I found this while researching for my speech, thought it was an interesting read. Dont know eather many people have seen it already.
Report card belies year that is
By Patrick Smith
July 2, 2004
WE should make a little list. Drink-driving and a whole lot of lying. Gang sex allegations. Rape investigations. Assault. Resisting police. An umpire slandered. Drugs scandal. Spitting. Crowd violence. Wire cages to protect players and officials.
Mmmm, might not be such a little list after all.
An all-in brawl that has five players suspended for 16 matches. More rape investigations. Another police inquiry into assault. More sex scandals.
Dear me. Get us some more paper. Another drink-driving charge. Speeding offence so reckless it threatens sponsorship. Coaches quit, presidents challenged. Even controversy over women's g-strings sold in club colours (Fremantle's line is moving very slowly). Drink-driving offence No.3. All interspersed with much weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The AFL has not had a year like it. Nothing goes close. Not even with mergers and salary rorts. In the new year, the AFL administration drew a rug around its knees and anticipated a winter watching the NRL implode after the sex allegations broke involving the Canterbury Bulldogs. Sadly, it appears anything the NRL can do, the AFL can do worse.
On all these issues, AFL and club officials have fronted the media stony-faced. They have defended what they could, threw their arms in the air in despair when they couldn't. The underlying theme to this response was understandable. The image of the game was taking a lashing.
Football not only competes for space with the other codes but also all other forms of entertainment. They started a cricket Test in Darwin yesterday. The second semi-final of Euro 2004 this morning and the Olympic Games start next month. Market share is hard won, easily lost.
Given these circumstances it remained surprising that the AFL would call a media briefing to discuss progress in the first half of the season. There was some doubt whether it would be held at AFL House or police headquarters.
But AFL House it was and all the heavies were present yesterday. Chief executive Andrew Demetriou; Baz Buckley, general manager of broadcasting, strategy and communications; David Matthews, general manager game development; Adrian Anderson, general manager football operations. And as always, Colin McLeod, general manager marketing and communications, sitting to the side and looking bemused.
We have no idea what Anderson was doing there. We read in the Melbourne Herald-Sun last weekend that Anderson is not even considered to be in the top 15 most important men in AFL football. Rex Hunt's dog got in before him. The paper rated former players Garry Lyon and Gerard Healy as more influential than Anderson but neither of the former jocks was present. Probably not important enough for them.
We fancy that when the tribunal, umpiring department and player rules are reviewed at the end of the year, Anderson's true power will be revealed. We are taking no chances and called him Mr Anderson. He called us Mr Sycophant. That pleased us so much we wagged our tail like Rex's dog.
For all the woes that have befallen the AFL the heavies had reason to look pleased. It would seem the game has never been more watched, attended, listened to or read about. In a black sea of controversy, it has flourished.
Club membership is at a record high with nearly 500,000 signed up. Fremantle and St Kilda lead the table with a 29 per cent jump and Brisbane is not far behind with a 24 per cent lift. Adelaide, Carlton, Hawthorn and the Bulldogs all recorded a fall.
Attendances through 13 rounds are booming. Up 3.5 per cent on 2003 but more than 4 per cent if you compare like game for like game. And this with the MCG running at reduced numbers as the venue is prepared for the Commonwealth Games in 2006. MCG numbers are down by 133,000.
Only in Adelaide have the average crowds fallen, a fact that has the AFL concerned and working with the two South Australian clubs for the answers. Western Australia and Queensland crowds are running at record levels.
Free-to-air viewers are up by 6.3 per cent on last year. And that is on the back of a 10 per cent jump the previous year. No round of AFL football has ever been seen by more viewers than round six this year. The Saturday night slot is drawing 16 per cent more viewers and Friday night 2 per cent. Pay-TV numbers are up significantly, too. Even the pared down AFL website is recording more hits than Norah Jones.
The AFL is also forecasting an 8 per cent increase in Auskick numbers.
All this might mean that the AFL is too precious about its image. That any publicity is good publicity. It might also mean the product is so good and the infrastructures so solid that the code can take a flurry of punches and not blink.
Whatever the reason, the AFL could not help but skite about it.
Report card belies year that is
By Patrick Smith
July 2, 2004
WE should make a little list. Drink-driving and a whole lot of lying. Gang sex allegations. Rape investigations. Assault. Resisting police. An umpire slandered. Drugs scandal. Spitting. Crowd violence. Wire cages to protect players and officials.
Mmmm, might not be such a little list after all.
An all-in brawl that has five players suspended for 16 matches. More rape investigations. Another police inquiry into assault. More sex scandals.
Dear me. Get us some more paper. Another drink-driving charge. Speeding offence so reckless it threatens sponsorship. Coaches quit, presidents challenged. Even controversy over women's g-strings sold in club colours (Fremantle's line is moving very slowly). Drink-driving offence No.3. All interspersed with much weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The AFL has not had a year like it. Nothing goes close. Not even with mergers and salary rorts. In the new year, the AFL administration drew a rug around its knees and anticipated a winter watching the NRL implode after the sex allegations broke involving the Canterbury Bulldogs. Sadly, it appears anything the NRL can do, the AFL can do worse.
On all these issues, AFL and club officials have fronted the media stony-faced. They have defended what they could, threw their arms in the air in despair when they couldn't. The underlying theme to this response was understandable. The image of the game was taking a lashing.
Football not only competes for space with the other codes but also all other forms of entertainment. They started a cricket Test in Darwin yesterday. The second semi-final of Euro 2004 this morning and the Olympic Games start next month. Market share is hard won, easily lost.
Given these circumstances it remained surprising that the AFL would call a media briefing to discuss progress in the first half of the season. There was some doubt whether it would be held at AFL House or police headquarters.
But AFL House it was and all the heavies were present yesterday. Chief executive Andrew Demetriou; Baz Buckley, general manager of broadcasting, strategy and communications; David Matthews, general manager game development; Adrian Anderson, general manager football operations. And as always, Colin McLeod, general manager marketing and communications, sitting to the side and looking bemused.
We have no idea what Anderson was doing there. We read in the Melbourne Herald-Sun last weekend that Anderson is not even considered to be in the top 15 most important men in AFL football. Rex Hunt's dog got in before him. The paper rated former players Garry Lyon and Gerard Healy as more influential than Anderson but neither of the former jocks was present. Probably not important enough for them.
We fancy that when the tribunal, umpiring department and player rules are reviewed at the end of the year, Anderson's true power will be revealed. We are taking no chances and called him Mr Anderson. He called us Mr Sycophant. That pleased us so much we wagged our tail like Rex's dog.
For all the woes that have befallen the AFL the heavies had reason to look pleased. It would seem the game has never been more watched, attended, listened to or read about. In a black sea of controversy, it has flourished.
Club membership is at a record high with nearly 500,000 signed up. Fremantle and St Kilda lead the table with a 29 per cent jump and Brisbane is not far behind with a 24 per cent lift. Adelaide, Carlton, Hawthorn and the Bulldogs all recorded a fall.
Attendances through 13 rounds are booming. Up 3.5 per cent on 2003 but more than 4 per cent if you compare like game for like game. And this with the MCG running at reduced numbers as the venue is prepared for the Commonwealth Games in 2006. MCG numbers are down by 133,000.
Only in Adelaide have the average crowds fallen, a fact that has the AFL concerned and working with the two South Australian clubs for the answers. Western Australia and Queensland crowds are running at record levels.
Free-to-air viewers are up by 6.3 per cent on last year. And that is on the back of a 10 per cent jump the previous year. No round of AFL football has ever been seen by more viewers than round six this year. The Saturday night slot is drawing 16 per cent more viewers and Friday night 2 per cent. Pay-TV numbers are up significantly, too. Even the pared down AFL website is recording more hits than Norah Jones.
The AFL is also forecasting an 8 per cent increase in Auskick numbers.
All this might mean that the AFL is too precious about its image. That any publicity is good publicity. It might also mean the product is so good and the infrastructures so solid that the code can take a flurry of punches and not blink.
Whatever the reason, the AFL could not help but skite about it.
