More proof that the NRL got it right

[Ride the Lion to Zion]

Sometimes I wonder whether these up-and-coming referees (and touchies who are often the worst offenders for calling forward passes) officiating these games also want to prove how sharp eyed they are, hence the nit-picking you mention.

Scarcely believable bit of audio on the Tigers v Cowboys game last Saturday. Ref had called a knock-on. Tigers had challenged. Bunker was studying all available angles.

Gus - "Oh it's all got too pedantic for me, Peter. In the old days, you just play on".

Bunker - "At this point her hands are under the ball. The ball then contacts her body. And the ball bobbles on the ground".

Gus - "Bobbles! There it is! The bunker has said bobble. I don't mind bobbles. I don't like bunkers using magnifying-glasses looking for them. In the old days, you just pick that up and play on".

Can there be anyone anywhere in the world with less self-awareness than Phil Gould?

 

[The Penguin #6.]

Scarcely believable bit of audio on the Tigers v Cowboys game last Saturday. Ref had called a knock-on. Tigers had challenged. Bunker was studying all available angles.

Gus - "Oh it's all got too pedantic for me, Peter. In the old days, you just play on".

Bunker - "At this point her hands are under the ball. The ball then contacts her body. And the ball bobbles on the ground".

Gus - "Bobbles! There it is! The bunker has said bobble. I don't mind bobbles. I don't like bunkers using magnifying-glasses looking for them. In the old days, you just pick that up and play on".

Can there be anyone anywhere in the world with less self-awareness than Phil Gould?

I don`t know whether it was that game or another where I saw him making exactly same complaint, you talked about the need for a frontal lobotomy, listening to Gould complaining about knock-ons and I need a bottle in front of me. The idiot created this monster.
Funny thing is and you may be unaware, watch any ussie union international now, and I`ve even heard it in the fumbleball, and the term bobble makes a showing, it`s like a curse.

 

[10$ Ferret]

The worst thing that has happened to the NRLW bar none, is Gould commenting on it.
An absolute blight on RL in general. He hasn't a clue who the players are , get rid of the moron

 

[The Penguin #6.]

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/australias-top-earning-female-athletes-sam-kerr-stephanie-gilmore-ellyse-perry-and-ash-gardner/news-story/5358ccbc64c4ab456c5685558740b906

Money on offer in football, cricket … but AFLW in strife.​

As sports like cricket and soccer offer solid financial reward, some say the AFLW is in troubled waters.

AFL executives have already briefed clubs saying that they can’t justify the money they are paying to their female athletes with the poor ratings and dwindling crowds burdening the competition.

The AFLW ratings are down 70 per cent on season one and crowds are down 60 per cent.

The Disney documentary on AFLW, Fearless, has disappeared from the streaming platform. Sources say the interest was not there. On the other hand, the Matildas’ documentary The World At Our Feet is featuring front and centre.


Media expert Colin Smith said that the NRL had done a better job of managing their women’s league.

“They’ve taken a slowly, slowly approach and it’s at a fantastic standard,” Smith said.

Interesting point made within this article that women associated with the aflw are blaming a sexist afl culture and lack of investment explaining why the aflw is of such poor quality. I`d go one further on that, yes probably true but also just a rubbish game in which all the faults of the sport are so prominently displayed in the women`s version.

 

[The Great Dane]

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/australias-top-earning-female-athletes-sam-kerr-stephanie-gilmore-ellyse-perry-and-ash-gardner/news-story/5358ccbc64c4ab456c5685558740b906

Money on offer in football, cricket … but AFLW in strife.​

As sports like cricket and soccer offer solid financial reward, some say the AFLW is in troubled waters.

AFL executives have already briefed clubs saying that they can’t justify the money they are paying to their female athletes with the poor ratings and dwindling crowds burdening the competition.

The AFLW ratings are down 70 per cent on season one and crowds are down 60 per cent.

The Disney documentary on AFLW, Fearless, has disappeared from the streaming platform. Sources say the interest was not there. On the other hand, the Matildas’ documentary The World At Our Feet is featuring front and centre.


Media expert Colin Smith said that the NRL had done a better job of managing their women’s league.

“They’ve taken a slowly, slowly approach and it’s at a fantastic standard,” Smith said.

Interesting point made within this article that women associated with the aflw are blaming a sexist afl culture and lack of investment explaining why the aflw is of such poor quality. I`d go one further on that, yes probably true but also just a rubbish game in which all the faults of the sport are so prominently displayed in the women`s version.

Nah I doubt it, that's just the go to excuse to shift blame in these situation these days.

The AFL has burned a fortune on the AFLW and aggressively promoted it and tried to improve standards to their own detriment, they wouldn't do that if sexist attitudes were genuinely common in their ranks, and broadly speaking throwing more money at it won't fix their issues anyway. The problems with the AFLW are simple, the competition was rushed and poorly conceived to begin with, they rushed expansion that they couldn't support, and they abused short term marketing tactics that are now coming back to bite them.

I don't really have any idea how they'd go about addressing their issues (that's way above any of our pay grades) other than trying to weather the storm or blowing it up and starting again, and I highly doubt they'd ever consider the latter even if they really should.

I would however warn that, though probably not as severe, it's likely that the NRLW will suffer a similar drop off in interest given time, and that the NRL should be preparing for that. They should definingly start curtailing the rate of expansion as well.

 

[mongoose]

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/australias-top-earning-female-athletes-sam-kerr-stephanie-gilmore-ellyse-perry-and-ash-gardner/news-story/5358ccbc64c4ab456c5685558740b906

Money on offer in football, cricket … but AFLW in strife.​

As sports like cricket and soccer offer solid financial reward, some say the AFLW is in troubled waters.

AFL executives have already briefed clubs saying that they can’t justify the money they are paying to their female athletes with the poor ratings and dwindling crowds burdening the competition.

The AFLW ratings are down 70 per cent on season one and crowds are down 60 per cent.

The Disney documentary on AFLW, Fearless, has disappeared from the streaming platform. Sources say the interest was not there. On the other hand, the Matildas’ documentary The World At Our Feet is featuring front and centre.


Media expert Colin Smith said that the NRL had done a better job of managing their women’s league.

“They’ve taken a slowly, slowly approach and it’s at a fantastic standard,” Smith said.

Interesting point made within this article that women associated with the aflw are blaming a sexist afl culture and lack of investment explaining why the aflw is of such poor quality. I`d go one further on that, yes probably true but also just a rubbish game in which all the faults of the sport are so prominently displayed in the women`s version.

AFL will do what they do best - squeeze more money out of governments to fund it, get all of their media friends to double down on how amazing and popular it is in the face of falling interest.

 

[10$ Ferret]

AFL will do what they do best - squeeze more money out of governments to fund it, get all of their media friends to double down on how amazing and popular it is in the face of falling interest.

They do get more corporate $s too. Their park footy attracts good sponsorships, but thats because people go and watch it, thats their key.
In terms of the media, your comment shows one of the big differences between AFL and NRL. The AFL media support AFL, ours just keeps trying to drag RL down

 

[The Penguin #6.]

Nah I doubt it, that's just the go to excuse to shift blame in these situation these days.

The AFL has burned a fortune on the AFLW and aggressively promoted it and tried to improve standards to their own detriment, they wouldn't do that if sexist attitudes were genuinely common in their ranks, and broadly speaking throwing more money at it won't fix their issues anyway.

No I didn`t necessarily agree with it either, but for me it was an example of what fumbleball HQ have created and have got themselves up against.
Don`t take this the wrong way but it strikes me by empowering the women too early and filling their heads with notions of grandeur with regards how massive their competition will be, anything short of this and the women are looking for excuses for why this hasn`t come to fruition, thus the more militant of the women (and there seems to be a lot of very, let`s say butch women) in the fumbleball-w who are making it into a men v. women issue. And it is very hard for fumbleball HQ to win this argument, at least without looking like the bad guys. They`re in a hole, and it seems the only way out is to keep on digging.

 

[10$ Ferret]

its not necessarily a female thing. When the NYC was created the standard was not great (according to traditionalists like me). It was fast but defense was poor. Many of the players also thought they were king and top of the heap.
There is a parallel with the AFLW but with the NYC it eventually started working because they had a much larger player base

 

[The Great Dane]

No I didn`t necessarily agree with it either, but for me it was an example of what fumbleball HQ have created and have got themselves up against.
Don`t take this the wrong way but it strikes me by empowering the women too early and filling their heads with notions of grandeur with regards how massive their competition will be, anything short of this and the women are looking for excuses for why this hasn`t come to fruition, thus the more militant of the women (and there seems to be a lot of very, let`s say butch women) in the fumbleball-w who are making it into a men v. women issue. And it is very hard for fumbleball HQ to win this argument, at least without looking like the bad guys. They`re in a hole, and it seems the only way out is to keep on digging.

I more or less agree with that.

I'd argue that sometimes you need to play the bad guy to get things done, and that that's a better outcome than continuing to dig a deeper and deeper hole just to keep some noisy people onside. Yeah some people will react negatively to the changes initially, but they'll eventually shut up once you've sorted things out. It's kind of like the sunk cost fallacy, except it's emotional investment instead of financial investment if you catch what I mean.

I'd also add that we shouldn't mince words. Their being "butch" has nothing to do with it, it's that a disproportionate amount of them compared to the general population buy into particularly radical feminist ideas and philosophies, that advocate an epistemology that primes them to hold certain ideas and react to situations in certain ways. It is what it is.

 

[The Great Dane]

its not necessarily a female thing. When the NYC was created the standard was not great (according to traditionalists like me). It was fast but defense was poor. Many of the players also thought they were king and top of the heap.
There is a parallel with the AFLW but with the NYC it eventually started working because they had a much larger player base

I don't think anybody was suggesting that it was.

 

[Pneuma]

Assuming the article above is correct, and there is no reason it isn’t, it’s typical afl arrogance pretending falsely to be the beacons of sport innovation and flaying their bloated egos at the media about how good they and their competition are. Fact is the Matilda’s have put the aflw in their box. Poor quality comp, expanded too fast, and by beating their chests are now facing the dilemma of a comp that cannot possibly pay its way. I hope the nrl are watching this closely. What we want is the best possible comp for an appropriate number of teams to play in. And ffs don’t play women’s SOO out of season!

 

[The Penguin #6.]

Assuming the article above is correct, and there is no reason it isn’t, it’s typical afl arrogance pretending falsely to be the beacons of sport innovation and flaying their bloated egos at the media about how good they and their competition are. Fact is the Matilda’s have put the aflw in their box. Poor quality comp, expanded too fast, and by beating their chests are now facing the dilemma of a comp that cannot possibly pay its way. I hope the nrl are watching this closely. What we want is the best possible comp for an appropriate number of teams to play in. And ffs don’t play women’s SOO out of season!

Certainly agree with your first statement but I`m not sure whether I buy into this expanding too fast excuse. Most of those girls would have been playing f-ball at a local level all their life, probably no different to the NRLW women and let`s face it even at 10 teams the quality has really been pretty outstanding in the NRLW this year as well, it doesn`t seem to have skipped a beat.
I know we have an advantage with the Touch/Tag and union converts for the girls but I wonder whether it is just the nature of f-ball in itself that even though ridiculous with all the bumbling and fumbling the men can cover it with their athleticism, the women due to their lack of strength can`t kick the ball very far, this leads to congestion and thus harder to take a clean catch which then only leads to endless fumbling and bumbling. Ultimately just ending up looking like some mad circus out there.
The beauty of it all is though now you have the more militant types saying "well we won`t get better unless you pay us the same as the men and have the same length season " and f-ball HQ can`t say well that isn`t so, because they haven`t tried it and end up looking like the bad guys to half the population of Australia. Just beautiful.

 

[Pneuma]

Certainly agree with your first statement but I`m not sure whether I buy into this expanding too fast excuse. Most of those girls would have been playing f-ball at a local level all their life, probably no different to the NRLW women and let`s face it even at 10 teams the quality has really been pretty outstanding in the NRLW this year as well, it doesn`t seem to have skipped a beat.
I know we have an advantage with the Touch/Tag and union converts for the girls but I wonder whether it is just the nature of f-ball in itself that even though ridiculous with all the bumbling and fumbling the men can cover it with their athleticism, the women due to their lack of strength can`t kick the ball very far, this leads to congestion and thus harder to take a clean catch which then only leads to endless fumbling and bumbling. Ultimately just ending up looking like some mad circus out there.
The beauty of it all is though now you have the more militant types saying "well we won`t get better unless you pay us the same as the men and have the same length season " and f-ball HQ can`t say well that isn`t so, because they haven`t tried it and end up looking like the bad guys to half the population of Australia. Just beautiful.

18 teams with squads of 30 mate. That’s what they needed to get the full comp up. Stories I heard were that many had not played much if at all and if they had the comps were weak and skill levels pretty bloody average. 100% agree with your last statement. Brazenly boasting about your comp sets you up for big demands for cash. You’re right about women’s league though. Kicking is secondary and passing and tackling are the primary skills. Our comp has seen some great passages of play and top games . Nobody I speak to says the same about women’s fumbling.

 

[The Great Dane]

Certainly agree with your first statement but I`m not sure whether I buy into this expanding too fast excuse. Most of those girls would have been playing f-ball at a local level all their life, probably no different to the NRLW women and let`s face it even at 10 teams the quality has really been pretty outstanding in the NRLW this year as well, it doesn`t seem to have skipped a beat.
I know we have an advantage with the Touch/Tag and union converts for the girls but I wonder whether it is just the nature of f-ball in itself that even though ridiculous with all the bumbling and fumbling the men can cover it with their athleticism, the women due to their lack of strength can`t kick the ball very far, this leads to congestion and thus harder to take a clean catch which then only leads to endless fumbling and bumbling. Ultimately just ending up looking like some mad circus out there.
The beauty of it all is though now you have the more militant types saying "well we won`t get better unless you pay us the same as the men and have the same length season " and f-ball HQ can`t say well that isn`t so, because they haven`t tried it and end up looking like the bad guys to half the population of Australia. Just beautiful.

I don't know what things are like now, but early into their expansion drive a genuinely shocking amount of the AFLW's talent were code hoppers that had little to no Aussie Rules experience before joining an AFLW team.

I don't have numbers or anything like that, but the amount of stories about AFLW players whom were just random female athletes there to make up the numbers was crazy, and it was definitely a result of trying to force through expansion too quickly.

 

[___]

I find your posts painful to read

I would've taken your post seriously... then I realised you go for the Sharks.

 

[Someguy]

Pathetic!

 

[marshall stalin]

Bulldogs have put their hands up inclusion for '25 season.

Storm should make a great case as both their other feeder regions have been doing well. Hopefully the Sunshine Coast can get a side in the BMD Premiership next season and join the youthful Brisbane Tigers.

I would say the Warriors would be back in then you have Bulldogs/Souths/Penrith vying for admission.

The smokey is the Storm who have a feeder arrangement with North Sydney Bears. They have Women's sides in Tarsha Gale Cup Under 19's and the Women's NSW Premiership - I assume they will also have a Fiaola Cup under 17's side in 2024.

Not sure where the Dolphins and Manly are up to - Manly entered as side for the first time in the Tarsha Gale Cup in 2023.

 

[10$ Ferret]

Marshall will be interesting to see if the Roosters keep their link with Norths on the womens side which was a less formal agreement than with the Reserve grade.

I do think we need to hold off the expansion of the NRLW for a couple of years. Its been good this year but the stnd has dropped a little