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The big question that has to be asked of every AFL supporter – people who love ‘the game’, not just a particular club – are you happy with where the game is heading?
This may be a difficult topic for some individuals to comprehend – setting aside their allegiance to the Hawks, Collingwood, West Coast or what have you, and being able to think about the game as a whole.
The AFL launched its campaign to dominate the Australian sporting landscape back in 1982, while it was still known as the VFL. South Melbourne moved to Sydney and premiership points where up for grabs outside the borders of Victoria.
The West Coast Eagles were introduced in 1987, at the same time Fitzroy became the Brisbane Bears and, with Adelaide set to enter the competition in 1991, the name of the league was changed to the AFL in 1990 to better represent the new look league and heralding a whole new approach for the custodians of the game.
The league has two main functions – to look after the game and to grow the game. These two concepts are not mutually exclusive, the big trick is getting the mix right, so the engine ticks along nicely.
Unfortunately we don’t always have a perfect world to deal with and during certain periods of time, greater emphasis will be placed on one area rather than the other – usually, growing the game at the expense of looking after the game, which I tend to think means ‘ensuring an even playing field’.
The AFL is set on a course that they hope will see it dominate the country’s sporting landscape and reduce other sports to nuisance value players in the market at best.
AFL will dominate the sporting arenas of Australia, as well as the corporate world, with major corporations clamouring to be part of the success associated with being involved in an AFL club.
To play in the AFL will become almost like winning the lottery – you’ll be set for life and those dozen or so years that would amount to a career will deliver players such wealth they’ll be able to retire at the age of 30.
On the other hand, we have to look at where we are now. Should the AFL be trying to grab huge chunks of the market in the rugby states of NSW and Queensland? At what cost are they doing this? Is it good for the overall development of the game?
Personally, I’m not sure we’ve quite got the right mix at the moment. I think we’re letting things slip a little too far as the ‘even playing field’ goes, in favour of grabbing more market share and corporate dollars.
The AFL has done its best over the last 15 or so years to popularize the game in NSW and Queensland, with draft concessions, additional salary cap payments being permitted and other concessions, along with new teams in West Sydney and the Gold Coast.
It has been successful in increasing the game’s popularity in the non-traditional Australian Rules states. It has also delivered five of the last 12 premierships to the Brisbane Lions (2001, 2002 and 2003) and the Sydney Swans (2005 and 2012).
With Port Adelaide grabbing the 2004 flag and West Coast triumphing in 2006, the AFL would have been well pleased with the spread of glory around the country, especially in the burgeoning markets in Sydney and Brisbane.
However, you would have to think that a period of non-Victorian success started to alarm many in the AFL hierarchy and they were much relieved when Geelong broke through in 2007 and again in 2009, sandwiching on either side the Hawks’ amazing 2008 flag.
Having said that, these successes paled into insignificance with the joy the AFL would have got out of the jewel in their crown, the hugely popular Collingwood Football Club, playing out a draw with St. Kilda in the 2010 grand final and, to cap it all off, the following week Collingwood ultimately coming back and taking the 2010 title.
Collingwood making the grand final again in 2011, even though they lost to Geelong, would have seen the coffers over-flowing again, no doubt.
The AFL has developed the ‘blockbuster’ concept and taken the Friday night game and turned it into an absolute winner. Having said all that, there still seems to be a lot of unrest among the natives (AFL supporters) that the table is a little tilted in some areas.
We have the concessions mentioned above, which seemed to have worked in favour of the northern states, and with Gold Coast and the GWS Giants expected to make big steps over the next few years, further success could be heading NSW and Queensland’s way.
Then there is the age old question about the fairness of the ‘fix-tures’, which apparently always give Collingwood a pretty cushy ride, with limited travel and as many blockbusters as the AFL can throw at them.
The flip-side to the AFL doing Collingwood any favours by keeping them in Melbourne for most of the season is that when Collingwood do travel, they always seem to enjoy great success on their raids across the border.
The big worry here is that we end up consigning some clubs to long periods of doldrums, where they finish in the lower half of the ladder, starved of success and any great notoriety, while a small handful of their competitors enjoy on-going and highly profitable success, with bulging memberships and a never-ending line of sponsors and potential sponsors.
If you will, it’s the haves and the have-nots.
The two glaring examples are probably the Bulldogs and the Saints. Both have been recent contenders and had very strong lists but just couldn’t seem to crack it.
The Saints might still be an outside chance of some success in the next few years but, with a lot of their better players now entering the twilight of their careers, it’s difficult to see them as a realistic chance of the major prize.
The Bulldogs looked shot last year, after being up for a number of seasons but have only come away with a few preliminary finals appearances to show for their efforts. They don’t look all that convincing for 2013, either.
The Saints won their only flag in 1966 and the Bulldogs saluted 12 years before that, in 1954, for their only success. You have to wonder if their chances were affected by the AFL offering concessions to some clubs, making the fixtures a bit more commercially attractive and, maybe now, their latest turn at the top has come and gone.
In a 12 team competition, as it was between 1954 and 1986, you would expect to probably grab a flag every 12 years – so, mathematically these teams should have won roughly 2.5 premierships in that time.
Since then, the number of teams has increased and it obviously gets harder – but still, you’d think one of them should have tasted success across this period of time.
You then throw in Melbourne who go back to 1964 for their last premiership and even Richmond are starting to get out there, with their last flag coming in 1980.
The problem then seems to manifest itself in to off-field dramas, like that which constantly plague the St. Kilda Football Club (I’m sure there is a media rank, right next to the taxi rank, out the front of their club offices in Seaford). Honestly, these guys can’t do a thing right in the media.
Yet other, more successful clubs seem to be involved in nothing but ‘feel-good stories’ and even when there is an incident, they either somehow manage to put a silver lining on it, or it just simply vanishes after a few days, maybe a week tops.
The Bulldogs always seem to be just about to go under, or merge, or re-locate. They’ve been written off again and again. Melbourne are now finding new ways of getting more bang for their buck and I’m sure the AFL will give them a good old whack in some way. Richmond seem to have their fair share of dramas as well – sleeping tablets, Frothy Connors and Benny Cousins, on-going player behaviour issues.
Desperate clubs do desperate things – some will take it too far. The problem is a lack of on-field success brings off-field dramas. An even playing field gives everyone a chance and keeps everyone’s nose to the grindstone.
The AFL is responsible for developing and maintaining an even playing field. I’ve followed the Saints for a long time and, having been born in 1965, can’t even remember their premiership win. One of my best mates is a Bulldogs fan. He was born in 1965 as well – how do you reckon he feels?
Then we’ve got a mate who’s a Hawks fan – he’s seen them win nine flags across the same period of time. This is where the AFL needs to take a look at the game and determine whether ‘fix-turing’ is a reasonable thing and if blockbusters should be part of the draw.
Should they be distributed evenly and used to develop great rivalries, other than just Collingwood and Essendon on ANZAC Day, or Collingwood and Melbourne on the Queen’s Birthday? Do we need to have two derbies and two showdowns each year?
Why have Sydney smashing the Giants twice in one year – surely they can put that off for a couple of years in the interest of a more even draw this season. Same with the ‘dance-off’ in Queensland – what’s the point? I guess they’re a bit closer on the ladder at least.
The AFL needs to ask itself how much is too much? What price do we put on the integrity of the game? Loyalty to your club has now gone with free agency coming in. What do we sell next?
There are a lot of fans out there, hanging on in very tough times. They can barely afford to buy a ticket to a game these days, given the ludicrous prices being charged, and when you’re just confronted with one bad-news story after another about your club, added to a lack of on-field success, what do you do? Change clubs? Well, your favourite players can now, so why not?
That way we can have one packed house each week and five or six games of Port Adelaide versus Melbourne, or North Melbourne versus Fremantle, Brisbane versus the Western Bulldogs, where no one bothers to attend. Sound a bit like the English Premier League?
It’s not going to be a great thing, cheering for a ‘feeder’ club, who you know will only ever develop players for the bigger clubs to come along and take, without ever having a realistic chance at taking a flag!
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