#outrageousclaim but afford me a little time to outline my rationale after seeing my beloved Bombers lose to Collingwood on the previous weekend:

1. Going to the football is an experience that you embark on and choose to be with family and friends. You’re creating the network that you want to share with.
2. At the game, you’re in amongst a larger network of people that on one hand, are similar to yourself and you would share an interest in but in reality, are unknown people and voices that for an extended period of time, you are caught up in.
3. Being in this environment gives you the ability to share and voice your opinion. It facilitates giving you a voice.
4. You become a qualified expert within minutes.
5. You think that this expertise will be heard – I mean, why wouldn’t Jobe Watson hear me shout at him pass to Stants who unsurprisingly is lurking alone on the wing.
6. You’re more likely to express a negative opinion than a positive one – I mean, the umpires are blind and despite the fact that young Jack Frost @jfrosttt once worked for BrandHook, he deserves at least a week for that bump on Heppell – #thatwasnotpartofyourtrainingfrosty.
7. You validate and repeat the comments of your like minded peers – RT: #wewererobbed
8. You try and ignore or block the comments you don’t like but the differing of opinion is something that makes for the experience and makes AFL and Twitter unique.
9. You spend probably more time than you should invested – being on is the new down time and the AFL game experience is more than just the four quarters.
10. Despite all that’s been said above, there are the people at the game that just watch, want in on the experience but don’t feel the need to contribute – a bit like the 44% of Twitter accounts that have never tweeted.

So what do you think – did Twitter go out and replicate the online AFL game experience?  Probably not but there are striking similarities in both the experiences.

I would probably tweet this if only I could get proper reception at the grounds – #firstworldproblems