Queensland has always been a separate team, from even before the Suns started playing, and have always been strong and in Division 1.
the quality and strength of the womens game in queensland is arguably the best in the country ..... kudos to who ever is in charge up there because its working
It's an Intetesting question that with all the talk of the possibility of men's State of Origin being revived if there is a place for Women's state of origin.
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Interesting that they are saying rugby league on the GC is the Bermuda Triangle. It used to be every sport - now it's just rugby league. Shows the kind of inroads we're making this year by spending almost the entire season inside the top 8. We're only scratching the surface of what's possible when the Suns are winning regularly. So much room for growth with footy on the Gold Coast and that's incredibly exciting for long suffering Suns fans like myself.
Andrew Webster is high if he thinks the NRL would ever let the Titans relocate. They'd reclaim their license if they ever got into struggles again, which isn't the case BTW. Commercially the Titans are doing fine.
The NRL don't have any say in the appointments at the Titans.
The only reason they didn't say the same about other sports is because it wasn't brought up, and everything you say about the AFL's potential on the GC if the Suns were winning regularly is even more true of the Titans and RL on the GC.
Correct, Webster is engaging in typical clickbait hack journalism here. The NRL are never going to let the AFL have the Gold Coast to themselves, it's too big a talent factory to let that happen.
I think that can be said about both sports on the Gold Coast. There's so many Sydney/Melbourne ex pats or children of southern ex pats living here who either have a loose association with either sport or would be considered a casual fan of the AFL/NRL and I believe that casual interest would be activated/strengthened if one or both Gold Coast teams start regularly playing finals and/or genuinely competing for premierships. You get the bandwagon fans at first (we saw that with the Titans in the 2007-10 period) and then if you can maintain on field success for a sustained period then you will get rusted on fans that won't leave when the on field success dries up.
09 and 10 is the only time the Titans had a genuinely competitive team. The support they had in those seasons wasn't bandwagon support, it was 'we're not completely hopeless' support.
See this is kind of my point...
I'm going to assume you didn't live on the Gold Coast in 2007 or 2008 when the Titans were quite popular, despite not playing finals. I was one of those people who would get together with his mates and go to a Titans game in those years because there was a real novelty factor at the start with a new team/stadium and then it turned into actual on field success with finals in 2009 and 2010. The interest then dramatically dropped off from 2011 onward as they struggled on field and the crowds dropped accordingly. Probably didn't help that the Suns started in 2011 and casual sports fans that preferenced the AFL like myself stopped going to Titans games (I know several other people that did the same). They went from averaging 19-20k in those initial years to then averaging crowds in the 12-16k range for around a decade.
Not banking on that at all. That's why I wrote "I believe that casual interest would be activated/strengthened if one or both Gold Coast teams start regularly playing finals and/or genuinely competing for premierships" in my last post because I believe both teams can make inroads at the same time. There are plenty of people here for both teams to convert that aren't already associated with either team/sport and IMO that can happen simultaneously if both teams are performing well at the same time.
With the list GC are building they won’t be leaving the top 8 in any hurry. Not to mention Hardwick is a capable coach. It’s just a matter of making and winning that first final.
I think going forward the Suns aren't just making up the numbers in the 8 each year. With that list they should be genuine flag contenders for the next 5 years.
That's the way I see it as well and obviously there are going to be bandwagoners who will jump on in the first few years, but I think a sustained period of on field success is going to result in an increase of rusted on Suns fans that won't just ditch the team when the on field success eventually dries up (ala the Titans in 2011). I suspect you need around 5 years of highly competitive seasons in a row to achieve this and I think the Brisbane Lions have just recently done that after securing a premiership in their 6th consecutive season of finals footy in 2024. Now they have 70k+ members and a whole generation of kids who have grown up in Brisbane only knowing the Lions as a team that plays finals/wins premierships and some of them have grown up dreaming of pulling on the Lions jumper one day. I don't think it's unfair to suggest that Brisbane could hit 100k member in the next 5-10 years if they keep this up and that would be an achievement that would have been considered unthinkable just a few years ago. Sustained success is the best way to grow the game in expansion markets and both Queensland teams have huge opportunities to do that from here.
With all due respect, you are just factually incorrect.
At this point you're not talking about 'community activation', whatever it is you mean by that exactly. You're just talking about a bandwagon forming because the team is successful.
By that logic all increases in attendance are from a bandwagon effect.
Absolutely. If they keep playing in Darwin they will miss a massive opportunity to build habit forming attendance patterns every second week. They will be a contender for the next decade. With some thoughtful fixturing I reckon they can push towards an average of 20k in the next season or two.
