AFANA Footy BBS

Stumbled across your website. I didnt realise AFL had a following in USA. Im from Perth, Western Australia and have followed AFL all my life. Any1 who wants to talk AFL or ask questions feel free to drop me a line. I work in sportsbetting for AFL so i pretty much entrenched in AFL on a daily basis. Anything I can do to promote this great game of ours further. Enjoy the grand final over there if you get coverage.

Tim S.
tstone@rwwa.com.au

http://www.afl.com.au

> I didnt realise AFL had a following in USA.

Neither does the AFL, it seems, sometimes.

> Im from
> Perth, Western Australia and have followed AFL all my life. Any1 who wants to talk
> AFL or ask questions feel free to drop me a line. I work in sportsbetting for AFL so
> i pretty much entrenched in AFL on a daily basis. Anything I can do to promote this
> great game of ours further. Enjoy the grand final over there if you get coverage.

Glad to have you on board and welcome to the BBS. Feel free to join in any of the discussions here at any time.

Yes, we do get live coverage of one game a season... and it's the one that counts most.

-Rob de Santos
AFANA Chairman

AFANA Aussie Football Guide (PDF)

> Stumbled across your website. I didnt realise AFL had a following in USA. Im from
> Perth, Western Australia and have followed AFL all my life. Any1 who wants to talk
> AFL or ask questions feel free to drop me a line. I work in sportsbetting for AFL so
> i pretty much entrenched in AFL on a daily basis. Anything I can do to promote this
> great game of ours further. Enjoy the grand final over there if you get coverage.

> Tim S.
> tstone@rwwa.com.au

Welcome Tim, I guess in Perth you may be barracking for WCE Saturday. Drop me an email anytime you want to talk footy. To you you also Rob, Carn those Eagles. Sorry KC Swan, I just do not like the Swannies. I am also surprised how most of the experts at the Herald Sun and Age are picking the Swans. I will be listening on the internet Friday night, could not get off work. The VCR is already fired up, my 11th consecutive GF on tape, 16th over all.
BBay

> Stumbled across your website. I didnt realise AFL had a following in USA. Im from
> Perth, Western Australia and have followed AFL all my life. Any1 who wants to talk
> AFL or ask questions feel free to drop me a line. I work in sportsbetting for AFL so
> i pretty much entrenched in AFL on a daily basis. Anything I can do to promote this
> great game of ours further. Enjoy the grand final over there if you get coverage.

> Tim S.
> tstone@rwwa.com.au

Welcome Tim, I guess in Perth you may be barracking for WCE Saturday. Drop me an email anytime you want to talk footy. To you you also Rob, Carn those Eagles. Sorry KC Swan, I just do not like the Swannies. I am also surprised how most of the experts at the Herald Sun and Age are picking the Swans. I will be listening on the internet Friday night, could not get off work. The VCR is already fired up, my 11th consecutive GF on tape, 16th over all.
BBay

Enjoy the grand final should be a cracker!

Yes im from Perth, no im not an Eagles supporter. Being 24 ive followed the AFL (formerly the VFL before they changed it to the AFL in 1987). So before the inclusion of the Eagles in 87' I was brought up as a Carlton supporter. (brainwashed the locals would tell you).

Carlton = terrible year... again. Only one direction from last place. They get picks 1 and 4 in the draft so they will bounce back.

Sydney is back as favourites because they beat flag favourites St. Kilda in melbourne last week against the odds. As you may or may not be aware all grand finals are played in Melbourne at the MCG because of its capacity and heritage and will probably never change. Eagles although finishing second have been far from convincing in Melbourne games this year, Sydney meanwhile have won their last 2 at "the G".

With Barry Hall the 2nd leading goal kicker and probably the most pivitol player in this game to get off suspension and be able to play, they are favourites. Brett Kirk is the inspirtation for Sydney and they will play with a lot of heart, whereas the Eagles will be far more clinical.

If west Coast starts to get on top Sydney will shut the game down and slow things to there pace. Its been said Sydney has a red and a green button, they control the tempo of the game and turn it on and off when it suits them. It has been branded as ugly football at times, but it works.

Im backing sydney by 19 pts.

On a personal note - I despise eagles supporters, and living in Perth i really hope they dont win. I wont hear the end of it. The supporters are annoying for the most part. If the eagles lose its everyone elses fault but the teams ie. umpires, unfair schedule etc. Guarnteed if they lose they will scream bloody murder because Barry Hall got let off from the tribunal... basically I wont hear the end of it which ever way the coin lands.

Enjoy the game!!

> Sorry
> KC Swan, I just do not like the Swannies.

That's okay, Brian, I still like you as a person. Remember, my second favorite team is whomever is playing the Cats.

I haven't had a chance yet to ask you what you think of the Miracle Kick off the boot of St. Nick.

         -- Red&White "KC Swan" Lipp

>If the eagles lose its everyone elses fault but the teams ie. umpires, unfair
> schedule etc.

Well, you do need to give them some credit considering the times the AFL made them play "home" finals at the MCG.

And I will say this: one great thing about the Miracle Kick off the boot of St. Nick is that it got folks in Sydney to shut up about the Wiggles game. Sure, the shepherding call was wrong -- but there was 11-1/2 minutes left in the game, hardly a last second call. Yes, they missed the call on Goodes. But what about the earlier missed set shots from right in front of the goal? What about the times we restarted from a behind by kicking the ball straight to a Wiggle? How much time passed, and what was the score, before we ever even got the ball inside our 50?

   -- RW "KC Swan" Lipp 

> As you may or may not be aware all grand
> finals are played in Melbourne at the MCG because of its capacity and heritage and
> will probably never change.

Yep, Tim. We know. You'd be surprised how much we American fans know.

In fact, I'd put the AFL trivia knowledge of Lisa, our Chicago based columnist, up against most Australians I know.

> On a personal note - I despise eagles supporters, and living in Perth i really hope
> they dont win. I wont hear the end of it. The supporters are annoying for the most
> part. If the eagles lose its everyone elses fault but the teams ie. umpires, unfair
> schedule etc.

I'll let you in on a secret.... all supporters of all clubs are that way... in almost every sport. I get mail from fans of every stripe both in Australia, the USA, and Canada. I could substitute the name of every AFL, NFL, etc club for the Eagles and someone would agree with it.

It's sports.

-Rob de Santos
AFANA Chairman

AFANA Grand Final Party Listing

Supporters are one eyed where ever you go im sure. But perth and West Coast is unique. Because the news is local and essentially theres only 2 teams, the Dockers are the ugly cousin of West Coast that dont really have the supporter base. What this equates to is the news becoming almost propaganda in the way the report the football. You visit melbourne and it is so much more even handed and unbias because they have to cater for so many teams and supporters. In perth they know what the supporters want to hear - there team is the best and the only way they can lose is through poor decisions out of their control that have robbed them. Youd be lucky to find a supporter who will concede they were beaten on the day by the better team. Maybe supporters are like this everywhere, but supporters in perth who follow eastern states teams are far more open minded i suppose because of the environement - we can call a free kick a free kick

> Yep, Tim. We know. You'd be surprised how much we American fans know.

> In fact, I'd put the AFL trivia knowledge of Lisa, our Chicago based columnist, up
> against most Australians I know.

> I'll let you in on a secret.... all supporters of all clubs are that way... in
> almost every sport. I get mail from fans of every stripe both in Australia, the USA,
> and Canada. I could substitute the name of every AFL, NFL, etc club for the Eagles
> and someone would agree with it.

Hi Tim - and welcome aboard. Hey, Rob, thanks for the wrap.
I am a die-hard Carlton supporter and we will be back on top soon. Getting rid of that jerk Elliott, and now having some decent draft picks - which won't traded away like Elliott did - there is hope for the future.

I must an anomaly, then as I have nothing against any AFL side - except Collingwood when they play Carlton. And Sydney is my #2 team.

Tim, feel free to drop me a line if you ever get stumped on a footy matter. Or if you just want to talk footy.

Lisa

> It's sports.

> -Rob de Santos
> AFANA Chairman

Lisa,

Thanks. I dont think i will be getting stumped on anything football anytime soon. But im always up for talking football. Perhaps the only weakness in my knowledge of football is trades and draft picks, although you learn very quickly when your dropped in the deep end (ie. carlton right now)

Marc Murphy will be coming to Carlton. He has turned down father-son at Brisbane because his father was very against the Fitzroy - Brisbane merger. That coupled with Fevola dropping the ball on what was suppose to be private information, having the same agent as Marc Murphy. Of course carlton and the murphy camp denies such talks. Im sure being a carlton supporter and a 25 year advocate of the game you know all this

It will be great to see Carlton back up top where they belong after John Elliott brought them to their knees. No wooden spoon for 100 years is no fluke, they are strong and will be back in the next few years. Not next year they will rebuild.

Watch out for the dogs next year. My word did they look dangerous in the second half of last year. Melbourne stopping their assault on the top 8. Melbourne and Nth. Melbourne the pretenders in that finals series. If the dogs got a berth they would have gone close. Exciting football to watch, much rather their style of game in comparison to the restricting game sydney play and a gf between those two styles would have been interesting. But im asking for a lot, we already got a magnificant gf this year and cant ask for much more.

Anyway im rambling. Feel free to drop me a line with your thoughts.

Tim S.

> Hi Tim - and welcome aboard. Hey, Rob, thanks for the wrap.
> I am a die-hard Carlton supporter and we will be back on top soon. Getting rid of
> that jerk Elliott, and now having some decent draft picks - which won't traded away
> like Elliott did - there is hope for the future.

> I must an anomaly, then as I have nothing against any AFL side - except Collingwood
> when they play Carlton. And Sydney is my #2 team.

> Tim, feel free to drop me a line if you ever get stumped on a footy matter. Or if
> you just want to talk footy.

> Lisa

> But perth and West Coast is
> unique. Because the news is local and essentially theres only 2 teams, the Dockers
> are the ugly cousin of West Coast that dont really have the supporter base. What
> this equates to is the news becoming almost propaganda in the way the report the
> football.

I've lived in Chicago, Los Angeles, and other places with 2 club cities in particular sports and I heard the same things. There may be some truth to it, but in the end, the press has little to gain by getting too far out of touch with the general population. So as the supporter bases even out and if Fremantle starts to consistently win, any apparent bias will quickly disappear.

> You visit melbourne and it is so much more even handed and unbias because
> they have to cater for so many teams and supporters. In perth they know what the
> supporters want to hear - there team is the best and the only way they can lose is
> through poor decisions out of their control that have robbed them.

If as an American, I could get a dollar from every one in Melbourne who thinks someone in the press is "against" their club, I'd be able to stay in my hotel with the cash for months on end.

But I go back to my previous argument. Perth is no different than a hundred other places. In one or two club cities in a particular sport, there are "homers" as we would call them. And they persist only as long as the public wants them.

> Youd be lucky to
> find a supporter who will concede they were beaten on the day by the better team.
> Maybe supporters are like this everywhere, but supporters in perth who follow
> eastern states teams are far more open minded i suppose because of the environement
> - we can call a free kick a free kick

You should read one of the public boards or newsgroups on footy. Perth is just a small microcosm of the bigger picture. Perhaps, as a supporter of non-Perth based club that wears on you which I understand. Can you imagine being a non-Yankees fan in New York City? Now there would be torture.

And as a WCE member, we were beaten by a team every bit as good or better than us on the day.

-Rob de Santos
AFANA Chairman

AFANA TV page