David EdwardsLet the National Comp Shine!
September 25th 2006 12:01
With both AFL and NRL now in the final stretch of their respective seasons, it is beautiful to see how the game has expanded. For the first time in either games history, the football codes will not have their major state represented. In the AFL, the Sydney Swans face the West Coast Eagles in Melbourne, whilst the NRL see the Melbourne Storm against the Brisbane Broncos in Sydney. How both codes have played out in 2006 is a true testament of how they have really developed themselves as a national competition.
As I have commented earlier, becoming a national competition is key in making a game succeed. Regardless of what state is originates in, or where there is the most focus on the code, all sports need to be able to expand on an national, and for a number of sports an international basis.
The AFL is one true example of this, in the 80s they brought in the first interstate side to compete in the Victorian Football League, and ever since then they have moved onto bigger and better things. The same has occurred in the NRL, with them even allowing space for New Zealand to field their own side. Now both still have the biggest amount of fans and coverage in their home state, Victoria and NSW respectively, but their ability to expand to further states in the main reason why they have succeeded so well.
This kind of shift or movement is vital for any sport to really excel in our sporting mad nation, and this is the exact reason why I hate how the state’s must position themselves as the only real state that matters. Making very tedious connections to either side playing after their ‘home sides’ have been knocked out is the worst aspect of the game. I just cannot see why many people cannot respect that it is the best two sides in the competition fighting out for the championship and leave it at that. If we can respect that point, then a lot of this pointless bickering about the ‘strongest state’ will end.
Let me clarify that I am not talking about state’s rivalries, because they in fact are able to spice up the competition, and there is nothing better than seeing two vicious rivals taking on each other on the football field (for further proof, just watching the three State of Origin matches this year), but with that said, if your selected side, or in this case state, are knocked out of the competition, then the focus should land on the remaining sides. For the entire year the Storm, the Broncos, the Swans and the Eagles have proven to be the frontrunners of their respective competition, and they have all had stellar season so it is fitting that all four sides are fighting to be named the best side of the competition. I am a huge supporter of letting the best sides, not the biggest states, be the focus of the competition, and with four of the five states that have a side in either code trying to take the premiership home, it is proven how it is the sport, not the state, that wins in matches like these.
Until next time, sports minds.
As I have commented earlier, becoming a national competition is key in making a game succeed. Regardless of what state is originates in, or where there is the most focus on the code, all sports need to be able to expand on an national, and for a number of sports an international basis.
The AFL is one true example of this, in the 80s they brought in the first interstate side to compete in the Victorian Football League, and ever since then they have moved onto bigger and better things. The same has occurred in the NRL, with them even allowing space for New Zealand to field their own side. Now both still have the biggest amount of fans and coverage in their home state, Victoria and NSW respectively, but their ability to expand to further states in the main reason why they have succeeded so well.
This kind of shift or movement is vital for any sport to really excel in our sporting mad nation, and this is the exact reason why I hate how the state’s must position themselves as the only real state that matters. Making very tedious connections to either side playing after their ‘home sides’ have been knocked out is the worst aspect of the game. I just cannot see why many people cannot respect that it is the best two sides in the competition fighting out for the championship and leave it at that. If we can respect that point, then a lot of this pointless bickering about the ‘strongest state’ will end.
Let me clarify that I am not talking about state’s rivalries, because they in fact are able to spice up the competition, and there is nothing better than seeing two vicious rivals taking on each other on the football field (for further proof, just watching the three State of Origin matches this year), but with that said, if your selected side, or in this case state, are knocked out of the competition, then the focus should land on the remaining sides. For the entire year the Storm, the Broncos, the Swans and the Eagles have proven to be the frontrunners of their respective competition, and they have all had stellar season so it is fitting that all four sides are fighting to be named the best side of the competition. I am a huge supporter of letting the best sides, not the biggest states, be the focus of the competition, and with four of the five states that have a side in either code trying to take the premiership home, it is proven how it is the sport, not the state, that wins in matches like these.
Until next time, sports minds.
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