The Soaring

Greg Baum asks before yesterday’s decider What happens next if Sydney wins the flag?

In a rugby dominated market he explores the question of just how far a Sydney premiership will actually go. For all the marketing, good will and now the ultimate success, apparently there is still miles to go in Australia’s biggest market:

Neither NSW’s premier nor Sydney’s mayor is going to the grand final. But they have promised a ticker-tape parade for the Swans if they win.

AFL is strong in patches, but alien in others. Bulletin editor Garry Linnell, an expat, told recently of a junior club so destitute that it had one set of guernseys for two teams. Players threw instead of handballed.

Not one Sydneysider was taken in last year’s AFL draft. The AFL is to spend $10 million in Sydney next year, but no second team is on the agenda.

A premiership today for the Swans would be big in Sydney for a week or so. But in terms of Australia’s great football polarities, it would be one more wave against a rock.

For all the charm of Sydney’s win and the cynicism of seeing the AFL get it’s greatest wish come true, will it be enough to sustain a truly national competition and see AFL make some progress in the harbour city?

Somehow I doubt 10 premierships will change the rugby and league culture of Sydney, but as Richard Colless says ‘ you can survive’. Not sure if Demetriou wants to hear that but it may what he has to accept.

> What happens next if Sydney wins the flag? (The Age).