Blacktown Sell-out for AFL

The battle of the football codes in western Sydney began at the weekend with 9,732 AFL fans attending the pre-season NAB Cup match between Sydney Swans and Carlton at Blacktown Olympic Park's new AFL/cricket stadium.
The capacity crowd at the future home of the Greater Western Sydney franchise that will join the competition in 2012 as the AFLâs 18th side, was welcomed by AFL NSW/ACT General Manager Dale Holmes who stated âit was a great night. We had almost 10,000, mostly families from the region, exactly the type of family market we were after. We couldn't be happier with the way the event was delivered. The facility was great, ground was great, surface was great, everything was great for us.�?
â'You need major events like this to be able to excite young kids and their families to be involved,'' Holmes added, âwe do a lot of grassroots work but unless we've got the opportunity to showcase the game with the best players and run major events with 10,000 people coming along to an event like this, it's very hard to grow the game.�?
20 kilometres away, at Penrithâs CUA Stadium, a crowd of 11,113 watched Penrith beat a powerful Parramatta side in an NRL pre-season trial game.
It was no coincidence that NRL scheduled a game between the NRL rivals on the same night as the AFL made its Blacktown debut. NRL fears the inroads that a well-resourced AFL is making in one of its traditional heartlands.
While some media commentators claimed a Saturday night victory for rugby league, they should be in no doubt that the AFL will be buoyed, not deterred, by Saturday nightâs crowds.