Here I go again.

Banging the drum.

This damn daylight saving.

I wake at 3am now instead of 4. I have always been an early riser, but it comes at a cost. By mid afternoon I am done. Foggy. Not thinking clearly.

Morning is where it works.

Tea first. Quiet.

Waiting for the UEFA Champions League or the EFL Championship to kick off.

Spoilt for choice at 4.55am.

The game everywhere.

And yet, not here.

A bit of time to read.

So it was no surprise that I opened The Mercury this morning.

And yes, I still subscribe.

Partly habit. Partly interest. Politics, letters to the editor, the odd honest piece buried somewhere in the middle, usually separated by twenty pages of racing before you find the end of it again.

That kind of reading.

But this one wasn’t buried.

It had volume.

Front page.
Editor’s words.
Then the full article.

Three separate moments to say the same thing.

Look at us, again.

4,100 players.
10 per cent growth.
A system under pressure.

It is a good story.

And it is told well.

That’s not just coverage.

That’s amplification.

The packaging

AFL doesn’t just grow the game.

It packages it.

It connects juniors to a club, to a jumper, to a future.

It gives media something clean and simple to publish.

And the media understands it.

It is a broadcast product. It fits.

So the story runs easily.

And runs well.

Alignment

This is not accidental.

Participation, pathway, identity and promotion all point in the same direction.

Junior numbers connect to the Devils.
The Devils connect to the AFL.
The AFL connects to the national stage.

One story.

Clear. Consistent. Repeatable.

Football’s silence

Because those pressures are not unique.

Football is managing the same reality.

I sit inside this every week.

The numbers.
The teams.
The fixtures.
The constant search for space.

Thousands of players.
Hundreds of teams.
Not enough grounds.
Not enough access.

Week after week.

Season after season.

But the story is not being told.

Banging the drum again.

Same old story.

Where is our voice?

The silence is deafening.

Structure, not effort

This is not about people not working hard.

It is about structure.

Clubs speak.
Associations organise.
But there is no single voice.

No consistent narrative.

So nothing cuts through.

Visibility

This is not about which code is bigger.

It is about which code is seen.

Football has the numbers.

It just doesn’t have the recognition.

AFL is organised to be visible.

Football is not.

That is the difference.

What follows

When stories are not told, they are not valued.

When they are not valued, they are not funded.

Not planned for.

Not prioritised.

Because visibility drives decisions.

Funding.
Facilities.
Priority.

The truth

We are doing the work.

Someone else is telling the story.

The Silence Of Football