Plain football

Although I said a second AFL team in Sydney would have more serious difficulties than choosing a name, the idea has now received the (sensible) backing of the Sydney Swans, and at some point a name and nickname will have to be chosen. The "Blacktown Bogans" probably won't quite cut it, so our thinktank got stuck into the question.

Sticking "West" in front of "Sydney" is, at the very least, a bit boring. Using a more local name such as Blacktown, Liverpool or Parramatta would be more attractive, but wouldn't do much to gather support from the whole region. If anything, it wouldn't hurt to spread the net and appeal even to places that wouldn't typically associate themselves with the term "West Sydney". That's why we turned to the name of a highway and a railway line, the name applied as a county to the whole metropolitan area, but particularly to the plain covering most of the west. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you the

Cumberland Emus


I've just realised that I'd suggested the nickname emus in the last post, even before we came up with it. There are many more possibilities for the nickname than the geographical name, but emus have so far been neglected by our sporting teams, and I can't see why. A team of fast, up to 2m tall, emus should make fans proud from Homebush to, well, Emu Plains.

Cumberland running the pants off the Kangaroos? I'd like to see that!

10 points for the best alternative name and nickname!