The Bears

[LeagueXIII]

It was a win for you lol

It was in 2016!!

 

[Colk]

They have more supporters than the Panthers currently have

It is a fact

 

[LeagueXIII]

That’s interesting. I would like to know why you switched? You can see the irony of your own position - you follow a team who are in probably in an area that is hardest crack for a RL team and for which if you follow your own reasoning should have never have been given a place because it is an AFL area and RL teams should only be in RL areas.

No, no, no. Someone once said people only read what they want to.

I am very much in support of a team in Perth. However Adelaide is another matter.

 

[LeagueXIII]

That’s interesting. I would like to know why you switched? You can see the irony of your own position - you follow a team who are in probably in an area that is hardest crack for a RL team and for which if you follow your own reasoning should have never have been given a place because it is an AFL area and RL teams should only be in RL areas. In your experience as a Storm fan are your supporters generally from NSW/QLD or are they from Melbourne? Are they a combination.

Anyway back to your question: it is most definitely a win. What is most beneficial to the NRL - having somebody attend games etc and have an investment back into the game - i.e. an active supporter. If you were a Sharks supporter based in Melbourne there are limited ways for your money to go back into the game - you might attend a game once a year or watch your team on TV

I am very encouraged by the support for Melbourne.

Mostly supporters are expat who originate from rugby league or union areas.

Alot of Victorians are passive followers more who have a passing interest.

 

[LeagueXIII]

You are the exception in following the game first and a club second, I personally respect that, but the truth is for most people it is the other way round, my best mate....a one time mad keen Bears supporter went to the Swans when Norths got punted, he gives no shits about RL now, his kids also follow AFL.

When Manly where merged into Northern Eagles, I paid no attention to the game, apart from Origin, for the period of that abortion. People are tribal, it's just the way it is. You punt a Sydney club you lose 90% of those fans to the game, worse then that...they are bitter...some of them will actively work against the game (by having their kids play soccer, AFL etc.).

People on here underestimate AFL, it is a good game to watch live, plenty going on. My kids have no interest at all in RL think it is boring no matter how hard I try to get them to games.

 

[Colk]

No, no, no. Someone once said people only read what they want to.

I am very much in support of a team in Perth. However Adelaide is another matter.

You got me there haha. Very good. I still think there would be support for an Adelaide side but it would be definitely harder than Perth. I would also only do it as a relocation or as a 20th side perhaps. It is definitely below the need for a Perth, NZ 2 and another Queensland side

 

[LeagueXIII]

Fair enough. That might have happened with Fitzroy or South Melbourne as well but does that mean that the AFL should bring Fitzroy or South Melbourne back from the dead. Your best mate should also reflect on the irony of supporting a side who probably pissed off supporters the same way as the NRL did to the Bears.
Anyway people always become disenchanted or disenfranchised when tough decisions are made but at least the AFL gained more supporters and they’ve definitely gained more money from those decisions than if they kept the status quo

It's different to the Bears these AFL supporters still have their clubs and their kids are following them. I know plenty of ex Fitzroy supporters who now follow Brisbane. That's why these two clubs still have thousands of members in Victoria.

 

[LeagueXIII]

You got me there haha. Very good. I still think there would be support for an Adelaide side but it would be definitely harder than Perth. I would also only do it as a relocation or as a 20th side perhaps. It is definitely below the need for a Perth, NZ 2 and another Queensland side

I think we should have an eye on growing the game to 20 clubs, that's where we should be headed.

 

[Colk]

People on here underestimate AFL, it is a good game to watch live, plenty going on. My kids have no interest at all in RL think it is boring no matter how hard I try to get them to games.

I can’t get into it. I’ve been to games live. But I couldn’t agree with the sloppy nature and lack of skills that I saw. I don’t underestimate their support (the atmosphere was very good) and the shrewdness of their operation. They indoctrinate kids when they are young and go from there - it is almost like some religious cult.

They also probably don’t have commentators and personalities who bad mouth the game at every opportunity like Phil Gould and those on the News Limited side. Maybe we should get the Chinese Communist Party to teach us how to indoctrinate people

 

[Colk]

It's different to the Bears these AFL supporters still have their clubs and their kids are following them. I know plenty of ex Fitzroy supporters who now follow Brisbane. That's why these two clubs still have thousands of members in Victoria.

Maybe it is the way in which they did it that’s the most important. They still have their brands and logos so their old supporters still have something they can hold on to. League, for reasons only they can understand went down the route of mergers, which I don’t think any other sport has done. For example, Northern Eagles was stupid and the Bears fans had every reason to shun it. Regarding the Wests Tigers, why would an old Magpies supporter follow the Tigers. Relocations would have worked and you would kept those links to the past.

 

[LeagueXIII]

I can’t get into it. I’ve been to games live. But I couldn’t agree with the sloppy nature and lack of skills that I saw. I don’t underestimate their support (the atmosphere was very good) and the shrewdness of their operation. They indoctrinate kids when they are young and go from there - it is almost like some religious cult.

They also probably don’t have commentators and personalities who bad mouth the game at every opportunity like Phil Gould and those on the News Limited side. Maybe we should get the Chinese Communist Party to teach us how to indoctrinate people

This is very spot on. They do have people who bad mouth the code but the AFL shut them down and take away their accreditation. Sam Newman use to bag the style of game all the time when he was on radio, he was then moved to pre game before being punted altogether. He tells of phone calls from the AFL telling him to pull his head in.

Maybe someone should do that to Kent and Gould. Our "leaders" are too busy pleasing our broadcasters and giving them everything they want. If Kent needs a story he just rings up St.Pete.

 

[LeagueXIII]

Maybe it is the way in which they did it that’s the most important. They still have their brands and logos so their old supporters still have something they can hold on to. League, for reasons only they can understand went down the route of mergers, which I don’t think any other sport has done. For example, Northern Eagles was stupid and the Bears fans had every reason to shun it. Regarding the Wests Tigers, why would an old Magpies supporter follow the Tigers. Relocations would have worked and you would kept those links to the past.

Again spot on, the AFL did it well.

The mergers were done to cull teams quickly down to 14 purely on economics after sending the game backwards by 20 years, News Ltd after winning the war could only afford the 14 clubs as the money wasn't there.

Of the 12 clubs in the 1997 competition six were merged and three were kicked out. Only Parramatta and Newcastle who have a large population of passionate league followers and needed to sell Pay TV, along with the Roosters under Uncle Nick survived.

 

[Colk]

It is an interesting relationship isn’t it? A lot of commentators were very critical of the product last year and their criticisms were quite warranted in a lot of ways; however that criticism hardly ever reached the door of V’landys who has presided over the score blowouts. He is so transparently a News Ltd stooge that it is funny to me that he still has his massive supporters. I could only imagine the criticism that Greenberg, Grant and others would have received if they had presided over this year’s competition. A lot of the media criticism pre-V’landys has also created this situation

 

[T-Boon]

It is an interesting relationship isn’t it? A lot of commentators were very critical of the product last year and their criticisms were quite warranted in a lot of ways; however that criticism hardly ever reached the door of V’landys who has presided over the score blowouts. He is so transparently a News Ltd stooge that it is funny to me that he still has his massive supporters. I could only imagine the criticism that Greenberg, Grant and others would have received if they had presided over this year’s competition. A lot of the media criticism pre-V’landys has also created this situation

I don't know how league fans can be critical of Vlandys with regards his attempts to get rid of wrestling. He has gone hard after it.
Somebody needed to stand up for the game on the field which coaches had gradually but totally destroyed over 20 years.
The players were bitching about the game being too fast but if you compare a game to the glory days early 90s when the 10m rule first came it it was still extremely slow, its just the muscle bound twats can't handle anything other than a snails pace.
He needs to double down next season and hopefully we will get a good product some time in the next few years.

 

[RedVee]

It was in 2016!!

So you waited all that time and when they finally won one you were on the opposite side. Oh dear.

 

[Colk]

I don't know how league fans can be critical of Vlandys with regards his attempts to get rid of wrestling. He has gone hard after it.
Somebody needed to stand up for the game on the field which coaches had gradually but totally destroyed over 20 years.
The players were bitching about the game being too fast but if you compare a game to the glory days early 90s when the 10m rule first came it it was still extremely slow, its just the muscle bound twats can't handle anything other than a snails pace.
He needs to double down next season and hopefully we will get a good product some time in the next few years.

I am not critical of the attempt but I am critical of the execution. The problem could have been solved really by just a heavy penalty crackdown on things like third man in tackles and wrestling and perhaps a reduction in interchanges set over a couple of years. Currently you have what eight interchanges and say over a couple of years you could reduce it to four, maybe by twice per year. This would have given teams appropriate time to alter and adapt their squads to a more aerobic based game.

Instead he has created a whole new rule instead of addressing the problem of referees not appropriately officiating the old ones. As a consequence, you have completely obliterated the depth of the competition due to the fact that clubs had invested in certain types of players pre six again and that has been exacerbated further by the timing of it being during a time where reserve grades haven’t been operable

With this six again now, you are probably going to see officiating like in the finals series or otherwise some sort of tweaking like penalties in your own half or six again in the opposition half

 

[LeagueXIII]

V'landys stuffed the game with the six again. The 2021 season is the worst year of football I can recall the only other season that comes close to it is 1983.

If it was Greenberg or Smith doing what V'landys has done the media would be having a field day but they go soft on him.

 

[mongoose]

People on here underestimate AFL, it is a good game to watch live, plenty going on. My kids have no interest at all in RL think it is boring no matter how hard I try to get them to games.

I think many AFL fans severely overestimate their game. i.e. thinking GWS would completely overtake League and soccer in Western Sydney within a few years. They are still probably the least supported team across both codes (and don't give me their BS membership numbers) despite ridiculous leg ups. The Melbourne papers and their cringy articles about which AFL players would do well in the soccer world cup or Olympic games. I met some idiot once who said to me the Socceroos would have won multiple world cups by now if AFL didn't exist LOL.

 

[horrie hastings]

If it were to go ahead, which it shouldn't, gosford surely should be home base, and play atleast 6 home games there, NSO is not suitable nowadays

Gosford would be the only real base for the Bears if they came back, majority of the home games there, two nostalgia games at North Sydney Oval probably against Manly and the Roosters although i would imagine both of those games played at Gosford would get the maximum 20,000 crowd, after that maybe one game at Coffs Harbour but it wont work playing at Dubbo, Tamworth or Wagga Wagga.

If the Bears could prove they could get decent crowds at Gosford , the stadium could do with an upgrade, it fits 20,000 and while it is good ground to watch football, at its full capacity there are quite a few blind spots and the ground has potential for expansion.

 

[Colk]

I think many AFL fans severely overestimate their game. i.e. thinking GWS would completely overtake League and soccer in Western Sydney within a few years. They are still probably the least supported team across both codes (and don't give me their BS membership numbers) despite ridiculous leg ups. The Melbourne papers and their cringy articles about which AFL players would do well in the soccer world cup or Olympic games. I met some idiot once who said to me the Socceroos would have won multiple world cups by now if AFL didn't exist LOL.

I know right. The funny thing is that a lot of their players are rejects from other sports like basketball and their game shows the least of amount of skill that I can think of. The people who ridiculously claim that AFL players are more skillfull than international soccer players have obviously never seen an international soccer match or understand what skill is

Another tale of overestimation was when one of their stupid commentators claimed that an AFL team could revolutionise Rugby League and beat the SOI teams within a couple of years. Most AFL players are what 80-90 kgs ringing wet and are beanpoles. A lot of them would nearly die if they were to be tackled by or had to tackle a RL forward