IC11 Men\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s Div 1 Grand Final - Ireland\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

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Authored by: Cam Homes
on Wednesday, August 31 2011 @ 11:05 am ACST

Cos789,

I agree with you that the AFL should have done more to create "brother/sister" "host" clubs for each of the Nations that participated in the IC. The awareness just in Australia that would have generated around the country would have been of immense value to the code (especially in NSW) before the IC had even started.

I had an conversation with an avid footy follower only recently and when I told him about the IC he laughed at me and said "you're kidding me". He did not know about it and was amazed when I told him it was actually the 4th IC. He was even further amazed when I listed the countries that were involved and he could not believe that all the players were nationals with no expat Aussies playing.

When Denmark and France were mentioned he just shook his head and said I was just feeding him a cock and bull story.

I believe there are hundreds of thousands of footy followers and football club members and officials out there whose reactions would have been the same.

Promotion of the IC at this grass roots level certainly would have been so valuable because very little made the national media/press. There was virtually nothing in the Sydney press as I asked my daughter to check the papers there for me.

Cam

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Authored by: Harley Vague
on Wednesday, August 31 2011 @ 11:53 am ACST

What's worse is that I met a couple of Swans supporters going early to watch the IC game at ANZ .They wanted to see more but couldn't find the information .In Royal Park I was talking to guy who happenned by . He was blown away by the whole event .Knew nothing .In Sydney the media mentioned the peace team a bit and Izzy with Tonga but nno practical details .Didn't catch much of the media in Melbourne but it did seem all after the event . I got tired of the same conversations ."I'm going to watch the International Cup ......Australian Football...No... Aussie Rules ...No.....Australians are banned from playing...18....Well there could've been a lot more coming ....No...Blacktown with the finals in Melbourne ."

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Authored by: Cam Homes
on Wednesday, August 31 2011 @ 09:32 pm ACST

18 suburban or near Sydney country footy clubs hosting one of the national teams with a bit of a warm up match before the cup started and barby etc. between the players. Just wonder how many spectators(from the host club's players, officials, members and friends and families) just might have made it their business go to Blacktown(at least on one day) and watch and support the team that they had hosted. it would have numbered into hundreds I reckon. A few more hundred than those that did go because of their connection with teams(whether national or familial) would not have gone astray by the sound of it.

Hundreds more Aussie footy followers would have been made aware of the competition thru this grass roots promotion and at not a lot of cost to the organisers either.

A hell of a lot more than were made aware by the major media/press. Every local newspaper would have had a write up about the visitors coming to town/footyclub, again at no cost to the organisers.

By the way, were any crowd numbers recorded and published??

Cam

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Authored by: Brett Northey
on Wednesday, August 31 2011 @ 10:20 pm ACST

The only crowd figures I'm aware of were that the AFL said about 2000 people passed through the gates at BISS on Game Day 1. I assume that doesn't include players and officials. I supposed 2000 spread between 2 grounds with people coming and going over the entire day means you'll only ever have maybe 100 people tops at any one ground at any one time, which is about what I saw.

Most of the grounds are not gated so no official figures would be collectable anyway.

In terms of relationships with local clubs, I know in 2008 the AFL put the call out for volunteer clubs, not sure on the mechanism this time. I think there are quite a few that did occur this time you just don't read about them. We mentioned a few along the way as we came across them.

But most local clubs aren't going to supply a big spectator base. If you have such a relationship then how many people will care enough to go, and how many of them will be playing on the weekend simultaneously or busy and how many at work on a weekday etc.

So I think there was a bit of it about but doesn't translate into 1000s of fans, maybe 10s of fans per team.

Certainly helps with awareness amongst the footy fraternity though. An official did mention to me that Sydney folk were in many ways more receptive than Melbourne folk to the whole idea of international footy.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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Authored by: Harley Vague
on Thursday, September 01 2011 @ 09:38 am ACST

As you say local clubs aren't going to produce spectators mid week or if their W/E games clash ,so games underlights ,curtraisers and curtainfallers would help .Even though there were sizeable crowds spectating at times just about all spectators had some connection .The Tongan community was visible in both Sydney and Melbourne supporting their country as were a lot of other spectators which is good of course but we need more of the general public .IMO Sydney is more receptive to the international flavour whilst Melbournians obsess with "the standard" .

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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Authored by: Cam Homes
on Thursday, September 01 2011 @ 10:27 pm ACST

10 fans per team is 180 fans that did not turn up. + 40 for the women. I seem to recall that two of the womens matches were underlights or twilight games 15-20 fans per team to those matches?? roughly 230-240 possible fans we know weren't there because it wasn't tried.

Same deal in Melbourne = around 500 spectators who didn't go.

All a bit as tinka said the attitude seems to be about what might not happen instead of what just might happen if it is tried.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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Authored by: Brett Northey
on Thursday, September 01 2011 @ 11:07 pm ACST

But I'm saying that there were at least a few affiliations. For a full discussion as to whether it would or wouldn't work, and whether it was or wasn't tried, we'd need to know how many, but not something I'm contemplating chasing.

So I agree it would be good, it's just not clear if it did happen or not, I just know it was attempted in 2008 without any real crowd impact. Sounds like a good idea, not sure it makes a big difference in reality to crowds. But where it is useful is building contacts, potential exchange programs, support etc.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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Authored by: Ronk
on Wednesday, September 14 2011 @ 08:33 pm ACST

I agree. I am quite shocked that the AFL did not do more to publicise the International Cup, especially in Sydney where the matches were played at Blacktown and it would be an ideal tie in with the launch of GWS.

The AFL is supposed to have great clout with the media but they didn't use it. I have an Indian friend living in Blacktown (where there is a huge Indian population) and he said he and many of his countrymen would have loved to see India in action if they had only known it was on. There was zero publicity in the ethnic media as far as I can tell.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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Authored by: Michael Christiansen
on Thursday, September 15 2011 @ 06:51 am ACST

From the publicity perspective, the AFL has been great this time around, the AFL website carried much more content with frontpage links all the time. Brett Kirk spent the best part of the year roving the world and reporting back via his diary blog on footy outposts, and upon his return he did the media rounds - however, the local media in the main still doesn't know how to handle the International Cup, and 4 IC's in, people still have to stress 'No expats'.

The irony of course is were the AFL to run a 'world cup' like RU, RL and even soccer - then, expats playing, people playing on the basis of parentage or even grand-parentage - that's the norm.

Sadly too many people go on about what the IC isn't. Instead of focussing on what it is.

re ethnic based media coverage, from the Indian perspective, there were snippets in BeyondIndia (at least on line, I don't buy the paper!!). However, like many things, you often need to know about it before hand to look for it. This article shows that the local (Melb) Indian community was engaged with the side during the event. Where I work thelocal paper ran a story about the French Coqs in town. That there were events put on for visiting teams clearly shows that there was a level of knowledge/promotion prior to the event to facilitate the organisation. What needs to happen though is that more people educate their mates about it over the next 3 years in preparation for IC14. And perhaps the Indian community in Australia can do more to fund the Indian rep team rather than enthusiastic amateurs.

re 'affiliation', back in 2008, the AFL initially was trying to engage VAFA (VIc amo's) teams to 'host' international sides, but, progressively through the build up, the AFL clubs got more and more interested (despite the late Aug/early Sep timeslot - i.e. clashing with last rounds and early finals). However, Tonga for example, in Sydney got there 2 weeks out and trained and some players played with Campbelltown Blues in the local comp.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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