Too Early For a Second Sydney AFL Team

Imagine it's the middle of winter.

Walk into any Sydney pub or club sporting two or more TVs on a Saturday night. One will be tuned to the Rugby League. Invariably, any others will be showing any sport other than the AFL.

I'm constantly amazed that the punters would prefer to watch a marbles tournament rather that the indigenous football code, but that's the reality in Sydney. This city of five million can comfortably support one AFL team, but after two decades, the sport is still a curiosity to the majority of Sydney residents.

Support for a particular sporting code is a cultural phenomenon, one which propagates primarily from parent to child. Support for the Swans is growing slowly as the original supporters, ones like myself who gained their interest through some interstate connection, transfer that interest to their kids.

It's a slow process, but over 20 years the Swans may have gained enough rusted on fans to survive the immanent and inevitable form slump.

There's no way the city can support two mediocre teams.

The AFL hierarchy are dead wrong if they think that a second team can be introduced in Western Sydney within five years. Perhaps they'll avoid the mistakes made when the Swans relocated, but however they do it, they'll still be competing with the established Swans franchise for that rare Sydney commodity ... the committed AFL supporter.