A handy guide to the NRL grand final for Victorians

[Dan70]

I would like to know how many Storm fans are born and bred in Melbourne.A city the size of Melbourne has people from all over Australia and NZ.Are these people Melbourne's fan base?I.E. people from non AFL backgrounds.How many AFL fans now follow the NRL?Good on the Storms crowds but are we winning the hearts and minds?

Born and bred in Geelong myself, a casual supporter of the Cats before the Storm where founded. Been a fan since '98, and haven't given a rats about AFL for about as long!

 

[Dan70]

Agreed. Did Kewell play against Qatar? Did anyone know a soccer international was recently on? Bet Cameron Smith was more in the headlines than Kewell.

Firstly, Lucas Neill is the captain of Australia, not Kewell. Secondly, the game against Qatar is on the 15th, so the fact it hasn't happened yet is probably why you didn't know it was on.

 

[Loudstrat]

Your Bagging Melbourne people for not recognising Billy Slater. A state where Rugby League is about the tenth biggest sport. There was a survey the other day in the Herald Sun where the showed a picture of the current NSW premier and of the 20 people surveyed only 3 people recognised him.

Who does he play for?

Dan, I didn't think Kewell was/would be skipper for the Qatar game. I heard some chat about it on ABC radio, and they mentioned Cahill.

I guess we proved Pass The Ball wrong.

 

[adamkungl]

You are so far off the mark...

Harry Kewell would be recognised by more people in Australia than Lockeyer, Mortlock and James Hird??? put together....

buuuuuuullshiiit

 

[Billythekid]

The storm get no time on FTA (in Melbourne), we play in a sh*t stadium (especially when compared with what Melbourne fans are used to), we get no away fans, rugby league was pretty much non existant in Victoria before the storm came in and yet we still have managed 8,000+ season ticket holders and are starting to match some Sydney clubs for crowds.

Our first year in our new stadium we will have a better average crowd than pretty much all sydney sides, and will only improve in the future. Plus since we don't rely on away fans our crowd is going to be pretty much all storm fans so expect our home game advantage to continue

 

[MsStorm]

Thats great that you have seen the light.We need to attract more people like yourself.Hopefully next years origin will win over more fans as well.Unlike most I can see a long and successful(support wise) future in Melbourne.We have the best product.Melburnians love their sport.

Born overseas, but lived all my life (bar 8months) in Melb. Used to follow afl but since Storms inception have become a die hard rugby league fan.
We have quite a lot of afl fans who follow rugby league as well, so don't get them offside. Its hurtful for them. Having said that, league is starting to make inroads into Victoria. Takes more than 11 years though. The Swans have been in Sydney for twice as long and they have a good niche in the Sydney market....so far so good for league in Victoria and can only get better

 

[maccattack]

unless you live in melbourne you wouldnt really know whether league is popular here or not and whether people would recognise storm players.

i do and i would say most would know who billy slater is - theres a guy who works in a restaurant near me who looks like billy. when i said to him 'you look like billy slater' his reaction was that he gets told that every week by someone new.

people here would be able to pick out a good few storm players in my experience. the storm arent MASSIVE in melbourne but they arent as small as some of you are suggesting. there profile is growing all the time. there was a full page spread on cam smith staying for example.

 

[LeagueXIII]

I think alot of kids would know the main players, they get out to schools etc. This is the future as these kids will grow up with an understanding of RL not the traditional bigoted attitude to the game by most older Victorians.