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...