ADAPT OR DIE

SUNS BOSS OPENS UP ABOUT AFLW

SUNS chief executive Mark Evans says AFLW is a gamechanger that was once doubted by many of the clubs now trumpeting its success.

Evans has detailed the challenges faced by the AFL and wider sporting world in contemporary society including viewership, remaining relevant through adaptation and the emergence of e-sports.

The Suns boss was AFL general manager of football operations for four years before joining Gold Coast in 2017.

It was his task to sound out interest in AFLW licences and he said the responses of some of the big clubs were shocking.

“AFLW should have happened years ago,” Evans said at a sports forum at Bond University on the Gold Coast.

“When I was at the AFL and it was my job to wander around to each club and say: ‘Would you like an AFLW licence?’ … some of the incredibly powerful clubs and incredibly successful clubs, would always say: ‘No, we’re too busy doing this other stuff (AFL).’

“I thought, what a disgraceful attitude. The same clubs now are banging on the AFL’s door saying: ‘Gee that looks pretty good’.”

While 25 per cent of Gold Coast’s men’s list is Queensland talent, Evans said the women’s squad would be about 70 per cent when they entered the AFLW in 2020.

He said the biggest challenge facing sports was not rival codes but maintaining relevance in a changing society.

“It is what people do with their time and some sports now have found ways of changing parts of their game and producing another product that is a marketing stream for their sport,” Evans said, citing Twenty20 cricket as an example.

“What else can we do that makes sense in different parts of the world?

“What happens if we don’t have a fixed-size AFL oval? How do you keep bringing the kids and the families to the sport?

“What’s the fan engagement that comes with that? How do you use some of the learnings from there to actually go and make (the sport) more relevant to Australia.”

Evans said companies were now shifting some marketing money to the growing e-sports phenomena.

“There has got to be something within what we do that says is that an area where we should have some engagement?” he said

“If this is a way of engaging with young people, part of the demographic that you want to turn them on to sport or the Suns or the Titans, whatever it is, is there a way of engaging with them that makes some sense?

“I’m not trying to advocate for kids to spend more time in front of a screen playing games but is there something there that brings them into sport?”