The AFL wants to ‘grow the game’ in Sydney. But is it walking the walk?
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon rolled into Sydney last month with a 10-metre tall Sherrin in tow, plonked on the grounds of Rosehill Public School, ready to spread the gospel to the non-believers.
Regular parishioners (read Victorians) cannot stand the idea of Opening Round, and how it mangles the AFL fixture, but Dillon was in town to explain why putting on big games in Sydney and Brisbane was so important to the mission of growing the game in the northern states.
“The focus on NSW and Queensland is really helpful for awareness and getting off to a fast start with the momentum,” he told SEN.
But what’s the point of generating momentum – and going to all the trouble of setting up Opening Round, and copping all the brickbats from the traditionalists south of the border – if the AFL is just going to let it run out?
On Friday night, the Swans will host the Giants in the 32nd edition of the Sydney derby, a rivalry that has developed genuine intensity and animosity in the past few years. It rarely fails to deliver: the last one involved a sledge from Toby Greene to Tom Papley about his weight, an all-time bake at half-time from Giants coach Adam Kingsley and a third-quarter onslaught that overwhelmed the Swans and dented their finals ambitions.
But it’s not the only AFL match being played on Friday night. The other is between Geelong and the Western Bulldogs, and that will be shown on free-to-air TV on Channel Seven across the country – everywhere except in NSW.
And that has genuinely annoyed combatants on both sides of the Sydney derby divide who are rightly proud of their product and believe they should have the national spotlight to themselves.
Swans coach Dean Cox said on AFL 360 on Monday night that the double-header situation was “quite strange”, and something the club would speak to the AFL about changing in future.
The next morning, Swan Nick Blakey and Giant Lachie Ash also hit out at the AFL. Gently.
“Frustrating, I think. We deserve that [national coverage],” Ash said.
“We’ve had some good clashes and there’s plenty of theatre in the games over the last few years, so definitely frustrating. I think we would have loved that Friday night slot to ourselves. It’s normally a packed out game, great atmosphere. It’d be great to have it on the main stage.”
Blakey concurred, in almost the same words.
“It’s disappointing. It’s a strange one,” he said.
“If you watch the games and the way that both teams go about it – two competitive teams at the top of their game in the most competitive sporting market in the world … it doesn’t make much sense. In future, if it happens again then hopefully it can be a standalone fixture.”
The AFL’s argument is that Friday night double-ups will mean less overlap on Sundays, when the television audience is smaller, and when both Sydney clubs have said they would prefer not to play. And the reality is that the Geelong-Bulldogs game will rate higher in Victoria. But then again, the pulling power of the Sydney derby has never been tested, because it’s never been scheduled as a standalone fixture.
Nor has the Adelaide Showdown, which will also be played on a Friday night in a fortnight’s time, up against a clash between the Bulldogs and Fremantle in Melbourne. (You can bet, though, that if the bizarre push from some sections of the AFL media to have the South Australian showpiece played at the MCG were to happen, it would probably get the standalone treatment.)
The whole point of not having matches outside of NSW and Queensland in Opening Round is to force everyone to “focus” on those states. But the same logic doesn’t apply here – and that leaves the impression that the AFL doesn’t trust the interstate clubs to carry enough interest unless there’s a Victorian team involved somewhere. And that leaves the impression that all the talk of growing the game in other parts of the country is just that – talk.
The other problem is that the derby will be the first match played in Sydney for 27 days, during which time the AFL’s momentum in this uber-competitive, often superficial market, set up by Opening Round, has dropped to near enough zero.
Yes, the Easter Show meant that Engie Stadium was off limits, but the SCG has been sitting there, begging to be used during the glorious autumn sunshine.
It would be forgivable if it hadn’t happened before, but it has, in 2024, the first year of Opening Round, when there was a stretch of 53 days during the same part of the season in which there were only two AFL games played in Sydney.
That, too, was considered a “bit strange” by Blakey, and he’s not alone in holding that view.
The good news is that the players, as always, will hold up their end of the bargain on the field. With the Swans flying on top of the ladder and the Giants primed to knock them down a peg, it would be a huge surprise if the derby does not live up to its promise.
But as the AFL tries to fight off the surging NRL – and the growing perception that their incursion into Sydney’s west is doomed to fail – there are some rather obvious, easy wins that they’re leaving on the table.