Eddie McGuire has referred to as for the AFL to be “nimble” with its scheduling after lacking a golden alternative to have Sydney to itself.
The NRL, which has 9 of its 17 groups based mostly in Sydney, is taking part in its fourth annual Magic Round in Brisbane this weekend, leaving NSW up for grabs for the AFL.
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But in what could possibly be seen as a scheduling blunder, the AFL, which hoped the GWS Giants would make inroads into the rugby league heartland in western Sydney, haven’t obtained any video games in NSW both.
The Giants have a house recreation however have taken it to Canberra’s Manuka Oval for Saturday evening’s conflict with the Western Bulldogs, whereas the Swans will play Sunday afternoon on the MCG in opposition to the Collingwood Magpies.
Although neither the AFL or NRL wish to acknowledge the opposite other than making potshots, it looks as if a missed alternative to McGuire.
“This was an opportunity to get a situation where the AFL owned NSW,” he mentioned on Wednesday evening’s Footy Classified on Nine.
“If you were in Canberra and instead of it being Collingwood Vs Sydney at the MCG, it was Sydney Vs Collingwood at what was ANZ (now Accor Stadium), that would have been sensational.”
2007 Brownlow Medallist Jimmy Bartel agreed and mentioned it ought to have been “one on the Friday night — Giants playing in Canberra on Friday night and have the Swans play Collingwood on Saturday night.”
As an apart, McGuire mentioned he’d just like the Giants to alter their title to the NSW Giants, however he additionally pointed to the most important ever crowds in Sydney.
The largest crowd was in spherical 21 of the 2003 season when the Swans and Magpies had 72,393 followers on the Olympic Stadium, three years after the Sydney Games.
There have been 56 AFL video games performed at Stadium Australia since 2002 however earlier than the final one between the Swans and Giants in spherical one of many 2022 season, the earlier time was the Sydney sides taking part in the 2016 qualifying last.
McGuire mentioned the report crowd was an evening the place it was the one AFL match of the evening and whereas there was an NRL match in Sydney, it nonetheless attracted the report crowd.
McGuire, who was the Collingwood president on the time, mentioned the match had a big impact.
“I got a phone call a few days later from Bob Carr (then NSW Premier), who didn’t know anything about football, openly said that, didn’t know anything about any sports, and he said ‘I’ll offer you, Collingwood Football Club, $5 million cash and all expenses to play Anzac Day up in Sydney’,” McGuire mentioned.
“In the end, we went to the AFL and said ‘look, there’s a real option for some things’, we got $50m out of the state government of Victoria to fix up and refurbish the MCG AFL members part of the Southern Stand. Everyone shared in it, we didn’t pocket the money and run. We didn’t want to leave Anzac Day from the MCG.
“But that’s the impact.”
McGuire added he’d spoken to the top of managing director of Seven Melbourne and head of community sport Lewis Martin and relayed that he’d mentioned “we were happy to go to Sydney, we thought it was a bit strange as well.”
McGuire continued: “I know the fixtures come in late but you’ve got to be nimble enough when the opportunity comes.
“We should have been there and owning Sydney this weekend. You don’t have to do Gather Round, you just have to do big games.”
It comes after veteran journalist Caroline Wilson spoke on Monday evening’s version of Footy Classified saying AFL faces “significant challenges in Sydney”.
“The AFL has dropped the ball there and the clubs in Sydney are frustrated and the broadcasters are angry,” Wilson mentioned.
“The state that has one-third of the Australian population is providing one or two per cent of the footy talent.”
The difficulty has been additional delivered to the fore with the announcement that Tasmania could be the AFL’s nineteenth workforce.
After that announcement, Swans coach John Longmire referred to as on the AFL to make sure the NSW golf equipment don’t get left behind.
“Let’s not take our eye off what’s happening here in NSW in the most competitive sporting market in the world,” Longmire mentioned on Wednesday.
“What we’re mindful of is one third of Australia’s population is in NSW, and yet only five per cent (of AFL players come from this state).
“We’re all focused on Tasmania, which is terrific.
“But if you’ve got one third of the population sitting here in NSW and only five per cent playing AFL football, I think we need to do a bit of work in that space.”
Source: www.news.com.au
