While the final call on whether that view was the correct one won’t truly be known for years, possibly decades, early indications suggest there was a lot of wisdom in the AFL’s thinking.
The remarkable contrast between the current state of the Brisbane Lions and that of their newest rival, the Gold Coast Suns, highlights as much.
The Lions finished 13th this year. Worse, they finished 13th after gambling big time during trade week in a bid to get closer to a grand final.
To rub salt into the wound, that trade week cost them Daniel Bradshaw, Lachie Henderson, draft picks and eventually, best and fairest winner Michael Rischitelli – and the biggest name they got in return was Brendan Fevola, who they now seem intent on getting rid of anyway.
Throw in yesterday’s news that another player, Jared Brennan, had joined the exodus and the Lions truly are in a woeful and unfortunate state. And there’s no indication of any major improvement any time soon.
Thank goodness, Andrew Demetriou must be thinking, for the Gold Coast Suns.
While the Lions are in a spot of bother, the Suns have emerged as the exciting new kid on the block. They’ve put together a quality coaching panel, a fantastic stadium is on the way, they’ve done some great work in the local community and, importantly, they’ve embraced the task of building the game’s profile in Queensland (their involvement in Cairns is a perfect example of this).
With player announcements filtering through in recent weeks, optimism has continued to surround the AFL’s 17th club. They have been like a breath of fresh air for the game in the Sunshine State.
Without the introduction of the Suns, it’s not hard to imagine the AFL being a little bit more concerned with where the Lions are at right now. In the past, if the Lions were down there was nothing for Queensland supporters – or even the Queensland media, for that matter – to get excited about.
This would leave the game vulnerable to a dip in its share of the market, but that’s something that simply doesn’t seem like happening as the Suns enter the comp. This can only be a good thing.
Looking ahead, a similar situation may yet play out in Sydney as the new Greater Western Sydney club enter the competition.
While the Swans are unlikely to find themselves in a predicament like that of the Lions, they are definitely in the midst of a transition period – especially with the Paul Roos era coming to an end last Saturday.
At any rate, doubling the number of teams in the northern states will ensure that when one team in a market drops off, there aren’t huge immediate consequences or any cause for panic.
Going back to March 2008, Demetriou said: “We’ve been saying for a long time that the cost of not expanding, we believe, is a far greater cost to the competition than doing it.”
The situation with the Lions and Suns may just be proving this sentiment right.
Neutral Fan
Guest
Hypothetically, if a Perth and Adelaide team was re-entered into the NRL throughout the next couple of years I doubt there be articles about 'takeovers' and 'code wars' ala Greater Western Sydney. Why, because there is no need for this laughable hysteria as far as I'm concerned every sport deserves a fair go in every state, and country. Primarily a league fan I'm not too fussed about the Gold Coast or GWS there no threat just a opportunity to those who are not fans of league,union,football,etc in NSW and QLD. Same can apply to WA/VIC/SA there could be sport fans who don't like AFL and are fans of league for example. At best, there should be a mutual understanding and respect between all sporting codes but that happening is little to nil but it be nice one day.
Redb
Roar Guru
Art, Maybe one day I'll get the chance to explain my code circle of influence theory to you. In short the AFL is right to help expansion teams particularly in non heartland areas. Other codes need to understand it, that's for sure. The fact is both West Coast Eagles and Adelaide Crows were also given huge early advantages in the form of an exclusive state recruiting zone. Success helps build the circle, it may contract from time to time but it needs to inflate at some point.
Art Sapphire
Guest
redb - from the SMH Sept 2004 McGuire isn't fussed what they call it. "It's had three different names but we all know what it is," he said. "It's 'Help Sydney and Brisbane because they were basket cases'. Now that's happened. Thankfully the Brisbane Lions are an absolute powerhouse both on and off the field. Everything we hoped for has happened." Has the league gone too far? The Victorian clubs would argue that this is not the way the competition is supposed to work, that the equalisation policies such as the salary cap and the draft have simply not worked with the Lions because of the concessions made. Dynasties are meant to be a thing of the past in Australian football, and the Lions are beating the system. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/17/1095394012423.html
Redb
Roar Guru
Art, I have to say get over it. This narrowed minded vision is the reason sports need an independent commission free of club bias. Essendon lost the 2001 GF, becuase Hird and Mercuri carried injuires into the Grand Final, simple as that.
Paul J
Guest
"The only bloke i ‘ve heard of who is going to the Suns is Ablett, so i don’t know how well they’ll go." Whoops, i forgot to mention K Hunt, i've heard of him.
Paul J
Guest
I don't think any NRLers have been on this post, so i'll throw in my 2 cents. The only bloke i 've heard of who is going to the Suns is Ablett, so i don't know how well they'll go. The Suns should get great crowds like the Lions and Swans, but the AFL gets great crowds everywhere. You're probably sick of hearing this but the challenge for the AFL in the Northern states continues to be TV ratings. At about the 2/3 mark of the season the Lions avg TV figures was 83K (thats Brisbane/Gold Coast figures combined), which is not great, and i imagine it went south after that point with the Lions poor back half of the season. A second south east Qld team will give a local rivalry and more AFL content on TV in Qld (all shown before midnight), maybe this will help to grow the TV audience in the years to come? Anyways, the excellent AFL Commission makes enough money down south to bank roll Northern teams for as long as they want.
Anthony
Guest
I got my millionaires mixed up!
Moody
Guest
Why are the NRLers so quick to criticise? Have the Lions and Swans been failures? There is plenty of the pie to go around. Union and soccer will be the sports to suffer. Don't worry league.
Art Sapphire
Guest
Tom, the AFL institutionalised cheating by allowing Brisbane to become a behemoth. Didn't realise pph was harder to type then ff. Try to copy and paste next time or just call me Art :)
Tom
Guest
Art saffire your club was penalised for being OVER the salary cap. You were fined and had draft penalties. Your club cheated.
JamesP
Guest
And as a Melbourne Demons supporter, I am licking my lips for the next 3-5 years :)
beaver fever
Guest
On the other side of the coin, Brisbane is not doing very well on the field, quite shocking actually, but off the field some interesting things are starting to happen, a new social club at Springfield (suburb in Brisbane) is opening in November, it will have, - A restaurant called "The Jungle" which has a giant Plasma screen. - A Sports Bar with TAB - Various live sport on 100+ Plasma TVs - Lions memorabilia on display - 200 Pokies - Live events featuring Lions players TBH i am not overly keen on pokies, ( although when east i will have a bash) as we do not have them in WA and i hope we never do, but it depends on how the profits (if they indeed do have them) are distributed back to the community.
Art Sapphire
Guest
still waiting on those few hundred words
Mister Football
Guest
that's not a bad list of players
beaver fever
Guest
I dont think there is much doubt that the Suns will do Ok for a while at least, i think there is enough community support on the GC for the team. The local footy culture on the GC is quite strong, the Southport football club has good financial reserves and is involved with the Suns, the GC juniors is quite a strong, still growing junior comp and the across the border the Northern rivers is a junior comp which although small will grow and become more important. Hopefully the GC can now keep most of the players that in the past have left the GC to go to other AFL clubs. Dayne and Claye Beams, Sam Gilbert, David Hale, Luke McGuane, Daniel Merritt, Brad Moran, Brad Mulligan, Micheal Osborne, Ricky Pettard, Andrew Raines, Brent Renouf, Nick Reiwoldt, Kurt Tippett. etc.
Macca
Guest
Thank you Mister Football. Alot of people think Port were gifted similar concessions to what the Gold Coast have recieved this time around, when in reality they were probably more similar to what the Crows and Freo recieved when they started.
Mister Football
Guest
we all love football!!
Brissie Kid
Guest
I hear that football is popular in Sydney and Brissie too. 75K watched the Wallabies last Saturday night. 50K next week will watch the Titans.
Mister Football
Guest
Port's draft concessions were actually less generous than the three expansions teams that preceded them. You have to give them credit for moulding a premiership team out of a lot of rejects. I can't see the Suns being all that strong within the next few seasons.
Redb
Roar Guru
their football dominated cities already.