Maroochy…where? Oh, Maroochydore.

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Maroochy…where? Oh, Maroochydore.

Authored by: Wesley Hull
on Sunday, December 29 2019 @ 04:01 pm ACDT

I agree Harley, but I think that is a separate issue. The venue will have huge upside provided the AFL does the promotion well enough.

I watched from VERY close quarters AFL Cairns manage to lose their annual AFL premiership match. It wasn't the wet season rain in 2018 that caused it. It was years of receding crowd sizes due, primarily, to lack of promotion.

AFL Cairns will argue that it did plenty - but that flies completely in the face of any argument about the growth of the game in Cairns. Why would such a game drop if the game is - as they claim - growing each year. Makes no sense until you factor in marketing.

There is too much arrogance at AFL level that they are already loved, so marketing dollars can be saved by doing as little as possible.

I'm not talking so much TV, radio or print media - even social media. They all play a part. But when the clubs sent their players to meet kids and families at the different clubs it had a knock on effect to ticket sales. Locals became invested in the game. It made the other PR work better.

As soon as either the clubs, AFL or AFL Cairns stopped that, the game became distant. Cursory advertising doesn't work on it's own. It needs firepower of players to generate the excitement.

For Maroochydore to work, the Sunshine Coast has to be crawling with Lions and Suns players. They need to embrace the event in a very personal way. Link with the visiting international clubs and players and sell the event as an extension of the Queensland based clubs. Really get behind it with player interviews and advertisements using elite players. Use some marketing imagination rather than a very cursory "tick the boxes" method.

Had AFL Cairns done that, Townsville would not be the current owner of an AFL premiership match.

Imagine if Daniel Rich was on TV, asking viewers if they are coming to Maroochydore and finishing by saying " I am." be clever, not standard.

Over the initial years of the Cairns games, I was granted interview access to people like Jason Johannisen, Mitch Wallis, Bachar Houli, Malcolm Blight, Guy McKenna and we told their stories to help grow the Cairns game. By 2018 I was no longer granted that access as I wasn't important enough - the arrogance of the local AFL took over.

Let's hope that arrogance doesn't get in the way and they come up with a pretty exciting media campaign to support Maroochydore - which in itself will be a terrific venue.

I'm sorry if what I say offends AFL Cairns, or anyone else, but it certainly hurt a footy-loving community (of which I am one) when we lost a game that with some imagination could have stayed.

Let's put some collective pressure on the AFL, AFL Queensland, the Suns, Lions and local media to create something pretty amazing to sell what SHOULD be treated as a showcase of international talent that we are privileged to witness rather than an afterthought.

Maroochy…where? Oh, Maroochydore.

Authored by: Harley Vague
on Monday, December 30 2019 @ 12:31 am ACDT

"The venue will have huge upside provided the AFL does the promotion well enough."

That's exactly my point and unfortunately I don't see it happening - it hasn't happened in the past and there are no signs of change.

Maroochy…where? Oh, Maroochydore.

Authored by: Harley Vague
on Wednesday, January 08 2020 @ 01:48 pm ACDT

Here's a similar event
http://www.wafootball.com.au/news/183...2b-tO_1G8Q

Maroochy…where? Oh, Maroochydore.

Authored by: Cam Homes
on Friday, January 24 2020 @ 03:39 pm ACDT

I have to agree a bit with the sentiment expressed about the AFL's seemingly luke warm efforts in the past to promote the IC's. Unfortunately, I have this awful feeling that the AFL may even be a little bit relieved that IC20 isn't in Melbourne this year.

I really hope this is just the pessimist side of me coming out and that everybody concerned with running and promoting IC20 give it the status and promotion that it deserves.

Let's face it, the IC is in effect the non-Australian Amatuer World Cup of Aussie Rules. (actual National Teams playing). Whereas, I reckon the AFL tends to look at it as just another player pathway (unfortunately not a very bountiful one at that) to the AFL, ranking well behind the various Combines it carries out each year.

Lets just hope I'm wrong and we get hundreds of Queenslanders coming along as spectators and adopting and barracking for a country or two. Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow induce the QAFL teams/clubs all around Sunshine Coast/Brisbane to adopt and host a country for the time they are in Aussie. (a couple of dozen or more loud & rawcus supporters for each nation would add so much atmosphere to the whole competition.) Even umpire Yamug getting a bit of stick from the supporters wouldn't hurt either :-)

The organisers could be giving away several hundred free tickets to Suns/Lions matches to the locals as inducement to come and watch the IC matches.

Hope we'll continue to get all matches live streamed as was case last IC now that it is no longer happening in Melbourne (had a ready number of football commentators on hand then).

Despite all the above foreboding I am planning on driving up for IC20, just will take a day or two longer getting there. Fingers Crossed.

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