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

Tis sad Simon went back to the UK, he was in that rare class of journalists who were not only brave in what they wrote but are respected across both the broader football community and people outside football.

Mike Cockial was another tis also difficult today to get into main stream media as it keeps getting smaller.
 
Midfielder said:
Tis sad Simon went back to the UK, he was in that rare class of journalists who were not only brave in what they wrote but are respected across both the broader football community and people outside football.

Mike Cockial was another tis also difficult today to get into main stream media as it keeps getting smaller.
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Mike C was my favourite Oz football journo - very sad he left us so early.

I got to know him when I was writing for Goal Weekly so would always be in the press box at Bluetongue. He was a fan of Mr C and promised to get it reviewed in the SMH so, one night in 2011, I rang to see how he was going on that important mission. We had the following very interesting convo:

MC: Adrian! Guess where I am.

AD: No idea.

MC: I'm sitting in a business class seat in a Qatar Airways flight and just about to take off.

AD: Lucky for some.

MC: Yeah, they're flying me over to have a look at their bid.

[At this point, Qatar were regarded as the rodeo clowns of the World Cup bid with zero chance.]

AD: Why would they do that?

MC: Don't know, don't care. But I'll certainly enjoy it while I can.

A week or so later, an article appeared on the back page of the SMH. It went into some detail about the quality of their facilities and the vast sums being spent to realise their vision. It ended with words to the effect of: Don't write them off.

He got that right.
 
Mr Cleansheets said:
Mike C was my favourite Oz football journo - very sad he left us so early.

I got to know him when I was writing for Goal Weekly so would always be in the press box at Bluetongue. He was a fan of Mr C and promised to get it reviewed in the SMH so, one night in 2011, I rang to see how he was going on that important mission. We had the following very interesting convo:

MC: Adrian! Guess where I am.

AD: No idea.

MC: I'm sitting in a business class seat in a Qatar Airways flight and just about to take off.

AD: Lucky for some.

MC: Yeah, they're flying me over to have a look at their bid.

[At this point, Qatar were regarded as the rodeo clowns of the World Cup bid with zero chance.]

AD: Why would they do that?

MC: Don't know, don't care. But I'll certainly enjoy it while I can.

A week or so later, an article appeared on the back page of the SMH. It went into some detail about the quality of their facilities and the vast sums being spent to realise their vision. It ended with words to the effect of: Don't write them off.

He got that right.
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Mike was good value. Ran into him late one night in the bar at what used to be the Lakeside in Canberra (can't remember what the hotel was then) and talked football for hours.
 
BA81 said:
Figured this was the appropriate thread to share this on; the latest Suited&Booted podcast brings up that age-old question:

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Curios what they say? (May struggle the time to listen to it)

Id say even if we had a connected pyramid and 6 million participants, we might equal afl in total attendeance across multiple divisions. But afl would still have a higher average in our top league. The epl only barely beats the afl!

But we already beat them in both grass roots and the imternational game
 
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Based off the participation rate alone football should be one of the bigger sports here.

Does it mean it needs to compete with afl/nrl? No as long as the league(s) has meaning and can connect the game from top to bottom.

For me the grassroots participation has the potential to turn football’s advantage into it’s strength so it can power all levels and needs of the game, that’s how you judge the success and how popular football can be more than outcomes likes leagues and national teams.
 
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