The Score: Gimmicks used by AFL clubs in the PR war for women’s licences hits extreme levels

ONLINE petitions, celebrity supporter pleas, mascots delivering submissions ... the gimmicks being used by AFL clubs in the PR war over the women’s licences has gone to a new level.

St Kilda’s campaign for a women’s football team. Picture: Supplied

ONLINE petitions, celebrity supporter pleas, mascots delivering submissions ... the gimmicks being used by AFL clubs in the PR war over the women’s licences has gone to a new level.

The eight Victorian clubs who are fighting for just four licences in next year’s inaugural women’s league went into overdrive last week leading up to Friday’s submission deadline.

Carlton hired a bus, filled it with female staff, a couple mascots, current player Dennis Armfield and head of football, Andrew McKay, then drove to the league’s Docklands headquarters to personally hand over its official bid.

It's a significant day in Carlton history. Full story: https://t.co/7dwJLbdexu #BoundByBluehttps://t.co/vulWxkz5HX

— Carlton FC (@CarltonFC) April 28, 2016

The Blues may have missed the mark given the welcoming committee wasn’t exactly what they’d hoped for with no sign of Mike Fitzpatrick or Gillon McLachlan or Mark Evans or even women’s footy boss Simon Lethlean.

Instead they got an underling who seemed bemused when Captain Carlton and his new sidekick, Navy Nina, handed over a number of boxes which contained Carlton’s official submission.

St Kilda have tugged on the heartstrings with an online plea to help a young girl called Angelica.

Are you on #TeamAngelica? 👼 https://t.co/dAUFqTijL3

— St Kilda FC (@stkildafc) May 3, 2016

The impressive video introduces Angelica as a young fan from the bayside region who dreams of representing the Saints and then calls for a show of support by signing up to the #TeamAngelica online petition.

Geelong wheeled out the big guns in its lengthy video presentation which included the club’s No. 1 ticket holder and Footy Show host Rebecca Maddern, commentator Kellie Underwood with cameos from senior coach Chris Scott and Brownlow Medallist Jimmy Bartel.

HOW NOT TO TWEET:

LEICESTER City’s Premier League title victory is one of the great sports stories of highest.

And Channel Nine were keen for their Twitter followers to be across the news which broke early on Tuesday morning.

But they clearly didn’t have any sports-orientated types doing the early shift given they not only stuffed up the result once, but twice in the space of six minutes.

First they had Leicester winning the Premier League “grand final” in a 2-2 draw.

Then the correction said Leicester were champions because Chelsea had defeated Tottenham which as we know also didn’t happen.

The first tweet from Channel 9

And then this happened

BIG BUCKS

THE Leicester victory has been declared by bookies in the UK as the biggest loss in British history on a single sporting market.

Between them they paid out more than 25 million pounds after offering odds of 5000/1 at the start of the EPL season.

To put that in perspective, it was the same odds which were quote on Elvis Presley being found alive this year.

Ladbrokes had 57 people take the 5000/1 on offer with more than half taking the early cash-out payments for lower odds.

Closer to home the TAB had seven punters back Leicester at the best odds of $2001.

They were still offering $1000 after Round 10 which was when Geelong punter Leigh Ross, 61, got on board.

“I noticed that Leicester had only lost one game all season so I thought they were good value for money at 1000-1,” Mr Ross said.

“I’m only a $5 punter so I thought they were worth a gamble.”

THE WHISPER

The hopes of a Thursday night game kicking off the finals is contingent on either West Coast or Adelaide finishing in the right spots. The AFL is keen but unlikely to hold the game in Melbourne or Sydney for fear of poor attendance.

Originally published as The Score: Gimmicks used by AFL clubs in the PR war for women’s licences hits extreme levels