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 new teams 
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Postby gregorius » Fri Aug 28, 2009 4:55 am


think is due for a perth eastern suburbs team. freo and eagles dont fully cut it for lots of perth. eagles are coastal-affluent freo southern coastal, while there's no team standing for much of perth's outer eastern suburbs.

also darwin is footy mad no rugby no league just afl it has quarter million people now and lots brilliant footy players why not a darwin team as well one from gold coast and outer sydney?

also a tasmanian team from either launceston or hobart. ripe.

could also include another team from SA too.

any takers?


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Postby SKaVeN » Fri Aug 28, 2009 3:50 pm


The problem with Tasmania & some of those other places you mentioned is whether they'd be able to create sufficient membership for a national side. There were some statisticians about a decade or so ago who calculated that to have self-sufficient security an AFL side has to have a membership of at least 22,000. Well, that's what they said but even when Northern Melbourne won their premiership in the '90s they were still struggling.

I kind of like the proposal (that came around about the same time) of a couple of Kiwi sides. There seemed to be enough local entrepreneurial interest to invest which is a large part of the equation & surely the Kiwis would love the chance to come & beat us at our own game...

An interesting case is right here. A city with a population & economy the size of Adelaide's should easily be able to host two AFL sides but Port are struggling & advertising & setting up booths all over the place trying to entice new members. Whereas Adelaide, on the other hand, don't have any of that because there's a waiting list for a few years for silver membership & even longer for gold. It's weird to a local because before we had any teams in the AFL we were very much a SANFL orientated people & interest in the AFL/VFL was marginal. Back then, believe it or not, the Port Magpies' supporters allegedly comprised of 25% of the football-going public. It seems that a lot of people only want to back a winner. :lol:


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Postby gregorius » Sat Aug 29, 2009 2:46 am


In time nz will have a team which would be great if they could only get over the parochialist attitude towards rugby and that anything australian is inferior and recognize aussie rules as superb game.

also think south african teams will oneday be a great candidate for inclusion and even timorese and papuan actually

but big problem is reluctance on part of melbourne establishment to let go and make the comp more equitable. and as well not get caught up in being finicky about who they let in and who they dont. such as in english soccer league or american gridiron where there are sectional comps that eventuate into one finate grand final type thing or league tables etc. but rural and major outside metroplitan teams should also be seen as viable. ballarat-bendigo team of which there is major population base there now. townsville-cairns team, illawarra side etc.

its easy to be too conservative and wreck things by being that way and losing momentum, 16 teams is very boring personally.


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Postby redfive » Sat Aug 29, 2009 5:40 am


Tha AFL's goal is to attract new fans away from other sports, particularly Rugby League. That's why they are pushing new teams into NSW and Queensland.
If a third team started in WA most of the members would be existing AFL fans who would trasfer their allegiance from WCE or the Dockers. The overall number of members and attendance at matches wouldn't increase by enough to be worthwhile.

I agree that Tasmania should have an AFL side but they would face the same problem as most Tasmanians already support an AFL club. The only way Tassie will get a team is if a club from Melbourne relocates there.

How popular is Aussie Rules in NZ? Would they attract enough members or crowd to cover the cost of travelling there? Would the name AFL have to change if the game crossed the Tasman? They'd have problems with sponsors too as only companies that operate in both countries would get full value for their money.

The problem with expansion is that older Victorians still think of the AFL as the VFL with added interstate teams. There are too many teams (9) in Melbourne. I'd like to see some current teams relocate as something like the Launceston Hawks, Hobart Demons and Canberra Kangaroos. That's easy for me to say because I don't barrack for one of those teams. I don't think my team is in any danger of relocating as Geelong has a big enough population and is financially ok as long as Ford continue their 80-odd year sponsorship of the club.

If the competition expanded beyond 18 teams, the AFL would have to split into two divisions. It's hard enough to get a fair draw now with 16 teams playing 22 rounds.

The old VFL days were so much simpler. 12 teams. 22 rounds. All teams play each other twice. Can't be fairer than that.


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Postby SKaVeN » Sun Aug 30, 2009 1:38 am


There did seem to be some general interest from some potential investors over in NZ at the time which is generally a good sign. Those guys don't go out looking for what they would perceive to be a bad investment. Insofar as the travelling is concerned, would there really be that much difference for the Vic sides flying to NZ once or twice a year than flying to Perth?

Yeah, 18 sides in one league is going to be a problem I agree. They'd have think about abolishing the pre-season or something. Divisions is a idea that keeps getting mentioned; an A-league, B-league. Maybe make the A-league the national comp & the B-league the respective state comps (i.e. SANFL, VFL, WAFL, etc.). Then work out a way that a B-league can qualify as an A-league side & how an A-league drops down to the B-league. Maybe this could save clubs instead of forcing them to merge or into financial ruin?

But it's all pipe dreams. What we have is when one of the states becomes the national comp instead of creating one from scratch. It's too late to unscramble the eggs now. :lol:


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Postby SKaVeN » Mon Aug 31, 2009 4:45 pm


redfive wrote:
The problem with expansion is that older Victorians still think of the AFL as the VFL with added interstate teams.


Yeah, I know where you're coming from there. Over here we get very annoyed by that parochial attitude. For the good of the game, those people need to embrace the idea of it being a national comp instead of just a state comp wherein sides from other states have come to play. There are other games that are a national competition (i.e. soccer) & would love to snatch the title of being Australia's national game. It could happen too. Look what game all the kids are playing at school these days & with the World Cup coming to our shores...

The media aren't helping either. A classic example was when they had Steve Quartermain (big mistake) calling the 2005 Grand Final. There were no Vic sides playing in the Grand Final that year but did that deter him form seeing it as a Victorian success? No, sir! His welcome & very first words were "Welcome Australian & the world to the Grand Final of [dramatic pause] VICTORIAN football!". The only clear & concise references to anything called "Victorian Football" are some rather obscure ones about soccer in the United Kingdom in the 19th century... :???:

For the first half of the game he was commentating on two sides called West Coast & Sydney until about half time until it became quite apparent to all & sundry that West Coast were going to lose at which point he then started commentating on a game between West Coast & South Melbourne & the word "Sydney" never seemed to pass his lips for the rest of the telecast...

But it's not just Quaters who does it (although he is pretty extreme). It's all those innocent (but parochial) remarks like:
"...playing for their first Grand Final since 1966." or
"...their third AFL Grand Final in the last three decades."
There hasn't even been an AFL that long. Surely anything prior to the AFL was VFL &, therefore, only a state league which is not the same competition.

And there's all those motorcades & documentaries honouring all the past "footy greats" who never even played AFL. I'm not saying VFL greats shouldn't be honoured, of course they should be. They deserve to be. But like many other Adelaideans my interest in the AFL only really started with the intervention of the Crows. When we became a part of it as it were. Therefore, all my football legends that I had growing up were blokes like Peter Carey, Rick Davies, John Duckworth, Barry Robran, etc. If we are going to honour & pay homage to greats who played prior to the AFL, why should it always seem to be primarily greats from just one of the state leagues? In the interest of making the AFL national competition, why not celebrate the past greats from all the state leagues who are in the AFL, rather than just one of them? I honestly don't see how it could hurt & it would help make the non-Victorian sides feel less marginalised which, psychologically, gets in the way of an unbiased national comp...


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Postby SKaVeN » Mon Aug 31, 2009 4:59 pm


See what you lot think of this...

I think the way we promote the game overseas isn't working. Getting two AFL clubs to play each other somewhere & then get on a plane & go back home doesn't really seem to do much but entertain a few hundred drunken ex-pats.

The US, Germany, Sweden & a few other places actually have an Australian Rules Football league of their own. Amateur, of course, but at least there's some interest there. I reckon it would be interesting if a few AFL sides (& maybe even a few SANFL & WAFL sides) toured a few of these places & played friendlies against some of their local sides. Think of the huge thrill it would be for them to have their football heroes visit their country & come to their town to play them. It would make local news every place they do it & stimulate a lot more local excitement & involvement. And they could also give them talks, photo sessions, etc. I reckon it'd be worth a try...


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Postby gregorius » Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:06 pm


sounds good to me.


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