The year to banish the Colliwobbles forever

Big Jack says:

08:23am | 20/09/10

Collingwood = 13% winning record in grand finals. Tears in beers ONCE AGAIN Mick and Eddie.

The only national game says:

08:47am | 20/09/10

Keep the rugby out of this discussion mate. No one cares. 150,000 people saw the two football finals on the weekend while only 49,000 turned up to the two rugby games. ‘nuff said.

T.Chong says:

09:57am | 20/09/10

TONG- yur correct, the crowds says it all, BUT , from a game POV, Fridays Tiges V Raiders was a classic.

Ant Sharwood says:

10:12am | 20/09/10

@The Only National Game. First of all it’s called rugby league, not rugby.

Secondly, the Pies/Cats barely got 100,000 TV viewers in Sydney while the rugby league got 600,000. And the Sat night AFL game got a measly 41,000 in Sydney compared to around 500,000 for the league.

So while this thread deservedly should be about the AFL grand final (Go the Saints!), I thought I’d balance your comments with some more facts. I follow both codes, but I’ve gotta say, Sheeds and the greater western Sydney crew must get seriously worried when they see TV figures like that.

Tails says:

10:18am | 20/09/10

Collingwood’s Grand Final record - played 40 won 14. That’s 35%.
St Kilda on the other hand have played in 6 and won 1. That’s 17% (rounded up to be nice).
Forget the Colliwobbles. How about the St Kilda-shakes!
How do you like them apples Big Jack?

George says:

10:21am | 20/09/10

AFL crowds have always been bigger but in terms of the on field product, the Tigers vs Raiders game was a beauty as was the Tigers vs Roosters game the week before…EPIC. Im lovin’ the rugby league right now

Go the Saints!!!!(in both codes).

david says:

11:04am | 20/09/10

I am new to australian sport. Why, when following one code, do the fans disparage another code like THONG has done here. THONG sounds quite angry about it. has something happened in the past between the codes for this type of reaction?

rufus says:

11:40am | 20/09/10

David, I’ll offer my views about inter-code rivalry. There are four football codes vying for dominancy, and cricket. That means the talent pool is thinly spread. If Australia had a dominant code and that code was (soccer) football, we’d be a real world force in that sport. Instead, we’re a real world force in Rugby League and Rugby Union, which only a handful of nations play to anything like our level.

Then there’s Australian football, where no international competition is even possible.

In an increasingly globalised sporting industry, that’ll hurt us one day.

MrKnowsItAll says:

11:44am | 20/09/10

ahhh where does one start David?

Melbourne is a very insecure city, it is dark and moody and it’s locals very provincial in terms of thinking. They seem to need to put down any other city in order for themselves to feel a sense of importance. Unlike other cities in this country, melbourne during winter is abysmal. Think London but with the antarctic winds and minus the history. During winter this city to escape the mind numbing bore which engulfs it, they turn to a silly code and then proceed to obsess over it. They denounce anything non Victorian and fail to understand how anyone dares follows any other code. Yet they are proud to be the sporting capital of Australia - go figure! Sometimes i think they turn up to non afl games in droves to not enjoy the spectacle but to spite other states, who frankly couldn’t careless!

Victroans suffer from massive complex issues and always have. They have an unhealthy hatred towards Sydney and a condescending attitude towards adelaide. Watch and observe the local media, at every opportunity reminding the locals how awesome of a city they live in.

Go to any other state and this provincial way of thinking is not as apparent. In Sydney if you don’t want to follow sport that’s fine there are other options and no one judges you on it. In Melbourne this is hard to accept.

Tim says:

12:12pm | 20/09/10

Yeah TONG,
I can’t believe they didn’t get 90 000 people to the Tigers-Raiders match on Friday.
Oh wait a minute, Canberra stadium only holds 26-27 thousand. Idiot.
And as Ant Sharwood has pointed out, check the TV ratings.
National Code my ar*e.

Gus says:

12:33pm | 20/09/10

@Ant Sharwood - you’ve got to be kidding right?  Talk about cherry picking your data.  Here are the full figures:

Total TV audience for AFL: 2,313,000
Total TV audience for NRL: 1,792,000

Yes, AFL got “only” 41,000 viewers in Sydney, the lowest AFL TV audience of the five major capital cities. 

But what was the lowest NRL TV audience in the same cities? 

3,000 viewers for Titans v Roosters in Adelaide.  The NEXT lowest was 8,000 viewers, three times over, for Dragons v Tigers in Adelaide, Dragons v Tigers in Perth, and Titans v Roosters in Perth.  Moving on, the NEXT lowest was 21,000, for Dragons v Tigers in Melbourne, then 30,000 for Titans v Roosters in Melbourne.  These numbers make your supposed low of 41,000 viewers for AFL in Sydney look amazing. 

I take your point that 41,000 may be a low-ish number for a code seeking to expand into a new market, but these figures, taken as a whole, show interest in the NRL is confined solely to two eastern Australian states. 

Source:

http://www.throng.com.au/ratings/free-air-tv-ratings-friday-september-17-2010
AFL Collingwood v Geelong
Sydney – 68,000
Melbourne – 801,000
Brisbane – 43,000
Adelaide – 216,000
Perth – 213,000

NRL Titans v Roosters
Sydney – 604,000
Melbourne – 30,000
Brisbane – 296,000
Adelaide – 3,000
Perth – 8,000

http://www.throng.com.au/ratings/free-air-tv-ratings-saturday-september-18-2010
AFL Sydney v Western Bulldogs
Sydney – 41,000
Melbourne –5381,000
Brisbane – 59,000
Adelaide – 155,000
Perth – 179,000

NRL Dragons v Tigers
Sydney – 555,000
Melbourne –21,000
Brisbane – 259,000
Adelaide – 8,000
Perth – 8,000

AL says:

12:51pm | 20/09/10

@Ant Sharwood - I also follow both crowds but when people in Sydney ( where I live ) start talking about Tv ratings as the great saviour for the NRL and use it to cover up the poor attendences they don’t really explain how the ratings are arrived at.

The Oztam ratings the networks use are made up of only 3000 odd homes nation wide and only 765 of those are in Sydney so it is a pretty small cross section of society and smells a touch like a pre election Newspoll and we all know how accurate they are. I reckon the NRL would prefer to have the bums on seats than possible ghosts in living rooms if they had the choice.

Anyway this is not a cross code thread so I will leave it at that but go the Saints in the AFL and the Tigers in the NRL!

MrKnowsItAll says:

01:09pm | 20/09/10

@Gus : all that confirms to me is that the AFL is not as popular as it makes out to be. Funny enough both states where the AFL are desperate and need the code to grow in order for future tv $$$$ it is being ignored.

AFL is not a true national code nor is the NRL. Difference being the NRL knows this and acknowledges it yet the AFL through vicious spin is drowning in it’s own arrogance.

The quicker AFL people and it’s fans accept this the better it will be for all in then long term.

OverTheBS says:

01:14pm | 20/09/10

@AL bloody hell AFL supporters are a special lot. When ever their crowds or tv figures, which seems to be more important to these mesicans, show data which doesn’t favour them they find a bloody excuse! ALWAYS without fail!

Yet when it shows NRL figures to be healthy they trot out vitriol!

Accept it AFL fans..the game is only enjoyed in southern states and should revert back to VFL!

George says:

01:44pm | 20/09/10

Gus, you forget to mention the fact that the NRL gets shown in SA, WA, VIC and all other states and territories outside of NSW and QLD at around 1 o’ clock in the morning. On the other hand AFL gets shown into all states including NSW and QLD at around 9:30pm if not live.

so a more honest comparison would be-
Total TV audience for AFL: 2,313,000 into 5 states
Total TV audience for NRL: 1,792,000 into 2 states

If you ask me the NRL would be really impressed with that

OverTheBS says:

02:01pm | 20/09/10

Swans get shown live in Sydney and only manage a paltry 50k..the storm in my time in melbourne have never been shown live, even when they were playing semis. All NRL games are shown at 12.30am..except the Grand Final which is shown from kick off until full time and then wrapped up with minimal if next to no coverage of the trophy presentation..unless its the storm. Even the pre match hype is ignored.

John says:

02:12pm | 20/09/10

@OverTheBS - big call on your behalf for the AFL to go back to the VFL, you do realize the Swans average crowd for their 11 games this year was 30675, while the best syd NRL team was Canterbury on 20670 fans and teams like Cronulla had a average attendance of 10551. So would I suggest the AFL may persist in Sydney for a while yet!

david says:

02:47pm | 20/09/10

thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. It has been revealing.

I am beginning to see that loyalty to a football code actually transcends the codes involved and becomes more aligned to cultural identity and conflict (QLD & NSW v VIC). Kind of like militant christians and muslims facing off over belief systems.

I think I’ll watch both final games…but I don’t know that I’ll be checking the viewer numbers by metro area to determine which code is best.

Gus says:

03:14pm | 20/09/10

@david: Excellent solution – watch both finals and decide which code is best.  And while there is definitely a lot of good-natured cultural identity conflict wrapped up in the AFL/NRL rivalry, beware of any claim that the AFL is not a national code – the footy-mad people of Western Australia (two AFL teams), South Australia (two AFL teams), Victoria (ten AFL teams) Tasmania (no team, but they’ve been begging for one for years)...even our brave brothers and sisters nurturing the flame in Queensland and NSW (one team each with another in the way in each) – might beg to differ.

Lucas says:

04:35pm | 20/09/10

George said:
“Gus, you forget to mention the fact that the NRL gets shown in SA, WA, VIC and all other states and territories outside of NSW and QLD at around 1 o’ clock in the morning”

Umm.. there’s a reason for that mate.  If they put it on live against the AFL there would be a very small crowd watching.  Probably the same size as who watch at 1am.

I’m all for better telecasting though…you’d think that with about 10 channels to choose from that free-to-air would get all the finals of the big sports (NRL, AFL, A league, Superwhatever, 2020 cricket) - and televise them live or very near live to all capital cities.  Whack another replay on of each game also instead of some lifestyle show or repeated sitcom.

I’d love to watch a good NRL or A league game if it were on TV at a relevant time, when either I wasn’t watching my AFL team play, or given the chance to switch during a game.

The issue on coverage is that all TV deals are there to exclude others, not to provide good service to consumers.

The issue on gate attendances is really one for the NRL to work on.  The AFL have worked very well on the idea of club based memberships, and the tribal aspect of attending matches rather than having a big piss-up BBQ which seems more in keeping witth NSW/QLD rugby and league fans.

If NRL would work on the tribal aspect, and the coverage could be sorted out both ways, I think we will see some really good results that probably will lead to better interest in all sports.

Macca says:

04:42pm | 20/09/10

The AFL has recently overtaken the NRL in another front the Leaguies used to dominate. AFL players are now far more likely to be arrested or disciplined for poor behaviour according to a report released the other week.

the AFL is better at covering up misdemeanors than the CIA

stephen says:

01:03pm | 20/09/10

Yeah, dropped.
And the Saint’ll be flying high this weekend.

Ant Sharwood says:

10:15am | 20/09/10

My response is, St Kilda looked sluggish after the week off in the first half, but came alive in the second. They can definitely win, although I concede, the Geelong “formline” is a worry.

Squeakng past the Cats on a lucky ump’s call looks like average form compared to Collingwood’s demolition act. Still, it’s a GF, so insert appropriate cliche about unpredictability.

David says:

10:43am | 20/09/10

Mock, mock, mock, mock

Tails says:

02:08pm | 20/09/10

The Crows game was a night game for starters.
How about the thumping we gave Carlton in round 6 (the week after they whipped Geelong and the week before the thrashed St KIlda).
Pretty sure that was a day game.
I’m just glad Collingwood aren’t playing Brisbane in the Grand Final. They’re the only side we haven’t beaten this year.

Tails says:

04:35pm | 20/09/10

I wouldn’t be backing them at $1.40. Your money would be better spent backing Goddard or Harry O’ for the Norm Smith.
The Saints have too many X Factors for this to be a cakewalk.