A.F.L. Thread II

[Ausage]

Good point vic. He's getting the Eddie experience! Chewed up and spat out by the Sydney media who don't care what he's done in the past. What have you done for me right now?

Interesting to see how he handles it, because Eddie handled it poorly.

You say it like it's a bad thing. Why should any media fawn over anyone to the point of ignoring a stupid comment like that?

 

[Jono]

You'd say he's someone who disrespected the mentally ill. In my experience people who work with the mentally ill are the most sensitive to the word.

You start to get into grey areas when you excuse bad deeds on the basis of past good deeds. How much good to you have to do to excuse yourself from any given bad deed? What will one "N" word cost me? How about a public display of blackface.

Praise the good, call out the bad.

Further to Vic's point, why should anyone in this city know anything about Sheedy? Most people don't know who he is, so when he makes a comment like this no one thinks about dreamtime at the G, they just think he's a decrepit, senile, racist.

Look that's a fair post. Particularly the point that you judge on the action, not a balance of good and bad deeds.

I also concede that people don't know about all that he's done in the past. Which is why people like Richard Hinds are educating them about it.

But with your blackface/N word example - would you say that the people who came on Hey Hey Its Saturday and used black face are racist? No. What they did was dumb, offensive and ignorant. But I wouldn't therefore say that all of those people doing the performance are racist people. I'd especially not say that if they actually had a history of actually working hard to fight racism in the community, like Sheeds has.

 

[Jono]

You say it like it's a bad thing. Why should any media fawn over anyone to the point of ignoring a stupid comment like that?

Well I didn't mean to.

 

[Jono]

All in all, I really wish Sheedy did not have such a stupid brain fade and expressed himself properly. I admire what he has done for race relations in this country and particularly for the game I love, and its simply sad to see him written about as if he's an old racist man.

 

[Burgey]

To my way of thinking it's inevitable GWS will take a hold in the western suburbs, but I don't know that the way the AFL has gone about it has helped to make it anything but a pretty long, slow process. The thing that's made the Wanderers so successful (aside from on-field wins) is they identify with the region, and don't just give it lip service.

I think the AFL basically putting a team in western Sydney and making absolutely no secret whatsoever of the fact it's to broaden the appeal of the code itself and to concede they aren't even considering short-shorter/ medium term success is a mistake. People don't identify with a corporation basically saying "we want a piece of the region and we're here to stay". It's like they've almost over-egged the business plan/ corporatism with GWS and under done the fact they're a footy side.

 

[Jono]

Yeah good post Burgey.

I know its a small thing, but I also really believe that GWS beating Gold Coast, their first win against their fellow newstart rival club, being in Canberra and not Sydney, was one of the biggest lost opportunities of exposure for the club last year.

 

[Burgey]

Yeah that's a fair point as well.

And what they're doing in schools and at grass roots level is great, don't get me wrong. But a bit of razzamatazz for an older demographic would be a good thing too.

 

[Burgey]

Oh, and ftr I think Sheedy deserves a bollocking for what he said, but as has been noted, his actions over many, many years suggest he's anything but a racist.

 

[Ausage]

To my way of thinking it's inevitable GWS will take a hold in the western suburbs, but I don't know that the way the AFL has gone about it has helped to make it anything but a pretty long, slow process. The thing that's made the Wanderers so successful (aside from on-field wins) is they identify with the region, and don't just give it lip service.

I think the AFL basically putting a team in western Sydney and making absolutely no secret whatsoever of the fact it's to broaden the appeal of the code itself and to concede they aren't even considering short-shorter/ medium term success is a mistake. People don't identify with a corporation basically saying "we want a piece of the region and we're here to stay". It's like they've almost over-egged the business plan/ corporatism with GWS and under done the fact they're a footy side.

WSW has the luxury of playing a sport that actually has a presence in the region. They can sign coaches and players who have grown up in the area and people identify with a sport they've grown up playing and seen their parents watching. Even bearing all that in mind GWS have shot themselves in the foot by coming off as plastic franchise. Folau, a fake name, a manufactured rivalry, a loony coach are all actions the scream a lack of understanding of the region.

GWS success is very much up for debate. The AFL talks about long term and generational change but no one knows what the future holds for sport financially and politically. For example the Canberra presence adds absolutely nothing to the growth of the sport in Western Sydney. So why have a significant presence in another city if growth of the game is an imperative? Short answer is that Canberra is the AFLs safety net. At some point in the future the GWS experiment will be evaluated and Canberra will get a team if the findings are favourable to it. They've built the possibility of failure into the core of the club.

 

[dermo]

"Talk of your past work with any non-Anglos, anything. Camps, coaching sessions, travel, anything you can come up with. Just show you are not a racist old Aussie with no concept of the Australia of today."

Read more: Kevin Sheedy cops hammering from Craig Foster after post-match 'immigration' comments | AFL | Fox Sports

Craig Foster what a ****ing muppet, this **** comes out with an article attacking the integrity of one of the legends of sport in this country and evidently has no ****ing clue about what Sheedy has done for "non-Anglos".

imo Sheedy makes a pretty reasonable point but expressed it poorly, no one can deny that Western Sydney has a large migrant population and the vast majority of these migrants are soccer fans, which obviously is going to lead to a large amount of support for any soccer team in the area.

my point still stands that Craig Foster is a **** sucker

 

[Jono]

At some point in the future the GWS experiment will be evaluated and Canberra will get a team if the findings are favourable to it. They've built the possibility of failure into the core of the club.

Mate they've been playing matches in Canberra long before the GWS came along. I guarantee you GWS will never be a Canberra club.

The AFL play matches in Darwin Cairns too. Hell they played in Wellington a few weeks ago. These aren't "plan B" locations. They are just trying to grow the game.

 

[Redbacks]

The population in GWS should allow for all codes to have a viable team in the future.

 

[Jono]

AFL fans - what do we think of Monday night footy?

 

[ajdude]

i'm curious as to why WSW are playing tonight, aiming to continue the fairytale season?

 

[Spikey]

grown to quite like it. however, wouldn't want to see it on FTA over Sunday/Sat arvo

 

[Ausage]

Mate they've been playing matches in Canberra long before the GWS came along. I guarantee you GWS will never be a Canberra club.

The AFL play matches in Darwin Cairns too. Hell they played in Wellington a few weeks ago. These aren't "plan B" locations. They are just trying to grow the game.

They don't just play games there, they've given away a quarter of their season. There's loads of teams that could be sent to Canberra without compromising a fledgling expansion team (local fans missing out on their first win a good example of the harm can be done). They obviously want the city to identify with the club for some reason. Setting up for every eventuality seems the most likely reason no matter how many times the propaganda machine talks about setting up for the long haul.

 

[dermo]

AFL fans - what do we think of Monday night footy?

As an NRL fan I hate Monday night footy with a passion, it serves no benefit to anybody, its **** as a fan having to wait through the weekend, creates a short turnaround for the following round and my biggest beef is that crowds for monday nights are always and always will be ****. I see know reason to play a game on a monday night when theres a perfectly good saturday arvo slot that everyone loves.

I see no reason for the NRL or AFL to try and play games in funky time slots like thursdays and mondays, its ****ing stupid, especially in the NRL where we are already struggling to draw crowds, wtf is appealing about going to the footy on a monday night, nothing. nothing at all. monday night footy is in my top 3 issues with the game and possibly my top one. every NRL fan sighs when they see that their team is playing on a monday night.

**** monday night footy.

 

[uvelocity]

should have footy on every night

 

[Spikey]

even sunday?

 

[uvelocity]

sunday night footy means im dusty at work monday
so yes