Women's Footy Nigel Smart speaking about women's team

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Bay62

Bay62

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Apr 28, 2014
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Went to a breakfast this morning where Nigel Smart provided an inside look at the development of the women's team

Key points:
- Noble Fagan and Smart all saw participation as essential to growing the club, fan engagement and revenue
- initially the AFL didn't think we would be able to have a team. Estimated that SA had 6 elite players compared to 65 in WA and similar numbers elsewhere
- partnering with NT essential to overcoming that
- initially no one knew what to expect so very difficult to get everything organized.
- uncertainty meant that the offering to sponsors and partners was very hard to frame. Budgeted to get $350-400k from sponsors, have received almost $1m
- four yeas ago we were very arrogant (guess who?) but now much more engaged with AFL, community, fans etc
- still working out how many of those who went to AFLW games are true "fans" of the women's league as distinct from Crows fans who are just interested
- this is becoming clear as identities emerge like Erin Phillips, Chelsea Randall etc to drive real interest
- demand for girls and women's participation has exploded enormously. SAWFL has gone from 11 teams to 44. Everyone scrambling to meet demand and cope with the growing pains
- uncertain whether women's league will consolidate next year with same no of teams or expand. Some teams aggressively demanding the AFL let them into the comp as they realise what the potential means to them
- all of the AFC women's league work was done by existing staff taking on extra duties with just one extra staff member. Needing to adjust this for next year to cope with strains this produced

Very insightful look and he spoke very well
 
Bay62 said:
- four yeas ago we were very arrogant (guess who?) but now much more engaged with AFL, community, fans etc
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i'm really glad this is being acknowledged - seems since trigg the prick left, we have had a complete turnaround in thinking and focus off field
 
As soon as the partnership was announced with NT I knew we have pretty much sewn up a licence. It was an incredibly clever move from the club on a number of fronts. Not only did it increase our 'talent pool of players' it put us into the NT as a new fan base for us - moving in on Port and Melbourne's territory. While Melbourne have a women's team we have players from that area. And it also aligned with the AFL's desire to keep pushing the AFL up there while not directly fielding a team (like they do with Tasmanian games).
 

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I am not sure that expanding the competition next year is a good idea. I don't think, at the moment, there is enough talent around to maintain an acceptable standard of skills for an elite competition. I don't want to compare the woman's competition to that of the men, and I won't, as I think they are different games and obviously at different stages of development. I did notice that disposal efficiency generally averaged between 50-60 percent and there was a lot of fumbling. I would prefer the number and quality of elite players improve before we spread them out amongst more teams. With the explosion of teams that has occurred in the other leagues and with 'organic growth', I don't think we will have long to wait.
 
weneverland said:
I am not sure that expanding the competition next year is a good idea. I don't think, at the moment, there is enough talent around to maintain an acceptable standard of skills for an elite competition. I don't want to compare the woman's competition to that of the men, and I won't, as I think they are different games and obviously at different stages of development. I did notice that disposal efficiency generally averaged between 50-60 percent and there was a lot of fumbling. I would prefer the number and quality of elite players improve before we spread them out amongst more teams. With the explosion of teams that has occurred in the other leagues and with 'organic growth', I don't think we will have long to wait.
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That's basically what he said. Tends to think the league will consolidate next year and take advantage of all the things they learnt this year, but some clubs - he specifically mentioned Geelong, twice - are bashing the table to be let in.

Also mentioned that elite performance levels would grow, said that those who questioned bringing in a women's league before they were up to the men's level were looking at the issue through the wrong lens. It would take ages to improve the pathways - non existent in SA after girls reach 12 or 14 - whereas this approach has forced the pathways to be established.
 
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He's correct about the huge interest this has generated. My local team has gone from one 8 aside girls team last year to fielding a Senior, Under 16 and Under 18 side within a couple of months of the season ending. Great from a participation, revenue and atmosphere point of view. The growth of women's footy is a massive positive for AFC and for grassroots footy.
 
Bay62 said:
Went to a breakfast this morning where Nigel Smart provided an inside look at the development of the women's team


- four yeas ago we were very arrogant (guess who?) but now much more engaged with AFL, community, fans etc
Click to expand...

Thanks for the insight Bay62

Great to see our Club lead the way with the AFLW !!


On the arrogance side of things, my company had dealings with both the AFC and PAFC in regards to sponsorship around 4 years ago and I was embarrassed at the way the AFC conducted themselves.

The moment Fages walked into the Club that pompous attitude changed almost immediately. The AFC came knocking but that ship had already sailed to Alberton.

Now I have to see half a dozen plonkers wearing Teal each day at work, makes me sick!! (It has one plus though, got a couple of tickets for Sat night)
 

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cm_perfect said:
Thanks for the insight Bay62

Great to see our Club lead the way with the AFLW !!


On the arrogance side of things, my company had dealings with both the AFC and PAFC in regards to sponsorship around 4 years ago and I was embarrassed at the way the AFC conducted themselves.

The moment Fages walked into the Club that pompous attitude changed almost immediately. The AFC came knocking but that ship had already sailed to Alberton.

Now I have to see half a dozen plonkers wearing Teal each day at work, makes me sick!! (It has one plus though, got a couple of tickets for Sat night)
Click to expand...

Haha!

One thing he mentioned, someone said that Smart was good with numbers (having quoted a couple) - Smart replied that he was OK with numbers but that Fages was "brilliant", had all the numbers off the top of his head.

Think we did well with that appointment :thumbsu:
 
weneverland said:
I am not sure that expanding the competition next year is a good idea. I don't think, at the moment, there is enough talent around to maintain an acceptable standard of skills for an elite competition. I don't want to compare the woman's competition to that of the men, and I won't, as I think they are different games and obviously at different stages of development. I did notice that disposal efficiency generally averaged between 50-60 percent and there was a lot of fumbling. I would prefer the number and quality of elite players improve before we spread them out amongst more teams. With the explosion of teams that has occurred in the other leagues and with 'organic growth', I don't think we will have long to wait.
Click to expand...
I'd say it's not.

AFL need to look at the amount of 12, 14 and 16 year old girls who are joining clubs and see how the numbers (and quality) look. Immediately trying to find 80-120 more players to play next year, when they claim there was a shortage of quality players in states alreaduy, just to add 4-6 more teams seems really foolish. They will, because the AFL is massively impatient like that though.

cm_perfect said:
Thanks for the insight Bay62

Great to see our Club lead the way with the AFLW !!


On the arrogance side of things, my company had dealings with both the AFC and PAFC in regards to sponsorship around 4 years ago and I was embarrassed at the way the AFC conducted themselves.

The moment Fages walked into the Club that pompous attitude changed almost immediately. The AFC came knocking but that ship had already sailed to Alberton.

Now I have to see half a dozen plonkers wearing Teal each day at work, makes me sick!! (It has one plus though, got a couple of tickets for Sat night)
Click to expand...
Yes, I've heard similar stories about dealing with the Crows in the Trigg years. Very much a "We're the biggest team in town, so you should be thankful we're willing to talk to you" type attitude.
 
MRB37 said:
I'd say it's not.

AFL need to look at the amount of 12, 14 and 16 year old girls who are joining clubs and see how the numbers (and quality) look. Immediately trying to find 80-120 more players to play next year, when they claim there was a shortage of quality players in states alreaduy, just to add 4-6 more teams seems really foolish. They will, because the AFL is massively impatient like that though.


Yes, I've heard similar stories about dealing with the Crows in the Trigg years. Very much a "We're the biggest team in town, so you should be thankful we're willing to talk to you" type attitude.
Click to expand...

Apparently the millions we have now dumped into the Club Teal coffers was beneath the then AFC administration and scoffed at at the time.

That's not the half of it but thankfully we appear to have turned that ship around and put those elitist days behind us.

We now have one of the tax payers biggest PAFC cheerleaders wanting to open our new structure. Can't help being cynical in thinking the only reason TK is interested is due to his football clubs involvement.

Ahhh, the fun I could have with a flag or two that day!! I hear deaneus has some banner making skills that could get me a little attention
 
The Afl's assumption that SA only had around 6 Elite players is ridiculous. The four SANFL women's teams had plenty of talent to spread around. I think Morphettville Park in the SAWFL alone would have about 10 elite players.
 
cm_perfect said:
Thanks for the insight Bay62

Great to see our Club lead the way with the AFLW !!


On the arrogance side of things, my company had dealings with both the AFC and PAFC in regards to sponsorship around 4 years ago and I was embarrassed at the way the AFC conducted themselves.

The moment Fages walked into the Club that pompous attitude changed almost immediately. The AFC came knocking but that ship had already sailed to Alberton.

Now I have to see half a dozen plonkers wearing Teal each day at work, makes me sick!! (It has one plus though, got a couple of tickets for Sat night)
Click to expand...
I can also vouch for this. Port were much easier to deal with than crows under trigg. Very self important view from the administration.
 
cm_perfect said:
Apparently the millions we have now dumped into the Club Teal coffers was beneath the then AFC administration and scoffed at at the time.

That's not the half of it but thankfully we appear to have turned that ship around and put those elitist days behind us.

We now have one of the tax payers biggest PAFC cheerleaders wanting to open our new structure. Can't help being cynical in thinking the only reason TK is interested is due to his football clubs involvement.

Ahhh, the fun I could have with a flag or two that day!! I hear deaneus has some banner making skills that could get me a little attention
Click to expand...

Who is TK?
 
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