What we must do if GC17 steals players and picks

[Ox]

Simply don't go to any of their games.
For this to work obviously all supporters have to participate but it's about time we all say something.
The greasy cypo has screwed us for toooooo long.
Ela Dimitriou,Malaka 'vre and your dog mates the GC17 !

[1965]

Simply don't go to any of their games.
For this to work obviously all supporters have to participate but it's about time we all say something.
The greasy cypo has screwed us for toooooo long.
Ela Dimitriou,Malaka 'vre and your dog mates the GC17 !

OX, good idea but most of the games we can choose not to go to will be RFC home games.

Non-attendance will hurt us more.

'65

[Ox]

couldnt hurt us(The comp) more than they're going to.

Boycott- stuff it!

[Go Richo 12]

couldnt hurt us(The comp) more than they're going to.

Boycott- eff it!

I am a little peeved by all this too! Whats the point of setting up a team and hurting the rest of the comp! Obviously queensalnd can't support 2 clubs!They should place a moratorium on poaching players from clubs that have have finished low on the ladder such as us! For example, no player from a club that has less than 12 wins over the last 2 years can be signed up!

[the_boy_jake]

Better idea would be to buy a Titans, Gold Coast United, Gold Coast Blaze etc membership or merchandise.

Go Richo 12 - the AFL want GC17 to be a success, but more likely they want to ensure that probably the fastest growing area in Australia doesn't become Rugby League or any other sport's heartland. So the AFL would accept GC17 failing if it meant all of the other GC teams failed. AFL fans would be better off propping them up.

[yellowandback]

We picked off a dying fitzroy in the early 90s.
We need to compete hard on and off field.
What goes around....

[Mr Magic]

Beat them mercilessly.

[tony_montana]

I dn't care about supposed numbers, the gold coast IS NOT a sporting area and never will be. It's not conducive to die hard mass support. Rugby league does ok, but soccer crowds were pathetic and this is supposedly the fastest growing (and soon to be biggest) junior participation area for soccer. This is just a knee jerk reaction at population figures. Don't they realise ppl have been relocating there not giving 2 hoots about the lack of major sporting events/teams (until now)? For mine that means they aren't sports nuts and moved there for more important pesonal reasons. You don't build a successful club without diehard supporters, and up there they are NOT!

This is just a big waste of time and in a sick perverted way I want this to really eff up the game. Maybe then the stalins running the freakshow his game has become will pull their heads in and stop with the pathetic rule changes and interpretations that have stuffed up of our once great game. I am seriously almost over it, and to top it off if we lose cotchin for nothing then they've lost me too on principal.

[tigersalive]

The deal is also a god-send for GC17 because they are free from anyone poaching their players via free agency until 2019 while they have 8 years of going after everyone elses!   

[Owl]

We could just recruit a bunch of rookies from Melbourne Storm for the year, play them for the NAB cup game against Gold Coast and let em go to town on the gold coast tackle bags with acl's, pcl's, cracked sternums, shoulders and backs written into the contract as 'performance incentives'

[Penelope]

With you on this one ox


Reality is though it would take a lot of supporters from all existing clubs to boycott CG17 games, live and televised to have any effect, which wont happen, particularily from those clubs that don't loose any players of note.

[tiga]

I think you will find that GC17 will be supported. Remember the Bears played at Carrara for quite a few years until they moved to the Gabba. Even non Lions exhibition matches played there have also been well supported in the past. Sure the ground only had a capacity of around 17,000-20,000 but it was full for many games.

Sure 4000 people attending the soccer finals on the gold coast was disgraceful but it has more to do with the league that's running the show and how it markets their club in the Area. I am a fan of most sports and I couldn't name one gold coast soccer player off the top of my head but before a ball has even been bounced, everyone knows that Karmichael Hunt is going to play for GC17. You have to admit that one thing the AFL does very well is marketing. The A-League does not even come close in this department. AFL also has massive FTA exposure, A-League only has Foxtel.

Whether you agree with it or not, the AFL have their expansion blueprint set in stone and no boycott is going to change it. We will eventually end up with 18 teams guaranteed.

[Smokey]

It's a different AFL environment in Sth East Queensland now to what it was when the Bears first went to Carrara.  The whole thing was pioneering back in the day and the AFL learnt a lot from that (mis)adventure about how to create a new club in a new environment.  They should never ever have chosen the Gold Coast for their first foray into Queensland and it was only the move to Brisbane that saw the game get taken up across the broader spectrum of Queensland sports followers.  Now however, AFL is no longer a novelty or poor cousin of other codes and there is a much better likelihood of the new team being accepted and successful off field much quicker than the Bears.  The stadium is being rebuilt and hopefully with that, the parking problems that plagued Carrara will be addressed also.  The Motorway now makes it a quick and easy drive from Brisbane southside to the Gold Coast and I fully expect the new team to be well supported.  The Gold Coast has a much stronger and more vibrant individual sporting identity now than it did 20+ years ago.  Try getting walk-up tickets to any Titans home game and you will see what I mean - 15 years ago the Gold Coast NRL sides couldn't pull a crowd to save themselves, even with greats such as Wally Lewis playing and coaching.

[Penelope]

Your right tiga, the extra teams will happen. What gets my goat is the the way the AFL just do what what they want, how they want, seemingly with no consideration for existing fans.

This debacle with who has signed, who hasnt going on at the moment is just the thing I am talking about. It is obviously causing a lot of angst amongst supporters, and possibly within clubs as well. It's just underhand, slimy and has the potential to rip out whatever heart and soul is left within the game.

Everything is driven the the almighty dollar and the only way to show the AFL that fans will not be ridden rough shod over is to affect them, even in only a small way, in the hip pocket. Unfortunately the inherent selfish nature of humans means that a co-ordinated effort to achieve such will probably never happen and the AFL will continue to treat the people that they rely on so much with contempt.

The AFL are taking a people's game and turning it into a business, ran on purely business/economic principles. If they are not careful, somewhere along the way they may start to loose the people, and thus loose the business.

[tiga]

I agree al,

The AFL is extremely arrogant and do not go into extensive consultation with clubs and supporters. They do this because they know they will not like what they hear and feel that any dissension will be just another speed hump in the progress of expansion. My worry is when will this all end?? Will we end up with a multi tier comp like the EPL?? Or are they expanding as part of a self fulfilling prophecy in which some Melbourne clubs are destined to perish??