'Soccer is a joke,'' says Ron Barassi

[midfielder]

I have posted for a while and believe the AFL's push into NSW & QLD is based around a lot of hype and statements that are simply not true .. in fact many are out right lies and this is often done to reflect poorly on other codes...

Until relatively I was unaware of the AFL and its general tactics..  But here are some examples of out right lies ... OK OK OK untruths ... the AFL media over recent years have claimed that AFL was the game played by the ANAZC's at  Gallipoli when in fact if anything it was rugby & football especially between the various national troops and at the time only Rugby was played by the officers. The offer by the AFL to cash strapped councils to fund upgrade and maintain ovals in return for them being made AFL grounds and then claiming these buys as conversations to AFL The media buys displayed as sporting articles in local rags Our own Advocate has run a lot of AFL back page articles for what 3 teams and less than 500 players .. all over Sydney in the News local rags there are AFL articles were none have ever been before..

A friend who is employed by the AFL and run their OZ Kick programs says kids come from other codes and sign a form and get to kick an AFL ball They stayed maybe an hour and returned to their sports these numbers are included in AFL player numbers

That the AFL fear football and have do so for over 100 years is well put together by a guy called Media Watch from the MV forum he is currently in the process of writing a book about it which he shared some of his research in a thread called .. Can you smell it is Fear

Roy Masters in an article in the code war between RL & AFL wrote a decent article (OK OK OK OK its maybe pro league) having said that I do agree with Roys general premise pertaining to AFL hype and its all about total dominance

If interested in this kind of thing have a read if this sorta of stuff bores you to tears then move on..

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/afl-masters-art-of-window-dressing-as-nrl-suffers-for-its-transparency-20100730-10zr9.html

'Soccer is a joke,'' the most celebrated player/coach in AFL history, Ron Barassi, declared for the nth time at a forum in Hobart mid week. The occasion was the Ron Barassi Senior Memorial Debate, named for his father, killed at Tobruk.

The topic was: ''Is Your Salary Cap Working Fairly?'' and pitted an AFL team of former Carlton president John Elliott, The Age's chief Australian football writer, Caroline Wilson, and former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas against an NRL team of ex-Storm front-rower Robbie Kearns, a local ABC broadcaster, Tim Cox, who began life as a North Sydney supporter, and myself.

Barassi had been to football's World Cup in South Africa but his rant was not against the pitiful diving in the sport but the lack of a salary cap, which results in the trophies in a half dozen European countries regularly won by teams from about 12 cities

Top AFL people fear football more than they do the rugby codes.

Indeed, they dismiss rugby league derisively as a code lurching from one crisis to the next, and consider rugby union a niche-market irrelevancy.

The Age's Greg Baum recently wrote that the AFL can learn nothing from the NRL. Listening to Thomas talk about his experience as coach of St Kilda during the era Brian Waldron was club chief executive suggests the NRL learnt something from the AFL.

Thomas told the breakfast audience of 300 that the St Kilda board instructed him to do the contracting of players after one year when Waldron was in charge. Two years later, the board decided Thomas should relinquish the responsibility back to Waldron.

Then, in the following year, the board brought Thomas back to do the contracting.

The Storm's problems with secret third-party deals started the day Waldon arrived at the club. A reasonable person might conclude he learnt the trick somewhere.

Furthermore, Thomas said he believed every AFL club, at some time, had cheated on the cap.

When the Storm's breaches were revealed the AFL declared it would send its salary-cap man to investigate Waldon's time at St Kilda. According to Thomas, the investigation took as long as it takes to drink a cup of coffee.

So much of the AFL is window dressing, while the NRL, apart from some News Ltd-conflicted decisions during the Storm saga, suffers for its transparency.

Take the issue of the interchange. The number of substitutions during an AFL game has nearly doubled from an average of 59 in 2007 to 115 this season. The AFL wants to cap the number because its champions aren't spending enough time on the field.

Its football operations manager, Adrian Anderson, pointed to research by Dr Tim Gabbett, described in the Herald Sun as ''an NRL sports scientist'', to justify a cap on interchange. ''The risk of collision injuries and high-intensity running injuries significantly reduced,'' Anderson is quoted saying in reference to the NRL gradually reducing interchanges. ''The relative risk of injury significantly decreased from 72.5 per 1000 playing hours to 51 per 1000 playing hours.''

Not mentioned by Anderson, or the Melbourne newspaper, was that Gabbett's research, published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, clearly specifies his study was of ''sub-elite rugby league players''.' They were juniors, or what some might call ''pub players'', not NRL players.

Indeed, long-term NRL club doctors, such as the Bulldogs' Hugh Hazard, have argued against reducing the interchange because they fear an increase in injuries, with wounded players forced to stay on the field.

Some AFL coaches, such as the Western Bulldogs' Rodney Eade, argue against a cap on interchanges, pointing to 2009 when his club was one of the highest-rotation teams, yet recorded the lowest number of soft-tissue injuries. But the AFL wants its stars to stay on the field (and TV sets) longer and will even stoop to quote the NRL, spuriously, to do so.

The AFL ridicules NRL players' signing mid-season with another club, yet profits from the media soap opera of the subterfuge of star Geelong player, Gary Ablett jnr, and his possible move to new expansion club, Gold Coast.

Speculation over Ablett's future has prompted stories about a 90-year-old Geelong millionaire leaving him a massive bequest, while real estate agents report he has shown interest in buying a Melbourne house he will occupy only a few days a week.

Yet the AFL is perceived, as one senior federal minister told Elliott and myself at Melbourne airport before flying to Hobart, to have a far superior administration to the NRL.

The NSW government obviously believes the Auskick numbers supplied by the AFL, granting the code $45 million for the redevelopment of Sydney's Showground

Still, some politicians see through the AFL's clever window dressing.

A panel of the Tasmanian Premier, his Minister for Sport and the Opposition Leader voted on the Barassi debate.

They declared the NRL team the winners.

 

[Arabmariner]

Other than the title of the thread MF where's the mention of "soccer" ?

 

[midfielder]

The opening word of the article... and how the article starts..

 

[curious]

With respect, (ok, I'm lying about the respect) if just one ounce of the energy spent by fans worrying one's self sick about how many times the afl and nrl fart when getting out of bed of a morning and if they have wheatbix, muesli or just tea n toast for breakfast, just a single ounce of that energy on Australian football, the aleague crowd averages would increase two fold, the socceroos would jump ten FIFA spots and a cure for cancer would be found.

Ok, I exaggerated just a teeny, weeny bit,  but you get my drift.

 

[dibo]

The shorter version of curious - all those 'smell the fear' things are better directed at us - paranoid, panicky, desperates that we are. The more we worry about the others the more we come off like we're asking for a pity root - "come onnnnn, try just this onnnnce! It'll be good, promise!"

 

[curious]

"come onnnnn, try just this onnnnce! It'll be good, promise!"

With a begging line like that, all you now need is a coin tin to rattle, a Mariners Wleague shirt to show you're a jobless pauper, and a busy spot with plenty of pedestrians. The world's your oyster.

 

[Mr Cleansheets]

You all make perfect sense, but let's not lose sight of the fact that the AFL are a pack of c*nts playing a stupid, stupid game. I may have reported this before, but a mate of mine was at an AFL reception and heard Eddie McGuire say to the crowd that they had to fight the World Cup bid tooth and nail because if Australia got the WC it meant the death of their game. Let's hope he's right.

As for Barassi, check out this cool bit of historiography:

http://vulgar.com.au/libero/002/slavia.html

 

[midfielder]

You all make perfect sense, but let's not lose sight of the fact that the AFL are a pack of c*nts playing a stupid, stupid game. I may have reported this before, but a mate of mine was at an AFL reception and heard Eddie McGuire say to the crowd that they had to fight the World Cup bid tooth and nail because if Australia got the WC it meant the death of their game. Let's hope he's right.

As for Barassi, check out this cool bit of historiography:

http://vulgar.com.au/libero/002/slavia.html

Thanks for the support ... two years ago I too ignored the AFL... but I have a client who is an old Western Boy ... works in Melbourne during the week ... his job is to analyse claims by the various sporting bodies and to predict future sports audience both short and long term... He is a very senior executive and sits at the table when all the big contracts are signed...

The stories he tells of what the AFL will do achieve their goals is truly unbelievable .. meaning ignore what they are doing and saying is foolish in the extreme ... this does not mean take your eye off your own plans and growth....

 

[curious]

You all make perfect sense, but let's not lose sight of the fact that the AFL are a pack of c*nts playing a stupid, stupid game. I may have reported this before, but a mate of mine was at an AFL reception and heard Eddie McGuire say to the crowd that they had to fight the World Cup bid tooth and nail because if Australia got the WC it meant the death of their game. Let's hope he's right.

As for Barassi, check out this cool bit of historiography:

http://vulgar.com.au/libero/002/slavia.html

I know many in football that would trump a c---- from any sport or walk of life. With bells on.
I've played numerous sports and like them all, retty decent at most and still like watching numerous sports.
Though I've never watched a live afl game myself, around seven million purchasers of tickets per season don't think it's a stupid, stupid game.

I'm not your usual braille reading football supporter, Clean, and don't get sucked in by games best left to boys in the school play ground.

 

[Mr Cleansheets]

Hi there Curious

I have a tendency to speak in extremes. When I say "the AFL" I'm only talking about their leaders like McGuire and Demetriou et al. Football, of course, has its own brand of c*nts, for example, Ferguson, Blatter, Pele and anyone who supports Tottenham or Newcastle (NSW).

 

[midfielder]

Patrick Smith from the Australian ... one of their senior sports writers [reads AFL sports person} any old how he has a article in the OZ today ..it says the A-League will be put to the sword if FIFA don't give Australia the WC... or words to that effect...

Many years ago I may have gone angry but simply laugh today ... here we go again ... these guys have no understanding of football and that in Australia it has been around since the 1880's .....I put it here just to illustrate what many in the AFL community do and have always done ... they cannot see the world is changing....

BTW Curious I have nothing against the sport AFL, in fact one of my sons plays it, and I have played it as well ... it's the AFL management and much of it's media that I don't like...

Anyway over to our good friend Patrick

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/as-codes-fight-to-survive-fifa-decision-could-put-soccer-to-the-sword/story-e6frg7t6-1225900805186

As codes fight to survive, FIFA decision could put soccer to the sword

Patrick Smith From: The Australian August 04, 2010

MELBOURNE will be home from tomorrow to 13 professional football teams.

Add Geelong, and who would dare not, and that makes 14. That is a lot of spectators, sponsors and interest to find and foster.

Sydney is equally cluttered with NRL teams, soccer, union and the AFL Swans are two years away from gaining a hometown rival in Kevin Sheedy's GWS. Not only is the scramble for money and members, all sports are in a hunt for athletes. And publicity.

League pinches union talent, union pinches league players, the AFL steals anything that moves. So far Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau have been landed. Cricket does its best to keep the predators away but it loses more players to football than it keeps.

This crowded scene has already effectively seen off one version of the National Basketball League though efforts to resurrect a second coming are happening more with a dribble than a slam dunk. But at least it's back on its sneakers.

Melbourne, the heart of the AFL, finds itself with two new intruders. Melbourne Heart, the 11th team to join the A-League and making its debut tomorrow night at home against the Mariners, has hardly stomped on to the scene. The Melbourne Rebels, rugby union's belated entry into the city's sporting culture, has arrived. It comes with support from the city's heavies and has a guaranteed following. Not large but zealots all of them.

The new arrivals have not flustered the AFL. It watched the birth of Melbourne Storm. The big bosses at AFL headquarters have always said that they welcomed and supported Storm's presence. Yesterday, that was their response to the birth of the Heart and Rebels. The AFL respects the new clubs but does not fear them. That is the official line anyway.

The AFL can afford to be magnanimous because no football code in the country has a war chest as scary if the battle to hold your ground descends into hand-to-hand fighting. That cannot be said of the NRL, soccer or union. That said, Storm owner News Limited (publisher of The Australian) has proclaimed it will support Storm morally and financially. But if News walked away, Storm would fall away.

The intriguing study is the A-League. Its life span might not extend very far past the December announcement about which country will host the 2022 World Cup. At least not in its current form. The FIFA decision could well decide the future of soccer in this country.

History informs us that expansion in sport is a volatile matter. The AFL and NRL have all failed at various times. The Brisbane Bears on the Gold Coast morphed into the Lions at the Gabba. How the Swans survived the early years had little to do with meticulous planning but a doggedness that fell only slightly short of pig-headedness.

The NRL has expanded and contracted just as quickly. Lessons were learnt and the Storm remains in Melbourne and the Titans flourish on the Gold Coast.

Union went west to Perth and allowed Storm and Victory to find their niche unchallenged. Union is in Melbourne now and the Force battles on in Perth, where it is mostly regarded as a state secret. The loss of profile by the wallowing Wallabies has not been a help.

But of all the sports spreading their wings it is soccer that is the most vulnerable. Yes, Football Federation Australia has been bankrolled by the federal government in cash and goodwill but can that really be expected to last beyond December if the World Cup bid fails? Good money after bad? Hardly. A federal election will have been decided on tightening belts not blowing budgets.

It would not matter so much if the A-League was a sustainable model. But the league loses more than $20 million a season. That is not terminal if the governing body is well funded and of a mind to keep all clubs afloat.

The AFL clubs lost money by the bucket before an independent commission centralised power and revenues. It has merged Fitzroy with Brisbane, but set up two new ones in WA and SA and is sending second teams into the northern states.

Later this month, the AFL commission will consider the most recent proposals to ensure every club is sufficiently funded so no side has an inbuilt advantage over another.

It has been assumed by soccer fanatics that their game would simply dominate this country's sporting landscape. The World Cup in 2006 was to kick-start the takeover, this year's cup to cement it and a successful 2022 bid to trumpet it.

But as the sport stretches its fixtures with the birth of Heart, the new season will lengthen to 30 games and stretch its resources. More small crowds in big venues will only cut deeper into the sport's finances.

If the World Cup bid for 2022 is successful then governments have a moral duty to ensure the A-League survives until Australia hosts the event. But if the bid fails then soccer would be left to its own resources. And there are precious little of them[.

 

[Mr Cleansheets]

The mystery to me is how registered football players dwarf the other codes combined but that participation rate doesn't translate into bigger numbers at grounds and stronger finances. Clearly an improved TV deal will shore up the A-League in terms of sustainable player payments, but it's paying for all the rest that the clubs need to grapple with, and for which they need sponsorship, gate, merchandising and any other dollars they can find.

The fight for elite athletes is the crucial one over the next five years, and it seems that our house is not in order. There was a fascinating article in Goal Weekly last week (Shark Tales by Phil Gerald). A very worrying expose of how much juniors are being charged to play at the elite level. Sums of $1000 to $1500 a season are not uncommon for the top(pish) youngsters to play high level football, and those that can't afford it are leaving the sport in droves to play much cheaper AFL or league (so the article says). If this true we are very much shitting in our own nest to subsidise semi-pro coaches, when we should just be doing anything we can to keep the kiddies in the game.

A very sobering article.