AFL's infiltration is heartbreaking says Roy Masters

[Beaussie]

Aww, poor old Roy... heartbreaking to see the AFL dominating in NSW and QLD. You can't stop the growth of the AFL I tell ya. :<>

AFL's infiltration is heartbreaking
Roy Masters
August 27, 2011

CLIMATE change deniers and football administrators who dismiss the rising tide of other codes have much in common.

They argue from small samples and ignore long-term trends.

This occurred to me last week in Tamworth, following a reunion of a University Shield-winning team I coached 40 years ago. As I walked along a levee beside the Peel River with the captain of that 1971 team, Richie Thornton - who later played for Penrith - he explained that the earthen wall had been built to withstand one-in-100-year floods. Now, it has to cater for two such floods in a century.

We walked past No.3 oval, where rugby league teams played on Peel School carnival day - once the biggest schoolboy tournament of its type in the southern hemisphere, organisers say.

Monuments to the fabled Light Horse Brigade and HMAS Tamworth have been erected on the field. Fair enough. The city has a proud military history. No.2 oval is now an amphitheatre with a stage used for the Country Music Festival. Fair enough, this annual event is a big money-spinner for Tamworth. But as we approached No.1 oval, it was if someone had driven a stake through my heart.

AFL goalposts have been erected, a neat clubroom has replaced the creaking old grandstand and lights have been installed, so powerful that leaguies joke they can be seen from Mars.

This was a ground that hosted some big rugby league matches. Reg Gasnier once flew up to present the trophies in the Peel schools carnival and Dally Messenger, impressed with the young St George centre, came over from Gunnedah to gift Gasnier his original Kangaroos cap. The Tamworth Swans play in a competition with teams from nearby towns as well as their cross-town rivals the Kangaroos, while Tamworth City, the rugby league team that once trained on No.1 oval in near darkness, has merged with West Tamworth.

Most of the debate over the AFL-rugby league rivalry has been focused on western Sydney, with little attention given to the bush.

I'd seen other recent evidence of AFL influence when visiting Port Douglas, the north Queensland resort town you'd expect to be imbued with the same Maroons fealty as the rest of the state. A big TV screen at a pub in the main street seemed permanently tuned to AFL and was positioned to lure passers-by. However, conclusions should never be drawn from small samples and a conversation I had with the local newsagent made it clear the hotelier was merely catering for the essentially Victorian tourists. Melbourne newspapers outsold Sydney editions five to one, he told me. Still, the only evidence of a local football team, a ground and a clubhouse was AFL: the Port Douglas Crocodiles.

NRL and ARL administrators are sensitive to claims they are losing the turf war in Sydney's western suburbs and the Tamworth 1971 reunion offered an opportunity to speak to a former player who has taught in the Campbelltown district for 30 years. He supports the view rugby league is still dominant, saying AFL attracts the athletes who are not good enough to play the 13-a-side code.

But another former Tamworth player, who also became a schoolteacher, expressed the opposite view of his experience in Perth these past 20 years. Richard Tongue, who once played for Souths, teaches at a Perth private school and claims rugby union is now attracting an athlete who may have once been drafted to the AFL. The good news for rugby league, Tongue says, is that Perth people generally do not differentiate between the rugby codes, meaning the social stigma that exists against league in Melbourne is not duplicated in Western Australia.

But even that prejudice may be breaking down in the Victorian capital, a city obsessed with its private schools that play AFL and rugby union.

Recently, I accepted an invitation to present the sports awards at a Melbourne high school. ''We are very proud of our rugby league program,'' the sportsmaster told me.

I don't ever expect to walk through a Victorian provincial town such as Shepparton and find rugby league posts in the city centre. But 40 years ago, Australian football was basically unknown in Tamworth.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/leag ... z1WCIbhugz

[Grim Reaper]

Time to do what your mate Rex Mosop did Roy and DIE!

[King-Eliagh]

Roy's gone a bit soft I think, and doesnt understand that change is ok. I think he's wrong too. The way RL is building in victoria in 40 years there'll be league posts all through the place

[Beaussie]

Roy is just telling it like it is. Heartbreaking as he puts it.

[Raiderdave]

[quote="King-Eliagh"]Roy's gone a bit soft I think, and doesnt understand that change is ok. I think he's wrong too. The way RL is building in victoria in 40 years there'll be league posts all through the place [/quote]


yep , have only been down there for 13 years

AFL is on the decline everywhere except Victoria
you can put up as many AFL goal posts by bribing councils to do this all you want

you can't polish a turd though
& this is the AFL's biggest problem ...

[Grim Reaper]

So long as one nrl goal post remains in Australia then the AFL is threatened.

[Beaussie]

Roy's gone a bit soft I think, and doesnt understand that change is ok. I think he's wrong too. The way RL is building in victoria in 40 years there'll be league posts all through the place [/quote]


yep , have only been down there for 13 years

AFL is on the decline everywhere except Victoria
you can put up as many AFL goal posts by bribing councils to do this all you want

you can't polish a turd though
& this is the AFL's biggest problem ...

And despite multiple premierships paid for by the NRL and it's owners News Ltd, still can't sellout AAMI Park unless tickets are offered for $1 as we saw last season.

Melbourne Storm = a financial basketcase

[Raiderdave]

Roy's gone a bit soft I think, and doesnt understand that change is ok. I think he's wrong too. The way RL is building in victoria in 40 years there'll be league posts all through the place [/quote]


yep , have only been down there for 13 years

AFL is on the decline everywhere except Victoria
you can put up as many AFL goal posts by bribing councils to do this all you want

you can't polish a turd though
& this is the AFL's biggest problem ...

And despite multiple premierships paid for by the NRL and it's owners News Ltd, still can't sellout AAMI Park unless tickets are offered for $1 as we saw last season.

Melbourne Storm = a financial basketcase

multiple

the Storm have ............ 1
& this is a sore point with RL fans in Melbourne

Mr Gallop is making his first visit to the Bleak City since last years scandal for the Storms final on Sunday week at AAMI Park to present the JJ Giltanan Shield to Ron Gauci for the Storms minor premiership

hmmmm
that should be interesting

& ensure a fullhouse

[Beaussie]

One now after being caught out cheating. Funny how their owners News Ltd turned a blind eye. Face it, your comp is corrupt. Still doesn't help the Storm get crowds though. Fair dinkum, can't even fill the tiny AAMI Park in sports mad Melbourne unless it's the $1 ticket deal we saw last season. Oh dear.

Anyway, back on topic, as Roy Masters points out, we can now include Tamworth as AFL heartland.

[Raiderdave]

One now after being caught out cheating. Funny how their owners News Ltd turned a blind eye. Face it, your comp is corrupt. Still doesn't help the Storm get crowds though. Fair dinkum, can't even fill the tiny AAMI Park in sports mad Melbourne unless it's the $1 ticket deal we saw last season. Oh dear.

Anyway, back on topic, as Roy Masters points out, we can now include Tamworth as AFL heartland.

our comp has integrity
If the Swans had done what the Storm did ... it would never have seen the light of day
your scumbag administrators would never punish an expansion side in its none traditional areas the way the NRL did the Storm
hell as I said they'd never let anyone know they'd done anything wrong

the NRL knew there was a massive risk taking the action they did
but the integrity of the comp was far more important then expansion & the continued pushing of its Brand into Melbourne.

but thankfully .. it has probably enhanced the Storms reputation & all the emotion of the last year will spill out when Mr Gallop steps out into the middle of AAMI park next week
gee......... I hope hes wearing a bullet proof vest

[Grim Reaper]

The nrl having integrity?

[Raiderdave]

The nrl having integrity?

yeah , thats like saying the AFL is a great game ... :_<>

:_<>


:_<> :_<>

oh .. what a crack up

:_<> :_<>