Lets not forget we also win most weeks, and our Foxtel ratings smash theirs.
They had an interstate comp, which, because it could involve 3 teams, has the potential to be a better comp than ours. They also invented the Origin format. Their attempt at rep football went to sh*t.
I say this not to bag them, but to remind people just how good we have it irrespective of our admin. Our game is resiliant beyond belief when you consider where we were in the 1980's and what the game has gone through since. I think a lot of the inaction that some people blame the NRL/Gallop/whoever for is just wise people letting the resiliant old game run it's course. We have seen the big bags of wind running AFL and Union with all their media hype and spin. How come we have grown and they haven't? (OK - the Super whatever concept has been great for Union- but mainly at the expense of club rugby.)
AFL was closer to national domination when the Swans and Bears were new than they are now. Union is worse now with teams in 5 capitals than when it was with just the Schute Shield, Campo and the World Cup.
With that in mind, (not to mention the laughable GWS farce) anyone who can see AFL is better run, or ahead of us, must be trolling. End of story.
The TV rights will be the closer, if we get close to theirs, it'll dent them and their overblown egos severly.
You're right though, the AFL's handling of their "expansion" teams has been laughably inept and about as unprofessional as is possible. They whack a team onto the Gold Coast and Brisbane drop 10k off their average immediately. The same thing didn't happen to the Broncos when the Titans came into being. When the Thuns honeymoon period is over, they'll struggle big-time.
Then GWS... lol
Their poached figurehead player is someone who played for 3 teams well loved in Western Sydney, The Broncos, The Storm and Qld.
Their "coach" is some old fart who involves himself in staged publicity blues with Eddie McChins, which makes two nobodys in Western Sydney in the blue instead of one. They go all out to push Canberra into the "club" which waters down the Western Sydney crap immediately.
I live in Western Sydney, in an area the AFL would probably consider AFL-friendly and no one, and I mean no-one gives a rat's arse about GWS or the fact that Folau is their big signing.
Most of the players live in Breakfast Point, that leafy Western Sydney suburb a 5 minute boat ride from Gladesville Bridge.
AFL has always been great with their memberships, note the stand-out in this list, posted at LU's androtropball equivalent..
Club Members
West Coast 36,341
Hawthorn 31,309
Melbourne 18,747
Richmond 16,291
Western Bulldogs 14,962
Carlton 11,467
St Kilda 11,120
North Melbourne 10,582
Port Adelaide 9,091
Brisbane 5,610
Gold Coast 5,496
GWS 1,265
Adelaide N/A
Collingwood N/A
Essendon N/A
Fremantle N/A
Geelong N/A
Sydney N/A
Apparently the AFL have a large warchest, the pricks are going to need it.
