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

Punchanello said:
Looking to make it 1 for 5 in QLD? It's an A-League graveyard.

The only legitimate and viable expansion I can see is Canberra.
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Canberra and another Melbourne was the given in the question. I was giving 3 for the final two and Hobart don't have a stadium the APL would accept. TBH I always thought the Gold Coast would end up being RB Gold Coast . Townsville and Gold Coast had better attendances (in spite of the self imposed limits by Clive) than Western United and Macarthur.

Gold Coast and Townsville were picked for the 2022 World Cup and dropped as soon as possible after that vote was lost. That was the mistake by the FFA.

Western United might have been a good call in 20 years time but it is in the middle of nowhere. Wollongong would have been a better choice than Macarthur because it would have it's own identity rather than another West Sydney team.

That's where South Melbourne make sense. They have their own identity and they have a stadium that the APL would accept (maybe needs updated lighting).

P.S Sorry updated after responses
 
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My two cents, they don’t fear football at all. They feared it a bit around the time WSW joined the league.
But now they just laugh at the shit show that tore down our own game over the past decade.
They’ll probably fear us more if we just got on with things and stopped attacking them with a limp lettuce leaf.
 
ClockworkOrange said:
My two cents, they don’t fear football at all. They feared it a bit around the time WSW joined the league.
But now they just laugh at the shit show that tore down our own game over the past decade.
They’ll probably fear us more if we just got on with things and stopped attacking them with a limp lettuce leaf.
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It seems being challenged by us is like being challenged by a Hewson
 
Even the big world cup hype is left to be enjoyed by the other codes and people are so fickle they all disappear afterwards.

A big issue with football in Australia is the eventism and the ad hoc nature of shared grounds, closed league and a stupidly long off season. Out of sight, out of mind.
 
Robbos said:
Yes I agree 100%, the domestic football is plaqued by agendas, poor administration, victim mentality for the 50 years I have followed this game locally.
I'm talking football in general, not the top tier of football in this country.
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and the top tier doesn't have any agenda's ? poor admin ? will have a victim mentality soon enough, more so the supporter base, mental health is rife these days.
Seriously both sides of the fence's are going round in circles.
I know you'll agree therefore where are we going to end up.
 
LFC said:
and the top tier doesn't have any agenda's ? poor admin ? will have a victim mentality soon enough, more so the supporter base, mental health is rife these days.
Seriously both sides of the fence's are going round in circles.
I know you'll agree therefore where are we going to end up.
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My point being football as a whole is big in this country, just domestically we are in a mess. We saw that in the last world cups with Socceroos and Matildas. The knowledge of Messi, Ronaldo, Mpabbe, Harland, Bellingham, Kane is strong in this country.
We have by far the most playing numbers of any sport here and internationally the eggballers cannot compete, it's just the domestic leagues in the last 50 years that pale insignificance to AFL and NRL.
 
I find it funny mentions of expansion when the current model is leaking holes and not leading anyway whatsoever.
Embarrassing itself for ages.
Infact it’s holding the game back !
Football isn’t like buying a new model car that is the same from dealership to dealership in the city to regional areas.

You need to fix the holes before new entities come to play - all that does is camouflage the issues at hand for a period of time.
Also - can Hobart just not be mentioned - the cashed up AFL are only beginning that venture after how many decades and people think football can kick off there be sustainable again whilst the game itself is leaking under the APL.
Cheez talk about reaching - if I was in a boardroom considering this proposal purely rubbing my hands grabbing the license fee - short sighted. .
Dreamers..
Canbra, why ? oh because its there, it hasn't been touched yet it’s screaming for the APL.
We’ve seen this many times to date.
FFS another dream, build it it will come, come alright.
 
Robbos said:
My point being football as a whole is big in this country, just domestically we are in a mess. We saw that in the last world cups with Socceroos and Matildas. The knowledge of Messi, Ronaldo, Mpabbe, Harland, Bellingham, Kane is strong in this country.
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Yer we all know this though nothing changes by the admin just as in the past.
Robbos said:
We have by far the most playing numbers of any sport here and internationally the eggballers cannot compete,
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Eggball also can’t compete with p/r as well
Robbos said:
it's just the domestic leagues in the last 50 years that pale insignificance to AFL and NRL.
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And that’s there right in front of the modern day admin of ours !
Bring a plan - open the game up - form a Pro league for the domestic league - never seen such an unworthy modern day admin sit on their hands so dam much !
Nothing is impossible.
Look how the semi pros are tackling the Oz Cup the Championship - signs of stepping up - even the league is such as Preston Sutho amongst others.
By the way the eggballers domestic leagues are doing sweet FA might I add.
 
The idea that we need to attract those that currently support AFL and NRL is where the stupidity starts.
Firstly, there’s 100s of thousands families whose kids play football who have zero links with AFL/NRL. The federations do nothing to get these families to go along and watch their local NPL. Neither do the clubs. There are even more African, Sth American and Asian immigrant families for whom football is the default over AFL/NRL. What is being done by administrators or clubs to get these families along to local NPL or A-League games.
Then at the highest level of government we have people who are supposedly pro-multiculturalism but do nothing to support the one game that can bring together all cultures.
For decades we have had the view that “if our NT succeeds at the highest level, then everyone will want to watch football”. I probably thought the same for a long time. But now I think we’ve put the cart before the horse. If you want to build the fan base, start locally. Get people watching football in their communities, at proper clubs where it’s about the game, the experience AND the camaraderie.
We speak endlessly about “player pathways”. Maybe we should think about “fan pathways”? How do you get the kids who play every week till they are 16 to become lifelong fans? How do you get the migrant family who has just arrived to go down to watch their kid play in the morning AND THEN take their kid to the local NPL game in the afternoon.
Anyway, that’s my 2 cents.
 
Putting aside the multiculturalism that has its merit to leverage agreed feck the outsiders of other codes and event goers such as the many going to Roo Tilda games.
The fish are in our own domestic leagues first and foremost as mentioned and by many of us to date.
The NPL the SAP to grassroots and as Mono says the thousands of Association Clubs.
That’s our friggin Big pool !
HTF the FA don’t pull their fingers out set a plan ground up astounds me !
2 EOFY LOSS’s on the bounce.
Bail out APL who I’m sorry to say to the devoted ones do NOT give a fuck but themselves and they struggle managing that and people worry about getting them out of the sinking mud and follow someone’s what if suedo proposal how to implement a A and B comp and whistle Dixie with the APL.
What’s needed is set a path vision below APL whilst they it tied up till 32 or whenever it’s to be reviewed in the meantime the game sits waits at the bus stop losing more and more years having a cluster fuck code in 2026 to whenever !!!!
 
ClockworkOrange said:
We speak endlessly about “player pathways”. Maybe we should think about “fan pathways”? How do you get the kids who play every week till they are 16 to become lifelong fans? How do you get the migrant family who has just arrived to go down to watch their kid play in the morning AND THEN take their kid to the local NPL game in the afternoon.
Anyway, that’s my 2 cents.
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When we surrendered August-September to the AFL/RL is when lost that connection. In the early days of the A-League players would get out to the training sessions of the clubs in the late afternoon and night in June and July. The kids would get excited and start attending in August - September and drag their parents or coaches along with them.By the time the season finished they were regulars. Every one of our local clubs had a squad member assigned to the club to ensure at least one (often more) turned up for their prize giving days or night or even the end of season barbeques,

Many of my sons and daughters teams would have six or seven families become regulars and many have continued to this day. The problem is that connection is now lost and that influx is not being repeated and many of those families have moved on to different parts of the state an the nation with work.

Now we are in the local finals times - still six weeks away from the season starts and a few of the players are turning up for the finals. What does that do - they is no cross-over - no immediate connection. When the season starts in six weeks local football is over.
 
Yep alignment And correct both ends Pro and Semi Pro is the smart logical and hard work move.
I’ve always said this is not gonna work.
Feck the other codes winter is football season even though some minor countries do summer and people here fear Pro goes winter.
Time to stand up and suffer the hard yards.
We have followed the UK influence from colonising to when football is played - Winter.
Sync our game then we have a chance to become strong as a code.
Otherwise we will be talking about this shit for another decade or 3.
 
patjennings said:
When we surrendered August-September to the AFL/RL is when lost that connection. In the early days of the A-League players would get out to the training sessions of the clubs in the late afternoon and night in June and July. The kids would get excited and start attending in August - September and drag their parents or coaches along with them.By the time the season finished they were regulars. Every one of our local clubs had a squad member assigned to the club to ensure at least one (often more) turned up for their prize giving days or night or even the end of season barbeques,

Many of my sons and daughters teams would have six or seven families become regulars and many have continued to this day. The problem is that connection is now lost and that influx is not being repeated and many of those families have moved on to different parts of the state an the nation with work.

Now we are in the local finals times - still six weeks away from the season starts and a few of the players are turning up for the finals. What does that do - they is no cross-over - no immediate connection. When the season starts in six weeks local football is over.
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Yes, valid point. I sort of get the issue from a marketing perspective, but again, it’s whether you want to sacrifice grass roots marketing opportunities to football people, for the sake of clear air for multimedia marketing to non-football people. Do you know if any analysis was then done on the impact to crowds in the first 8 weeks of the season?
I’ve never understood why Brisbane and Suncorp Stadium could not make a deal where filling the stadium was the goal: free tickets to local teams but you had to have paying adults accompanying.
The other thing that was detrimental is when they started screwing with the draw so a team might have 3 away games in a row, or only one home weekend game in 6 weeks. People like routine - it’s how you form that habit of regular attendance.
 
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