Does the AFL administration do more to hinder the game than grow it

[Roaming Lou]

It is not far off

Yeah its almost like the AFL thinks its running a soccer league

 

[RedV3x]

They were killing off teams and bringing in new teams with cash.

"They" were the VFL clubs who caused an out of control price spiral by chasing interstate champions.
It was the VFL that took the the Sunday afternoon television money of Sydney games.

Now they are propping up teams

The AFL is only giving AFL clubs their own money back.

Now they are bringing in teams no-one cares about.

Sydney and GWS are now the two biggest clubs in Sydney. In Brisbane it depends on on-field performance.
Despite the Suns being hopeless on-field they still equate to the NRL side there.

They have absolutely wasted all the TV money.

On what?

What happens next time if there is no competition so the winning network offers half the cash?

Do you realize that all k.p.i.s for the AFL are up unlike almost all other sports in Australia.

The AFL is a giant government bureaucracy filled with thousands of employees who do nothing.

Do you know what a "government bureaucracy" is.

 

[RedV3x]

They are doing well at making money and making sure that the AFL is the focus of Aussie Rules footy to the exclusion of all other leagues.
The problem is that they also like to do things like control narratives and interfere in other leagues usually to the detriment of said comps.
It's a situation where the top league is decimating everything underneath it which is self destructive in the end.

That's pretty much my sentiment.

The game itself is and should be bigger than the AFL.
The AFL should run only the AFL and a new governing body of the game itself be instituted.

The AFL is a very well run business in running an elite football league.
As the 'keeper of code" and for underpinning the foundation of Australian Football, the AFL is found wanting.
The AFL looks at the laws as they apply to Australian Football at elite level and makes no distinction to the situation in other leagues.
The AFL would do well to remember that the health of the AFL ultimately depends on the health of the leagues forming a foundation of Australian Football.

 

[Roaming Lou]

Sydney and GWS are now the two biggest clubs in Sydney.

They're the only clubs in Sydney mate.

 

[HairyO]

The AFL is only giving AFL clubs their own money back.

Sydney and GWS are now the two biggest clubs in Sydney.

This is beyond ridiculous.

1. Half the clubs are basket cases and are bailed out by the other clubs
2. Sydney is a moderate sized club with okay finances
3. GWS is given massive concessions only just behind GCS and almost no-one in Sydney cares about them

 

[Americanpies]

That's pretty much my sentiment.



The AFL is a very well run business in running an elite football league.
As the 'keeper of code" and for underpinning the foundation of Australian Football, the AFL is found wanting.
The AFL looks at the laws as they apply to Australian Football at elite level and makes no distinction to the situation in other leagues.
The AFL would do well to remember that the health of the AFL ultimately depends on the health of the leagues forming a foundation of Australian Football.

Well run in what way?

AFL grew bigger than ever with the TV rights deals over the past 10 years, and it basically ends there.

Nobody watches TV anymore. With all the other options around, I can guarantee you kids will be watching Netflix or playing online games instead on Friday nights. I'd like to see some figures on the average age of the AFL fan. Because I feel like it's the older generation. A LOT of people I know in their 20's and 30's follow American sports more than AFL.. many of them still like AFL, and some of them don't like it at all. But the people that do follow it, watch games here and there.. and watch finals if their team is in it. They rarely go to games, and the AFL would make jack all money off these people. I don't know anybody that is a die hard fan. And this is where the AFL could fall on it's ass at some point in the future... because people have access to much more than just channel 7 on a Friday night.

 

[Ichabod Noodle]

They're the only clubs in Sydney mate.

Try again.

This time with reality and some facts thrown in.

I’ll wait....

 

[Roaming Lou]

Try again.

This time with reality and some facts thrown in.

I’ll wait....

They're the only AFL clubs in Sydney mate.

 

[Ichabod Noodle]

They're the only AFL clubs in Sydney mate.

but not the only footy clubs.

and we have a bigger membership base after 8 years than any NRL club in the city, whether they've been around for 50, 80 or 110 years.

 

[Roaming Lou]

but not the only footy clubs.

and we have a bigger membership base after 8 years than any NRL club in the city, whether they've been around for 50, 80 or 110 years.

Oh I thought you were nuts!. LOL, I meant AFL clubs.

 

[RunningBounce]

I don’t think anything is beyond them, and I also don’t think it would have any impact.
They have completely changed a sport that was loved by all with very few issues if any and no one stood up for the sport.
Supporters now have loyalty to their club with little interest in the sport itself.
The sport should be paramount and sadly the last 20 years it hasn’t been. People actually think the sport is called AFL that’s how much knowledge of football a bulk of modern supporters know.

The bulk of the posts so far confirm this.

Sure, revenue is up. TV ratings are up. Club memberships are up. Bewty. AFL House are doing a marvelous job of milking money out of "content". But AFL is increasingly less about the sport of Aussie Rules and more about sedentary entertainment. Seated people all fired about with tribal passion about their AFL club, but fewer and fewer play the sport past the age of 14, or get involved in a way that involves standing up (coaching, volunteering, umpiring, etc).

It's only participation by females that is actually "growing the game". And I stress - game. AFL House just can't get out of the way to maximise that growth, because they haven't figured out how to turn it into content.

With each unwarranted rule change, I spend less time thinking, caring or watching AFL and more time with juniors and local footy. Don't even start me on the hoopla of music before the bounce at live AFL games, or the "Are you paying attention" bollocks on the big screen at half time. I love the sport. Always will. But the entertainment content can get ****ed. I don't think we're alone in feeling this way.

Anyway, I agree with your posts here mate and I'll end this ranty singing to the choir now.

 

[Roaming Lou]

The bulk of the posts so far confirm this.

Sure, revenue is up. TV ratings are up. Club memberships are up. Bewty. AFL House are doing a marvelous job of milking money out of "content". But AFL is increasingly less about the sport of Aussie Rules and more about sedentary entertainment. Seated people all fired about with tribal passion about their AFL club, but fewer and fewer play the sport past the age of 14, or get involved in a way that involves standing up (coaching, volunteering, umpiring, etc).

It's only participation by females that is actually "growing the game". And I stress - game. AFL House just can't get out of the way to maximise that growth, because they haven't figured out how to turn it into content.

With each unwarranted rule change, I spend less time thinking, caring or watching AFL and more time with juniors and local footy. Don't even start me on the hoopla of music before the bounce at live AFL games, or the "Are you paying attention" bollocks on the big screen at half time. I love the sport. Always will. But the entertainment content can get f’ed. I don't think we're alone in feeling this way.

Anyway, I agree with your posts here mate and I'll end this ranty singing to the choir now.

Same story here mate

 

[RedV3x]

Nobody watches TV anymore.

You've just shot down your credibility with your opening statement.
People still watch television and a lot of other stuff. it's not mutually exclusive.

I don't know anybody that is a die hard fan.

I think that is where your anecdotal evidence fails.
All k.p.i.s for AFL are up unlike most other sports and for American sports.(Since you mentioned them)

 

[RedV3x]

1. Half the clubs are basket cases and are bailed out by the other clubs
2. Sydney is a moderate sized club with okay finances
3. GWS is given massive concessions only just behind GCS and almost no-one in Sydney cares about them

1. The clubs are the AFL. So any "bailing out" is the clubs maintaining their future.
2. Sydney is the biggest club in Sydney is big by any k.p.i.
3. GWS and GC were given a structure to be competitive that was agreed to by existing AFL clubs.
GWS and GC were given draft picks that most clubs refused to trade.
GWS and GC were underwritten by the increase in the media agreement.
GWS is the second biggest club in Sydney and GC is about equal with the opposition.
If you believe the rumours that the Titans are vacating then the GC suns have won.

Yes, hairy your statements are "beyond ridiculous"

 

[RedV3x]

They're the only clubs in Sydney mate.

They are the only two AFL clubs in Sydney at the present time and they are the biggest.
The Sydney Swans have been there a long time and once carried the flag for Australian Football and thus became big.
The rise of GWS has been quite remarkable. In a very short time the GWS has become the number two club in Sydney.
GWS were given draft picks which remained at GWS. This caused GWS to initially get smashed. Now they are competitive.
A competitive GWS has the potential to eventually grow bigger than the Swans.

 

[Pessimistic]

Not a big fan of AFL House but in reality its only what they do wrong that ever gets a mention.

Whether we like it or not the State League model that served the game well was broken in the 80s & a national comp was going to happen. It was driven by survival not by love of the game.

The model is not the fault of the current administration, its what they do from here ....

Growing the game is tough ask, are you talking about participation, kids, junior development, are you talking local, State by State, national, the game at an elite level or more generally.

I dont share your view on womens footy as done yet, I'm sceptical of its ability to be any more than a 2nd tier level comp in the long term, possibly of less real interest than each clubs reserves team.

Most of us see the decisions by the AFL administration through our clubs eyes, take the GF location. It is the current administrations decision & they have done their best to lock it in for the grandchildren of kids yet to be drafted.

I'd like to see the AFL Commission held to account, they get so little scrutiny, they oversee the administration. A public company has an AGM where the Directors are held responsible, our game has equivalent opportunity.

When Mothers have played AFL themselves a bit, there'll be less resistance to their kids playing.
Thats the dividend.
Womens AFL is ultra cool at the moment. whereas in the past women in footy would be seen as a little 'Butch'

 

[maroon and blue]

It's a great product and the AFL know it, They always steer it right. Football is in their blood, just fantastic. Could not get abetter bunch of people, they are gold.

 

[raymond35]

When Mothers have played AFL themselves a bit, there'll be less resistance to their kids playing.
Thats the dividend.
Womens AFL is ultra cool at the moment. whereas in the past women in footy would be seen as a little 'Butch'

Ultra cool? Most people i know detest it.

 

[footyfan1978]

1988 perspective by one of the most skillful players to ever play the game.
He grew up from non-traditional football background so he always had interesting views on the game itself and some league decisions.

VFL no longer exists as sport moves interstate - JEZZA - The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995) - 19 Apr 1988

Last year I came to Canberra twice to support ACTAFL's bid for entry into the national competition. I call it a national competition for ...

trove.nla.gov.au

 

[Franc de Borges]

They’ve got us by the balls and they know it. There’s no threat that people like us will stop watching, so they can attempt to expand, massage outcomes, pander to tv schedules and compromise the draft and fixture without the threat of any real backlash. This is what happens to any regime that lacks accountability.

 

[Roaming Lou]

They’ve got us by the balls and they know it. There’s no threat that people like us will stop watching, so they can attempt to expand, massage outcomes, pander to tv schedules and compromise the draft and fixture without the threat of any real backlash. This is what happens to any regime that lacks accountability.

And the saddest thing is we'll just keep paying and watching.

 

[branedotorg]

They succeed while shooting themselves in the foot but the biggest competition shoots itself in the foot, the leg etc etc.

The NRL is an amateur business and FFA had to move it's premier competition to the summer to get some attention.

 

[JoondalupJ]

Selling top level Australian Rules football to Australians (especially in Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide) is a relatively simple job. However it seems that the current AFL administration appear to care only about enriching themselves, at the expense of all other considerations. This has meant manipulating (or trying to manipulate) certain outcomes (Essendon drugs issue/Melbourne tanking, GC/GWS ultra concessions, general MRP inconsistencies going back to Barry Hall in 05) to achieve the best financial result for themselves. That is one of the few things that threatens that relatively simple job as the basis of most people’s interest in any sport is that it is a fair contest and that both participants are playing by equal rules. There is a reason why the NBA outdraws the Harlem Globetrotters. Are we reaching a tipping point where people will start to turn off the more the AFL try and engineer their preferred outcome?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You are totally correct the AFL has for the last 15 years manipulated the game into its worst position ever. I regard 2019 season as one of, if not the, worst ever, and the finals was a joke, except for maybe a couple of games, the Collingwood thing losing to the plastics in the wet was a shame, but sending AFL over seas is something that is too hard , simply because adaption to this game unless you are brought up with it and play it from childhood, is almost impossible for outsiders to become elite Australian rules players. We see only a handful ever make it to elite status, say from America , and the Irish have a little advantage with the idea of Gaelic football, it is the hardest foot on field, ball sport to play. Flat out at top level, consistently, on a huge ground , it is so unique that it is unlike anything anywhere in the world, its our national game, we invented it and this AFL with its obsession with money and rule change and over umpiring has now made all traditionalists from the 90's onwards, realise that we are in fact watching the death of the game as we know it, caused by Demetriou and McGlachlan over years, our unique sport is in the process of being murdered. We should not have 18 clubs at all. We've diluted the talent!
The China visit by two Aussie teams every year is a laughable over promoted waste of money to a degree, but more than that it is a waste of a game of football and advantage for the two competitors who travel to play, I guess the AFL bribes them with a hand out.

So international high standard competition with this special sport is pretty hard to do, when you have world Rugby and world soccer and fanatics by the billions for those sports our game should left to us , where it can be played at the highest possible level because we know it so well, but the AFL has got to be changed , we need a whole new set up to run our game and to keep it somewhere in the vicinity of Australian Rules, we're losing it right now.

 

[JoondalupJ]

And the saddest thing is we'll just keep paying and watching.

We should stop , perhaps if trad supporters all quit their clubs membership for a few months or a season the clubs may react by ridding us of the AFL as it stands right now!

 

[Jiggyman]

The AFL is becoming more of an entertainment brand every year. Maximizing crowd attendances, tv ratings and maintaining a family-friendly atmosphere is assigned the highest priority. In its current state, footy still maintains a balance between sporting professionalism and 'excitement factor', but I believe this is changing especially as the board look for novel ideas to crack into new markets and the push-back from traditionalists starts to die out. There is more eagerness to grow the game in these facets than there is to consolidate what makes it great in the first place.

You could argue that American professional sports have reached a saturation point, and that we should look closely at the future of these codes to see a glimpse of what we might encounter in our own.