Rumours of playing 4 games in Sydney in 2009

[Dry Rot]

Apparently this was on SEN - anyone know anything about it?

Doesn't make sense to me, unless it is the first step in an evil AFL relocation plan.

[LostDoggy]

Yes the AFL admin will look after us

[gohardorgohome]

Western Sydney is the worst region of Australia IMO. Take the four least inviting suburbs of Melbourne multiply the area by fifteen, add two and a half million people who have no interest in aussie rules and you should have a picture of what it’s like. I go there a bit for work and hate the place with a passion.

The Northern Beaches, Eastern suburbs and Inner West of Sydney have a small AFL culture. That culture took 25 years to develop. Noone out west in Sydney gives a damn. They like Rugby League because it is easy for them to follow. They have no idea about Aussie Rules.

It’s not like Hawthorn and Tassie with an AFL culture. There are not many expat Victorians living there like the Gold Coast. Remember when North played a few games in Sydney six or so years back? No one went. That’s what it will be like. They only get 12000 or so to a Canterbury Bulldogs game. That club plays it's games in the heartland of Rugby League.


A terrible idea that we should not even contemplate.

[mjp]

I still dont get the attraction with Western Sydney.

Population? Yep. Tourists? Nope. Rugby league heartland and not exactly a desired location for any Victorians/Tasmanians moving 'north'.

I dont understand it. The Gold Coast I understood. Western Sydney I dont. Stick a 3rd team in Perth would be a better idea.

[Sockeye Salmon]

I still dont get the attraction with Western Sydney.

Population? Yep. Tourists? Nope. Rugby league heartland and not exactly a desired location for any Victorians/Tasmanians moving 'north'.

I dont understand it. The Gold Coast I understood. Western Sydney I dont. Stick a 3rd team in Perth would be a better idea.

How is Perth currently divvied up?

Is it eveyone South of the river goes for Freo? Is there another area that would be ideal for a third side?

[LostDoggy]

How is Perth currently divvied up?

Is it eveyone South of the river goes for Freo? Is there another area that would be ideal for a third side?

Your heartland of Freo support is, surprisingly, Freo. Other than that, there is no geographical logic to how WCE or Freo support is divvied up. I would argue that Freo is mostly supported by people who want to 'stick it to the man'... ie. the default position is WCE, so if you don't want to run with the herd you go for Fremantle. However, scratch a Fremantle supporter and you find an Eagles supporter, and vice versa. They claim to have a Collingwood and Carlton type of hatred, but that is absolute tripe.

If you were looking to start a new AFL club in Perth you would probably put it in Joondalup, northern suburbs, where West Perth has been relocated to. I doubt the Peel region (Mandurah, booming south) could sustain a team.

Anyway, if any AFL team is going to be moved or started anywhere, it should be Canberra. They need a team.

[Twodogs]

Your heartland of Freo support is, surprisingly, Freo. Other than that, there is no geographical logic to how WCE or Freo support is divvied up. I would argue that Freo is mostly supported by people who want to 'stick it to the man'... ie. the default position is WCE, so if you don't want to run with the herd you go for Fremantle. However, scratch a Fremantle supporter and you find an Eagles supporter, and vice versa. They claim to have a Collingwood and Carlton type of hatred, but that is absolute tripe.

If you were looking to start a new AFL club in Perth you would probably put it in Joondalup, northern suburbs, where West Perth has been relocated to. I doubt the Peel region (Mandurah, booming south) could sustain a team.

Anyway, if any AFL team is going to be moved or started anywhere, it should be Canberra. They need a team.



What about Tassie? Full of footy people and there's nothing else to do. I'd go there before I went to Canberra.

[mjp]

However, scratch a Fremantle supporter and you find an Eagles supporter, and vice versa. They claim to have a Collingwood and Carlton type of hatred, but that is absolute tripe.


I disagree with this as much as anything I have ever read on this site.

Casual fans? Sure. West Coast supporters tend not to have the same level of hatred of the Dockers as Freo do of WCE for one very simple reason - it is hard to hate someone who you have historically smashed. Freo supporters - real fans - have an almost pathological hate of the Eagles though. It is a little disturbing to be honest.

The teams hate each other on the field...no doubt the fans hate each other off the field.

Perth is divvied up such that most people follow WCE, and I guess around 10-15% of the footy public back the Dockers. But what this translates too is that a Dogs fan like me who has returned to Perth after 3 years and wants to go and watch AFL footy cannot even get tickets to the Dockers games, let alone to West Coast (season pass I mean).

Is there room for another team here? Not really. But I still say that there is room for another side here before there is in Western Sydney.

[LostDoggy]

What about Tassie? Full of footy people and there's nothing else to do. I'd go there before I went to Canberra.

Canberra and Tassie have roughly the same population, I think. Canberra is full of footy people, with the advantage of being close to Sydney. Support for the Raiders is very superficial...(The Brumbies are different, of course). Manuka is beautifully located and a great place to watch footy, if you can get in.

Nothing else to do in Canberra either;)

[Twodogs]

Canberra and Tassie have roughly the same population, I think. Canberra is full of footy people, with the advantage of being close to Sydney. Support for the Raiders is very superficial...(The Brumbies are different, of course). Manuka is beautifully located and a great place to watch footy, if you can get in.

Nothing else to do in Canberra either;)



We graced it with our presence last year, and for quite a lot longer than we intended too:D.

[Sockeye Salmon]

The AFL missed the boat in Canberra. They needed to get in before the Raiders, so they're 20 years too late.

[LostDoggy]

I disagree with this as much as anything I have ever read on this site.

Casual fans? Sure. West Coast supporters tend not to have the same level of hatred of the Dockers as Freo do of WCE for one very simple reason - it is hard to hate someone who you have historically smashed. Freo supporters - real fans - have an almost pathological hate of the Eagles though. It is a little disturbing to be honest.

The teams hate each other on the field...no doubt the fans hate each other off the field.

Perth is divvied up such that most people follow WCE, and I guess around 10-15% of the footy public back the Dockers. But what this translates too is that a Dogs fan like me who has returned to Perth after 3 years and wants to go and watch AFL footy cannot even get tickets to the Dockers games, let alone to West Coast (season pass I mean).

Is there room for another team here? Not really. But I still say that there is room for another side here before there is in Western Sydney.

I feel honoured!

Freo or WCE fans are not casual or fickle, or any less passionate than us Doggies fans. I'm not saying that.

But try this little experiment: next time the Eagles are playing a Victorian team in the finals, watch your Dockers mates and see who they really want to win. It will be the Eagles. And vice versa. They will support WA despite themselves.

Then ask a Collingwood supporter if they would barrack for Carlton in a final. They wouldn't. That is pathological hatred. Eagles V Dockers is a minor lover's tiff by comparison.

I grew up in WA as well...

[hotdog]

[QUOTE=Alan Shorty;24605]I feel honoured!

But try this little experiment: next time the Eagles are playing a Victorian team in the finals, watch your Dockers mates and see who they really want to win. It will be the Eagles. And vice versa. They will support WA despite themselves.

Then ask a Collingwood supporter if they would barrack for Carlton in a final. They wouldn't. That is pathological hatred. Eagles V Dockers is a minor lover's tiff by comparison.

I tend to agree. Having lived over here since 2000 the Us V Them mentality is at times hard to bear. Most people I know barrack for West Coast but the general theme is if WCE can't win the flag then "West is Best" and Go Dockers or Go WA!

[gohardorgohome]

I have spent a bit of time in Perth for work. I think most in Melb have no idea of how parochial people from WA are. There is a significant number of people there that want to split from the rest of the country.

[mjp]

I feel honoured!

Freo or WCE fans are not casual or fickle, or any less passionate than us Doggies fans. I'm not saying that.

But try this little experiment: next time the Eagles are playing a Victorian team in the finals, watch your Dockers mates and see who they really want to win. It will be the Eagles. And vice versa. They will support WA despite themselves.
Then ask a Collingwood supporter if they would barrack for Carlton in a final. They wouldn't. That is pathological hatred. Eagles V Dockers is a minor lover's tiff by comparison.

I grew up in WA as well...

I suspect your WA friends are not footy fans...I disagree with this even more than your first statement. The LAST thing any Dockers fan wants is the Eagles to win - EVERYONE at work will be into them on the Monday morning. The reverse is absolutely true. The Eagles fans simply dont want the Dockers to be successful...they hate losing Western Derbies, and always go on about them being 'Grand Finals for teams who cant make Grand Finals' etc etc.

I remember pelting Shorty Daniels with food as he lay (passed out drunk) at the bottom of the players race at the Western Oval in June 1985...Perhaps this experience is making me disregard your opinion, but there isn't much 'my second side is the Eagles' type stuff happening here these days...

[Dry Rot]

The good part of this fine plan is that there already is a Bulldogs team (with our jumpers) playing in the Sydney Aussie Rules comp but









They're located in East Sydney......

[The Bulldogs Bite]

Eade has labelled the possibility of playing 4 games in Sydney as 'fantastic'. Bullocks IMO - I couldn't disagree more.

[hujsh]

Eade has labelled the possibility of playing 4 games in Sydney as 'fantastic'. Bullocks IMO - I couldn't disagree more.

Yeah i don't see it either

'It sure is wonderful that we get to travel to sydney instead of using our home ground advantage even though we have record memberships and travel to Darwin already':rolleyes:

[BulldogBelle]

Now someone correct me if I am wrong but didn't the club come out and say at the end of 2006 that we would only be selling our home games outside of Vic for the next three years being...2007, 2008 & 2009 then from 2010 we would cease selling our home games and play them all in Melbourne? I remember hearing and reading something about that at the time I must hunt around for that article.

[hujsh]

Now someone correct me if I am wrong but didn't the club come out and say at the end of 2006 that we would only be selling our home games outside of Vic for the next three years being...2007, 2008 & 2009 then from 2010 we would cease selling our home games and play them all in Melbourne? I remember hearing and reading something about that at the time I must hunt around for that article.

It sounds very familiar and i doubt you are wrong.

[Sockeye Salmon]

I find this inconceivable.

There is only one possible direction this can head and that's with the AFL pushing us towards permanent re-location.

There is some serious politics going on behind the scenes, something like being told "if you don't do it we'll pull your extra $1.7mil".

Take off your glasses boys, the blue's about to start again.

[hujsh]

Why would they relocate us if we are making profits have strong membership figures and (i'm assuming)have no debt?

[The Underdog]

I really hope there is no truth to this. It can only lead to bad things down the track. The North / Gold Coast thing is the football's biggest cautionary tale and sitting right there in our recent memories. I think if this develops into anything we'll all need to make sure we make the club aware of how we feel about this, especially if it leads to less games in Melbourne. As others have pointed out there is no logic to us playing up there.
I'm going to Darwin, Canberra and Launceston to see us play this year. I won't go to Western Sydney to see us. I'm sure these games will not make it to free to air TV in the most part either. I think Sockeye's right. We may have a fight on our hands.

[The Coon Dog]

Rocket misunderstood a journo's question when he said it made sense.

He assumed the journo was talking of 2 Homebush games. His thought was, great, just got to play at one different venue rather than Darwin & Canberra. Not 4, anywhere, anytime!!!

Unfortunately, that's not how it's been played out & Kanga's fans stoking the flames on BF don't help as our BF supporters take it as gospel.

Rocket wants to play 11 home games in melbourne. End of story!

[LostDoggy]

Rocket wants to play 11 home games in melbourne. End of story!
I've heard him say this before so it sounded strange hear him approving 4 interstate games.

[hujsh]

Question: If the AFL said "go now" what would have to happen for us to move? Would we vote? Would the board just say NO? If the board wanted to go would we have a say? How many votes would the board need? Would we just spill the board? :(

(I've been on BF so I'm a little paranoid;))

[bornadog]

Why would they relocate us if we are making profits have strong membership figures and (i'm assuming)have no debt?

plenty of debt my boy don't you worry about that.
We need to build that membership to somewhere near 35,000 and stay with it consistently and then we can pay back the bank and tell the AFL to get stuffed.

[hujsh]

The club announcement today should get rid of these rumors right?

[Mantis]

The club announcement today should get rid of these rumors right?

Why would it? Even though the annoucement shows that there was something else happening down at Whitten Oval (besides the supposed fisticuffs) there will still be queries over what is happening behind closed doors.

I have no idea how you can deny these types of rumours. If they have a press conference and talk about it there will be questions over if it is staged. If you do nothing it may be seen to might show that there is a problem. It is not an easy situation to deal with.

[hujsh]

Why would it? Even though the annoucement shows that there was something else happening down at Whitten Oval (besides the supposed fisticuffs) there will still be queries over what is happening behind closed doors.

I have no idea how you can deny these types of rumours. If they have a press conference and talk about it there will be questions over if it is staged. If you do nothing it may be seen to might show that there is a problem. It is not an easy situation to deal with.

Well the whole thing started because people were taking pot-shots at what the big announcement would be. Now that is has happened it should fade away sooner rather than later.

[The Doctor]

If we play in Western Sydney I'll be the least surprised. The AFL has wanted a team (mainly us) to play there for years. I was told this by an AFL official in the early part of this century (makes me sound old doesn't it).

I can't remember exactly when but sometime in the late 90's, early 00's the AFL conducted some research on neutral supporters in the west to try and discover which non Sydney AFL team they identified with. Surprisingly the Bulldogs ranked highly. I guess this may have been due to the Libba/Kelly business that had been rampant at the time. Western Sydneysiders don't mind a rivalry (see State of Origin) and a bit of biffo so this research did not surprise me. Please note I lived in the Western Subs of Sydney for about 8 years so I know a bit about the mentatility.

So apparantly some of the westies (sydney western suburbs folk, approx 3 million of them) took a liking to the Dogs coz we stuck it up those aerial ping pong playing trendy toffs from the eastern suburbs. God love em.

Those times may now be gone but when you look at it from the AFL's point of view you only need to attract about 1% of those 3 million to get you about 30,000 to a game. It may be wishful thinking but not out of the realms of possibility. In the north west subs there has always been a strong AFL support base. This is known as the Hills district with areas like Pennant Hills, Castle Hill, Baulkham Hills, St Ives having a lot of AFL interest. THis might be a good area to establish a supporter base. Even traditional rugby league strongholds like PArramatta and Blacktown are nearby and even these major districts have teams in the local leagues and facilities. Pivotal to all this is Homebush.

It wouldn't be easy but AFL in Sydney's west is not a pipedream but a realistic opportunity to develop a new supporter base and grow the game. Geez if they can't do it the nice way they could always get a Libba clone to beat up some nice guy Swans superstar and that should do it for them.

[bornadog]

With the redevelopment of the Whitten Oval and the building of Edgewater, we won't be moving anywhere.

As for interstate games, will we need to play interstate after the Darwin deal is complete?

[Sockeye Salmon]

With the redevelopment of the Whitten Oval and the building of Edgewater, we won't be moving anywhere.

As for interstate games, will we need to play interstate after the Darwin deal is complete?

The two least financial clubs - regardless of who they might be - are still vulnerable.

If the AFL want someone in Western Sydney, all they have to do is pull out the CBF and give the players a $1 mil pay rise.

All of a sudden we will have to find an extra $2.7 mil a year.

We have to make sure that when the music stops, North and Melbourne have less money than us.

[hujsh]

Well I'd rather see the club die than see it relocate. It would just kick sand in the face of everyone who has kept the club running to give up and go.