BOY OH BOY WOWEE It's the 2014 AFL Thread

[Axver]

Wait what, they're reverting to the ugly old lion? That's a shame. The whole Paddle Pop Lion accusation has always been completely baseless. "Hey guyz, so they've changed to a new lion, and I'm scared of change, and there's this commercial company with a lion as their mascot, so they must look the same!"

 

[cobl04]

The Melbourne Tigers might be a much smaller sporting club, but surely after the drama that has taken place in Cardiff City over our horrid rebrand in the English and Welsh Premier League, and the vocal opposition from Heart fans over the move to change their colours ahead of the Manc City takeover, this instigators of this are being ignorantly dismissive of such precedents.

Even in the AFL, where fans have a pathetic tendancy to bend over and accept radical change far too easily, Lions fans have been angry over the replacement of the iconic Fitzroy Lion with the Paddle Pop Lion, and this is finally being reverted next season.

I was always a South East Melbourne Magic man myself

I get why they want to make a change. Supposedly there's a lot of issues with the junior club named Melbourne Tigers, and elite basketball is in such a sorry state here that they feel the best way forward is to rebrand. But they shouldn't have done it with the only iconic brand left in the NBA.

Fitzroy fans are still very upset, I can tell you that.

 

[intedomine]

Wait what, they're reverting to the ugly old lion? That's a shame. The whole Paddle Pop Lion accusation has always been completely baseless. "Hey guyz, so they've changed to a new lion, and I'm scared of change, and there's this commercial company with a lion as their mascot, so they must look the same!"

No, the opposition was because people didn't like it. The "Paddle Pop" is just a means of belittling it (like Chad Kroger references).

Sporting brands are different. Heritage and history are a club's most unique selling points, not cartoon characters on guernseys. When you remove or continuously tweak the symbols, traditions, colours, monikers in cheap, cynical and childish commercial measures, there is not all that much to hark back to, and brand association (and subsequently loyalty) diminishes.

It was difficult enough for the Fitzroy fans to see their club merged into Brisbane, a far away city. It was all handled as respectfully as possible I reckon, with a lot of old Fitzroy elements incorporated into the new club identity. But start removing things like this and you risk alienating some of their most valuable customers, and they do still exist. I know several, and all oppose the ridding of the iconic lion. The one that adorned the guernsey of one of the greatest sides of all time a decade ago.

Don't push it too far, or risk a Cardiff City scenario - loss of customers/fans.

 

[Axver]

Oh come on, teams change uniforms and logos all the time. We don't need to go very far back to find all the AFL teams with rather different logos (what about those awful eighties badges!), and with uniforms that are different to today's, some substantially. The complaints about the lion are petty. Complaints about loss of Fitzroy identity are less so, but frankly if the fans didn't see this coming then they were kidding themselves. Mergers can sometimes retain identity of both teams if they are geographic neighbours, but even then you usually see things swing strongly towards one of the formation clubs in the end. In this case, it was plain as day that Fitzroy was just going to be subsumed.

 

[cobl04]

this is a really good read AFL's growing band of religious players

 

[Axver]

No thanks.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Is Jr. as religious as his old man?

 

[cobl04]

Yes. He even talked about it on The Footy Show.

 

[Axver]

It's his only failing.

Meanwhile, Geelong making North look ordinary tonight. Not that that's hard. North have been very hot and cold this year.

 

[cobl04]

You wouldn't happen to be being intolerant there would you, Ax?

 

[cobl04]

Good win tonight, I was surprised at North's lack of competitiveness at the start, they normally play well against us and I was expecting a real contest. Annoyed we let them back in a bit at the end, but all-round, good stuff. Tomahawk had a ripper as did the usual suspects.

Sadly Majak looks like he's really, really struggling.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Majak looked like he was running on a treadmill at times.

 

[Axver]

If North could've been a bit more accurate in the last ten minutes, that could've been quite a tense finale. Still a pretty enjoyable final quarter after the game looked like becoming a fizzer.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Looks like Hardwick has kicked Jack's ass an awful lot, start of the 2nd quarter and he has 5 goals already.

EDIT: As of 11 minutes into the second he's already got 7.

 

[Axver]

Oh my god why did I tip GWS whyyyyy.

I THOUGHT THE GENERALS WERE DUE.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Have they taken Jack off? He hasn't kicked a goal in over 10 minutes.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

On 11 now? Will he get to 13? Where's Huddo?

 

[cobl04]

Matthew Scarlett would have kicked 11 against that mob today.

 

[intedomine]

The Gee Dubbly Ooo Esses clearly need a defender who can take on key forwards. Riewoldts huge haul following on from Kennedy's a couple of weeks back.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

They should throw money at James Frawley, they need someone like him.

 

[Axver]

That was a very disappointing display by the Giants. This was a ripe opportunity for them to get their season back on track, having fallen off after beating Sydney and Melbourne in the first three rounds. They were at home playing a demoralised and divided team - the perfect opportunity to jump the Tiges if there ever was one. They even had the likes of Mumford back, though judging by his stats he didn't have much of a great return. The drubbing by the Eagles was partially excusable as it was at Perth, but there's no excuse for lying down like that at home against a team that was a single position above them on the ladder.

 

[bono_man2002]

Fair chance the Tigers might win their next two, if they can learn how to beat Essadon who they normal lose on Dream Time nights. Followed by North the next week.

Stuck in South Australia with the SANFL game on Channel 7 before Port V Hawks tonight, which should be a cracker. Missing out on watching Collingwood v Weagles. I have a bad feeling about this game anyway, so maybe its best if I just watch the scores.

 

[Axver]

I don't see Richmond getting past North. The game against us might be really close though.

Can't wait for Port vs Hawthorn.

 

[intedomine]

North will destroy us, as they did last season so convincingly.

Essadon vs Richmond should be great next week, especially after watching the twos play at Punt Road before the seniors!! Can't wait!

Port vs Hawthorn should be a ripper. You'd have to favour Port Power given Hawthorn's injury list, but you never know.

 

[cobl04]

In which Jack Riewoldt is filmed running from Punt Rd Oval, walking to Richmond station, buying a Myki and walking down the platform. For fuck's sake, what a joke.

Jumping Jack's dash after Hardwick blast - AFL.com.au

 

[Vlad n U 2]

He looks like a teenager trying to be sneaky (also note his smirk at the end of the video).

I hope Hawthorn win now because a lot of Port fans seem to already think they've got the premiership cup at Alberton, their arrogance knows no bounds.

 

[cobl04]

He does, because that's who he is. But fuck the media for following him.

 

[cobl04]

Not only did Yeo not take a sitter on the siren, he lost two teeth in the ensuing collision.

 

[cobl04]

 

[Vlad n U 2]

I saw it on TV and ugh I cringed for a while there.

Anyway Collingwood win.