Saintsational Fan Forum - A passionate community of St Kilda Football Club fans discussing news, history, players, trade rumours, results, AFL stats and more.
meher baba wrote:It doesn't matter how well they play, and how many premierships they win through the AFL corrupting the competition, it will be many decades before they develop a proper supporter base, if they ever do.
A Gold Coast team has been tried and failed before, but in order to live out their fantasies of world domination, AD and his merry men have to have another go.
No tradition, no support, no interest AFAIC.
I'm up north for Easter.
The Gold Coast win has got some dyed-in-the-wool Rugby folk crowing. My wife and I have been invited out to watch the Anzac-day game by people who have never shown an interest in AFL before.
The idea that a supporter base can only be grown through family ties, member buy in, and twenty plus years of tradition is very Victorian.
Whether the Gold Coast ultimately succeed or fail, writing it off as ill advised megalomania is small market parochialism of the most backwards flavour.
"Everything comes to he who hustles while he waits"
- Henry Ford
meher baba wrote:It doesn't matter how well they play, and how many premierships they win through the AFL corrupting the competition, it will be many decades before they develop a proper supporter base, if they ever do.
A Gold Coast team has been tried and failed before, but in order to live out their fantasies of world domination, AD and his merry men have to have another go.
No tradition, no support, no interest AFAIC.
12500 fully paid up members most of whom signed up before an AFL ball was kicked in anger.
There is a massive groundswell of support for AFL here and there's always been strong local competitions in both Brisbane and the Gold Coast. The conversion of local talent to elite level is exceptional on a per capita basis in the face of competition with plenty of other sports. The Bears was a travesty of ill-preparedness from the outset - no money, no proper facilities, no time, no thought - so there can be no comparison between it and the new venture.
Never ceases to amaze me how the traditional states can't cop the fact that there's people elsewhere who have the audacity to enjoy 'their' game.
So you're wrong on many levels.
Hmmm...sounds very Adelaide Rams to me. You may be right Thinline, but about a decade or two too early to call. I'm not sure if it's got much to do with the perceived Victorian ownership of the game though.
Interesting to note, against the 'tradition' argument, Port Adelaide is supposedly the oldest Aussie Rules club in Australia, yet the second they're not premiers, they can barely raise 25k members! Power is struggling a little for identity IMO, simply because they haven't been around long enough to ride the rollercoaster several times, despite their glorious background. GCFC will suffer the same issue.
matrix wrote:gold coast are your FIRST team at the moment????????
Too right. I'm considering making the switch permanently to get that first premiership. They will get one within 3 years I reckon.
Do make the switch.
There's a Gold Coast forum, I'm sure.
"The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break in the game. Every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when we add up all those inches that's gonna make the f***in' difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying!'
you either support them or hate them
im guessing it stems from winning everything back decades ago?
I'm neither here nor there with Port...IMO we share one thing, St Kilda and Port, fragility. When Port are down, they really drop the bundle, on field and off field. Had they not won in 2004, they'd have been cursed as losers forever too...has a familiar ring to it, for me at least.
meher baba wrote:It doesn't matter how well they play, and how many premierships they win through the AFL corrupting the competition, it will be many decades before they develop a proper supporter base, if they ever do.
A Gold Coast team has been tried and failed before, but in order to live out their fantasies of world domination, AD and his merry men have to have another go.
No tradition, no support, no interest AFAIC.
I'm up north for Easter.
The Gold Coast win has got some dyed-in-the-wool Rugby folk crowing. My wife and I have been invited out to watch the Anzac-day game by people
who have never shown an interest in AFL before.
The idea that a supporter base can only be grown through family ties, member buy in, and twenty plus years of tradition is very Victorian.
Whether the Gold Coast ultimately succeed or fail, writing it off as ill
advised megalomania is small market parochialism of the most backwards flavour.
I'm not a Victorian (originally from Sydney and now Tasmanian via India and Canberra) I'm not the slightest bit parochial about anywhere on earth.
I just think I know a futile exercise when I see one. Look, the Gold Coast isn't even that big a place: far smaller than Sydney and Brisbane, both of which struggle to fill relatively small stadiums or attract a TV audience to outrate what's on SBS when their teams are playing. These are places where they show TFS after midnight. Where AFL has had more than 100 years to take root, and hasn't.
And if isn't megalomania that's driving it, then what is it?
"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into."
- Jonathan Swift
Exactly the same megalomania that has seen the competition thrive in the face of a regionalisation set to drive the code to ruin.
f*** the 80's.
I'll take the now thanks.
That said, why Tasmania has been eschewed in favour of Blacktown staggers me. At least GC has some history in the game and a grassroots base of support that will grow quickly given a proper chance (this time).
Surely the money lost by investing in a small captive Tasmanian market would be offset by the tremendous supply of talent the apple isle has offered up over the years.
GC is a yup.
GWS is a nup.
"The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break in the game. Every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when we add up all those inches that's gonna make the f***in' difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying!'
Thinline wrote:Exactly the same megalomania that has seen the competition thrive in the face of a regionalisation set to drive the code to ruin.
f*** the 80's.
I'll take the now thanks.
That said, why Tasmania has been eschewed in favour of Blacktown staggers me. At least GC has some history in the game and a grassroots base of support that will grow quickly given a proper chance (this time).
Surely the money lost by investing in a small captive Tasmanian market would be offset by the tremendous supply of talent the apple isle has offered up over the years.
GC is a yup.
GWS is a nup.
I think Tas should probably get a team for sentimental reasons, but it too is a very small market: and a divided one (the people of northern Tassie have made it crystal clear that if the choice came down to a) no Tassie AFL team ever or b) a team based in Hobart, they'd far prefer the former!!
GWS is a farce. Have the Swans been doing particularly well? How much would they fetch as a going concern, even with all the assistance they get from the AFL? But we reckon there's room in the Sydney market for another AFL team? All the Sydney born-and-bred residents I know (and I
know plenty) are more interested in European club soccer or gridiron than they are what happens in the AFL.
"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into."
- Jonathan Swift
The Swans have been a very successful club who give their all and have a core of fandom, but geez, there ain't like there's 50000 of em...
GWS is INSANITY.
I'm happy to be proven wrong, but f*** me if that ain't the marketing tail wagging a dog that's got a bit heavy on the free schmackos...
Two poor local clubs in Campbelltown and Western Suburbs in a region dominated by league, sure, but otherwise OVERWHEMLED by absolute indifference as far as the indigenous code goes.
Ludicrous proposition that will only work if the club attracts some seriously gifted personnel. You'd want 12 GUNS plus ten top 20 stars to be. Enough to make a serious splash and an instant impact. Something akin to a Rest of the World cricket side. But then to serve what purpose?
Baffling.
I can only hope there's more substance than ego behind that particular move.
"The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break in the game. Every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when we add up all those inches that's gonna make the f***in' difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying!'
You are spot on Thinline GC Suns already have nearly 13,000 members to put that in perspective the Gold Coast Titans have only just hit 8,000 this year. I have lived on the Coast for over 10 years & was pleasently shocked at how popular AFL is on the Gold Coast. To compare this in anyway shape or form to the Bears is just plain stupid. This time it is all been done top shelf. Just wait until you see the new stadium & the young draftees love it up here. BTW there is only a couple of hundred tickets left for the 1st 3 home games. I'm afraid MB you are going to have a rather large egg on you face as you clearly are clueless about the Gold Coast demograpic in relation to it's interest in AFL.
eppo67 wrote:You are spot on Thinline GC Suns already have nearly 13,000 members to put that in perspective the Gold Coast Titans have only just hit 8,000 this year. I have lived on the Coast for over 10 years & was pleasently shocked at how popular AFL is on the Gold Coast. To compare this in anyway shape or form to the Bears is just plain stupid. This time it is all been done top shelf. Just wait until you see the new stadium & the young draftees love it up here. BTW there is only a couple of hundred tickets left for the 1st 3 home games. I'm afraid MB you are going to have a rather large egg on you face as you clearly are clueless about the Gold Coast demograpic in relation to it's interest in AFL.
"Just plain stupid" to compare the current Gold Coast AFL team to the other one that used to exist and had to relocate to Brisbane to look for fans?
Maybe. I would have thought it was less stupid than comparing us to a NRL club like you do. The number of club members is far less important in NRL than in AFL, so 8,000 for the Titans is better than I might have expected. Whatever.
Fine new stadiums and happy draftees are all well and good, but are there going to be enough fans. Not now, when it's all a novelty, but in a couple of years time and forever after.
"It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into."
- Jonathan Swift
Well I've had a couple of days on the GC now and the change dice I was last hear about 6 years ago is more highrises, a few more upmarket retail and a lot more Asian tourists.
It feels a bit more sophisticated, but still hicksville.
I can't see The Suns working, not for 20 years anyway.
Maybe by then the population growth will sustain them by sheer weight of numbers.
i am Melbourne Skies - sometimes Blue Skies, Grey Skies, even Partly Cloudy Skies.
saintspremiers wrote:Well I've had a couple of days on the GC now and the change dice I was last hear about 6 years ago is more highrises, a few more upmarket retail and a lot more Asian tourists.
It feels a bit more sophisticated, but still hicksville.
I can't see The Suns working, not for 20 years anyway.
Maybe by then the population growth will sustain them by sheer weight of numbers.
You obviously had a good look around, numbnuts.
If you're going to have an opinion at least let it be an informed one.
Took in a few local qafl games did you? got to know the geography north to south to hinterland and got a good handle on the demographics of the place while you were at it?
Suspect your opinion on the Gc is like me sprouting opinions about Melbourne after spending a week in waverley ...
"The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break in the game. Every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when we add up all those inches that's gonna make the f***in' difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying!'
eppo67 wrote: I have lived on the Coast for over 10 years & was pleasently shocked at how popular AFL is on the Gold Coast. To compare this in anyway shape or form to the Bears is just plain stupid.
I'm not surprised. With the amount of "ex-pat's" from Victoria that have apparently moved up there in the last couple of decades, there ought to be plenty of interest in Aussie Rules. A lot more than when Brisbane first started there.
As for GWS, that is going to be one tough year they're in for next year, unless they can get some big signings unexpectedly at the end of this season.
They're likely to start even worse than GC have this year and the Sydney rugby press will rip into them like nobody's business.
saintbrat wrote:Words on the white board for the song
Pity some of them can't read.
Products of the recent socialist state education systems.
The more you know, the more you know you don't know.
When I was a young child, I knew that I knew so much about so much.
Now that I am old and know so much more, I know that I know so much about so little, and so little about so much.
If you are not engaging AI actively and aggressively, you are doing it wrong.
You are not going to lose your job to AI.
You are going lose your job to somebody who uses AI.
Your company is not going to go out of business because of AI.
Your company is going to go out of business because another company used AI.
- Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA
