Opinion Just need to rant. Regrettably, from West Sydney.

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Feb 6, 2023
10
29
Hopping between Dandenong and Edensor Park
AFL Club
Collingwood
Forgive me, I have a long rant.

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I feel like I’m alone in this, but as a lifelong Collingwood barracker in Fairfield NSW…

Stuff NSW, stuff sports in Sydney, and stuff the NRL for everything they’ve done to sports in this city.

I have never outed myself as being from a suburb in Sydney because I’m bloody embarrassed to be a part of that city (plus the rest of Sydney normally treats Fairfielders with great discontent, so why would I?) And the AFL pitting Paer and Swans up on the same timeslot in Rnd 21 as the Pies vs the Blues just brought my fresh hatred of the NSW capital right back into play.

Why? Simple: If you are a big footy fan who,
1, has to grow up and live in Sydney (without the option of living in Melbourne because you can’t afford to move and you have responsibilities and family to look after),
2, you DON’T barrack for either the Swans or the Giants, and
3, you cannot afford Kayo, much less Foxtel, because there are more important matters to tend to in a cost of living situation…

Then you have a long road ahead keeping up with the sport that gets you going, in a city whose sports industry lives under a dictatorship from a rival code with a money-obsessed clown for a chairman who hates anything to do with Victoria, because that code and its fans are far too proud to get rid of the gigantic chip on their shoulder against footy and its development.

At least Fairfield as a whole doesn’t give a rats crap about Rugby League (it’s normally Soccer territory), and has a bit of a relatively decent following of footy (with a proud up-and-coming junior club that won their first flag in their second year of existence). But the same cannot be said for much of the surrounding areas of Sydney; Bankstown, Parramatta and Penrith most notably.

How is it possible that in 2024, these stupid code wars are still a thing?

The city’s schools breed Rugby League meatheads that can and will abuse their classmates just for following footy (“BrAaH, youu follow gAyFL?!?”), you would’ve already heard from others that caught crap while in school just for following our beloved code. They only care about fights, hard tackles and looking tough, and not about the result of the match from their “greatest game of all”. All show, no go. (Guess what? Much of the Sydneysiders don’t even go to the games anyway.)

The pubs? Bugger me. Here’s why not even going to the pub to watch the game is much of an option here either: Quite a few of the publicans already have a defensive attitude against putting on the footy in their establishment, and if you dare ask for this on a night when there is an NRL game on, either they’ll throw you straight out the back door, or the NRL meatheads already there will. And if there is the rare pub that is showing the footy, they’re likely to only care if the Swans are playing. (As they will for this particular round)

The media also largely censors anything to do with footy in favour of NRL garbage (particularly the Daily Rugbygraph and Craig Hutchinson). Go right ahead. Try to look for a Sydney radio station that’s broadcasting a AFL game instead of an NRL one. Also, if you’re someone in Sydney who watches The Front Bar and Talking Footy on Seven, or used to watch The AFL Footy Show on Nine, you know you would normally have to wait until nearly the middle of TV watershed to watch them, this is even after the secondary digital channels started. I mean, Vic and NSW are in the same bloody timezone.

And now back to the attachment. The AFL have put Port and Swans on the same time as the Pies and Blues for Round 21. No, the Collingwood match will NOT be on a simultaneous broadcast on 7mate here; the Sydney game will be the only footy match on FTA. Can’t afford Kayo or Foxtel, and Cronulla’s playing South Sydney in the NRL on that same night, so the pub is most definitely out. The live radio stations will all be locked into the NRL match, so the only thing I CAN do is stream Triple M 105.1 or 3AW over their respective apps or via the AFL app and either way hope to hell that the NBN doesn’t go out, as it already has several times (I stream on a separate phone that doesn’t have a sim card, since my main phone doesn’t support the current AFL update)

This is just some of the stuff a footy fan who because of cost of living can’t afford Kayo or a membership has to do to keep up with his beloved club while in a Rugby League state. Hopefully something changes when the new broadcast deal starts, but time and events will tell, and I’m not holding my breath.

If you made it this far, cheers.
 
You tried reaching out to the Magpies supporter group in NSW?


They would know where to go to watch the game or might be screening it somewhere
 
Yeah sorry, you lost me at "west sydney". What happens west of the pacific hwy is always a mystery. Its just one big outer eastern suburb of Perth to many of us.
Something blah blah blah Collingwood blah blah westies blah blah i hate footy blah blah. Is that the gist of it ?
 

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Yeah sorry, you lost me at "west sydney". What happens west of the pacific hwy is always a mystery. Its just one big outer eastern suburb of Perth to many of us.
Something blah blah blah Collingwood blah blah westies blah blah i hate footy blah blah. Is that the gist of it ?
How dare you.

Don't paint us with that brush
 
Thanks for the Kayo offers everyone, but even if I could get a Kayo run for either the free week or the one month for $25, we only have one TV in the house that can take Kayo, my Dad barracks for the Swans and watches a bit of league, he’s going to be flicking between that PA vs SYD game, and the Cronulla v Sth Syd game at the same time. TV in my room is an older one that doesn’t support Kayo, and to replace it will be quite a heavy price, given my family and I have a bit of responsibilities to tend to first, especially since the rent has gone up as well, so I’ll just get that TV next year and I’ll just wave the white flag and stream 3AW again for this round, just hoping the NBN can hold up. Once again, it is annoying, but just gotta do whatever.

Thanks again.
 

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BanksfielderIdiot3176 also have you tried streaming it through 7Mate on ch7 app? Might be a work around to set region to Vic.

Currently the AFL hasn’t given the rights to Seven for the match to be streamed via 7Plus.

7Plus manages this by hard-cutting the stream to a rerun of Border Security when the footy broadcast starts
 

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