- Apr 20, 2006
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Play Nice 2020 Non AFL Admin, Crowds, Ratings, Participation etc thread
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Aucklander
The Ultimate Warrior
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- #177
Indeed. In fact two of them were deemed good enough to become the poster boys for Australian football in NSW and QLD. Sure one was only in it for the money, but the other one at least had a go and wasn't all bad.
& the NRL lose players overseas, as does Union.
Ponga:
Kalyn Ponga reveals how close he was to playing AFL
Newcastle superstar Kalyn Ponga has revealed he almost put pen to paper on a four-year deal to sign with AFL club Brisbane Lions.
www.sportingnews.com
Well his sister is!
- Apr 20, 2006
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Tom Trbojevic is another SOO level player who nearly chose football.Ponga:
Kalyn Ponga reveals how close he was to playing AFL
Newcastle superstar Kalyn Ponga has revealed he almost put pen to paper on a four-year deal to sign with AFL club Brisbane Lions.www.sportingnews.com
Those two, as I'm sure you know, were chosen for marketing reasons rather than for the likely effectiveness
As it is, falou demonstrated better than anyone how rare athletic prowess can make you a superstar in the rugby codes but the breadth of skill and spatial awareness / game sense in Australian football is far harder
There is no doubt about the athleticism of the pacific islanders in the NRL but, despite apparently 40% of NRL players having PI backgrounds, only 3 of the 36 7s and 9s on this power list are PIs
NRL Power Rankings: Hookers 16-1
Hooker is arguably the most important position in the game and a good dummy-half's value cannot be understated.
www.sportingnews.com
This is the limitation of thinking the NRL can thrive increasingly relying on poaching PI union talent.
The fact that both Ponga and Trbojevic almost chose football demonstrates how the AFL is a genuine threat to eating in more to the athletic talent in those states
If he was playing soccer from an early age he may well have been.
But soccer isn't the sort of sport you can generally jump into at, say, 15 because it's highly unlikely you've picked up most of the key skills playing something else (unless you want to be a goalkeeper of course). Dribbling and heading a ball is something that's virtually exclusive to soccer and you're up against kids that have been doing it their whole life. It's not like a basketballer switching into footy, where you can use a lot of the skills you picked up playing basketball on the footy ground.
Aucklander
The Ultimate Warrior
- Moderator
- #186
Those two, as I'm sure you know, were chosen for marketing reasons rather than for the likely effectiveness
As it is, falou demonstrated better than anyone how rare athletic prowess can make you a superstar in the rugby codes but the breadth of skill and spatial awareness / game sense in Australian football is far harder
There is no doubt about the athleticism of the pacific islanders in the NRL but, despite apparently 40% of NRL players having PI backgrounds, only 3 of the 36 7s and 9s on this power list are PIs
NRL Power Rankings: Hookers 16-1
Hooker is arguably the most important position in the game and a good dummy-half's value cannot be understated.www.sportingnews.com
This is the limitation of thinking the NRL can thrive increasingly relying on poaching PI union talent.
I'm not stupid enough to believe the very best and most important players in a game of RL are players come with Pacific Island backgrounds, in fact I tried to point this out to fabphil some time ago. Oddly enough, most of them are small in stature and not the 110kg big arsed people finders would have us believe dominate the game of Rugby league.
I'm not sure who the last Union convert was. Seems to be far more the other way as Union tries to compete with the All Blacks hoping it might increase the games popularity.
- Moderator
- #187
Not a good look especially at the MCG I know it was very hot but that is unacceptable for a final! Just proves that the BBL goes on for far to long and is become very stale.
manicmagpie
A slice of fried gold
Just 13,275 for the BBL semi final at the MCG.
The terrible weather a huge factor as it was genuinely the most oppressive heat of the summer so far in Melbourne yesterday, coupled with the threat of mud rain.
However it shows that the Big Bash has failed to generate enough excitement and interest at the tail end of the season to convince people that it’s a big enough deal to put up with the unhelpful weather, and to overcome the distraction caused by the business end of the Aus Open.
It would have been interesting to see how much an MCG hosted grand final would have been able to get, but alas the Stars did their patented disappearing act in the semi again.
The terrible weather a huge factor as it was genuinely the most oppressive heat of the summer so far in Melbourne yesterday, coupled with the threat of mud rain.
However it shows that the Big Bash has failed to generate enough excitement and interest at the tail end of the season to convince people that it’s a big enough deal to put up with the unhelpful weather, and to overcome the distraction caused by the business end of the Aus Open.
It would have been interesting to see how much an MCG hosted grand final would have been able to get, but alas the Stars did their patented disappearing act in the semi again.
The union "converts" are the school boy players that NRL recruiters draw from. Union gets the occasional outside back back from the NRL.
The point about the lower PI players in the 7 and 9 roles is just that these can't be replaced by offering NZ schoolboy union players contracts. You need to grow up playing league to become elite in those positions. So a shrinking grass roots means shrinking numbers of quality spine players
Teen Wolf
Norm Smith Medallist
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Attendances for previous BBL "prelim" finals in Melbourne: 15342, 30174, 12506, 16285.
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They are just positions that talent is more important then athleticism and I would have no doubt they are still getting the best talent playing the sport in their heartlands even if grassroots numbers fall. Without a draft and the ability to sign where ever they want earlier they have a massive advantage and this is one of the major reasons for the northern academy’s.
- Moderator
- #192
yeah there’s a patten, the season goes on for to long imo. The BBL should be finished before school holidays end.
- Moderator
- #193
That has been a pattern for every year so far. Just look at the attendances for the Stars finals. none over 20K. They have tried a lot of different finals timeslots and none have been a success in Melbourne.
It will be interesting to see what the Sixers crowd will be like in a weeks time.
Hobart got just over 11K, which is alright considering the fact it was a Thursday late night with 2 days of pre-sales. The Stars have another home final on a Thursday. It must be of great concern about what that crowd will be like.
One thing that confuses me. And I reckon I know the answer(TV). Why have a game on Thursday and Saturday Night? Wouldnt it be better to have it on Friday and then Sunday twilight/night. I think the BBL should try and own Sunday Twilight. Start a game at 5-6pm. That way, the kids can watch it because it won't get too late while the ratings would still be strong.
- Thread starter
- #194
The AO tennis would have had a lot more than that and I bet much better ratings.
There is a difference between -
1) getting the best talent
2) maintaining the same share of talent
(1) can still be true even if (2) is not.
If you look at the latest Ausplay survey, there was high club participation for Australian football in NSW than rugby league. Now, no-one would suggest that that would translate to a higher share of athletic talent going to the AFL from those cohorts but it can only reduce League at the margins.
Like the crowds. the BBL ratings are lower for finals than earlier in the regular season. As people have stated, it would be far better playing it over a shorter period of time (even if you played the same number of games).
TV ratings Friday January 31
Dominic Thiem into Australian Open Men's Singles Final
www.mediaweek.com.au
Meanwhile the A League only got 17K again on a Friady night
- Thread starter
- #197
So what is the excuse for the pisspoor 10,000 crowd for Sy
So what is the excuse for the poor 10,000 crowd last night for the soccer Sydney V Brisbane in Sydney?
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It’s a very American term but as they say “if you’re any good at sport you’re not playing soccer”.
I think the same is true in Australia in that in League and Football heartlands it’s highly likely the best talent will gravitate to the biggest/strongest sport regardless of participation levels.
- Moderator
- #199
No excuses for the poor A-league crowds on my behalf that's expected now! The league is stale and mismanaged. the sooner The League recognise's its place in the sporting landscape the quicker it can get back on its feet, the NBL is a good example of that. Granted SydneyFC should be pulling 15k plus why they are not is indicative of the staleness of the league itself.
As I've mentioned the BBL season is to long it should be finished by Australia day at the latest, players coming in and out throughout the season and not to many big name internationals doesn't help either. Also not having any ODI to complement it this season was a big mistake by Cricket Australia usually we have ODI that keeps the Cricket season going instead our national team went over to India for three pointless ODI's
The BBL has its place but I think having the some eight teams has grown stale! bring in two-four new teams every team plays each other once! make the league shorter start just before Christmas finish around Australia day, have proper round fixtures instead of some teams playing every second day, revert back to a final four for god sake!
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Since CA have abandoned the tradition of having the Aussie cricket team play on Aus day then I think the BBL should make it their own and have the final schedualed on Aus day each year.
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