Shifu Demon

Jones is an A grade player

If anyone has a stream could you please PM me, thanks.

Flower.

I have the skills, experience and more importantly the relationships to make it happen but unfortunately I do not have the time. I will try to get some time over the next few to put my thoughts down and write a skeleton business plan on how I think the club could enter the Chinese market, although I can not see it going much further than that, but it is worth a try.

I explained my post, and you have had time to apologize for calling me a [censored] and you haven't....... all class!

Yes that is a great start, the AFL also started something similar in Tianjin, I m not trumpeting myself as an expert so I am sure that there are many things that I have missed, I just think that the MFC is not doing enough of the easy things, especially with social media in China.

You make some very good points regarding the name of our game, however, I see this as a huge advantage as the Chinese love everything to do with Australia, unlike the Americans we enjoy an impeccable public reputation - having Australia in the name of our game is nothing but a huge marketing advantage. The Chinese league is called the CAFL and considering it has no publicity it does fairly well. Your point regarding the Chinese not being very physical is valid, however I would counter argue that by saying that the number one past time in China is in fact martial arts, the Chinese love watch combat and love watching combat sport. As you have pointed out the MFC might be better off investing the cash elsewhere, but all of the measures that I have suggested are very simple and would require a minimal investment on the MFC's part. In fact the only thing the MFC would really need to spend money on would be to rookie a Chinese player. Other costs involved in promoting the game would undoubtedly be picked up by the Australian government and the AFL, as it would be promoting Australian culture, something the government has invested heavily in over the last decade in mainland China. The social media tool that I have suggested the club to use are free. To address your final point, I do not believe it would be difficult to find a suitable candidate to come over, there are 1.3 billion people in China, I m sure we could find someone amongst the 1.3 billion who would possess the physical attributes of our game. One good place to start would be the major sports dedicated high schools which are located in all first tier cities. Australia has a huge pulling power in China, the Chinese are very envious of our clean environment and open spaces, while the money compared to the NBA is tiny, it is huge when compared to the average wage of a person or a professional sports person in China.

I wanted to re-visit the topic of China, I say re-visit as it was discussed at length in past on Demonology and assume it was here too. The last Melbourne administration did a lot of work to form ties in China, this included visits, donating equipment and inviting several members of a local AFL team to train with the club. They also held an exhibition game in Shanghai as part of the World Exposition, this was largely successful but was only really attended by expats were very few locals in the crowd. All of this is a good start; however, it seems that little has been done (publicly) to continue the push into the Chinese market. I wonder, if like the Irish experiment, that this will be another endeavor by the MFC which is then picked up by other clubs while we are left scratching our heads. The potential in China is mind blowing, the most popular sport in China is currently Basketball this is mainly due to the success of Yao Ming and as a result half of the country (yes, an exaggeration) follow the Houston Rockets and own at least one item of their official merchandise, this makes the Rockets one of the most attractive teams to sponsor in the world. I am not purporting that any push by the MFC would have the same effect or be comparable to the Rockets, however, it seems that this initiative is dead in the water or at least come to a stand still – I can’t for the life of me understand why. The Chinese are extremely nationalistic and as soon as a Chinese person enters a sporting stage that sport and subsequently that team get a huge amount of air play on the state owned (all) television stations, this has the obvious flow on affect of generating a lot local interest and support. I propose that instead of sitting on the sidelines that the MFC becomes more active in the World’s largest market and the current economic powerhouse. I have often thought about how this can be done. First, the MFC needs to continue to establish ties with local sports teams, for example Beijing Guoan (soccer team), this will do a lot to get the MFC brand out into the public. Secondly, the MFC need to give a great amount of support into growing the game within China. They should start this by being actively involved in the Chinese AFL teams, this could be done by reaching out to both the expat teams in Beijing and Shanghai. Thirdly, the MFC could be taking advantage of the Chinese social media systems such as weibo (Chinese twitter), Ren ren (Chinese Face book) and Chinese video streaming sites. Chinese live their lives online and by utilizing these tools the MFC would very quickly generate a lot of interest among the Neitzens. If they were to post highlights of each MFC game on video sharing websites then these would spread like wildfire. All of my Chinese friends love AFL they love the pace the skill and the hits. Finally, and perhaps most importantly the MFC should seek out a Chinese national who is a natural at sport and who could have the potential (with work) to play AFL football. Put said athlete on the rookie list and spend the time to develop him. This would generate enormous exposure in the Chinese market. If the athlete does not amount to anything, what have we lost? A rookie spot. However, think about what we have gained. We have gained a huge amount of free publicity in China – significantly raising our currency to potential sponsors. We would potentially gain million of supporters, albeit not members but people willing to buy official merchandise. Although as an aside the club could put together a $15 membership. We have regained credibility as a club that thinks outside of the box. I am sure that there are many other upsides that I have not written; I am very interested to hear what other posters feel about the topic.

Impressive response but unfortunately for both of us you have completely mis-read my post. Yes, I did assume you went to a private school, I asked which one because I went to a private school and it seems we both live in the SE suburbs so I figured that there was a small chance that we went to the same school.

So... which private school did you go too?

You obviously do not have a family, and IMO his comment was perfectly warranted, champ.

Could someone please PM me a link as well. Thank you in advance.

Anyone have any idea if it will be back up any time soon, too many great threads and too much valuable data is on that site - it would be a tragedy if it was lost.

Worth while post this one.

It is a well thought out logical post that most people would see merit in. Fair enough that you can't agree with it; everyone is entitled to their opinion, however, I would really appreciate it if you could present some arguement as to why you don't agree with it, add a little substance. Cheers