The Australian Football League, Aussie rules’ biggest brand, is now truly national, right? Or is it?
Let’s look at the landscape. In the beginning there was this big footy comp called the VFL and for the best part of 100 years every footballer wanted to play in it, especially those from outside the state.
Every June kids’ favourites, from the Pies, Blues, Tigers and all the other VFL teams would don jumpers with South Australian, Western Australian, Tasmanian and Victorian colours and we would have a ‘state of origin’ to see where the land’s best footballers really came from.
Then way back in 1990 it was relabelled the AFL. At this stage the VFL had already lost South Melbourne ten years prior and sent them to Sydney, but had gained a team called West Coast in 1987. The landscape was changing and all the Melbournians were worried.
By 1996 we gained Adelaide, Port Adelaide, Brisbane Bears and Fremantle, and it proved to be Fitzroy’s last year. The Brisbane Bears were set to take over the Lions and create a super team – at the expense of Fitzroy and all of their supporters of course.
This was Ross Oakley’s vision and it is now complete. Fast forward to today we now have 18 teams in a national comp. Herein lies the question: seeing how the bulk of the comp is from Victoria (ten teams), how is this competition truly national and more importantly fair?
All supporters outside Victoria rue having to travel interstate more than their counterparts and fair enough.
OK, to even up the comp a bit, let’s give concessions to those less established teams. Funny how all four teams from South Australia and Western Australia never ever got concessions – as far as I know anyway. Still to this day the AFL is trying everything to ‘equalise’ the comp with drafts, salary caps, free agency, rule changes and rotation caps. I could go on forever.
You might look at this and ask: ‘why didn’t Ross just create a national comp?’. It’s a good question. The reasoning back then was that the VFL needs expanding and if we make a complete new national comp then no one will attend and everyone will just go to the VFL.
At the time this had some merit. When West Coast joined the VFL in 1987 basically every man, woman, child, dog, cat and goldfish from Western Australia supported this team while still watching the WAFL.
And every expansion team since has garnered massive followings, it is not easy getting entry to Subiaco or Adelaide Oval these days.
So it’s fair to say if you create a team it’s gonna get support. But what about a league? Let’s look at the Big Bash League. Look at the following and parochialism it has achieved in the space of three years. Just imagine if we created a truly national Australian rules competition. Surely no one can deny the interest would be huge.
Eventually there will be mergers between Victorian teams and other expansion teams added from outside Victoria to make it truly national. But at what cost? Already Fitzroy and South Melbourne are gone, all that history just thrown out the window.
Who’s next? Those teams with the lowest members, such as North, Bulldogs, St Kilda and heaven forbid Melbourne? From where I sit this not okay. All of these teams have been around for more than 100 years, the Dees for 150!
Sure, there are huge difficulties in setting up a national league, but it needs to be done to truly equalise the competition and the alternative will leave a sour taste in the mouth of many.
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