20,000 South Africans to play aussie rules by 2010

[Rob]

Having a match kick off at 4pm on a weekday local time would be even dumber.

[yob]

It was Perth V Wellington... Nobody was going to watch it anyway.

[Egan]

Having a match kick off at 4pm on a weekday local time would be even dumber.

Yep, it was the FFA's stuff up as well. The Rod Stewart concert had been booked before the Glory game...

[Simmo79]

I saw this and thought of nines:
http://xkcd.com/1102/

[kilonewton]

As good a place as any for this. At the risk of sounding like nines, this is what my day looks like today
http://www.afleurope.org/euro-cup-2012- ... announced/.
Will be some boys I've played with and against both in London & Scotland.

On that note, I should do my report on the SARFL GF held a few weeks back in Aberdeen.
A bumper crowd of about 30 braved the pissing rain to witness Edinburgh running out convincing winners against Glasgow. The difference between the sides? Edinburgh could not find a place in the team for myself (a 36 year old bloke who likes pies) whilst Glasgow had about 5 in their team who are of a similar bodyshape and fitness level to me.

[yob]

As good a place as any for this. At the risk of sounding like nines, this is what my day looks like today
http://www.afleurope.org/euro-cup-2012- ... announced/.
Will be some boys I've played with and against both in London & Scotland.

On that note, I should do my report on the SARFL GF held a few weeks back in Aberdeen.
A bumper crowd of about 30 braved the pissing rain to witness Edinburgh running out convincing winners against Glasgow. The difference between the sides? Edinburgh could not find a place in the team for myself (a 36 year old bloke who likes pies) whilst Glasgow had about 5 in their team who are of a similar bodyshape and fitness level to me.

Migration spreads sport. The problem the AFL will always have that short of a massive invasion, civil war or depression that causes half of Australia to emigrate, the game's appeal will always be limited to homesick aussie expats on work visas trying to fill the numbers to get a game up.

And as far as a civil war goes I couldn't be arsed...

[gyfox]

AFL internationally is growing and the 2011 AFL Annual Report mentions that for the first time participation passed 100k. To put that in its context its about 20% of the registered Association Football players playing weekend competition football in Australia.

[dibo]

AFL internationally is growing and the 2011 AFL Annual Report mentions that for the first time participation passed 100k.

Thanks for that.
Traditionally Australian Football participation in WA and SA is quoted around the 60k mark.
Both Qld and NSW have well surpassed that mark.
Tasmania has tradionally quoted at the 30k mark.
100k doesn't mean too much unless participation has a geographical concentration.
Thus the countries with participation rates that could be meaningful are the RSA, PNG and NZ.
The RSA has good numbers reaching maturation soon but because the players are poor it's hard seeing a semi-pro league being supported. The PNG has decent numbers and is further advanced with pathways already in place and well used but instability and poverty deters the establishment of a semi-pro league. NZ has only just established sizeable participation numbers but they are further away from maturation, however with the emphasis now being placed on NZ, IMO steps are being taken to establish a large AFL presence in NZ.

.

On participation stats, Gyfox went over the participation stats in a post a while back.

AFL on the other hand includes participation in all programs but their 2011 Annual Report does break the total figure down into different categories. The total participation in all categories was 791k. The number of players involved in club competition across the entire country was 314k. To break this 314k figure up you have to look at small bar charts so the following numbers are give or take a bit. ACT/NSW just under 30k, NT just over 5k, Qld about 20k, SA about 50k, Tas about 10k, Vic 140k and WA just over 50k, Total 314k.

Your numbers are a bit off there bucko. WA and SA seem to be a little bit overstated, but the others are just hilarious. Qld and NSW between them have somewhere around 50k registered to play with their clubs, so clearly neither of them has 'around 60k'. Tas's 'traditionally quoted' number is also apparently a massive overstatement. But that's no big surprise - look at the battle of Birchgrove Oval and we know that the modus operandi for the AFL is to massively overstate their numbers.

Speaking of which, we can make fun of the Australian AFL registrations because there's an annual report that publishes the numbers. There's no such thing for the South African registrations. We're relying on things like HREOC reports from 2005, and that's really not the same as some hard registration numbers.

Unless you can provide them (and clearly you either can't or won't, because you've been asked many, many times), we're not going to be any the wiser than we are right now.

[Simmo79]

the game's appeal will always be limited to homesick aussie expats on work visas trying to fill the numbers to get a game up.

Think that, if it makes you feel better.
Originally most clubs were set up by expats but a growing number number of clubs are set up by locals
especially as leagues grow and they are recruiting more local children to make the balls for 12c an hour.

..

FTFY

[dibo]

Simmo wins the internet.

[Simmo79]

This will always be my favourite thread

[yob]

[funky calypso music]
Under the sea,
Under the sea,
There'll be no accusations,
Of dodgy registrations
Under the Seeeeeeeeeeeeea!

[kilonewton]

the game's appeal will always be limited to homesick aussie expats on work visas trying to fill the numbers to get a game up.

Think that, if it makes you feel better.
Originally most clubs were set up by expats but a growing number number of clubs are set up by locals
especially as leagues grow and they are recruiting more locals..

..

Not my feckin' quote.

And a much better summary of the day than any pish I could muster.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/irish ... 6480233036
Very bizarre, standing about on a sunny day in Scotland watching Iceland take on the Czech Republic. I'd almost forgotten what the sun looked like

[yob]

Some amazing news about the progress of aussie rules in India, from someone in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/ ... fault.aspx

THE TENTACLES of Australian Football are ever-expanding, even in parts of the globe that once appeared impenetrable. And here's another example of the game's extraordinary reach and impact.

On December 1 and 2, cricket-mad India will host its first Australian Football tournament. Adding to the surreal nature of the event, Australian cricket great Steve Waugh is the tournament ambassador.

Fear the tentacles.

[the crow]

So they are showing up to see Steve Waugh........new low AFL....new low..


800million get glimpses of afl game behind Steve Waugh.