Give the Northern Territory an AFL team, writes MATT CUNNINGHAM

THE Territory is the heartland of AFL, so focus your energies on bringing a team here, instead of playing games inShanghai, writes MATT CUNNINGHAM

The fanfare around Cyril Rioli possibly playing again shows how much the NT needs its own AFL team

WHEN the Greater Western Sydney Giants hosted the Gold Coast Suns in an AFL match a couple of weeks ago, about 7000 people turned out.

That’s 7000 from a city with a population nudging five million.

A day later, Port Adelaide and St Kilda played a game in Shanghai; population 26 million.

The AFL recorded the official crowd for this match at just over 9000 people, although anyone watching on TV would have guessed the number at closer to 900.

Wedged between these two blockbusters was a match played at Darwin’s TIO Stadium.

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Grandstand tickets for the game between Melbourne and the Adelaide Crows were sold out days in advance, as more than 10,000 people — from a city with a population of about 130,000 — flocked in for their one chance a year to see our indigenous game played at the top level.

It’s unlikely the AFL’s head honchos — busy policing spectator behaviour and buggering up the score review system — have had time to examine the crowd numbers over that weekend of footy earlier this month.

But if they did, it would be difficult not to draw an obvious conclusion. The game’s governing body is putting far too much effort into markets that don’t give a stuff about AFL footy, and too little into places where the game is worshipped by fans far and wide.

On Friday — as the Parramatta Eels trained on the main oval — a massive media scrum formed out at TIO Stadium. But they weren’t there for the Eels.

The biggest sports story in town was the news that Cyril Rioli Jnr had signed as an assistant coach with the Tiwi Bombers.

Even the Bombers seemed to underestimate how much interest there would be in this yarn.

Will we be seeing Cyril running around in the red and black this NTFL season?

That’s the question half the country seemed to what to know the answer to, and the fact that answer might be yes has created an excitement the game in this part of the world hasn’t seen since the Aboriginal All Stars gave Collingwood and old-fashioned Top End football lesson in a game played at Marrara in 1994.

If Cyril does pull on the boots, you can bet the crowd at TIO Stadium for an NTFL match will be bigger than any the AFL is ever likely to draw for a match in Shanghai.

This place lives and breaths football.

It’s the game that brings us together. Yet in recent years the AFL seems to have been more focussed on promoting the game in places where Cyril Rioli or Michael Long could walk down the Main Street without being recognised.

At the same time, footy in the NT seemed to be neglected.

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Southern managers were sent north to impose the rule of law as seen by Melbourne’s head office with no apparent understanding of the intricacies of footy in the Top End.

It was during this period that the Tiwi Bombers — a team we were reminded yesterday provides benefits far beyond anything that happens on the field — were almost allowed to die.

Thankfully things look like they’re beginning to change.

Stuart Totham — a local who played the game here — is now in charge and appears to have reset the AFLNT’s focus in the right direction.

The ultimate goal, of course, is for the Northern Territory to have a team in the AFL.

Some scoff at this suggestion and say it will never happen.

It’s the economics, apparently, that stand in the way.

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The cost is said to be somewhere between $40 million and $60 million a year. But what about the benefits?

As Melbourne shivers through a freezing winter, how many rusted on footy fans would be willing to pay for a Darwin holiday during our magnificent dry season if it meant they could watch their team play against the NT.

I’d hazard a guess an NT side would attract more paying visitors for each of its home games than the total number that came here for the $8 million Arafura Games.

We’re spending millions on the Boundless Possible campaign in a bid to correct the tired old stereotypes people have about the NT.

But all of that money couldn’t buy the sort of publicity you get when Eddie Betts runs along the boundary line at TIO and is literally swamped by a mob a fans.

Imagine what might happen if Cyril Rioli slotted one from the boundary for the NT Buffaloes.

There wouldn’t be enough Behavioural Awareness Officers in the country to keep the crowd under control

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The Territory is AFL heartland.

Forget Shanghai, the future of footy is here.

For decades the Territory has given so much to the game.

Now it’s time for the game to give something back.