It happens every year: the much anticipated AFL fixture release.
Footy fans all across Australia eagerly await it. But when they finally get released the excitement quickly turns to frustration outside Victoria.
“Those damn Victorians!” I hear as I walk past a pub adorned with Eagles and Dockers scarves. This is the injustice that is consistently occurring in Aussie rules: the Victorian-central landscape of the AFL.
I grew up here in Perth and have lived here my whole life. What’s not to love – great beaches, fantastic weather, plenty of space, lots happening and a stellar sporting history in several codes.
But what I do not love is the way non-Victorian AFL teams and especially West Australian footy teams are treated.
AFL in our great state is a religion. Simple as that. It’s alright that you don’t know what is happening with politics or the news, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know who our premier or even the prime minister is.
But it is not alright if you don’t know who the Eagles beat at the weekend. My dad and mum brought me and my two brothers up in a diehard Eagles household. There haven’t been many Eagles home games I haven’t attended.
Freo – as much as I despise them during the derby – are a team with serious potential, but due to being discriminated against haven’t been very successful. I wouldn’t want to go as far as to say that it is akin to being treated like a second-class citizen, but it’s not much better.
Last year the Melbourne Demons had a whopping 18 home-city games out of 23. All other Victorian teams (the nine of them) had either 16 or 17 home-city games. Whereas the eight interstate teams had just 12. Yes, you read that right – 12!
(Photo by Will Russell/AFL Photos/via Getty Images )
I get that it is hard to run a multi-million dollar national sports league. And yes, with 18 clubs all spread out over the sixth largest nation by area in the world, it is sure to have some challenges.
Balance is a tough goal. I understand the AFL was founded in Melbourne and started off as the VFL with only Victorian teams, but more needs to be done.
Take the MCG deal, for example. The AFL signed a contract in 2013 stating that all grand finals until 2057 are to be played at the MCG in Melbourne.
This is mind-boggling. In pretty much all other sporting codes globally – the NFL, NBA, and locally the BBL and NBL – the grand final is never played at one set location, and different teams and cities share it.
If all these organisations – some multi-billion dollar leagues – can do it, then why can’t the AFL? It is the fairest way.
Former West Coast legend and AFL hall of famer Glen Jakovich said this about the deal: “If you want a truly national competition you have to adhere to what the national competition means, if a team earns the right to hold the grand final and they have got the stadium to facilitate the grand final then they hold it. That’s what the national competition in equalisation means.”
Take the recent COVID-19 fiasco. When the AFL temporarily suspended the season back in March, they said that players could only train with one other person (non-contact) per all states’ laws at the time.
On April 26, WA became the first state in Australia to start to ease these restrictions thanks to outstanding testing, low cases, and correct isolation and social distancing. So that would mean the Eagles and Dockers could train (non-contact) in groups of ten, right?
You thought wrong. The AFL said WA clubs can’t do this until all states allowed this, citing this as an unfair competitive advantage. Yet the Eagles and Dockers have to travel 3000 kilometres every second week while Dustin Martin wakes up and drives ten minutes to the G, 18 out of 23 games.
(Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
Port Adelaide great Kane Cornes couldn’t have put it better: “God forbid WA clubs get an unfair advantage. These are the guys that travel four hours on a plane every second week while Jack Riewoldt sleeps in his bed for 14 weeks of the season playing games at the MCG.”
This is another bang-on comment from Cornes proving how Vic-centric the AFL actually is.
To no surprise, Cornes’ comments were slammed by Victorian AFL dinosaurs like Matthew Richardson and Eddie McGuire.
Eddie McGuire, the president of Collingwood, is the only president from all clubs that regularly commentates AFL games. But even worse in 2018 he was flown out to Perth to commentate the western derby. Yes, the western derby.
It just doesn’t seem fair for a direct employee – especially a senior one – of a competing AFL club to be commentating on other teams’ games. It is biased and unfair and puts the wrong ideas in people’s heads.
The bias stems from the media. Commentators like McGuire were around when the VFL became the AFL. They are still caught up in the past. They want it to be VFL-centric.
The AFL needs fresh perspective, equality and new, innovative thinking to make the AFL more national and inclusive.
But with people like McGuire in the media, on footy shows and commentating, it is going to be hard to achieve. The AFL needs to do more to make this great game of ours more national and inclusive.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
You stalking me? What's your obsession with me?
Jimmy
Guest
If SANFL and WAFL have always been so superior why in gods name did they join the VFL???? Asking for a mate
Jimmy
Guest
My Goodness Rowdy. You are humiliating yourself. VFA changed its name to the VFL. It is the same league. You go from thread to thread throwing tantrum after tantrum.
Matches
Roar Rookie
Are you really that simple Kev? I mentioned West Coast's 4 premierships alongside Richmond winning 5 games in Perth against West Coast - ever - in 33 years. Concentrate think and it may dawn on you. I said "may" for a good reason - think about that too.
PriddisJunior
Roar Rookie
I understand now. Thanks Richie. Def hard to predict a prelim.
RT
Roar Rookie
Rankings or seedings might be the wrong term, but back to what Kevin said, in 2018 Richmond (1st) played the first Prelim so they would get the longer break. They lost, but it just meant Collingwood took their place. The AFL have no way of forecasting who will win. Same logic in 2015. In 2006 Sydney (4th) beat West Coast (1st) in the first week of finals, so it is fair enough that they had the advantage going in to the Prelims. Similarly in 2005 StKilda knocked off Adelaide (1st) so they had the advantage over Adelaide (who lost to WC) going in to the Prelims. I notice that the higher placed home and away team is still named first for Grand Finals, so no one has leap frogged in any rankings. WC have just been unlucky, that's all. (If you ask me, both Prelims should be on Saturday to avoid this. )
PriddisJunior
Roar Rookie
I don't know of another tournament where the seedings change hands like you're suggesting after the playoffs/finals start. Another one of the AFL's 'special' rules. You're saying you can finish 4th, win week one and leapfrog a team that finished 2nd and won the first final. Rediculous.
Kev
Roar Rookie
Rotating the GF isn't the panacea you think it is either. Let's say it were roated and for arguments sake the GF was at the SCG and the Eagles were playing. WCE have played 9 times at the venue since '99 without a single win and I'd bet my yearly salary that if the GF were played there and they lost, there would be fans here who would complain and claim that the only reason they lost is because they didn't play their often enough.
Brendon the 1st
Roar Rookie
You know we're not all one person though right?
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Funny how Victorians don't really know the history of footy in other states. They deride Port and Freo yet not realising Port's collection of flags. Or that East Freo, one of the original contributor clubs, has the 2nd most flags. Well some do. ----- In Qld and NSW a lot of NRL followers are surprised that SA, WA, NT & Tas have such strong and rich Australian Football history cos all they ever hear about is Victoria.
sven
Roar Rookie
there u go with that psychobabble again
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Footy is only one of 17 obsessions.
sven
Roar Rookie
youre getting too intellectual for me ... its just a bit of footy banter i thought
Philip Herden
Guest
The AFL is in theory a national league. But how can a truly national league have "interstate" teams? In all practicalities the AFL is a Victorian run competition, an expanded VFL, based out Victoria, with the majority of teams in Victoria and the championship game always played in Victoria. SA & WA have copped the worst of this transformation. Whilst VFL history is retained in the AFL, SANFL (oldest comp in the nation) and WAFL is relegated. Does the AFL recognise Carlton's, Collingwood's and Essendon's premierships in the VFL? Yes they even want to include the VFA ones now. Does it recognise Port Adelaide's in the SANFL? No. And this is from an era when non-Victorian sides used to win their fair share of interstate rep carnivals and Champions of Australia tournaments. Further to that, last year the AFL started raiding SANFL & WAFL clubs in a mid-season draft for no compensation further denigrating the status of these historic competitions. Then to start 2020 they had the nerve to call the bush fire relief game (great cause) a State Of Origin match despite only one state (Victoria) playing. SA & WA the 2 key drivers of State of Origin have had no opportunity. Only Victorians get to wear their state jumper. And even in this past week we saw more evidence #VicBias in the AFL particularly towards the two traditional football states to its west. A showdown game in Adelaide almost had to be moved because there were not enough accredited AFL umpires based in SA. Also measures needed to be made for broadcasters to come into the state. In other words South Australia, a fanatical football state for over 150 years, was deemed by the AFL not to have the umpiring nor broadcasting capacity within its own borders to put on the state's showpiece sporting event. I wonder where in this "national" league all those umpires and broadcasters are based? But at least WA & SA have teams in the AFL, don't get me started about Tassie.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I don't do revisionism
Angela
Roar Rookie
'It’s not that simple. The MCC has 130000 members and even with that membership the MCC is still paying down the debt of the last refurbishment of the ground (Northern Stands), not the AFL, not the Vic government and not the federal government. 5-10 year deals are not enough with that sort of expenditure.' Comrade Xi Jinping would be only too happy to help out, I'm sure.
sven
Roar Rookie
how does the proletariat even get a ticket these days with all the corporates & event goers snaffling up so many tickets ... thought u crow eaters all drove over in a massive convoy, like a plague of locusts
sven
Roar Rookie
not 100% sure thats not some sorta insult...interesting choice of words
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
The average German wasn't happy with the Nationalists either, especially as the war progressed.
sven
Roar Rookie
think youre confusing the vfl/afl hierarchy with viccos in general, we arent one & the same u know. the vfl shafted vic footy supporters too, at least u still got the safl & wa the wafl, we lost our local comp where u went to the local ground on a sat arvo & watched a game of footy, & then we lost the vfa too. not to mention the poor swans & fitzroy no longer with us, they tried it with footscray (western bulldogs) too. so dont go thinking its just u blokes, the afl is about maximizing profit above all else