Long list of possible attendees for next Cup

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Long list of possible attendees for next Cup

Authored by: Cam Homes
on Thursday, April 01 2010 @ 05:22 pm ACDT

G'day smusic.
I watched an Australia 'A' v Fiji in Melbourne a couple of years ago and the Fijians were even creamed by Aussie 2nds. I went because I happened to be in town at the time with nothing much else to do. I quite enjoyed it, but, probably because from where I come from Rugby is non existent. The crowd( not that big either) was mainly Fijians I reckon and a few Vics who play union having a chance to see a better standard that they would normally come across. By the end of the match most of the spectators were at the bar and didn't have a clue of the final score other than Fiji got a belting. Not a good advertisement for the code in Melbourne. So NO to games where the scores might be 200 to 20. AFL v World 18 is a long way off. We have far too many Aussie "Footy Supporters" who believe no money at all be spent on International Footy promotion. I still reckon that much of the interest displayed by many AFL Clubs and hierachy is because the players they might get don't "cost" like an Aussie player does. What was Sydney's transfer payments to the Irish League for Kenneally by the way? I'm am truly a cynic as far as the AFL's motives for the recent interest in International Footy. If some of these PNG players that are on the cusp of playing AFL do get a game is there any transfer fees payable to their old PNG club? I see PNG being bled dry of all their talent just like Tasmania was screwed by the old VFL if we're not careful.
Chris and Aaron are more realistic in what is possible and desirable for the promotion of our great game world wide at the moment. Several divisions at the next IC if numbers demand it and relegation and promotion a possiblity(even tho that is the practice in that other game) and making sure that there are no repeats of 200 to zilch matches.
Cam

Long list of possible attendees for next Cup

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Thursday, April 01 2010 @ 08:14 pm ACDT

Yeah, Aaron and Cam are on the money in terms of World 18s etc.

In terms of "the sake of $10000", it costs more like AUD$150k to get a squad down for the nearly 2 weeks. $10k won't make a difference to whether they attend or not, in my opinion. And Denmark also had a lot of player availability issues (injury and work commitments etc) which I think affected their 2005 decision.

To have a major impact on whether a team can make it or not, the AFL would probably have to be putting in $50k. And if they do that for 24 teams that's over $1 million. Plus running the tournament etc.

Don't get me wrong, teams would certainly appreciate $10k or $20k. And $1 million in theory is not a huge ask every 3 years, although note that would be on top of a budget that would already be (I suspect) over $1 million per year on international development.

I know this gets a bit tired as I've said it often before, but in my opinion the steady ramping up of international support has to bring the Australian public opinion and AFL clubs with it. If the AFL Game Development could simply choose to spend an extra million with no backlash from other stakeholders then I think they would probably do it. I think they're moving in the right direction, but have to tread with a certain degree of caution and pragmatism. And yes, the possibility of draftees for AFL clubs makes it a much easier sell

As for a World Cup, as Aaron said, you'd be looking at a few more years yet before they could be even remotely competitive with an All-Australian side. Realistically I think we could hope that in 10 years there will be 30 fully productive AFL players generated from outside Australia, plus probably 100 scholarship and rookie listed internationals. So perhaps in 15 years there could be a reasonably competitive match. We're all keen for it and impatient, but there's no point putting on a farce.

I know in Rugby people still turn up to see the minnows play if it's a World Cup, but that is part of a wider tournament building up to finals where there are still several genuine contenders. We're just not there yet.

But as I said in the article, I'd like to see the AFL take some small steps down the path, by examining fielding an All-Australian amateur Under 18 side. The concept should be tested first - I'd love to see PNG's best squad versus an All-Australian amateur Under 18 team. If it's competitive then consider putting that kind of team into IC2011. I suspect this won't be seriously considered though.

PNG's "emerging talent" team did very well in the Cairns pre-season comp, and were keen to run their full side against a best-of-Cairns. If we start to see PNG winning games like that then the call for Australia to field some kind of team will get louder. Although we then run into the issue that PNG's best dozen players will soon (next few years) be semi-pro or pro, and so likely to be unavailable for the International Cup as it is currently played, during the Australian season (for most Aussie leagues).

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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