Mega Thread Port Forum General AFL Thread Part 31

[KanesBurner]

That is classic USOC / NBC / NFL rort and influence on the IOC. The AFL and NRL don't have that sort of influence and that's why Brisbane 2032 Prez Andrew Liveris is trying to get them inside the tent, and will offer them some sort of demonstration sport status/involvement in the Brisbane Games.

I’m fairly sure subject to approval the host nation can add a sport now for a singular edition of the games. It’s why there’s soo many odd sports now.

 

[bomberclifford]

The crows members have re-elected Graeme Goodings to their Board. #AdelaideProud

All of a sudden Jonas doesn’t seem like a bad option.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I’m fairly sure subject to approval the host nation can add a sport now for a singular edition of the games. It’s why there’s soo many odd sports now.

Yes but there has to be a decent number of countries who play itt ro get in. And there has to be gender balance. That's why netball won't get in.

Flag Football got in on the back of tag football which basically is a rugby league/union type game without the forward pass. It has established competitions in 30-40 nations basically nations with reasonable rugby programs. Flag football has piggy backed off that and with help of NFL $$$ set up Flag Football and can say that the game is played at a decent level in 30-40 countries on 6 continents.

The US will win the gold medal but it will be competitive after that.

AFL doesn't meet that criteria.That's why AFL and NRL will be demonstration type sports.

I think the sport Oz will get added to the Games and there are enough countries around the world that would meet the played on 6 continent criteria at a high level, is Surf Lifesaving. Which event/events I'm not sure but they could have 1, 2 or 3 events for both men and women.

 

[Holden Hillbilly]

Bayley Fritsch has undergone surgery on his hand after trying to break up a fight between his dogs.
The Melbourne forward had an operation on Monday, suddenly putting him in doubt for the Demons’ Round 1 clash against St Kilda on March 15.

 

[Steve Dore]

The State government here in SA will never allow that to happen.

Providing the Gather Round contract is extended again, it will always be set down for the middle weekend of the Victorian school holidays in April.

It will always be scheduled for the middle weekend of the Victorian school holidays as long as it is not held in Victoria. Nothing to do with the SA government though, the scheduling is the AFL's call.

 

[Grave Danger]

Bayley Fritsch has undergone surgery on his hand after trying to break up a fight between his dogs.
The Melbourne forward had an operation on Monday, suddenly putting him in doubt for the Demons’ Round 1 clash against St Kilda on March 15.

Stevie! Jakey! bad dogs!

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Adam Simpson has replaced Buckley on Whateley's The Monday Means Test and has extended what he did on his normal Wednesday segment.

He has introduced a new segment - Simmo's Ladder prediction after Rd 6. He is going to try and tip how many wins each side get in 4 x 6 round block throughout the season. Gerard refused to join in and said he wont for the rest of the season.

Simmo said looking at the schedule, the 2 SA sides have a bias with gather round and says they play 4 home games in the first 6 rounds. He then added well Collingwood get that sort of bias at the MCG I guess. He said he expects Port to have a good start to the season and that was before yesterday's trial game which only reinforced his prediction.

6-0 Brisbane, Gold Coast
5-1 Port, Freo, Adelaide
4-2 Carlton, Geelong
3-3 Bulldogs, Hawthorn, Sydney, GWS
2-4 St Kilda, North
1-5 Collingwood, Melbourne, West Coast
0-6 Richmond, Essendon

 

[SC_Power]

Adam Simpson has replaced Buckley on Whateley's The Monday Means Test and has extended what he did on his normal Wednesday segment.

He has introduced a new segment - Simmo's Ladder prediction after Rd 6. He is going to try and tip how many wins each side get in 4 x 6 round block throughout the season. Gerard refused to join in and said he wont for the rest of the season.

Simmo said looking at the schedule, the 2 SA sides have a bias with gather round and says they play 4 home games in the first 6 rounds. He then added well Collingwood get that sort of bias at the MCG I guess. He said he expects Port to have a good start to the season and that was before yesterday's trial game which only reinforced his prediction.

6-0 Brisbane, Gold Coast
5-1 Port, Freo, Adelaide
4-2 Carlton, Geelong
3-3 Bulldogs, Hawthorn, Sydney, GWS
2-4 St Kilda, North
1-5 Collingwood, Melbourne, West Coast
0-6 Richmond, Essendon

Wow that would be a great top 5 if it were round 23!

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Here is the Olympics story and how AFL might be involved.

AFL boss launches Olympic bid after door opened to Brisbane 2032

Footy heavyweights believe the sport ‘should be on that stage’ - and early signs suggest they might get their way.

7news.com.au

......................
Brisbane 2032 board president Andrew Liveris has already opened the door to the AFL and NRL being involved with exhibition matches.

“The very visible ones like NRL, AFL, and all the ones that have their own mojo … there’s lots of opportunities to put them on display,” Liveris was quoted as saying at a conference in Las Vegas over the weekend.[was in LV to watch the NRL] “Exhibition games ... ways to really show off who we are as a country ... and doing that in a way that is simpatico with their schedules.”

Dillon said the AFL will take the offer and run with it. “The reality is there’s a precedent for that back in 1956 in Melbourne where Australian Rules football was an exhibition sport,” he said. “I think our sport is a sport that should be on that stage, and we’ll work closely with the Olympic Committee on what format that take.”

Footy legend Kevin Sheedy told 7NEWS he hoped Origin, rather than a club fixture, could be used to showcase the game at Brisbane 2032. “The AFL Commission should earmark the Olympic Games as a showcase for the rest of the world to have a look at it,” he said in February.

Dillon recently travelled to India and while he wouldn’t commit to AFL games being played there, he was encouraged by the reaction.............................

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

It looks like 7 Network might be having a crack at getting NRL TV rights when the current deal ends after the 2027 season.

7 currently has the rights to the 2026 Rugby League WC staged in Oz in October and November.

They are introducing NRL agenda next Monday at 7.30pm in NSW and Qld markets, which I assume will be available on 7 mate or 7+ in other markets. The 7 network decided to shutdown their VFL Saturday night coverage where they also give scores and highlights of Saturday AFL games, a few weeks ago, to save money.

The last 2 or 3 TV rights deals the NRL has signed. 9 has put in a bid for a Saturday night game, they have won that and in a separate deal they have on sold the game to Foxtel / Fox League who can then market their Super Saturday coverage, which Fox Footy only started doing in 2025.

Saturday night NRL game ratings could be huge in NSW and Qld market, especially if 7 get a say in what games they get to broadcast. 9 might decide to continue to bid for the rights, but now hang on to them to cut 7's lunch, and not on sell them to Fox League.

With the NRL expanding to Perth in 2027 and Port Moresby in 2028, V'landys knows there is a big benefit in having 4 games on Free TV and not 3, so he might not take as much money post 2027 to have 5 games a week and then 6 games a week in 2027 on pay TV.

If 7 do get the rights for Saturday night (or more) and they do well, it might mean they pay less for AFL rights post 2031 when the current 7 season deal ends.

Ch7 unveil panel for NRL show amid TV rights war

Channel 7's new show has unveiled his line-up.

www.sen.com.au

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Wow that would be a great top 5 if it were round 23!

Haha no 6-0 side has missed the GF in V/AFL history. If that prediction is right, then history says it will be a Brisbane v Gold Coast GF.

Last time 2 sides were 6-0 was 2021, with Melbourne and Western Bulldogs. Bulldogs were top, with 3 games to go, lost 2 of them by small margins and middle game by 4 goals, they dropped 9% and missed out 4th spot to Brisbane by percentage, and need to have kicked 8 or 9 more points in those 3 games to finish 4th. They recovered and as we know, easily made the GF.

 

[Willsy10]

Haha no 6-0 side has missed the GF in V/AFL history. If that prediction is right, then history says it will be a Brisbane v Gold Coast GF.

Last time 2 sides were 6-0 was 2021, with Melbourne and Western Bulldogs. Bulldogs were top, with 3 games to go, lost 2 of them by small margins and middle game by 4 goals, they dropped 9% and missed out 4th spot to Brisbane by percentage, and need to have kicked 8 or 9 more points in those 3 games to finish 4th. They recovered and as we know, easily made the GF.

Do you mean finals?

Melbourne 2022 10 and 0 (straight sets), North Melbourne 2016 9 and 0 (finished 8th), St Kilda 2004 10 and 0 (prelim loss). There may be more examples.

 

[Steve Dore]

......
Brisbane 2032 board president Andrew Liveris has already opened the door to the AFL and NRL being involved with exhibition matches.
....
Dillon said the AFL will take the offer and run with it. ....

I can see it now.
The AFL agree to playing an exhibition game for Brisbane 2032.
The AFL decide that Collingwood will play a team to be selected based on 2031 ladder position.
Collingwood whinge about having to travel to Brisbane.
The AFL schedule the game for the MCG.

 

[Festerz]

It looks like 7 Network might be having a crack at getting NRL TV rights when the current deal ends after the 2027 season.

Intersting back story to this.

Southern Cross Media, which owns the Seven Network has been very active in asset consolidation in recent months that has raised eyebrows across the media industry.

Most recently the merging of it radio assets with the its FTA TV network to create a $400m+ media empire has angered some of it's largest shareholders including Sandon Capital.

The new Chairman of Southern Cross Media is a former PepsiCo executive and his Board have argued that the merger and expanding of the media assets would give it a base to challenge the paytv and digital heavyweights like Netflix for viewer numbers and hence revenue $$.

As the Fin Review put it a few days ago:

The problem is that while buying a free-to-air television business provides scale, it’s in an industry in which revenues are in freefall as viewers flee to streaming platforms and YouTube. Across the free-to-air television industry, revenues are expected to decline by 10 per cent on average this financial year, and more interest rate rises are only expected to exacerbate that fall as they will knock business and consumer spending.

In short, there is no way that Seven buys the NRL FTA rights on top of its existing AFL rights without doing what you suggest - using the ownership of both as leverage to sharply cut the amount it pays the AFL/NRL for those rights in the future

OR

Uses it as a base to attract investment from payTV companies wanting to compete the DAZN Group which owns Kayo. In which case we should expect an even greater percentage of AFL games going behind a more expensive subscriber paywall in the future. (I reckon the Sports Entertainment Group of which Craig Hutchinson is the CEO would be very keen to be part of such a deal )

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Do you mean finals?

Melbourne 2022 10 and 0 (straight sets), North Melbourne 2016 9 and 0 (finished 8th), St Kilda 2004 10 and 0 (prelim loss). There may be more examples.

That was a quote from Swamp's tweet in 2021.

He might have meant when there were two teams 6-0 in a season, both make the GF.

 

[bomberclifford]

MMM getting onto the edging program.

 

[malcheski]

View attachment 2540529

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Intersting back story to this.

Southern Cross Media, which owns the Seven Network has been very active in asset consolidation in recent months that has raised eyebrows across the media industry.

Most recently the merging of it radio assets with the its FTA TV network to create a $400m+ media empire has angered some of it's largest shareholders including Sandon Capital.

The new Chairman of Southern Cross Media is a former PepsiCo executive and his Board have argued that the merger and expanding of the media assets would give it a base to challenge the paytv and digital heavyweights like Netflix for viewer numbers and hence revenue $$.

As the Fin Review put it a few days ago:

The problem is that while buying a free-to-air television business provides scale, it’s in an industry in which revenues are in freefall as viewers flee to streaming platforms and YouTube. Across the free-to-air television industry, revenues are expected to decline by 10 per cent on average this financial year, and more interest rate rises are only expected to exacerbate that fall as they will knock business and consumer spending.

In short, there is no way that Seven buys the NRL FTA rights on top of its existing AFL rights without doing what you suggest - using the ownership of both as leverage to sharply cut the amount it pays the AFL/NRL for those rights in the future

OR

Uses it as a base to attract investment from payTV companies wanting to compete the DAZN Group which owns Kayo. In which case we should expect an even greater percentage of AFL games going behind a more expensive subscriber paywall in the future. (I reckon the Sports Entertainment Group of which Craig Hutchinson is the CEO would be very keen to be part of such a deal )

I don't think 7 Network want the full Free TV rights for NRL, but are happy to take 1 game, the Saturday night slot in NSW and Qld which has no rugby league game on Free TV for all of the season. .

After Rd 8 in some markets, AFL games are on 7 on Saturday night, after Rd 15 in Victoria under the current 2025-32 deal, which did shock people last year with no Saturday night footy for the first part of the season. They get 1 Saturday night NRL game, they could fill that void in the southern states on their main channel.

7 Network / new merged entity can't afford both set of rights.

If they get one NRL game from the 2028 season, then when negotiations start in late 2029 for the 2032+ AFL rights, 7 can use it as leverage.

Also with a Perth side entering the NRL in 2027, there was chatter in Perth last year that Stokes was interested in getting rights for the Perth Bear's home games as a minimum, but wanted to get all their games.

Stokes negotiated for the 2025-32 AFL rights that all home games in WA for Freo and WCE, would be on 7 with WA based callers and not take the Fox Footy call of the game. I think the eastern state guys only fly in for a home Thursday night or Friday night game, which would only be 1 or 2 a year.

Below is the new set up, with Stokes stepping down as chair a couple of weeks ago. Maybe I will need to start calling it South Cross Media rather than 7 Network. Makes sense why during 7's cricket coverage this summer, they kept referring to MMM's radio coverage and I'd expect the same sort of cross promotion to happen during footy season.

I don't know if the new management team will want the new Perth Bears' NRL rights as much as Stokes wanted them.

https://www.mi-3.com.au/12-01-2026/seven-and-sca-become-one-merger-completes-and-asx-listing-goes-live-audio-advertising#:~:text=Having%20gained%20approval%20for%20their,has%20now%20officially%20been%20delisted.

• Seven West Media and Southern Cross Media Group have officially merged in one of Australia’s largest media deals in years, forming a $2bn revenue powerhouse now listed under the SCA ticker (SXL) on the ASX from 8 January 2026. Seven has been delisted.
• Under the scheme, Seven shareholders own 49.9% of the new entity; Southern Cross shareholders hold 50.1%. Kerry Stokes’ SGH retains 20.06% voting power. Stokes chairs the new board until Feb, when SCA chair Heith Mackay-Cruise takes over. Seven CEO Jeff Howard leads as group CEO; SCA’s John Kelly becomes MD, Audio.

 

[tribey]

Bayley Fritsch has undergone surgery on his hand after trying to break up a fight between his dogs.
The Melbourne forward had an operation on Monday, suddenly putting him in doubt for the Demons’ Round 1 clash against St Kilda on March 15.

It will forever baffle me that Melbourne managed to put the Curse Of Norm Smith on ice for juuust long enough to win a premiership in an 18-team competition.

The fact that Simon Goodwin, Steven May and Clayton Oliver managed to keep their ducks in a row.

Angus Brayshaw postponing his horrific record of concussions.

Christian Petracca postponing the life-threatening injury he was seemingly destined for as per said ‘curse’.

And they haven’t won a solitary final since, despite playing the greatest quarter and a half in the history of the game in the third and fourth stanza of the 2021 Grand Final.

And now Fritsch, their 6-goal hero in that game, getting mauled by his own dogs.

The curse is well and truly back.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

This is getting ridiculous and the AFL keeps kicking the can down the road re the new rules.

Giants push to be 'considered differently' in draft bidding revamp

Dave Matthews calls on the AFL to help raise Academy numbers in the Giants' region and believes they should be treated differently to other northern clubs

www.afl.com.au

GREATER Western Sydney has called on the AFL to treat the four northern Academies differently as the League's impending new set of bidding rules get closer to being locked in.

The League is closing in on its new set of bidding changes to be applied this year, which AFL.com.au revealed last year would see clubs be able to match bids with their next two picks, the removal of the 10 per cent points discount and a likely points loading depending on ladder position.
...............

Giants chief executive Dave Matthews said he had called on the AFL to help raise Academy numbers in his club's region and that Greater Western Sydney should be treated differently to reigning back-to-back premiers Brisbane.

"We've reached a point where the four northern Academies should be considered differently under the next set of rules. Our circumstances are very different to Brisbane for example in terms of both father-son access and local market maturity," Matthews told AFL.com.au.

"We've previously put in a proposal that the bidding system shouldn't apply to western Sydney and we have again said that to the AFL this week. We need to turn the tap on."
.............
[FFS only 3 players have been drafted from western Sydney. They can get stuffed if by western Sydney he really means southern NSW.]

The Giants lost access to their Albury region in 2017 after lobbying from clubs. They retain access to Canberra, where Tom Green

12

Tom Green

Age

25

Ht

192cm

Wt

92kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

11.5

3star

K

4.3

2star

HB

7.3

5star

M

1.8

2star

T

2.3

4star

CL

2.8

4star

D

11.5

3star

K

4.3

2star

HB

7.3

4star

M

1.8

2star

T

2.3

3star

CL

2.8

4star

D

11.5

3star

K

4.3

2star

HB

7.3

5star

M

1.8

2star

T

2.3

4star

CL

2.8

5star

was an Academy product in the 2019 draft.

AFL.com.au revealed last month that the AFL was set to propose a protected zone at the top of the draft that meant free agency compensation picks didn't start until after pick No.8, with clubs expecting that to likely to be after pick No.10 after further discussions.

 

[Grave Danger]

MMM getting onto the edging program.

View attachment 2540529

Definitely got a reason for that sad face now...

 

[Holden Hillbilly]

GREATER Western Sydney has called on the AFL to treat the four northern Academies differently as the League's impending new set of bidding rules get closer to being locked in.
The League is closing in on its new set of bidding changes to be applied this year, which AFL.com.au revealed last year would see clubs be able to match bids with their next two picks, the removal of the 10 per cent points discount and a likely points loading depending on ladder position.
Clubs have been stepped through the bidding changes in recent weeks by the AFL, with free agency changes also expected to be formalised.
The AFL Commission will be briefed on the potential changes on Wednesday ahead of the season being launched in Sydney on Thursday night, with club chief executives also meeting on Wednesday and expected to get an update on the bidding system.

Giants push to be 'considered differently' in draft bidding revamp

Dave Matthews calls on the AFL to help raise Academy numbers in the Giants' region and believes they should be treated differently to other northern clubs

www.afl.com.au

 

[El_Scorcho]

It will forever baffle me that Melbourne managed to put the Curse Of Norm Smith on ice for juuust long enough to win a premiership in an 18-team competition.

The fact that Simon Goodwin, Steven May and Clayton Oliver managed to keep their ducks in a row.

Angus Brayshaw postponing his horrific record of concussions.

Christian Petracca postponing the life-threatening injury he was seemingly destined for as per said ‘curse’.

And they haven’t won a solitary final since, despite playing the greatest quarter and a half in the history of the game in the third and fourth stanza of the 2021 Grand Final.

And now Fritsch, their 6-goal hero in that game, getting mauled by his own dogs.

The curse is well and truly back.

They got the 1 good year you get out of the Darren Burgess program before it all goes to shit and turned it into a flag.

 

[Lefti93]

There were times in the first half of 2022 we thought Melbourne would go onto a Geelong like dynasty.

 

[tribey]

There were times in the first half of 2022 we thought Melbourne would go onto a Geelong like dynasty.

The sliding doors of the 2023 Qualifying Final,

Brayshaw getting KO’d for good early, and somehow narrowly losing despite dominating the inside50’s 69-37.

It’s not the VFL anymore, I guess.