First internationally staged AFL Premiership Game bound for NZ?

Welcome to World Footy News Tuesday, June 03 2025 @ 08:14 am ACST

First internationally staged AFL Premiership Game bound for NZ? | 15 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

Comments are closed and no new posts are allowed.

First internationally staged AFL Premiership Game bound for NZ?

Authored by: Michael Christiansen
on Friday, March 09 2012 @ 03:06 pm ACDT

Rory -

I guess in the perfect world, the ACT would've been nurtured more carefully through the 1980s. Alas, the old VFL was cash strapped and TV/media was much different then to now; let alone that the VFL had to find some way to morph into an AFL.

Canberra certainly appeared to have been a lost opportunity - but, the Swans in Sydney was a key start and, at very least - as often seen - the drive/flight down from Sydney to Canberra is not seen to be too prohibitive for many Swans fans when the Swannees are 'in town'.

As a long time North fan/member - I made the trek to 'sunny' (but chilly) Canberra once for a game at Manuka. So, let's not hide from the fact that in the late '90s North Melb were playing 3 games a year there......sadly, Norths' attention wandered seemingly aimlessly across Canberra, Sydney and Gold Coast - - so, I think we can all identify careful/patient nurturing vs cash grabs.

That said then - the 'nurturing' that Hawthorn has embarked on in NZ looks to be of the non-cash grabbing sort. That Chris Pelchen sees the opportunity in NZ to go where Hawthorn pretty well can't - whilst the Hawks Tassie engagement remains - is of course ironic given that St Kilda has the opportunity at one point to engage more in Tasmania!!! Obviously Pelchen wasn't there then.

For now too - given the zonal carve up of NSW-ACT b/w Swans and Giants - NSW and Canberra are out of reach now - and the reality now is that for an AFL club with a genuine interest in a form of 'zonal/academy' work - the international scholarship is the primary opening, esp now that the NSW scholarship scheme is basically a thing of the past. Interesting there that a club like Collingwood was several years ago signing up the NSW Scholarship kids at a rate unknown south of the Murray, along with testing the waters of the Irish Sea and bringing in an American basketballer.

Point being - - don't get blinded by notions of 'cash grabs'. Clubs always have to look for a point of difference and I reckon at very least with Pelchen on board at (once was) Moorrabbin that this is something to look on with interest rather than concern.

RSS news	RSS events
Twitter	Facebook

World Footy News

Search

Translate

User Functions

Events

Featured Sites

Older Stories

Friday 21-Mar

Thursday 06-Mar

Wednesday 05-Feb

Tuesday 04-Feb

Saturday 14-Dec

Friday 13-Dec

Socials

Who's Online

Random Image

What's New

Articles last 2 weeks

Comments last 2 weeks

Links last 2 weeks

Advertisements