Somewhat surprisingly, no one lists Ainslie Football Club, Belconnen Magpies, Eastlake Football Club, Queanbeyan Tigers, Sydney Swans Reserves or Tuggeranong Hawks as an interest on Facebook. On Yahoo!Groups, there are no mailing lists dedicated to AFL Canberra or its teams.
What is surprising is the comparatively large size of the AFL Canberra fan community on bebo where, when combined, includes thirteen people. That’s twelve more than the next nearest network looked at.
Of the six teams, the Tuggeranong Hawks have the most fans at six. Ainslie Football Club, Eastlake Football Club and Queanbeyan Tigers come in second with two fans each. Belconnen Magpies is fifth with one fan. The Sydney Swans Reserves are last with zero fans.
The Tuggeranong Hawks fans are the oldest, averaging 21 years of age. Eastlake Football Club is in a close second at 20.5. Ainslie Football Club and Queanbeyan Tigers have the youngest fans, with their fans being 18. When people listed their city or state of residence, everyone listed Canberra or a suburb in the ACT. In at least two cases for Tuggeranong fans, they listed Canberra and another city. The other cities included Perth and Batesman Bay. All the fans of the Queanbeyan Tigers and the Tuggeranong Hawks were male. This contrasts with Ainslie Football Club and Eastlake Football Club where their two fans were split equally amongst the two gender: One male and one female fan.
The composition of the AFL Canberra fan community is not particularly surprising, except for its youth. Fans of teams in the league are local. The population of the community is still small, especially when compared to the AFL on bebo. The gender split feels logical though I can’t clearly articulate why. Given that it exists, the data fits with other data collected.
