http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/op ... 6337483468
Where AFL is about to be taught a football lesson by:
Gavin Atkins From: The Australian April 25, 2012 12:00AM
WHILE Essendon and Collingwood are clashing in the traditional, tribal, Anzac Day game at the MCG today, Sydney remains the real frontline in the battle of the football codes.
At the primary school where my wife teaches in Sydney's west, there stands a monument to the fact the AFL doesn't seem to have really thought things through.
Thanks to the cashed-up promoters of the code, Aussie rules goalposts were erected a few years ago on the long sides of the school oval. It was only after they went up that anyone seemed to realise they would impede kids on the running track and, worse, that goal kickers would be forced to retrieve their ball from the highway.
After some initial rumblings, the teachers and parents have decided not to worry about it. Despite marketing efforts that would make a Mormon life insurance salesman blush, the kids have ignored the new additions and are continuing their favoured pursuits of soccer and rugby league at the other ends.
...Some in the AFL have deluded themselves about the growing popularity of the game as a players' sport in Sydney by citing statistics of children taking part in school programs.
But despite the fact the AFL has 17 full-time and 45 part-time staff devoted to promoting the game in western Sydney, the number of juniors signing up to play AFL on the weekend in western Sydney is the real indicator of their progress.
In the age group being targeted by the AFL, the under-12s, the number of teams playing in western Sydney has declined from 24 last year to 22 this year, and there is still no under-11s competition.
Given the resources invested into it, and the hoopla surrounding the establishment of the Greater Western Sydney franchise, this should raise a red flag that something is not going the way they planned.
The warnings have always been there for those who cared to look. No 1 is that following an era of success for the city's existing side, the Swans, fewer Sydneysiders than ever are watching AFL on television.
No one doubts that the Swans have found a sustainable space for themselves in Sydney, with crowds and membership numbers that any rugby league club would love to have.
But the television ratings for AFL games in Sydney are such that their star player, Adam Goodes, has been known to praise the benefits of living in a city where he is rarely recognised.
Despite the addition of the GWS team to the competition, there has been no net gain to the number of Sydneysiders watching AFL on television, and games continue to be less popular than repeats of Antiques Roadshow and Iron Chef.
Those who do follow AFL in Sydney are most likely to be people from interstate, some are Swans diehards, and some maintain a first allegiance to another team.
However, Swans followers also include a somewhat genteel demographic from Sydney's wealthier suburbs, people who don't like the crassness and violence of the rugby codes.
Western Sydney is another story. This is the home of Sydney's working class, and their winter game of choice is rugby league. The interloping code is known by just about every schoolkid from kindergarten up as "gay FL", and any AFL players visiting a school in the region to promote the game need to prepare for the possibility of having a seven-year-old ask them inappropriate questions.
Right there is where you have your problem.
The culture of western Sydney is a masculine culture and kids who decide to play or follow Aussie rules football because rugby league is too rough are not the ones that their peers look up to. The brutal reality of the playground in western Sydney is that choosing to play or follow Aussie rules will always be considered a bit suspect.
For the working class of western Sydney, rugby league is not just an aesthetic preference, it is an intrinsic part of their identity. There is no chance that the locals will be impressed by the balletic skills of the new team, even if they eventually excel at them.
Rugby league supporters are generally not quite as demonstrative as Aussie rules supporters. They are less likely to attend games, buy memberships or sink into a depression when their team loses on the weekend. But this should not be confused with a lack of loyalty.
They also have an uncanny ability to identify hubris, and it will not help the GWS that the team has chosen to spend most of its time in a gated community within a drop punt of Sydney's inner-western cafe strip.
If there is anything that sums up the sheer waste and self-delusion of the GWS experiment, it has been the recruitment of star rugby league player Israel Folau, reportedly for about $1 million a year.
In a bid to gain greater stamina, Israel has deliberately lost his muscle tone, but unfortunately all of the stereotypes league followers have about AFL have been reinforced in the process.
What's worse is that he appears completely lost on the AFL field, but is nevertheless furiously applauded every time he so much as manages to run through a paper banner without tripping over.
AFL followers will tell you that this is a long-term project and that the GWS team will succeed in five years. What they overlook is that if the experience of the Swans is anything to go by, on-field success will not translate to the long-term popularity of the code in Sydney.
Another precedent is the city's professional basketball teams. Though the Sydney Kings experienced considerable success on the court, they were forced to fold in 2008, not long after a failed attempt to introduce a western Sydney team.
The problem is that old killer of many small businesses: simply that the AFL doesn't appear to understand its customers.
The AFL experiment in western Sydney is not going to work now and not in 10 years. The only question is how much damage will be done to the code before anyone is willing to admit to it.
](./images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
away for over 30 years, and they still break into a cold sweat if there up against any Iron Chef re-runs on SBS.
No wonder Jeff refered to it as a welfare organisation.
