TOPIC:

TheRock wrote: Todays game is more like a rugby game...disappointing to say the least!!! At times one half of the ground has all 36 players in it.

They need to make changes to the game so it opens up like we use to see it.
1. Kicking the ball backwards from behind your defensive centre line should be play-on.
2. There must be a certain number of players in each forward 50 at any one time. This can be manned from the 3rd umpire and relayed to the emergency umpire if the rule is broken.

Here's a WAFL fixture from Saturday 28th May 1983.

EF v C
24.18 - 19.15
Crowd 6,813

SD v EP
26.20 - 19.16
Crowd 13,127

SF v WP
22.16 - 16.16
Crowd 11,420

P v S
29.15 - 19.7
Crowd 4,130

Plenty of goals kicked and 2 crowds over 10K.

The week after...a game I was at, saw a classic derby at EF which SF 18.20 d EF 19.13 in front of 17,560. Noel Carter kicked a point after the siren.

Source: 1983 WA Football Register.

Open footy and terrific skills were on display regularly. Gee those were the days.

great post Rock and all to true, I was at the WP game and the EF game your talking about

about 36,000 attended this round..

and the round the following week was much bigger...

footy has gone backwards in this state no doubt about it.

VFL/AFL killed it.

Talking Footy wrote:

yolo swaggins wrote:

anchorman wrote: I believe also that one of the major problems is the fact that there are too many teams and not enough quality players running around in all grades of football,AFL, WAFL, SANFL, what ever grade.
One of the frightening things is the fact that the AFL are considering including another two teams into the competition.If this happens it will weaken all levels of our game.
To me it is like the cordial drink put too much water in it and it will be a crappy drink.

I disagree with this. There is a much larger pool of talent to pick from these days than there was in years gone by. Larger population = more kids playing footy = larger pool of talent. The pool is only going to get larger and larger.

More Kids?????
who told you that.

There's actually been a decrease in the numbers of junior teams across our state.

The big proportion of the numbers in the stats they take are Auskick kids and the fact they lie a little.

They calculate the number of teams and then multiply by 25. Few teams actually have 25 kids but hey it makes the numbers look good.

If more kids were playing we wouldn't require cross district competitions. for instance last year 2 districts combined from year 10 up to make 8 to 10 team comps. Sadly this year 3 districts have been required to do this. Play ups and play downs are rife through every comp.

Take a look at the WAFC report and then speak to District officers around the state too get a real picture of what's going on.

Dead Right Talking Footy, you have a good handle on it.

Jun teams have literaly vapourised in our area.

SF Jnr FC - Gone
Hilton Park Jnr FC - Gone
Willagee Jnr FC - Gone

and that picture is rosy compared to Country Footy which is a walking ghost in many areas,

anchorman wrote: I disagree with what you say YOLO.Far too many players who are not up to AFL standard and when you get the situation where two sides take the top 10 to 15 players for three years on the trot then it weakens the competition.The other sides have to take players that may never make it at AFL level and will disappear from the second level of football as well.

There have been more than enough viable/extremely good AFL players taken in later picks of the drafts (Chris Grant was I think #96 in his draft) and more than enough top 10/20 draft picks that have not succeeded in making an AFL career.

Talking Footy wrote:

yolo swaggins wrote:

anchorman wrote: I believe also that one of the major problems is the fact that there are too many teams and not enough quality players running around in all grades of football,AFL, WAFL, SANFL, what ever grade.
One of the frightening things is the fact that the AFL are considering including another two teams into the competition.If this happens it will weaken all levels of our game.
To me it is like the cordial drink put too much water in it and it will be a crappy drink.

I disagree with this. There is a much larger pool of talent to pick from these days than there was in years gone by. Larger population = more kids playing footy = larger pool of talent. The pool is only going to get larger and larger.

More Kids?????
who told you that.

There's actually been a decrease in the numbers of junior teams across our state.

The big proportion of the numbers in the stats they take are Auskick kids and the fact they lie a little.

They calculate the number of teams and then multiply by 25. Few teams actually have 25 kids but hey it makes the numbers look good.

If more kids were playing we wouldn't require cross district competitions. for instance last year 2 districts combined from year 10 up to make 8 to 10 team comps. Sadly this year 3 districts have been required to do this. Play ups and play downs are rife through every comp.

Take a look at the WAFC report and then speak to District officers around the state too get a real picture of what's going on.

Dead right TF ..also they include Women players numbers now too further skew the figures!

yep forgot about them BH. Add them to the numbers as well

Im not sure how many kids are going to soccer. I have a gut feel ( and thats all ) after talking to a few people, that thier kids are choosing soccer. Again whether this be true or not im not 100% sure. The underlying "worry" is IF this is the case, that soccer has done this with hardly any "serious" wa media coverage. Like it or not soccer is on the up (yes working fom a small base i agree). It will be interesting times in years to come me thinks

UNKA2 wrote: Im not sure how many kids are going to soccer. I have a gut feel ( and thats all ) after talking to a few people, that thier kids are choosing soccer. Again whether this be true or not im not 100% sure. The underlying "worry" is IF this is the case, that soccer has done this with hardly any "serious" wa media coverage. Like it or not soccer is on the up (yes working fom a small base i agree). It will be interesting times in years to come me thinks

Unka its not just a gut feel its a fact, Soccer is no 1 jnr participation sport nationwide, it quite big heere, but you should see Western Sydney its massive, mate we live in a global market place that is getting smaller and smaller, EPL is growing in popularity here amongst average joes.

Ever seen western sydney wanderers supporter base, it is massive,

Bazza wrote: Ever seen western sydney wanderers supporter base, it is massive,

Agree Baz its very solid after just 2 years. Winning helps as well of course.

Also their name "Wanderers" is far more palatable & logical considering the general quota of people there are variable in a sense... "Giants" which has no relevance at all and the abbreviated term GWS fails to connect with the area.

The AFL didn't do their homework there, which is hardly suprising. It is vital that the AFL market this football club as "West Sydney" not the try hard sounding "GREATER Western Sydney" or lazy "GWS".

And the nick name "GIANTS" is nothing but an American thing. Not a winner in that area of Sydney and never will be. A name like the "Crusaders" or "Warriors" would have been more befitting, albeit they are used in the rugby circles. It could still work .

True anchorman, but I do believe we overthink things abit these days. It is now a far more competitive sporting market than it was 30 years ago. I think every sport has its niche and it will forever be that way. The Swans do OK considering the traditional fickle Sydneyites.

The Wanderers supporter base looks bigger than it probably is because they don't stop chanting, waving flags or setting smoke bombs off through an entire game. But it gets noticed that's for sure.

jardine wrote:

Bazza wrote: Ever seen western sydney wanderers supporter base, it is massive,

Agree Baz its very solid after just 2 years. Winning helps as well of course.

Also their name "Wanderers" is far more palatable & logical considering the general quota of people there are variable in a sense... "Giants" which has no relevance at all and the abbreviated term GWS fails to connect with the area.

The AFL didn't do their homework there, which is hardly suprising. It is vital that the AFL market this football club as "West Sydney" not the try hard sounding "GREATER Western Sydney" or lazy "GWS".

And the nick name "GIANTS" is nothing but an American thing. Not a winner in that area of Sydney and never will be. A name like the "Crusaders" or "Warriors" would have been more befitting, albeit they are used in the rugby circles. It could still work .

Spot on YET AGAIN Jardine!, in its hast to "amercanise" the game, it had taken away any original thought process, or anything "australian" about the game. Our game is sanitised so much, ya dont dare sing a song or move outta ya seat, else the PC brigade are right on ya.