Football wars continue

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Authored by: Brett Northey
on Monday, November 17 2008 @ 01:50 pm ACDT

I understand what you're saying Chris, and yes, people can love multiple sports, and in general we try not to denigrate other sports on this site - people have every right to love other codes and each has aspects that appeal. But to some extent there will be a limit to how many can dominate the sporting lanscape.

You're in the huge US market where a variety of flourishing national leagues is easily contemplated, economic conditions permitting (the US population is about 14 times that of Australia). But in Australia it's much harder to see very successful soccer, Aussie Rules, Rugby Union and Rugby League national leagues simultaneously being strong across all states - the population and income doesn't support it.

The various codes are in there trying to "steal" each other's young talent, and the leagues are trying to win members (i.e. money) in non-traditional areas. Something has to give, and historic clubs will fold. And as you can see from the quoted comments of Michael Searle, people involved with the NRL or their clubs are thinking strategically in terms of NRL vs AFL.

Sean, your propensity to scrutinise everything written on this site is admirable but we're not going to cite references to everything we write, particularly since some things are not in the print media anyway, e.g. they are on radio and TV as well. This is a sports news site it isn't an academic journal. As for your periodic slights regarding "professsional journalism" etc, I'm sure you find just as many faults with big media that get paid for what they do. Other than the timeliness of some of our articles, I'm satisfied our writers stack up quite well.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Football wars continue

Authored by: Sean Finlayson
on Monday, November 17 2008 @ 03:49 pm ACDT

Brett, are you saying that there is no difference between the quality of articles on worldfootynews.com and say theroar.com.au ? Have you thought about posting some stories there ?

Basically I think this article is in the realm of opinion. It does tend to bash rugby league a bit. For the record I've seen references of the AFL International Cup being a joke too, but haven't seen them mentioned on this site. You're right, not all of us are one-eyed AFL supporters. The fact that the Rugby League World Cup has been running for over half a century to get the level of media and attendance support that it enjoys today should not be understated. Are you saying that when the AFL fields a side in 2055 that our code will be subject to the same lambasting ? I would have thought it be logical to enter an amateur side into an amateur competition, or if not, then let the professionals play for their own nations, but not Australia. Instead, what we have at the moment is, like International Rules a kind of hybrid competition. The AFL wants to be involved, but at the same time keep an arms length. In my opinion, you either choose one or the other.

Anyhow, there is a difference between scrutinizing and reading. I read your article once and the things I thought didn't look right, I responded to. That is what comments are for. I'm not scrutinizing or criticizing every article, I just felt that this one may have stepped over the line in terms of rambling statements and speculation without a basis in fact.

Personally I would have thought the actuality of Port Moresby getting an NRL licence would be behind Tasmania getting an AFL licence by a big margin. Though there is something to be said for the NRL expansion policy, at the very least they are rewarding their fans and organic grassroots growth rather than trying to artificially force feed the code from the top down. International league competition does add a whole new level, but despite the great growth abroad I don't think the AFL has the foresight to make it a reality.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

Football wars continue

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Monday, November 17 2008 @ 09:15 pm ACDT

In response to Sean, the irony is amazing - I visited the website the Roar that you wrote about, and the front page (although be warned it was an opinion piece though!) was "The Rugby League World Cup is a joke". Maybe I wasn't just making stuff up after all.

Not that I actually agree with that sentiment. I respect what they're trying to achieve, much the same as we all are in Aussie Rules with the International Cup, they've just had a significant head start. I referred to criticism of it to demonstrate that it's interesting to see that at all levels there are always critics.

And in terms of criticism of the IC, we reported a few things that were said on various issues, such as comments on the divisions from China, the umpires from the Irish, and we had a whole story about the difficult issue of umpiring. I didn't see anyone else associated with it criticising it for us to report on.

Anyway I'm not sure from your comment whether you're suggesting that site the Roar is better or worse than this one, and I'm not sure why I would consider posting articles on it. It seems quite a nice polished site, although packed with more "rambling" opinion pieces than news, but covering all sports which no doubt keeps it turning over and obviously focussed more on mainstream top professional leagues.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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