SA Footy

Not sure if it was the same in the City edition as I only get the Country one but I am extremely disappointed at the lack of coverage of the SANFL in today's paper. On a weekend where the Cows and Powerless are not playing, this was the perfect opportunity to promote the SANFL. Is there any mention of this round's games in today's paper???? Virtuallly NOTHING.
This is despite a headline having 'SANFL a valued nursery for elite'. A perfect opportunity to promote the round but the only mention of it within this article is 'On a weekend when the SANFL celebrates it club rivalries'. It does not even mention which rivalries. I applaud Doug on at least trying to get something into the paper but would have loved to have seen the games mentioned.
As for Michelangelo's article 'SA falls victim to computer glitch' does Michelangelo even know that SANFL football exists. I quote:
'And this weekend - without either the Crows or Power in action - South Australian football fans are suffering for it.'
'The AFL has made this silly mistake this weekend - it has shut down the two biggest generators of football interest in this state, the Crows and the Power. It equates to having two cars and sending them in for servicing at the same time. Not smart.'
'The AFL is lucky a competing sport did not take advantage of this AFL-free week in Adelaide to score some cheap promotional points.'
He does say at another point:
'The State League has "taken advantage" of the AFL's error of having the Crows and Power compete on the same weekend by putting on a "Rivalry Round" this weekend.'

I cannot understand how he bemoans no AFL football, says that he is lucky another code has not exploited this weekend, says the SANFL has 'taken advantage' but makes no mention of the games that are on or tries to promote it in any way. Surely, as chief football writer, would this not have been a great opportunity to promote the game at its grassroots level?
VERY DISAPPOINTING!!!

The whole problem stems from the fact that we have only one newspaper in Adelaide and their same owners own various radio and tv stations. The only way to solve the problem is to encourage Fairfax to set up a paper here, the Melbourne Age is a well written paper, if we could have an Adelaide Age I think that would sort the Advertiser out pretty quickly.

What's new? They'll have more this weekend about the Richmond and Melbourne game than any SANFL match...

Don't get me wrong. I am normally a big fan of The Advertiser. I love the work that Doug, Zac and Warren do each week. Those three have a true passion for grassroots football and do their best to promote it most weeks. I just thought that with no AwFuL this weekend, this presented the perfect opportunity to get more publicity for the competition.

According to Rucci, it's not the medias responsibility to promote the local comp. It is up to the clubs. Therefore the clubs, in his opinion, have let themselves down by not utilising the opportunity to approach the media and insist that they are covered.

Kingrooster, Michelangelo stated in his article that the 'State League' had taken advantage of the no-AwFuL weekend by staging a Rivalry Round. In other words, the SANFL had promoted it and given the perfect opportunity for the media to comment on it.
Cheers

bulldogproud wrote:..... I quote (Rucci in The Advertiser):
'And this weekend - without either the Crows or Power in action - South Australian football fans are suffering for it.'

Not this one. And aside from the cold, I dare say (for the most part) the only South Australian football fans "suffering" amongst the 7200 at the Parade last night were Norwood fans.



"Pierce" Rucci. Sage of the Ages.

Not.

Well said bulldogproud and agree 100%. Journalists take great responsibility in promoting the game. Sure they may not be paid by the SANFL or AFL, but if you're a journalist and writing or speaking about football, you take with it the responsibility. I would have thought if you chose a career as a sports/football journalist you'd love the game. Rucci's attitudes and views are exactly what is destroying our SANFL. To dismiss the SANFL as "football in this state" is disgraceful. Unfortunately, while he is still chief football writer, we'll continue to be dismissed and our competition (and in turn football in this state) will suffer.

I'll also say that I think the coverage by the other journalists is generally pretty good and great work by the Adelaide Now website to always have the results of the games up that night and then a more in depth review the next day. But, why the hell do they persist with Rucci?

Whilst on the tiser - the match right up this morning re Sturt/Nwd had the journo claiming Sturt is a real flag threat this year and whilst that may be true on current form, his line of "Sturt belting Centrals" 3 weeks ago was way over the top. Refresh my memory but didn't Sturt win that tight tussle by 7 points? When was a 7 point win a belting???

BPBRB wrote: Refresh my memory but didn't Sturt win that tight tussle by 7 points? When was a 7 point win a belting???

yeah whilst we didn't belt them on the scoreboard we did hit their bodies hard

heater31 wrote:

BPBRB wrote: Refresh my memory but didn't Sturt win that tight tussle by 7 points? When was a 7 point win a belting???

yeah whilst we didn't belt them on the scoreboard we did hit their bodies hard

True enough but that was not what he meant! Seriously though Sturt are performing very well and have well and truly suprised just about everyone to date (including even their diehard supporters) but good luck to them they are clearly now a big threat to this years flag and top 3 team.

Sojourner wrote:The whole problem stems from the fact that we have only one newspaper in Adelaide and their same owners own various radio and tv stations. The only way to solve the problem is to encourage Fairfax to set up a paper here, the Melbourne Age is a well written paper, if we could have an Adelaide Age I think that would sort the Advertiser out pretty quickly.

Sadly, the lack of direct daily competition is not likely to change any time soon. The Melbourne Age is supported by a town with triple the population.

I'll be trying the Adelaide The Independant Weekly (http://www.independentweekly.com.au/) on a trial basis.

Note - I'm not associated with this group in any way.

BPBRB wrote:Whilst on the tiser...... his line of "Sturt belting Centrals" 3 weeks ago was way over the top. Refresh my memory but didn't Sturt win that tight tussle by 7 points? When was a 7 point win a belting???

For that matter, when was 14 days equal to 3 weeks?

The SANFL and the Clubs need to do all they can to promote it's games through press releases, buying avertising spots, interview requests and all the rest - the media won't do it for them like it did 30 years ago. I heard Rucci's comments on the radio and I tend to agree since when did the Advertiser agree to take on the responsibility of promoting the SANFL?

What about all the other sports that need/want space in the paper?

After Rucci's comments, Phil Heardon from SA rang through and went through everything they have done this week to promote their game tomorrow and it sounded the club put in a big effort. So well done South. Also, someone at Norwood and Sturt must have done something right as last night's game was one of the biggest crowds of the season. So don't be too quick to moan about the Advertiser, especially if the other games are also well attended.

hondo71 wrote:I heard Rucci's comments on the radio and I tend to agree since when did the Advertiser agree to take on the responsibility of promoting the SANFL?

FFS - if that's his attitude he should be cleared out of there straight away. He is the Chief Football Writer of the Adelaide paper.

Did anyone hear 5AA this morning? It was telling that KG & Cornsey were away: David Wildy read out an email (possibly by someone from this site?) trumpeting the virtues of the SANFL and criticising the mainstream media for pushing endless drivel about the Crows & Power (even when there is no meaningful news), while the state league with its proud tradition is marginalised. It was an excellent letter, and Wildy and Russell Ebert in particular really got behind it in support of the SANFL, highlighted its strengths and were highly critical of the AFL. Actually restored a bit of faith and gave some hope for the future.

The ROOOOOOOOOCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH really has not got a clue or a sniff of whats happening with local footy because he has his little head fair and square up the POWERS ARSE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some of the above posts state that it is up to the SANFL clubs to do the promotion to The Advertiser writers as it is not The Advertisers responsibility. Why is it then that over 90% of the material on the Cows and the Powerless is done at the instigation of the journalist and not the AFL clubs? What is good for the goose should surely be good enough for the gander, should it not?

On a similar tangent I picked up a copy of this week's Sporsbeat from the Lockley's Hotel today and it was fantastic!
Heaps of SANFL with pics of heaps of legends on the front cover, with the usual articles by Chris Kendall and co it is a great read and I'd be happy paying money for it, to get it for free is awesome value!

Wedgie, do you know if there would be any way of getting copies of the Sportsbeat posted to Mildura? Cheers