep that makes a lot of sense =D =D :lol: :lol:
unlike the NRL, the AFL has 2 teams in their 2 expansion cities. The Swans get larger average crowds than ANY Sydney NRL team!!! :(/
Well the NSW Blues are owned and run by the NRL and get bigger crowds than the Swans. So your actually wrong. :thumbleft:
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Re: Is Sydney finally an AFL town?

Post by NRL&NFLweLaughATafl »

docker24 wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 6:38 pm
Wait whats this? NRL fans laughing about low crowd figures? :(/ :(/ :(/ :(/ :(/
Well considering AFL has spent way more money promoting the Giants than the NRL and A league has spent on all it's clubs.

Fuckin oaf, yes it's funny. You even stole Izzy to get the Islander fanbase. :lol:

And what do you end up with. A club playing in two cities being outrated by the teletubies lol...

:cheers: =D =D
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Re: Is Sydney finally an AFL town?

Post by NlolRL »

NRL&NFLweLaughATafl wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 8:00 pm
NlolRL wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 6:06 pm
NRL&NFLweLaughATafl wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 4:52 pm
Would you expect anything less from a pro AFL journalist.
I knew it would be Malcom Knox.

The Giants are playing at Spotless stadium in Sydney at the moment and the stadium is less than a quarter full.

Yet some how they think they will need the stadium next door which is 3 times the size???. :hmm:

yep that makes a lot of sense =D =D :lol: :lol:
unlike the NRL, the AFL has 2 teams in their 2 expansion cities. The Swans get larger average crowds than ANY Sydney NRL team!!! :(/

Well the NSW Blues are owned and run by the NRL and get bigger crowds than the Swans. So your actually wrong. :thumbleft:
As usual, the NRL fans need to resort to SOO to compete. You basically need the entire NRL in Sydney to beat the swans :(/
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Re: Is Sydney finally an AFL town?

Post by NRL&NFLweLaughATafl »

NlolRL wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 8:44 pm
NRL&NFLweLaughATafl wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 8:00 pm
NlolRL wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 6:06 pm
unlike the NRL, the AFL has 2 teams in their 2 expansion cities. The Swans get larger average crowds than ANY Sydney NRL team!!! :(/

Well the NSW Blues are owned and run by the NRL and get bigger crowds than the Swans. So your actually wrong. :thumbleft:
As usual, the NRL fans need to resort to SOO to compete. You basically need the entire NRL in Sydney to beat the swans :(/
NSW Blues is a one state team just like the Sydney Swans had been for decades and look at the difference.
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Re: Is Sydney finally an AFL town?

Post by NlolRL »

NRL&NFLweLaughATafl wrote: Sun Apr 29, 2018 8:00 am
NlolRL wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 8:44 pm
NRL&NFLweLaughATafl wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 8:00 pm


Well the NSW Blues are owned and run by the NRL and get bigger crowds than the Swans. So your actually wrong. :thumbleft:
As usual, the NRL fans need to resort to SOO to compete. You basically need the entire NRL in Sydney to beat the swans :(/
NSW Blues is a one state team just like the Sydney Swans had been for decades and look at the difference.
the blues represent over half of your comp, the swans only represent 1/18th of ours
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Re: Is Sydney finally an AFL town?

Post by NRL&NFLweLaughATafl »

NlolRL wrote: Sun Apr 29, 2018 8:03 am
NRL&NFLweLaughATafl wrote: Sun Apr 29, 2018 8:00 am
NlolRL wrote: Sat Apr 28, 2018 8:44 pm

As usual, the NRL fans need to resort to SOO to compete. You basically need the entire NRL in Sydney to beat the swans :(/
NSW Blues is a one state team just like the Sydney Swans had been for decades and look at the difference.
the blues represent over half of your comp, the swans only represent 1/18th of ours
Is not even half our comp. Plenty of players born in New Zealand and England that can't play.

Anyway the Blues are still a one state team the way the Swans were. And still way more popular. :cool:
Last edited by NRL&NFLweLaughATafl on Sun Apr 29, 2018 8:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Is Sydney finally an AFL town?

Post by NlolRL »

NRL&NFLweLaughATafl wrote: Sun Apr 29, 2018 8:09 am
NlolRL wrote: Sun Apr 29, 2018 8:03 am
NRL&NFLweLaughATafl wrote: Sun Apr 29, 2018 8:00 am


NSW Blues is a one state team just like the Sydney Swans had been for decades and look at the difference.
the blues represent over half of your comp, the swans only represent 1/18th of ours
The blues are still a one state team the way the Swans were. And still way more popular. :cool:
I hope you're proud that it takes over half your competition to outdraw 1/18th of our competition :afro:
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