By Jason Cave
October 8th 2008 @ 1:41am
Loading ...It’s time to bring back the Championships of Australia
In the 60s and 70s, the premierships teams of each of the four major states of Australian Rules Football -Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania - would meet in Adelaide in October to determine who was the premier club in Aussie Rules.
Bear in mind that this was long before the days of the national competition.
It gave Victorian clubs such as Carlton the chance to check the playing talents of their inter-state counterparts (as the Blues found out in 1972, when North Adelaide’s Barrie Robran played the game of his life to destroy Carlton almost on his own).
Now it’s time to bring the Australian Football Championships back again. But this time, as a second-tier pre-season competition.
The grand finalists of the VFL, SANFL, WAFL, AFL Tasmania, AFL NSW, AFL Queensland and AFL Northern Territory would meet in a straight knock-out comp that would run in conjunction with the AFL NAB Cup.
The Australian Football Championships would be known as the NAB Challenge and the Grand Final would be played as a curtain-raiser to the AFL NAB Cup.
How would SANFL premiers Central Districts go against the VFL’s premiers North Ballarat? Or maybe against the WAFL premiers Subiaco, if they had the chance?
If the AFL wants to further boost the profile of the second tier comps, here’s their chance. Otherwise, we’ll never know just who is the number one club outside of the AFL.
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(7)
Forgetmenot said | October 9th 2008 @ 7:48pm | Report comment
Perfect.
We need to link all the football states somehow, and show that football is not, and has not been for many years, Victorian Centric.
Millster said | October 9th 2008 @ 8:15pm | Report comment
I’d do it at the end of the year before too much player movement occurs. And I’d have the state champ playing off against the AFL champ in a ’super-cup’ type fixture with the state champ always hosting the game.
Millster said | October 9th 2008 @ 8:17pm | Report comment
Incidentally I think this idea is far better than any representative model (whether state of origin or international rules). It recognises that the only meaningful referent object in AFL is the clubs in each state, and it uses that as a real strength. I like this idea a lot.
Jason Cave said | October 12th 2008 @ 6:22pm | Report comment
And say for example that there was an outbreak of violence in the International Rules Series, Ireland decides that enough is enough and heads for the first plane home to Ireland, what will the AFL put on as a showpiece of our great Australian game? Seeing that the real strength of our code is at club level, why not get the clubs from the state leagues around Australia to see who is the best club outside the AFL is?
Redb said | October 13th 2008 @ 12:05pm | Report comment
What would it prove? Maybe 30 years ago when the AFL did not exist it would make sense.
Redb
Pippinu said | October 13th 2008 @ 12:13pm | Report comment
It’s not too bad an idea - except it probably requires and extension of the footy season for the 4 to 8 clubs who would be involved - and that’s a big ask when you consider the availability of grounds and even the willingness of semi-profiessional players to keep going once they’ve won a flag.
Could it be considered as part of a pre-season the following season? It would need a bit of finanical backing - it would be expensive.
Redb said | October 13th 2008 @ 1:17pm | Report comment
Pip,
Nah its an ordinary idea thought up by South Australians to engineer a victory for South Aussie footy over us Vics. Same sort of mentality that got the concept of State of Origin going in Western Australia - we Vics put an end to that little grasp at glory to
Redb