What's new
The Front Row Forums

Register a free account today to become a member of the world's largest Rugby League discussion forum! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Greenberg wants 2nd Melb team

TheRam

Coach
Messages
13,461
Anyone here have access to the Tele story "Beattie wants NRL to find Asian Thurston" It's behind a paywall. It seems interesting and I wouldn't mind seeing what the plonker's strategy is to entice more Asians into play RL.

Is he is merely stating that it would be lovely if one day Asians just decided that it would be a great idea if they simply picked up a RL ball and started to play or has he an actual a well thought out strategy to do something positive for our little Asian brothers and sisters to get excited about playing this game?

Something tells me though it is probably just gas-bagging as always.
 

siv

First Grade
Messages
6,546
And here in lies the NRL's problem...

For most people the hassle and cost of actually attending isn't worth the experience that you get at the game. So the NRL (probably more specifically the clubs) need to change the experience to make it more appealing, and the cheap as possible family friendly thing obviously isn't working.

The NRL needs to differentiate it's self from the competition, you can get the family friendly at any sporting event, but you can only get x at the NRL is what they need to be going for in my opinion.

Agree about the X

At the moment other than a reverse angle view from the halfway line - there is no X. And that can costs $70

The TV experiance outstrips the game day experience

Penrith have right idea by playing RG and U20s on game day. They have a X

Watching kids footy is not a X other than for the kids and their family. Its a filler. Just like cheerleaders

The X at Perth was the new stadium and trip to Perth to do other stuff. But give it 12-24 months its no longer a X

I have a spare seat for my kids friends that I cant even give it away anymore. Be it scheduling or team performances. So I know first hand that price is not a factor to these casual fans

While price is a factor to me for away games
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,420
Foxtel = approx $50-60 a month for every game live (depending on your pack/deal)

Leichhardt = approx $55-60 for one person to get in, 2 beers and a burger.

Live TV saturation has killed off the incentive to go to a game for me. When I was a young bloke and the maggies or Wests tigers weren't on tele live you could find me at the game but now pfft unless it's a semi final :( I can't be bothered.

TBF you are a lost cause then. But fortunately other sports are showing that you can find 90k people with a different attitude and who will go to a game to get the buzz of actually being there over the experience of passively staring at the gogglebox.

I could buy 3 years worth of iTunes access for the price of seeing my fave band play live, but I'll take the concert everyday of the week. Memories are not made from watching TV but from experiencing life!

On my deathbed, if my flashes before me, it wont be all the NRL games Ive watched on Fox but the trip to UK to watch the CC final, the great night we had at the RLWC final, the GF in Sydney, the electricity of a derby game when I was a kid.

But enjoy your tv, you can always flick over to Idol or some cooking show if the game is boring!
 

Front-Rower

First Grade
Messages
5,297
I could buy 3 years worth of iTunes access for the price of seeing my fave band play live, but I'll take the concert everyday of the week. Memories are not made from watching TV but from experiencing life!

Not really a great example, I can go to the footy anytime between March and September every year and see the Tigers run around. That band may only come out to Australia once in 15-20 years.

TBF you are a lost cause then

Rather be a lost cause than never has been.
But fortunately other sports are showing that you can find 90k people with a different attitude and who will go to a game to get the buzz of actually being there over the experience of passively staring at the gogglebox.

How's that team going over in Perth? Oh that's right, lack of interest and money killed them off even though they did jump to Rupert league.

But enjoy your tv, you can always flick over to Idol or some cooking show if the game is boring!

Will do. Enjoy going to the NRL on the weekend in Perth..oh wait.
 

siv

First Grade
Messages
6,546
Its interesting watching who goes to 60-70k events

They seem to be a similar group who in Sydney can plan out a season around events

1 - Grand Final
2 - SOO match
3 - Soccerros match
4 - Bledsoe Cup match
5 - 3rd Day Sydney Test Cricket
6 - Mardi Gra
7 - Bathurst
8 - Easter Show
9 - Big music event
10 - Australia Day
11 - Xmas Carols in Domain

Club games arn't on these event days

Unless its on a public holiday when nothing else is on

They have a calender and budget for these. They wont go out and spend money on other "lesser events"

You need to tap into a new market a bit like T20 cricket did

But whats the X factor ?
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,420
Not really a great example, I can go to the footy anytime between March and September every year and see the Tigers run around. That band may only come out to Australia once in 15-20 years.



Rather be a lost cause than never has been.


How's that team going over in Perth? Oh that's right, lack of interest and money killed them off even though they did jump to Rupert league.



Will do. Enjoy going to the NRL on the weekend in Perth..oh wait.

Typical response from someone who cant enter rational debate. It wasn't a personal attack on you mate, just that if you find watching all games on TV preferable to attending your clubs games than there is nothing the NRL can do about you, but hopefully not everyone is like you or the game is stuffed.

Thanks, like you I'll enjoy watching it on TV, until we have a club I can go to, and then I will go to it not stay at home.
 

RoosTah

Juniors
Messages
2,257
Longer term, Melbourne 2 makes sense. But frankly, it's an expansion that makes sense after Perth, Adelaide and NZ 2.
 

Angry_eel

First Grade
Messages
8,547
Anyone here have access to the Tele story "Beattie wants NRL to find Asian Thurston" It's behind a paywall. It seems interesting and I wouldn't mind seeing what the plonker's strategy is to entice more Asians into play RL.

Is he is merely stating that it would be lovely if one day Asians just decided that it would be a great idea if they simply picked up a RL ball and started to play or has he an actual a well thought out strategy to do something positive for our little Asian brothers and sisters to get excited about playing this game?

Something tells me though it is probably just gas-bagging as always.
I hope not. Its a welcome comment but not entirely correct either. I'm Indian, Indians are in big numbers around Parramatta. How is the NRL or Parra targeting us?

Moreover, not all Indians are small so one day there could be an Indian second rowers or players in other positions but the kids have to be welcomed and encouraged.

To put it into context, AFL had a Sikh kid in their ad before GWS came in and muslim women playing in AFLW.
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,723
I hope not. Its a welcome comment but not entirely correct either. I'm Indian, Indians are in big numbers around Parramatta. How is the NRL or Parra targeting us?

Moreover, not all Indians are small so one day there could be an Indian second rowers or players in other positions but the kids have to be welcomed and encouraged.

To put it into context, AFL had a Sikh kid in their ad before GWS came in and muslim women playing in AFLW.

Are Indian kids not welcomed and encouraged? Is anyone not welcomed and encouraged?

I can't speak for Parramatta, but there's nothing stopping anyone from joining a local club here, even if you can't play most clubs have a way that you can be involved (including kids).

Frankly apart from Soccer and maybe Cricket, Rugby League is probably the most racially and ethnically diverse team sport in this country, so though the Indian communities may not have embraced it as much as they could have it's unlikely to be because the RL communities have been uninviting... And the NRL shouldn't be "targeting" any group, it should just be open to anyone that wants to take it up.

Also the AFL propagandising their "diversity" is cringe inducing, forced, not reflective of their sport at all (they're whiter then a porcelain doll, and ethnically almost completely Anglo and Celtic) , and I highly, highly doubt that it's actually lead to a measurable increase in the diversity of their sport anyway, we shouldn't be following their lead in this regard.
 

Angry_eel

First Grade
Messages
8,547
Are Indian kids not welcomed and encouraged? Is anyone not welcomed and encouraged?

I can't speak for Parramatta, but there's nothing stopping anyone from joining a local club here, even if you can't play most clubs have a way that you can be involved (including kids).

Frankly apart from Soccer and maybe Cricket, Rugby League is probably the most racially and ethnically diverse team sport in this country, so though the Indian communities may not have embraced it as much as they could have it's unlikely to be because the RL communities have been uninviting... And the NRL shouldn't be "targeting" any group, it should just be open to anyone that wants to take it up.

Also the AFL propagandising their "diversity" is cringe inducing, forced, not reflective of their sport at all (they're whiter then a porcelain doll, and ethnically almost completely Anglo and Celtic) , and I highly, highly doubt that it's actually lead to a measurable increase in the diversity of their sport anyway, we shouldn't be following their lead in this regard.

Don't look at RL as a game, look at it as a business. Some customers are easy to acquire like PIs while others will be harder like Indians and Asians.

Indians are open to Cricket because its what they grew up with culturally. They will be open to others as well but it will require some effort. At the individual junior club level, things should stay as they are, just welcome the kids and their parents. At most, you may need to cater for multiple food preferences like vegetarians, etc.

At the NRL and Senior club level (West Tigers, Parramatta and others) there needs to be a strategy of openness and engagement. Clubs need to advertise in the local papers, engage the community groups and have stalls at cultural festivals.

I believe that in Parramatta's case the engagement alone will improve crowds as a lot of Old Parramatta fans now live in the Hills and North West but recent Indian migrants live near the CBD.

If the result of this is an Indian or Asian fullback, winger in the next 10 years then it will help tremendously.
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,723
Don't look at RL as a game, look at it as a business. Some customers are easy to acquire like PIs while others will be harder like Indians and Asians.

Oh I very much understand that the NRL is a business, but name me one business on the free market that compartmentalises it's customers into identity groups that is successful!? I can't think of one...

Indians are open to Cricket because its what they grew up with culturally. They will be open to others as well but it will require some effort. At the individual junior club level, things should stay as they are, just welcome the kids and their parents. At most, you may need to cater for multiple food preferences like vegetarians, etc.

I don't understand why a juniors club is catering for any food preferences at all (if you're talking about the sausage sizzle or canteen than I assure you that almost all juniors clubs can't afford to cater to food preferences like vegetarians and vegans anyway), but apart from that aren't all juniors clubs already doing this? If not report them and/or make a new club that is open to anybody...

Where is the problem?

At the NRL and Senior club level (West Tigers, Parramatta and others) there needs to be a strategy of openness and engagement. Clubs need to advertise in the local papers, engage the community groups and have stalls at cultural festivals.

They already have it, it's called don't discriminate between customers based on race, ethnicity, or any other arbitrary characteristics...

And the clubs should be advertising in newspapers, engaging with community groups, etc, etc, as much as possible anyway, that's called basic marketing and advertising, on average they aren't doing that, that's cause they aren't particularly well run businesses, but that has nothing to do with "targeting" any groups or anything...

I believe that in Parramatta's case the engagement alone will improve crowds as a lot of Old Parramatta fans now live in the Hills and North West but recent Indian migrants live near the CBD.

Again I'm sure that it would, but they shouldn't be targeting anybody (based on race, ethnicity, whatever), just appealing to anybody that is interested no matter who they are...

If the result of this is an Indian or Asian fullback, winger in the next 10 years then it will help tremendously.

Yeah that's been proven not to have a particularly big impact time and time again, and it doesn't take long to find examples of that, but I think this example is a particularly relevant one in this case-

https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2...-india-tour-to-one-show-jinder-mahal-triple-h
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2017/10/09/jinder-mahal/#31a90e9e3889
https://www.thesportster.com/wrestling/jinder-mahal-championship-loss-wwe-india-expansion-failed/
http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2018/0121/636153/the-great-khali-says-wwe-failed-in-india/

You're going at it all wrong, you can't force people to be interested, and even if you could you'd have to change the product so much that you'd alienate your current customer base. The best way to get people interested is just to be open and let everyone that is interested participate and just wait until some people come along that take an interest then introduce it to more and more people, the process of which has obviously already started to happen since you are Indian and you follow a club.

I mean do you really think that their was a concerted effort to appeal to say the Lebanese community, Italian community, the Aboriginal communities, etc, etc, by the game? Cause I can assure you that there wasn't, certain people from those groups picked it up over time and the sports popularity in those groups grew over time until it's where it's at now.

If you really want to see growth in the popularity of the sport amongst Indian communities then the best things that you personally (or anybody really) can do would be to try to take as many Indian friends and their families to games and teach them the rules, push for cross promotion with RL clubs (as an example if you, a friend, whomever owns a business or whatever that has a place in the Indian community, then sponsor a RL club and promote that fact and sell your product to the RL fans of that club and to sell that club and the sport to your customers), or if you are really, really serious about doing something big, then find 17 or so guys and start a club in your community.

BTW there's an Indian guy (well he could be Pakistani, Sri Lankan, or whatever) that's a Raiders member that sits in front of me at Raiders games with his kid, and he isn't the only one, there're aren't many but they are there, and given time that number will grow over generations.
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,420
You missed his point totally! Take a look at how afl does its inclusivity targeted marketing. Our game is light years behind. If you dont think that you need to target within specific groups that have no history with the game differently then your mistaken. you don’t do it at the expense of anyine else but do need to have specific ideas about how you will reach a potential customer base that isn’t a traditional one.
 

taipan

Referee
Messages
22,402
You missed his point totally! Take a look at how afl does its inclusivity targeted marketing. Our game is light years behind. If you dont think that you need to target within specific groups that have no history with the game differently then your mistaken. you don’t do it at the expense of anyine else but do need to have specific ideas about how you will reach a potential customer base that isn’t a traditional one.

The AFL did a great job of it within the South Pacific community, with Folau.Oh wait!!!!!
 

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,723
You missed his point totally! Take a look at how afl does its inclusivity targeted marketing. Our game is light years behind. If you dont think that you need to target within specific groups that have no history with the game differently then your mistaken. you don’t do it at the expense of anyine else but do need to have specific ideas about how you will reach a potential customer base that isn’t a traditional one.

Yeah cause treating people differently based on race and ethnicity has been a great idea in the past...

Jesus H. Christ, as a species we tend to repeat some of the same mistakes over and over don't we!
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,420
4E04BCF8-8011-430C-A16D-3C96BC9F443D.jpeg

People are different lol, it’s called diversity for a reason. It isnt a negative unless you use the differences to subjugate. It’s about positive targeting to support feelings of inclusion from groups who may otherwise feel excluded.

We do it well in PI communities because they are naturally suited to play the game and have a history with it, but what about others who don’t have that history and link up? such as Indian and Asian communities where they may not players but enjoy watching the game?

Having a $5 pack of veggie snags in the freezer isnt going to break the bank but more importantly Sanjeev not being ridiculed for asking for a veggie snag is even more Important.
 
Last edited:

The Great Dane

First Grade
Messages
7,723
View attachment 18824

People are different lol, it’s called diversity for a reason. It isnt a negative unless you use the differences to subjugate. It’s about positive targeting to support feelings of inclusion from groups who may otherwise feel excluded.

I know that you don't realise this and that you probably won't understand this (no offence) but what you are describing isn't "diversity" it's tribalism, and tribalism is very much a double edged sword...
50 white Australian men in a room can be just as diverse in their backgrounds, history and outlook on life as a group made up of 50 different men from 50 different racial and ethnic groups in a room.

What you are arguing that we should do is recognise people as separate groups based on their race and ethnicity, instead of just treating everyone as individuals and as what we are/should be- one big group, one tribe- Australians, and doing so has always, always ended badly given time, even when it starts from a place of good intentions.

The sport of RL and the business that is the NRL should stay as apolitical as possible and shouldn't be attempting to plan out or change the cultural or racial makeup of the sport either (which is another bad idea that's never worked), just be open to everyone who wants to pick up the sport.

Again there's nothing you can do to make somebody that isn't interested in the product interested, especially from outside of a defined group, so the NRL could print as many pictures of Indian fans, and have as many multicultural rounds, Bollywood appreciation rounds, or whatever that they want, if the individuals themselves ain't interested, they ain't interested...

Did you read the articles I posted earlier about the WWE? You should, then look up what is happening to Marvel comics (not Marvel Studios) and how they are tanking, there're other examples, but those alone should be sufficient to change your mind on this stuff pretty quickly.

We do it well in PI communities because they are naturally suited to play the game and have a history with it, but what about others who don’t have that history and link up? such as Indian and Asian communities where they may not players but enjoy watching the game?

Simply give it time, eventually Indian and Asian kids will filter through the system as they decide to pick the sport up simply cause at a young age their friends at school are playing the game and they want to play too.

There's no way that you can speed up that process or force it...

As I said earlier-
I mean do you really think that their was a concerted effort to appeal to say the Lebanese community, Italian community, the Aboriginal communities, etc, etc, by the game? Cause I can assure you that there wasn't, certain people from those groups picked it up over time and the sports popularity in those groups grew over time until it's where it's at now.

Having a $5 pack of veggie snags in the freezer isnt going to break the bank but more importantly Sanjeev not being ridiculed for asking for a veggie snag is even more Important.

Firstly I don't know which juniors clubs you are working with, but maintaining and storing a supply and variety of vegetarian and/or vegan food that is only appealing to a minuscule minority most of which will inevitably go to waste overtime is simply outside the reach of most juniors clubs.
And once you beak it down it's not just vegetarian food, if you are going to ague that you must cater to vegetarians to be inclusive then surely you must cater to everyone otherwise you are excluding them also, that means that you'd have to have gluten free options, lactose free options, diabetic meal options, Halal, Kosher, etc, etc, etc, etc, anybody who comes along with a quirk in their diet would need to be catered for otherwise they'd be being excluded, and most juniors clubs simply can't afford that...

Now if we're talking about NRL clubs then that is a different matter, maybe they should be trying to cater to as many different dietary needs as possible (though to be fair most NRL clubs don't provide catering at their events, it's done by caterers that are contracted by the owners of the stadium), from a commercial point of view it probably makes a lot of sense for them to cater to some of the larger dietary groups, but that is a different argument all together.

BTW, earlier you said-
You don’t do it at the expense of anyone else but do need to have specific ideas about how you will reach a potential customer base that isn’t a traditional one.

By it's very nature to appeal directly to one group you must do it at the expense of another, for example if I start a marketing campaign directed at getting more Serbs through the door that is going to turn Croats away just by it's very nature... However if I just have a campaign that is open to all that are interested then that won't be a problem, I might not get as many Serbs through the door as I would have, but I'll definitely get more Croats through the door then I would have if I targeted Serbs lol, and if we unite under another banner as RL fans and not as Croats, Serbs, Australians, Indians, black, white, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist (though something tells me that your average Buddhist will never be interested in RL no matter what we do lol), whatever, then we can put aside our differences based on those divides and come together and learn to get along with each other based on our shared interests (which in this case is RL).

I use the example of Serbs and Croats cause this actually happened at one of the juniors clubs I was helping out years and years ago during the Yugoslav Wars in the 90s, two families joined the club, unbeknown too us one was a Serbian family and one a Croatian family, nor would we have recognised the problem or really cared if we did know before hand to be honest, their kids joined the club cause they each had friends at school who played on the team, and it was the mid 90s in Canberra lol, both kids joined the same team and all was fine for give or take a month, then the farther of one of the kids heard the other kids farther talking to his mother or whoever in Serbian/Croatian and as you can imagine things turned sour pretty quickly... I won't go into details but their was a relatively serious fight.
Anyway long story short, the club had to talk to them (I wasn't at any of the meetings but my brother was at some of them, there were at least 4-5), they wanted one of the kids to leave the team and but we couldn't do that cause their was only two teams in that age group and if we moved one of their kids to another team that year then their wouldn't be enough numbers to field the other team, so we would have had to swap one of them for a kid in the other team which as you can imagine that wasn't ideal, and they both wanted to other to move to the other team anyway cause both kids had friends on the team, so we convinced them to calm down and just trial coexisting on the same team for a while and we'd split them up next year, or if things didn't work out we'd find another solution, but that wasn't necessary, things were (extremely) tense for a while but after some time all calmed down and eventually the kids became friends, then the families became friends, and when we brought up the opportunity to split them up the next year they didn't want to, at that point I wouldn't say that they were friends (especially the fathers) just peacefully coexisting, but they did eventually become friends overtime as the kids were on the same team for a number of years before one of them left cause they went to a private school that didn't allow their students to play sport for anyone but them.

RL literally united Serbs and Croats during the Yugoslav Wars, we don't need to target anybody to have "diversity" we already have it and we're already getting more and more of it, and if we had been targeting Croats or Serbs it would never, ever, have happened.

So where is the problem? You're trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist.
 
Last edited:
Messages
17,252
I know that you don't realise this and that you probably won't understand this (no offence) but what you are describing isn't "diversity" it's tribalism, and tribalism is very much a double edged sword...
50 white Australian men in a room can be just as diverse in their backgrounds, history and outlook on life as a group made up of 50 different men from 50 different racial and ethnic groups in a room.

What you are arguing that we should do is recognise people as separate groups based on their race and ethnicity, instead of just treating everyone as individuals and as what we are/should be- one big group, one tribe- Australians, and doing so has always, always ended badly given time, even when it starts from a place of good intentions.

The sport of RL and the business that is the NRL should stay as apolitical as possible and shouldn't be attempting to plan out or change the cultural or racial makeup of the sport either (which is another bad idea that's never worked), just be open to everyone who wants to pick up the sport.

Again there's nothing you can do to make somebody that isn't interested in the product interested, especially from outside of a defined group, so the NRL could print as many pictures of Indian fans, and have as many multicultural rounds, Bollywood appreciation rounds, or whatever that they want, if the individuals themselves ain't interested, they ain't interested...

Did you read the articles I posted earlier about the WWE? You should, then look up what is happening to Marvel comics (not Marvel Studios) and how they are tanking, there're other examples, but those alone should be sufficient to change your mind on this stuff pretty quickly.



Simply give it time, eventually Indian and Asian kids will filter through the system as they decide to pick the sport up simply cause at a young age their friends at school are playing the game and they want to play too.

There's no way that you can speed up that process or force it...

As I said earlier-



Firstly I don't know which juniors clubs you are working with, but maintaining and storing a supply and variety of vegetarian and/or vegan food that is only appealing to a minuscule minority most of which will inevitably go to waste overtime is simply outside the reach of most juniors clubs.
And once you beak it down it's not just vegetarian food, if you are going to ague that you must cater to vegetarians to be inclusive then surely you must cater to everyone otherwise you are excluding them also, that means that you'd have to have gluten free options, lactose free options, diabetic meal options, Halal, Kosher, etc, etc, etc, etc, anybody who comes along with a quirk in their diet would need to be catered for otherwise they'd be being excluded, and most juniors clubs simply can't afford that...

Now if we're talking about NRL clubs then that is a different matter, maybe they should be trying to cater to as many different dietary needs as possible (though to be fair most NRL clubs don't provide catering at their events, it's done by caterers that are contracted by the owners of the stadium), from a commercial point of view it probably makes a lot of sense for them to cater to some of the larger dietary groups, but that is a different argument all together.

BTW, earlier you said-

By it's very nature to appeal directly to one group you must do it at the expense of another, for example if I start a marketing campaign directed at getting more Serbs through the door that is going to turn Croats away just by it's very nature... However if I just have a campaign that is open to all that are interested then that won't be a problem, I might not get as many Serbs through the door as I would have, but I'll definitely get more Croats through the door then I would have if I targeted Serbs lol, and if we unite under another banner as RL fans and not as Croats, Serbs, Australians, Indians, black, white, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist (though something tells me that your average Buddhist will never be interested in RL no matter what we do lol), whatever, then we can put aside our differences based on those divides and come together and learn to get along with each other based on our shared interests (which in this case is RL).

I use the example of Serbs and Croats cause this actually happened at one of the juniors clubs I was helping out years and years ago during the Yugoslav Wars in the 90s, two families joined the club, unbeknown too us one was a Serbian family and one a Croatian family, nor would we have recognised the problem or really cared if we did know before hand to be honest, their kids joined the club cause they each had friends at school who played on the team, and it was the mid 90s in Canberra lol, both kids joined the same team and all was fine for give or take a month, then the farther of one of the kids heard the other kids farther talking to his mother or whoever in Serbian/Croatian and as you can imagine things turned sour pretty quickly... I won't go into details but their was a relatively serious fight.
Anyway long story short, the club had to talk to them (I wasn't at any of the meetings but my brother was at some of them, there were at least 4-5), they wanted one of the kids to leave the team and but we couldn't do that cause their was only two teams in that age group and if we moved one of their kids to another team that year then their wouldn't be enough numbers to field the other team, so we would have had to swap one of them for a kid in the other team which as you can imagine that wasn't ideal, and they both wanted to other to move to the other team anyway cause both kids had friends on the team, so we convinced them to calm down and just trial coexisting on the same team for a while and we'd split them up next year, or if things didn't work out we'd find another solution, but that wasn't necessary, things were (extremely) tense for a while but after some time all calmed down and eventually the kids became friends, then the families became friends, and when we brought up the opportunity to split them up the next year they didn't want to, at that point I wouldn't say that they were friends (especially the fathers) just peacefully coexisting, but they did eventually become friends overtime as the kids were on the same team for a number of years before one of them left cause they went to a private school that didn't allow their students to play sport for anyone but them.

RL literally united Serbs and Croats during the Yugoslav Wars, we don't need to target anybody to have "diversity" we already have it and we're already getting more and more of it, and if we had been targeting Croats or Serbs it would never, ever, have happened.

So where is the problem? You're trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist.
Wow such a great post!

At first I thought WTF is this novel, then couldn’t stop reading.

Well done, well done
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,420
Don’t disagree at all Dane and well done on a well written point of view post, makes a nice change on here! But, humans are tribal by nature, we create communities with people we have a connection with, we have cultures that are different, religions that are different, diets that are different etc. Many ethnic groups do feel excluded, or if not excluded at least not necessarily included. Ideally it wouldn’t be that way but we don’t live in an ideal world, far from it. Will the game get a more ethnically diverse following if it has strategies around being more inclusive to these groups needs and feelings? Don’t know but it’s worth a shot given the countries amazing multi ethnic population make up and the games need for more supporters and players.

Is it really happening already in large numbers? Of course there are examples, sport has always been a great conduit for this. But is it representative of the population size? Not sure there are hard and fast facts to prove or disprove, certainly in pockets of communities it’s already significant (thinking Canterbury community, Lebanese community in Sydney, PI groups etc) but I wonder how many of say the Broncos membership would be from a CaLD community? Does it represent the 15% of population in Brisbane who have English as a second language?

I’ve been impressed with the afl’s efforts here in getting i to the refugee communities, of course they sell themselves as Australia’s game and if you want to be Aussie you have to follow afl which is a bit Goelbels like but the end result is more and more kids from Africa and Middle East are playing and probably will become life long fans of their game in WA.
 
Last edited:

Mister M

Juniors
Messages
124
Firstly I don't know which juniors clubs you are working with, but maintaining and storing a supply and variety of vegetarian and/or vegan food that is only appealing to a minuscule minority most of which will inevitably go to waste overtime is simply outside the reach of most juniors clubs.
And once you beak it down it's not just vegetarian food, if you are going to ague that you must cater to vegetarians to be inclusive then surely you must cater to everyone otherwise you are excluding them also, that means that you'd have to have gluten free options, lactose free options, diabetic meal options, Halal, Kosher, etc, etc, etc, etc, anybody who comes along with a quirk in their diet would need to be catered for otherwise they'd be being excluded, and most juniors clubs simply can't afford that...

Do you know how much of a 'minuscule minority' is Vegetarians in Australia?

It's 2.1 million Australians or 11% of the population. (According to Roy Morgan 2016 data).

But even then if you are providing vegan sausages at a BBQ, not only are you satisfying the dietary requirements of both vegetarians and vegans but also other people on your list of different dietary needs.

Halal -- Vegan sausages are not meat, so they can eat them
Kosher- Not pork, or a combination of meat & diary so they can eat them
Lactose Free- No Diary, so they can eat them
Diabetic Meal Options- Diabetics don't require special food, they just need to monitor their sugar levels which is a non-issue in a product like vegan sausages

So buying an additional product opens up options for a range of 'miniorities'
 

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
65,420
I hope not. Its a welcome comment but not entirely correct either. I'm Indian, Indians are in big numbers around Parramatta. How is the NRL or Parra targeting us?

Moreover, not all Indians are small so one day there could be an Indian second rowers or players in other positions but the kids have to be welcomed and encouraged.

To put it into context, AFL had a Sikh kid in their ad before GWS came in and muslim women playing in AFLW.

If they turn up at the door I’m sure they are welcommed, but getting them to the door is a different matter. And no, not if there aren’t veggie snags lol
 

Latest posts

Top