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There are too many teams in the AFL to create and foster a healthy competition at the elite level, and cuts need to be made.
In the past, I wrote about how Canberra should have a men’s A-League team, but a discussion with some mates about how the W-League has the same amount of teams as the USA women’s soccer got me thinking about how the number of teams in a competition is related to the quality.
As it stands, there are 18 teams in the AFL, each with a list of approximately 40 players and six rookies. That makes 720 active roster players and 108 rookies – more than 800 people playing elite Australian Rules.
The problem is that the quality of footballer in the bottom 250 players would be better suited to SANFL, VFL or WAFL.
Teams such as St Kilda (my team) and now Carlton are basically just factories for giving kids – who wouldn’t have got a game if the contest for spots was more fierce – a run at AFL level.
An example of why the contest for spots improves the quality of the team is the Australian Test cricket team.
Michael Hussey had to wait before getting a game, and is still widely regarded as a great player. Adam Voges is getting compared with Sir Donald Bradman, and our wicketkeepers have to master their craft at state level before even getting an injury fill-in spot at Test level.
The team is better for it, producing series win after series win.
So which six AFL teams should be put on the chopping block? Greater Western Sydney, Gold Coast, Carlton, North Melbourne, St Kilda and Western Bulldogs get scratched.
The two Western Australia and South Australian teams are needed to keep rivalries and interest in heartland states. Brisbane and Sydney are taking on the NRL heartland, a difficult task at the best of times. In Melbourne, I would love to kick out Eddie McGuire’s team, but they bring in the cash. The Essendon faithful are committed, while Geelong is a necessary regional centre.
For arguments sake, let’s say the starting 22 players of each of those teams cut would be able to get a game at another club easily. That would mean 132 players at the remaining clubs would get cut, for an average of 11 per team.
In all honesty, there is enough fat to trim on the lists to lose some of those players to the state system.
The flow-on effect of cutting 276 players back to the state competitions is it would strengthen the quality of football. When I was growing up, the SANFL was considered second only to the AFL (even after the Adelaide Crows entered the AFL). That level of quality would likely be achieved again, with fringe AFL players now working their butts off at state level.
Roarers, what are your thoughts? Am I wrong, and expansion is key? Or is there some merit in reducing the competition?
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