The official debuts of the Melbourne Rebels, Gold Coast Suns and GWS Giants were, as it turned out, just the tip of the iceberg in a significant weekend for Australian sport, which came to typify the contrasting fortunes of each code.
Here are some random ramblings and observations on a momentous weekend:
The weekend started with the Melbourne Rebels debuting in front of 25,254 fans. The Rebels suffered a 43-0 mauling at the hands of the NSW Waratahs.
Putting aside the result for a minute, it was a significant achievement for a Super Rugby franchise to pull a crowd of over 25,000 in the AFL’s heartland. As I pointed out in my last column, when compared to the other fringe codes such as the NRL and the A-League, also housed at AAMI Park, the Rebels were close to matching their new rivals’ regular season averages in their trial matches.
Even if there’s an inevitable dip in crowds as the season progresses, they could still lose 50 per cent of their debut crowd and still be on par with the Heart, Storm and Victory’s level of support.
To put the opening crowd into some perspective, it was slightly bigger than the crowd across town at Etihad Stadium for a NAB Cup round featuring two Victorian clubs. And before you tell me the NAB Cup is just a series of trial matches, it’s more organised (and, importantly, televised) than mere trials. And, after all, taking on the AFL in Melbourne is the toughest ask in Australian sport. As Spiro Zavos noted, media coverage in Melbourne was modest at best for the Rebels.
On the park the Rebels’ performance shouldn’t be judged too harshly. It’s always difficult for new clubs to make an immediate impact against more established teams, while the critics of them seem to have ignored just how good the NSW Waratahs were.
Give them time. The rugby community in Melbourne should do likewise.
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The Rebels weren’t the only debutants copping a hiding in their debut. GWS Giants suffered a 79-point smashing at the hands of the Sydney Swans, who kept their new neighbours goal-less.
It was to be expected. A year out from their debut, it’s unfair to judge the Giants just yet, and perhaps the question should be asked if it was worth putting the team up for slaughter at such an early stage of their development.
However, the crowd of 9447 at Blacktown decked out in the orange and black of the Giants hinted that the AFL has successfully grown the seeds of interest west of Sydney. The result was never going to go the Giants’ way; it was about testing GWS’s early progress in gaining traction in the area, and to that extent it was a success.
Meanwhile, Gold Coast’s Karmichael Hunt debuted and proved he could handle himself with some solid touches. He was far from the liability many predicted he’d be, and he has room for improvement.
Compared with the other codes, the AFL’s expansion policy looks so much more convincing and on track.
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With the AFL “intruding” into its western Sydney heartland, the NRL and its supporters could at least take encouragement from the fact the Parramatta Eels and Wests Tigers pulled a crowd of 12,761 for a trial match at Campbelltown on Saturday.
But there are deeper concerns for the game. With the Cronulla Sharks and Newcastle Knights facing uncertain futures and the ongoing debate on whether to expand or not, the incoming independent commission, which took a step closer to being born over the weekend, needs to be selected and quickly outline a direction for the code.
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As the NRL and AFL prepare for their season, the first week of the A-League finals took place and drew an average crowd of 7910, weighed down by Gold Coast United’s paltry 3281.
But don’t let the Gold Coast United’s continued failure to significantly increase its fanbase mask one of the key reasons why crowds were down. After all, Central Coast’s 10,166 crowd was disappointing for the showcase of the two best teams in the league, while Adelaide United sold 11,500 tickets for their final, just on their season average (10,285 turned up, but there were extenuating circumstances with heavy rain throughout the day).
As many fans and friends have pointed out to me in the past week, inflated ticket prices are keeping fans away during the finals.
General admission has been scrapped, replaced by assigned seating at inflated prices. At Hindmarsh Stadium, for example, seats in the east grandstand (opposite the main stand) that were general admission and cost $24 in the regular season are suddenly assigned and cost $40 – a $16 hike.
To put that into some perspective, equivalent tickets to the KFC Big Bash grand final, also held in Adelaide, cost half that price at $20.
The FFA takes the full gate from finals series matches, so they’re understandably keen to squeeze some profits at a time when budgets have been pushed on multiple fronts, but that sort of price hike is unjustified and is only alienating fans when the game needs them the most.
They must remember, football is far from the dominant code in this country and they cannot expect casual fans to pay such exorbitant prices, especially when more popular and mainstream sporting options provide cheaper alternatives.
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Meanwhile, the round ball game took a bit of a battering over the weekend with the Herald Sun’s “exposé” that football fans were the worst behaved, according to superintendent Rod Wilson.
The story was as big of a beat-up as we’ve seen in awhile.
As this FourFourTwo article points out, there were 11 arrests and 280 evictions at last year’s Melbourne Cup; 11 evictions and four arrests at the 2010 AFL grand final replay; 37 evictions and five arrests at the first day of the 2010 Boxing Day Test; and 189 evicted and at least 16 charged at a one-day international in 2008.
Yet the Herald Sun article produced no figures to provide a comparison between the A-League and its rival codes. The media has covered those indiscretions but not with the sort of conviction and judgment it saved for A-League fans.
The few bad apples that ruin it for the rest of the A-League fans are no different to the drunken fools who get evicted on a regular basis at other sporting events.
Once again, it’s an example of some police and officialdom mistaking football fan culture and the passion that it produces with tired, old stereotypes. The superintendent’s comments could stoke the flames at a time when fan culture is being debated – an irresponsible act from someone in such a position.
He should know that alcohol and youth violence issues, which tend to be the major cause of these illegal acts, are societal issues and not specific sport issues. Don’t confuse and generalise the issues, superintendent.
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Finally, it would be remiss of me not to mention the scandals rocking the AFL, which highlighted the end of the weekend, particularly the scandal around player manager Ricky Nixon.
I don’t want to dissect the scandal; it’s a sordid, seedy affair which is sickening – from those involved to the media cashing in on the sex life of a 17-year-old.
But how a player manager and a newspaper (News Limited has paid for the girl’s accommodation) are allowed to take such an active role in the girl’s well-being is beyond me.
As we’ve seen with Nixon’s behaviour, is her well-being the main concern here or is she just being used? What are News Limited’s real intentions for providing her with accommodation, and where on earth are the child protection authorities? Why has no one taken her out of this situation and left her in the hands of those with vested interests in the league? Surely her welfare is the most important issue here, and that would mean taking her away from those involved in the game.
When observing these AFL scandals from afar and from in Melbourne, I tend to draw the same conclusion, even if it doesn’t directly relate to this latest scandal, and that is the AFL’s incestuousness and the conflicts of interest you see throughout the code. How many club personnel also hold concurrent media roles? In situations such as this and in so many other scandals, how are these conflicts of interest justified?
The Footy Show, for example, has been hosted by not one but two AFL presidents in consecutive stints – Collingwood president Eddie McGuire replaced by North Melbourne president James Brayshaw. What other sport could justify and excuse such conflicts of interest?
It leaves me bemused.
All in all, it was a fascinating weekend.
Follow Adrian on twitter @AdrianMusolino