The Opposition Factor

Respected AFL journalist, Mike Sheehan, recently interviewed Sydney Swans coach, Paul Roos, for his show on Fox Sports called ‘Open Mike’.

They covered many topics from his career as a player with Fitzroy to his decision to retire as head coach and hand over the reigns to assistant coach, John Longmire. One topic in particular caught my attention, it was the perception that the Swans have a negative and ‘ugly’ game plan.

I have some good friends that get carried away with this notion and even go as far as to say that they “hate” the Swans due to their style of play. I take offense to this allegation as it is baseless.

The Swans were a very successful team during the Paul Roos era of 2003 -2007. As a successful team there is always an opposition wanting to beat you week after week. Teams now are well prepared in working out how to negate the game plan of the opposition.

Roos points out that “people fail to see that there’s an opposition”. Watch them at training, “If it’s 18 on zero we’ll bring it down the corridor every time”. They don’t practice ‘ugly’ football. Of course they have played some shocking games of football, Mike Sheehan used an example against St Kilda. But it is no different to any other team. They have all used negative tactics and have produced ‘ugly’ football.

So why are the Swans singled out? Who knows? Who cares? People who bag my team should instead look at their own team and pump them up instead of hating the Swans.

Conflicted

It was put to me recently that there was no way I could call myself a Sydney Swans fan, as I have done for 17 years, while giving any form of support to the new GWS franchise preparing to join the AFL in 2011.

I have proclaimed that I am a Swans fan for life after a childhood of changing teams on a whim as a rugby league fan.

With GWS one has to look at the bigger picture and put parochialism to one side. Ask what is best for the game. If GWS doesn’t get enough members it will be embarrassing for all fans in this region, and I don’t want the doomsayers to be right. So I will be buying a membership and attending a few games. I might stop short of buying merchandise even though I love ‘the merch’.

I will be doing all this because I enjoy Australian Rules football first and foremost. My support of the Swans comes after this. I have played, coached, umpired since I was 10. It’s officially my sport, there is no other for me.

I understand there would be some conflicts in the hearts of fellow Swans supporters, especially in this region. I believe it is more important for the game to put aside parochialism for a little while and buy a membership of GWS when they come up for sale. In the meantime ‘Sign up for Sheedy’.

Lucky To Even Get Close

St Kilda 15.6 (96) def

Sydney 13.10 (88)

This was the first game of the season. Therefore it had all the necessary excitement of a brand new season with fresh hope and new players. I was in attendance happy that the footy was back and to be seated with a good friend at the best stadium in Sydney.

We arrived a tad late to discover Sydney had scored the first two goals. Then through some skill errors and poor checking gifted St Kilda the next five. Some blatant umpiring inconsistencies didn’t assist matter.

That turned out to be the constant theme of the game – close margin, not quite good enough, our own worst enemy with skill errors at crucial moments, not forgetting the umpiring inconsistencies.

Could be typical of our season. One where we find that we tend to lose those close games such as this one against St Kilda.

That being said, this season definitely does have an air of 2003 about it. If you don’t know the significance then check out what happened in 2005.

Membership Drive

I wonder why it has taken rugby league so long to focus on building membership. Before now they relied heavily on poker machines and strong leagues clubs. Now leagues clubs are blaming pokie taxes from the state govt on their ability to hold up the ailing clubs. Meanwhile at the other end of the Hume Highway some AFL clubs are boasting memberships topping 50,000. Granted Melbourne people are more sports crazy but i feel like that is no excuse. Too many people love a sport here in Sydney yet are unwilling to part with some cash in support of their chosen club. Personally I have bought social memberships to both the Sydney Swans and Parramatta Eels, and when the new GWS team comes into the AFL I will part with some cash there too because it's important to show support by buying a membership.

Although I have my favourite football code and nothing would please me more than everyone jumping on board with an AFL club, what is more important is that people show true support for their team and buy a membership.

Footy Evangelism

Aussie Rules Football is my game (in case you haven’t noticed).

Getting people interested in AFL in western Sydney has to be the biggest challenge since the move of South Melbourne to Sydney way back in 1981. Hopefully learning from those mistakes will create a greater resolve to do things right to make sure the new team (without an official name at the moment) launches as well as possible.

Everyone seems to label this area rugby league heartland. I think league supporters are relying on this adage to maintain their stronghold. However the AFL is cashed up and proactive, spending money on grounds both for professional teams and local teams. Meanwhile the rugby league has been largely inactive and is disorganised with its leadership. Phil Gould has been most critical.

Rugby league is a very different sport and its supporters seem unable (or unwilling) to understand a different sport. They seem to be very rigid to their rules and can’t handle the multi directional nature of Aussie rules.

This is only one aspect of the recruitment of supporters because largely rugby league supporters will stay loyal to league, or at best be a part time supporter of Aussie rules.

There is a large migrant population that are new to Australia and in an effort to assimilate to their new home they send their kids to play the real footy. With long running controversy about the size disparity of junior league players the Auskick program offers a safe and fun alternative for parents to send their children as the physical aspect is introduced gradually.

It is hard to create a passionate supporter out of nowhere. Team GWS has to start from the ground up. Hence their strong efforts to entrench community links. A citizenship ceremony at half time of the Sydney Vs Carlton pre season match at Blacktown I thought was very clever. Those people will remember that game forever and have a positive emotional attachment to the game.

Attaining Kevin Sheedy as coach for the next three years was a massive coup. His marketing ability is priceless. He recently became a league supporter to win (save) the league supporters, heard that method before anyone? He stated that he would buy a membership to the four western Sydney rugby league clubs, if they would let him. Rugby league officials reaction to this only assists in giving greater publicity.

Above all there is a need to stay positive and think about the game before any team support.

Ron Barassi – The Coach

“The Coach” by John Powers

This is the story of the 1977 season of North Melbourne in the Victorian Football League. John Powers had an all access pass and did nothing else except observe all facets of the footballs club from pre season to finals, to premiership glory.

The focus of story is on the coach, Ron Barassi. He commands a lot of attention when instructing his players. He is a hard taskmaster, knowing what he wants and how to get it. He wants to win but win fairly by having the toughest and most skillful team in the competition. His record stands tall with multiple premierships both as a player and a coach.

North Melbourne was a club languishing near the bottom of the ladder before Barassi too over and made them a powerhouse club. One that played in four consecutive grand finals, winning two.

It’s a marvellous read for those interested in the game. Especially if you are a fan of North Melbourne Football Club or Ron Barassi, or both.

An Arrogant Bunch

If it’s Craig Foster’s aim to convince me to support Australia’s bid for the FIFA World Cup in 2018 or 2022 then he is going the wrong way about it. In a recent article in the Sun Herald and in a conversation with Les Murray on SBS he came off as arrogant and conceited. Even suggesting that other sports don’t matter and that football [soccer] would inevitably take over Australia.

It’s true that soccer (I refuse to call it football) is the only truly international sport, but Foster should not be so arrogant when the local A League is on the decline despite the addition of new teams. Soccer does have the highest participation rates in juniors, yet our top competition can only be compared to the 3^rd or 4^th division in England.

Les Murray even got in the act on SBS recently, referring to the behaviour of rival codes as belligerent, inconvenient and unaustralian. He even suggested that we try and attain the bid before sorting out what he considers to be minor details. Getting three other codes that garner more support in Australia to shut up shop for three months is not minor!!

These two want other codes to just lie down and let them have their way. They use the examples of other countries and how they would laugh at the situation we have here. We have a unique situation. I can’t think of another country that has four football codes running professionally.

How about stadiums? We just don’t have them. I’ve blogged about it already. Our best are designed for cricket and Aussie Rules. FIFA want at least 12 stadiums of 40,000 minimum capacities, we have maybe 8. We just don’t have the population to make those kinds of stadiums viable. If Foster’s prediction is true, that soccer will take over Australia, then the sport needs to get cracking on some new soccer only stadiums.

For now, all soccer commentators should pull their collective heads in and show the other codes a tad of respect.

Caught Napping

Rugby League fans are crying poor to the NSW govt after revelations they were on the cusp of granting a multi million cash injection to the AFL for redevelopment of the showground at Homebush Bay.

These grievances are however misguided. Direct your issues at the NRL. It’s them that have failed to be proactive in submitting for available grants. The AFL has also been more willing than Rugby League to invest in grassroots programs. Whereas the NRL has been, by comparison, sleeping.

Now with the inevitable addition of a western Sydney team in the AFL by 2011 the Rugby League bodies are trying to play catch up. If you pay attention to Phil Gould then you might believe that Rugby League has nothing to worry about, if (that’s a big IF) it get’s it’s house in order regarding a national independent body to take over from the multitude of bureaucracy filled state and regional bodies. Due to infighting this may take some time. As an AFL supporter I can’t say I am too disappointed.

They call western Sydney “Rugby League Heartland”. All that can change very swiftly as a cashed up AFL is primed to swoop in and won’t allow the venture to fail.

You Heard it Here First

On my other blog, Hammer Time, way back in 2006 I made comment to the fact that Australia's stadiums just don't cut the mustard when it comes time to seriously bid for the FIFA World Cup in 2018/2022.

As per FIFA's criteria, for a nation to succeed in it's bid it will have to have 12 suitable stadiums. 10 need to have 40K+ capacity and 2 need 80K+ capacity. On top of that, other facilities need to be supplied for training purposes. Also, as I learnt from an ANZ Stadium tour, the soccer federations are quite picky when it comes to the type of grass used. Infact the stadium had recently been completely returfed for the upcoming international friendly.

There is the suggestion that all other football codes will have to halt so that the soccer, that's right I said soccer, boys can have their party. Rugby League bosses have said they hope to come to some agreement if the bid is successful. but 4 to 8 weeks is a ridiculous request and I hope all other codes at least make it very difficult for FFA boss, Ben Buckley.

But who are we kidding. We don't have the stadiums (read the 2006 post) and building anymore would be a waste of money. Rudd has already sunk $43 million just into the bid.

A Mere Thug

I got up early on Sunday morning (25/10) to watch the rugby league test match between Australia and New Zealand.

Something I don’t understand is how Paul Gallen has become an automatic selection at representative level despite performing below par at club level in a team that only just scraped themselves off the bottom of the ladder. He must be the most overrated player in the competition.

In the match there was an incident with New Zealand hooker, Isaac Luke, which confirmed to me that he is more interested in the biff than playing the game. It was minor in the context of the match was unnecessary. He is not a good player, rather a pure thug. I’m even embarrassed that he came from a local club, Wenty Magpies.

Surely there are better players than Gallen that deserve selection next year.