I dont mind the sport itself, watch it and quite like richmond. BUT i despise the swans, giants, suns, lions and the bullshit we have to put up with about the converts and "expansion" in NSW and QLD.
Does anyone else feel if the afl were perceived as less aggresive in their ways and it stayed where it belongs people would like it more?
I don't despise the teams, but I do have a lot of issues about the way that the AFL Commission goes about its business, very evangelical which would be great if you only supported the sport, but horrible being on the receiving end. Australia has lost a lot of fast bowlers, GAA a lot of footballers, and now RL has lost two of it's best players, and in the grand scheme of things, most of them ended up reggies.
RU and RL poach a lot of players from each other, but it's a two way street and a lot of them end up being quite good to various degrees. The vast, vast majority of converts from all these sports end up doing nothing, and all that gets mentioned are the Tadhg Kennelly's, etc.
I won't be supporting GWS because of their poaching of Izzy, because I think it makes a mockery of the competition in general, he is not a first grade AFL player, and he is playing for promotional reasons, and I don't see any difference between what they are doing, and what the Storm did in terms of salary cap.
All that being said, I support Hawthorn and enjoy the game, and think there are a number of things the NRL among other sports could learn about how they do their business.
Why are 6, 7 and 8 year old kids tackling each other? Why has the games heritage so readily been tossed out in favour of marketing on so many occasions? Remember the "Sydney" Bulldogs and Tigers? If the AFL had the international prescence that rugby league had do you think they would slowly be flushing it down the toilet like we have for years or would they have nurtured it and let it grow?
Look at some of the administrators running our clubs, look at the positive effects that good admin has had on the Dogs or Souths off the field and consider that EVERY team in the AFL has this sort of management. It isn't the money, the administrators came first, and the money came in second. You can't tell me there aren't a thousand successful businessmen who would take a pay cut to work for Parramatta, Manly, or to a lesser extent Penrith. Instead we have ex-footballers ffs.
I wish the AFL had less "aggression" in a lot of ways, but I wish a lot of the people in charge of rugby league in this country had half the bluster and double the "aggression", just not to the extent where they consider it their business to damage other sports for the minimal benefit to their own.
