Talking Footy

Beaussie wrote:

Rugby league fans are no doubt responsible. It's obvious they are threatened by the continual growth of "Australia's Game" in NSW.

AFL advertising banners torn down in Beecroft and clubs suspect sabotage

Tom Westbrook
Hornsby Advocate
January 21, 2014 12:01AM



Noeleene Flynn with Aaron Flynn, 9, Evan White, 9, Jonathan Moran, 11, Luc White, 11 and Ben Francis,9, beneath one of their remaining banners beside Pennant Hills Rd. Photo: DAMIAN SHAW Source: DailyTelegraph

FOR the second year in a row banners encouraging youngsters to play Australian Rules at Pennant Hills have been torn down by vandals.

"It's clear to me it's someone who doesn't want AFL to be advertised," said Noeleene Flynn, recruitment manager at the Pennant Hills Demons' junior club.

"I think it's very anti-Australian spirit."

At St Agatha's, in Beecroft, and at Beecroft Primary School, Demons' banners, which cost around $400 each, have vanished on Saturday night after just three weeks on display. But advertisements for local soccer, cricket, league and rugby clubs remain untouched.

Pennant Hills AFL club has continually had its banners stolen or vandalised.

Last year, banners belonging to Westbrook, Hornsby and the Demons' juniors were slashed with a knife.

"After that we were able to repair them with tape from the back," Demons president Dean Moran said.

"Once they realised that, they started ripping them down completely."

"It looks like someone has got a vendetta against AFL," he said.

"There's no real vendetta of one club against another and I can't imagine that this sort of thing would be sanctioned by any of the clubs. It's probably just someone who doesn't like AFL coming in to New South Wales."

Sean Peter, a parent from the Hornsby-Berowra Eagles AFL club also suspected sabotage.

"Who else would take another banner down?" he said.

"It's either petty vandalism by people who are bored or people who don't like AFL - people from soccer or rugby league who might feel threatened by Australia's most popular sport moving into the area."

The Demons junior club, which caters to players aged eight to 17, was founded in 1966 and is run by volunteers - like most local sports clubs.

"I know AFL isn't the big sport here in Sydney," Mrs Flynn said.

"AFL is done on a Sunday because we know here in Sydney that a lot of people are involved in other sports."

She urged fellow committee members not to be discouraged by last year's vandalism and to purchase new banners and hang them. The second round of vandalism has left her disappointed.

"I can't see why anyone would be bothered to do this," she said.

Mr Moran reported both the 2013 and 2014 incidents to police and will set about fixing the remaining banners higher up in the trees beside Pennant Hills Rd.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslo ... 6806002006

214Four wrote:

"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.
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 and premier divisions, there appears good reason to maintain a watching brief.''


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/AFL/AFL-news/a ... z2r1EfAOti

so again i say AFL is not strong in Sydney, not by a long shot

214Four wrote:

7000 for an area of 4.7million, not that impressive, that equivelent to the 6000 that play RL in WA and SA combined (population of 3.8million)

Beaussie wrote:

214Four wrote:

"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.
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 and premier divisions, there appears good reason to maintain a watching brief.''


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/AFL/AFL-news/a ... z2r1EfAOti

so again i say AFL is not strong in Sydney, not by a long shot

A Roy Masters article that's two years old is your source for AFL numbers in Sydney?

Oh deary me, Roy hates the AFL probably more than Raiderdave and makes up just as much, if not more bullshit about Australia's Game. Pathetic really.

NRLCrap1 wrote:

Goose. Cricket ovals have been used for AFL for over 100 years! Besides, rugby league does MORE DAMAGE to those ovals than AFL!

ParraEelsNRL wrote:

Damn greenies.