Embarrassing

[asiu]

.more people up here than in tassy.
... when the suns get competative the punters will come out
same as sydney , brissy and us.

[sainter104]

They will probably win a flag before us take the wins while we still can.


cant happen saints be premiers this year

7 /5 at break then 9/5 when beat dons

[saintsRrising]

At the end of this tear they will trade some of their kids for some experienced players.

They have to reduce there list anyway and so will have players to burn.

The Suns stuffed up big time with with way too many loose cannons with most of the "experienced" players they took.

They now need some deft trading to rectify this, but have list numbers on their side.

Ray for example seems to be on Watter's outer....and a player like him would be a good pick-up for the Suns.
They can trade 12 kids to gain 6 solid players like Ray. Such a core would provide some backbone and leadership for their young guns to bloom under.

[meher baba]

I've read all the comments on this thread and I'm still not convinced about the Gold Coast.

I'm warming up to GWS: I think they might make it to some extent. For starters, they seem to have recruited better than the Suns and also have a decent coach. The connection they are building to Canberra also seems a good idea: maybe some sort of Macarthur district-Southern Highlands-Canberra sort of connection might work better for them in the long term: it's a far more affluent and younger area than the inner or outer west around Homebush through Parramatta towards Penrith.

I think the problem for the AFL in the long run is whether NSW-ACT can support two clubs. If GWS becomes really strong, what happens to the Swans? It's not as if they have an overwhelming number of supporters at the moment.

Meanwhile, I really can't see much hope for the Suns. Sure, in theory, the Gold Coast area has a big enough population to support an AFL team, but most of those people have moved from elsewhere and in their minds are still connected more to where they came from. They just don't seem to become involved with the various sporting teams that have been set up in the place.

It might eventually change: Canberra used to be a similar story, and then they started to develop teams that coulde win basketball, rugby league and then rugby union and suddenly the people started to develop a sense of ownership of their local sporting teams. But the Canberra demographic - featuring a lot of young families and relatively fewer older people - is very different to the Gold Coast demographic.

And the final problem is that, even if the Gold Coast team does eventually pull it together and start winning premierships and so on, it's not that big a market. The Canberra Raiders have always had a somewhat troubled relationship with the NRL because, at the end of the day, Canberra needs the Raiders more than the NRL needs Canberra. It might be the nation's capital, but it's a regional town. The sorts of sponsors that a team like the Raiders will attract are not going to make a huge splash nationally. The same story continues to repeat itself with national sporting teams in towns like Newcastle, Wollongong, Townsville and so forth. It would also apply to any Tasmanian AFL team, if one could be established. The big markets, the big money, the big TV ratings are in the major capital cities, not in these regional centres.

The Gold Coast, for all its glamour and glitz, is also at heart a regional centre. The businesses based there make most of their money from people who don't live there, and many of whom don't even live in Australia. The AFL doesn't care two hoots about the Gold Coast. For the AFL, the Gold Coast is a surrogate second Brisbane team and its real point - like the GWS, the Swans and Lions - is to demonstrate to TV companies and advertisers that the game has a growing spread across all five mainland capitals: which is where over three-quarters of the national TV audience reside.

So far, the TV companies and the advertisers have been prepared to buy this line, even though AFL in Sydney and Brisbane is being increasingly relegated to 7's second string channel (7 mate or whatever it's called). I believe they have more faith in AFL's ability to command a national audience than rugby league: which I believe is doomed in the long run. But their faith is weak and their propensity to keep paying top dollar for AFL TV rights on the basis of national spread may have an end date. When that happens, or possibly before, you can expect the Gold Coast Suns to vanish instantly into the ether. They are the most expendable of all the interstate clubs.

[desertsaint]

It is embarrassing that
1) the AFL wastes millions setting up new franchises from scratch then bends the rules (handouts, coverage etc.) to make sure they succeed
2) other teams like North, Footscray and Melbourne are struggling and doomed to failure in an overcrowded market
3) footy-mad heartland areas like Tasmania and the Northern Territory remain unrepresented

Explain the logic behind these three contradictions?

North didnt want to move so unless they were forced it couldnt happen. Melbourne have more members than us and also have MCC members. WB obviously want to stay as well. These sides arent effected by sides interstate. They have been given millions already. NT will never have a side and neither they should. Bad place to play and wouldnt generate enough money. Tasmania will eventually get a relocated side when a Victorian side realises there time is up here. The new franchises have already generated plenty of money. Reports suggested the AFL would struggle to get anywhere near what they got for TV rights but they did and I would be sure the new sides have helped. As for knocking how they are going. Dont jump on that bandwagon to quickly. They will come good and it will happen quickly when it does happen. And of all clubs to whinge about how bad they I reckon we should just shut up. We didnt win a game until game 49.

Agree with it all except the suns will be a drain until they disappear, and more importantly - the NT is a great place to play footy, well outside humid Darwin anyway. We play a skillful fast game here on firm grounds. When I lived in Victoria one year of footy was enough - cold, wet, heavy ball, slow going in the wet, muddy ground -= slower and poorer skills (the weather is one of the reasons Victorians are poor kicks of the ball - growing up with wet heavy balls) and a generally much less attractive game to watch and play. It's why so many Victorians cream themselves over indigenous players - they aren't naturally better, they generally grew up in conditions much better suited to skillful, fast football, and conditions that meant they could spend more days of the year playing on a whim with mates.

[meher baba]

Agree with it all except the suns will be a drain until they disappear, and more importantly - the NT is a great place to play footy, well outside humid Darwin anyway. We play a skillful fast game here on firm grounds. When I lived in Victoria one year of footy was enough - cold, wet, heavy ball, slow going in the wet, muddy ground -= slower and poorer skills (the weather is one of the reasons Victorians are poor kicks of the ball - growing up with wet heavy balls) and a generally much less attractive game to watch and play. It's why so many Victorians cream themselves over indigenous players - they aren't naturally better, they generally grew up in conditions much better suited to skillful, fast football, and conditions that meant they could spend more days of the year playing on a whim with mates.

The NT suffers from the problems I have identified above re the Gold Coast, Tassie, etc. in terms of being a small market. However, unlike these other areas, the NT has the potential to produce a qualitatively different sort of team which could produce significant benefits in terms of the marketing of the game as a whole. This would be if it was a team with a higher proportion of indigenous players than other teams, and if it were to play the sort of attractive, highly skilled sort of game which one associates with the Tiwi people. In other words, the team could develop into something akin to the "calypso cricket" model of the West Indies in their heyday, or Brazil in the soccer world.

A Territory team playing a highly attractive brand of football would attract lots of TV viewers, and plenty of fans when it plays in the southern states. It would surely be worth considering.

But don't, under any circumstances, make Ross Lyon the coach.

[citywest]

It seems that there are quite a few bitter and deluded posters on here!!!!
Gold Coast and GWS will both be power houses in 4 years time. They both have a dozen top 20 picks all the same age all coming through at the same time. And even if 4 or 5 of them turn out to be duds it won't matter because they will be getting more top 10 picks this year and next due to their low finish on the ladder.

If I was supporting them I would be very happy with NO WINS in the first 3 years. As long as they can get 50 games into their youngsters quick smart, the improvement in year 4 will be startling. Like the Saints in 2003. We went from 11th to winning the NAB cup and the first 10 ganes the next year. And if it wasn't for Baker's stupid dad we would have made the grand final, (but that is another story). This is the kind of jump I'm expecting from GCS and GWS in year 4, (actually I reckon it will be even more dramatic because they have more quality youngsters than we did).

Be afraid people, be very afraid.

[SaintPav]

It seems that there are quite a few bitter and deluded posters on here!!!!
Gold Coast and GWS will both be power houses in 4 years time. They both have a dozen top 20 picks all the same age all coming through at the same time. And even if 4 or 5 of them turn out to be duds it won't matter because they will be getting more top 10 picks this year and next due to their low finish on the ladder.

If I was supporting them I would be very happy with NO WINS in the first 3 years. As long as they can get 50 games into their youngsters quick smart, the improvement in year 4 will be startling. Like the Saints in 2003. We went from 11th to winning the NAB cup and the first 10 ganes the next year. And if it wasn't for Baker's stupid dad we would have made the grand final, (but that is another story). This is the kind of jump I'm expecting from GCS and GWS in year 4, (actually I reckon it will be even more dramatic because they have more quality youngsters than we did).

Be afraid people, be very afraid.

It takes a lot more that "quality youngsters" and early draft picks to build a great team and a football club that has a strong culture but I'm not at all surprised that you would think that.

[citywest]

It seems that there are quite a few bitter and deluded posters on here!!!!
Gold Coast and GWS will both be power houses in 4 years time. They both have a dozen top 20 picks all the same age all coming through at the same time. And even if 4 or 5 of them turn out to be duds it won't matter because they will be getting more top 10 picks this year and next due to their low finish on the ladder.

If I was supporting them I would be very happy with NO WINS in the first 3 years. As long as they can get 50 games into their youngsters quick smart, the improvement in year 4 will be startling. Like the Saints in 2003. We went from 11th to winning the NAB cup and the first 10 ganes the next year. And if it wasn't for Baker's stupid dad we would have made the grand final, (but that is another story). This is the kind of jump I'm expecting from GCS and GWS in year 4, (actually I reckon it will be even more dramatic because they have more quality youngsters than we did).

Be afraid people, be very afraid.

It takes a lot more that "quality youngsters" and early draft picks to build a great team and a football club that has a strong culture but I'm not at all surprised that you would think that.

Why the dig StPav? How would you know what I'm like? You don't even know me. Your going to have egg all over your face in about 3 years time when both these teams will be in the top 4 for close to a decade.

[SaintPav]

No I'm not you sh!t stirring fool...

These teams may very well win multiple flags in coming years but that is not what I said you simpleton.

You are a troll so hence the dig.

[gringo]

Both will have some success but it doesn't equate to fans or ratings. We should look at stealing plenty off them over the next couple of years starting with bringing Johnny patton home and maybe that Mohr bloke so we have another one in Saints colours.

[citywest]

No I'm not you sh!t stirring fool...

These teams may very well win multiple flags in coming years but that is not what I said you simpleton.

You are a troll so hence the dig.

You seem to have an anger management issue there SaintPav. Your the one that had a dig at me so lets get our facts right ok simpleton.