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"Can you smell the fear?", do the other football codes in Australia (AFL,NRL), genuinely fear football?

Monoethnic Social Club said:
It’s funny, all the Sydney-siders are talking about AFL all of a sudden? Watch their crowds get even larger now... People LOVE to be outraged.
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I luv its this game up front and centre with loads of controversy.
Can’t avoid top news headlines pretty normal to comment considering it’s a thread related to one of the eggball codes with the thread.
We all know deep down you melbonites do follow this game of yours :) despite your luv of football.
 
HappyGuus said:
This is f$$$ing ridiculous. GWS records their first ever profit with $8.5m. Now read the detail...

GWS only made a profit because they were gifted $37m from the AFL and $11m from the government!! Infuriating, it makes my blood boil.


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wow 11m a year? I wonder if that's just a them thing, or every AFL club receives something similar in government grants.
 
Honestly I think people over exaggerated afl in nsw and qld

I'm in Queensland and there's heaps of afl news I've seen goals as well at a park. Then Sydney women's team pulled 16k to their game. I think they are doing better then people on here say
 
HappyGuus said:
This is f$$$ing ridiculous. GWS records their first ever profit with $8.5m. Now read the detail...

GWS only made a profit because they were gifted $37m from the AFL and $11m from the government!! Infuriating, it makes my blood boil.


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SoKkAH NEedZ TO stand ON its owN Two FEeT!!!!
 
HappyGuus said:
This is f$$$ing ridiculous. GWS records their first ever profit with $8.5m. Now read the detail...

GWS only made a profit because they were gifted $37m from the AFL and $11m from the government!! Infuriating, it makes my blood boil.


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The AFL has been extraordinarily good at securing government money, stadium upgrades, and preferential treatment in non-traditional markets. GWS is the clearest example of this with years of heavy AFL distributions plus state and federal grants just to keep the lights on and build the facilities, while still being sold as a success story the moment the books tip into the black....

tsf said:
SoKkAH NEedZ TO stand ON its owN Two FEeT!!!!
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Yep....The AFL’s expansion model has always been “spend big now, own the market later.” Governments keep writing the cheques because the AFL is ruthless at selling the story of participation growth, tourism dollars, and “national game” status.

Australian "soccer" has always been shocking at telling its own story. The product on the pitch can be decent, the multicultural depth is real, and the international game has genuine global pull, yet the local competition and its administration still feels like it’s permanently stuck in the “almost” phase.....

Football has the richer global story. It just has no idea how to tell the Australian chapter.
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
Damn right.
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I mean part from Johhny and Les football in Australia has never had anyone to tell the story in a media sense....

Once they were gone and sbs more or less moved away from football, the vacuum was obvious. Plenty of competent commentators and journalists around, but almost no one who can turn the local game into something that felt culturally important the way AFL writers and broadcasters do every week.

That’s a big part of why the game still struggles for oxygen. The product has improved at times, the crowds have been there at times, but without strong storytellers in and around the media the whole thing keeps floating instead of taking root.
 
Football us life said:
I mean part from Johhny and Les football in Australia has never had anyone to tell the story in a media sense....

Once they were gone and sbs more or less moved away from football, the vacuum was obvious. Plenty of competent commentators and journalists around, but almost no one who can turn the local game into something that felt culturally important the way AFL writers and broadcasters do every week.

That’s a big part of why the game still struggles for oxygen. The product has improved at times, the crowds have been there at times, but without strong storytellers in and around the media the whole thing keeps floating instead of taking root.
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Is it that vital for ⚽️ in 🇦🇺 though❓

Keep in mind the ‘traditional' codes do need that bc it feeds into their whole jingoistic/nativist narrative about being ‘representative of “real” Australia’, which is a vital ingredient of their playbook.

Put it this way, even if Sheilas, Wogs And Poofters/One Fantastic Goal/Death And Life Of Australian Soccer were made compulsory-reading for some high-school/uni course I sincerely doubt it’d cut through to the unconverted to any significant extent.
 
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BA81 said:
Is it that vital for ⚽️ in 🇦🇺 though❓
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Yes I think so...

And I refer back to tsf's rather eloquent post....

"SoKkAH NEedZ TO stand ON its owN Two FEeT!!!!"

Sport doesn’t just compete on the field. It competes for attention, identity, and belonging. In Australia that battle is brutal, and the codes that win it are the ones that can tell a story people actually want to sit inside.

AFL understands this instinctively. Football mostly doesn’t.
 
Football us life said:
Yes I think so...

And I refer back to tsf's rather eloquent post....

"SoKkAH NEedZ TO stand ON its owN Two FEeT!!!!"

Sport doesn’t just compete on the field. It competes for attention, identity, and belonging. In Australia that battle is brutal, and the codes that win it are the ones that can tell a story people actually want to sit inside.

AFL understands this instinctively. Football mostly doesn’t.
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Okay, how would you do it then?

And you DO need to give an actual answer; “I dunno” doesn’t count.

Furthermore, I posit that the best way for “SoKkAH TO stand ON its owN Two FEeT” is indeed to let go of this compulsion to justify/explain itself to 🇦🇺 at large in order to ‘fit in’ or however one’d describe that.
 
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it helps a lot having good management more so for afl and nrl.
Lets not forget they (afl) hardly had good footprint in Qld/NSW - IF it wasn't for smart management and gaining the $$$$'s spreading the comp grows the code, pour $$'s in the local areas etcetc - identity wasn't new or belonging its just $$'s more than anything.
Whats brutal here is providing a top comp and thats what we lack - makes it harder when your better/best players play abroad)......

You can't build a platform on marketing/bubble and squeak/belonging.
We need a open comp - build it they will come, we need to earn the respect and then exposure develops/the demand comes.
yep stand on our own two feet.
I have to imagine a comp that incl the APL clubs (unfortunately) mixed with the home grown organic clubs for that’s what’s got to happen.
We have to connect ol sockha with new - rivalries are instant, crowds start to come.
Players will get better.
Then we will earn our share of media space.
 
BA81 said:
Okay, how would you do it then?

And you DO need to give an actual answer; “I dunno” doesn’t count.
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Football needs to properly own its traditional club history as emotional, foundational narrative. The game’s deepest Australian roots are in those post-war migrant clubs...lets not be embarrassed by it lets embrace it to the full!

That history is rich, emotional, and still largely untold in the mainstream. Package it properly. With documentaries, books, long-form podcasts, museum-style content. And if you can’t get newspaper or magazines interested DIY Blogs...😋

Hell.... Make people feel the weight of it.

Develop permanent local heroes instead of relying on short-term imports. You can’t build a mythology around journeymen footballers who are gone in 18 months.

Concentrate resources in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide to create genuine football cities. Stop spreading the love thinly across the country. Double down on Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide for a decade. Make those three places feel like football cities

Hire real storytellers who can make non-fans care. Find the next Johnny Warren and Les Murray and give them a proper platform.
 
LFC said:
it helps a lot having good management more so for afl and nrl.
Lets not forget they (afl) hardly had good footprint in Qld/NSW - IF it wasn't for smart management and gaining the $$$$'s spreading the comp grows the code, pour $$'s in the local areas etcetc - identity wasn't new or belonging its just $$'s more than anything.
Whats brutal here is providing a top comp and thats what we lack - makes it harder when your better/best players play abroad)......

You can't build a platform on marketing/bubble and squeak/belonging.
We need a open comp - build it they will come, we need to earn the respect and then exposure develops/the demand comes.
yep stand on our own two feet.
I have to imagine a comp that incl the APL clubs (unfortunately) mixed with the home grown organic clubs for that’s what’s got to happen.
We have to connect ol sockha with new - rivalries are instant, crowds start to come.
Players will get better.
Then we will earn our share of media space.
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In addition to that, we need reform of the State Feds/how they operate. Because in the other thread, turns out that over in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 it isn’t structured as it is here:

someguyjc

Post in thread 'P n R This could work'

LFC said:
here's the English FA board and down.....a general google search.
The Premier League is a private company limited by shares. Its shareholders are the 20 Member Clubs at any given time, and The FA, which holds a special share.

Governing Bodies and Major Leagues
  • Premier League: 5 board members (the Chair, 3 Independent Non-Executive Directors, and the Chief Executive). [1]
  • English Football League (EFL): 10 directors (6 divisional representatives from member clubs, 2 independent non-executive directors, an independent chair, and the CEO)...
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  • Like
  • Haha
 
Football us life said:
Football needs to properly own its traditional club history as emotional, foundational narrative. The game’s deepest Australian roots are in those post-war migrant clubs...lets not be embarrassed by it lets embrace it to the full!

That history is rich, emotional, and still largely untold in the mainstream. Package it properly. With documentaries, books, long-form podcasts, museum-style content. And if you can’t get newspaper or magazines interested DIY Blogs...😋

Hell.... Make people feel the weight of it.

Develop permanent local heroes instead of relying on short-term imports. You can’t build a mythology around journeymen footballers who are gone in 18 months.

Concentrate resources in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide to create genuine football cities. Stop spreading the love thinly across the country. Double down on Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide for a decade. Make those three places feel like football cities

Hire real storytellers who can make non-fans care. Find the next Johnny Warren and Les Murray and give them a proper platform.
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The question is, who’d all this be targeted towards exactly?

Because if it’s “mainstream-🇦🇺“ at large, I can categorically state that they would not give a fuck. At all.

Because they already don’t💡
 
BA81 said:
The question is, who’d all this be targeted towards exactly?

Because if it’s “mainstream-🇦🇺“ at large, I can categorically state that they would not give a fuck. At all.

Because they already don’t💡
Click to expand...

Well firstly you've got that "soft middle"..... people who already watch the World Cup or Champions League, follow a EPL club, or have kids playing junior football, but feel no real connection to the A-League or local game. These are the ones most open to being pulled in if the story feels authentic and local.

The next generation in the key cities — especially Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. Kids and teenagers who grow up around the game but currently drift toward AFL, NRL or basketball because those codes own the cultural space. If you can make supporting a local club feel natural and permanent for them, the rest follows.

You’re not trying to convert hardcore AFL tragic or rugby league diehards. You’re trying to stop football’s own potential audience from treating the local game as optional.

Johnny and Les didn’t convert people with local league highlights packages. They did it by opening the window to the wider world...

And they made the global game feel like it belonged to Australian viewers, and in the process made the local version feel less foreign.
 
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