Just like this.
The AFL's boast of vast increases in participation numbers in western Sydney is misleading, according to a report commissioned by one of its key stakeholders.
This month's report, prepared by a Melbourne University academic at the request of AFL NSW/ACT, supports what many rugby league administrators have been saying for some time - the AFL is using registrations in its modified game of Auskick to bolster actual playing numbers.
The research appears to seriously question a claim last month by an AFL NSW senior official that participation numbers in the western Sydney region have grown by 27 per cent, or 10,000 players, in a single year.
Under the heading, ''Western Sydney - The Reality versus Perception Gap'', the report's author, David Lawson, notes: ''The reality is that junior club maturity and participation numbers appear to have stalled. There are 6 [per cent] less junior/youth players in 2012 than in 2009. The perception, however, is that the game is growing well. This perception is supported by masking low junior club numbers with Auskick numbers (Club, School and Community Auskick) and school program numbers. This optimistic, bullish perception is needed to market the game, however this perception urgently needs to be underpinned by committed junior club participants.''
The report is at odds with a media report on September 14, quoting AFL NSW's Dean Connors, that Australian football participation in western Sydney rose 27 per cent this year, with administrators confident the full impact of the region's new AFL club, GWS Giants, is yet to be felt.
''We've grown at this stage by 27per cent from last year's participation, which was 28,306,'' Connors is quoted as saying. ''There's been substantial growth from a very high base, so we're up around that 36,000-37,000 mark in participation in greater western Sydney.''
Both AFL surveys and Connors define a ''participant'' as a ''no-less-than-six-weeks paying customer'', but according to the AFL NSW/ACT report, playing numbers in junior Australian football across all of Sydney last year was 7694.
When AFL NSW applied to Leichhardt Council to install AFL goal posts on rugby league's birthplace, Birchgrove Oval, it withdrew when asked to verify its playing numbers.
Nor is there any reason to boast about Sydney's senior numbers.
The report says: ''With the growth of senior numbers halving (from 8 [per cent] to 4 per cent]), under-18s growth dropping from 12 [per cent] to 4 [per cent] and significantly more 100-point victories in 2012 in U18 division 1
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/AFL/AFL-news/s ... z37gk5eZiB
Funny thing is the bloke who spilt the beans & showed what a farce these numbers are,is now employed by the AFL.So he will be towing the Company propaganda line.
There has Surprisingly
not been another report commissioned. 
.yet the same growth crap is sprouted & the Fumbletards on here go into a circle jerk(Hi Rambo).
I wonder why they ignore the real numbers when the crap is exposed.
liar extraordinaire 
). 
