Forget the Rabbitohs versus the Roosters, forget NSW vs QLD and certainly forget Australia vs New Zealand, no, the biggest rvalry in Australian sport at the present time isn’t even between two sporting teams its between two sports with one using more spin than the Mike Gatting ball and the other getting smashed pillar to post every week with what seems to be ‘the final nail in the coffin for the sport.
Thats right Rugby League vs AFL as the AFL just about guaranteed a second Sydney team..or wait I’ll call upon Shane Warne for this one, The first West Sydney AFL team for the 2012 season, things are now hotting up between the 2 sports for battle of Western Sydney.
The AFL has been hell bent on this idea for the past 2 years and have not been shy to say they want a second team in Sydney to boost the support for the game. But during a financial crisis and dropping support for the Sydney Swans in every way possible it seems a strange move to want to put a new team into the Harbour city.
So the question is, why would they?
What the AFL has done is express their need to a second Sydney team during their purple patch at which time the Swans were the flavour of the month and the fashionable thing at the time is to jump on the Sydney bandwagon.
They truly have mistaken bandwagon support for actual support for the game. But they cant admit their mistake can they? Demetriou is too proud for that so of course the team must go ahead.
When the statistics are given of Swans memberships falling Demetriou says the current financial times are going to affect clubs.
When at the same time Sydney Rugby League memberships are up some 25%.
Free to air TV ratings in a viewer friendly Saturday night timeslot with no NRL on channel 9 drop to below 100k expect for first game of the year Demetriou says ‘A second team will create a rivalry and create passion throughout the city’.
Shane Warne would be proud of that one.
The facts are the Swans on free to air haven’t hit 100k since round 1, while Friday night NRL games in Sydney are up on both games 1 and 2.
The fact is the Swans crowds at ANZ stadium are on a scary decline.
But my favourite is how the AFL counts their juniors throughout NSW.
‘Here kid, here is a auskick bag, and now your are a AFL registered player’.
Laughable when you really think about it, they are so desperate to kill off Rugby League and no matter what they say that’s their dream.
Bandwagon support, flavour of the month and being fashionable at the time as helped the Swans since 1982, but it wont help West Sydney or the AFL.
