With the inception of the Australian Football League (AFL) in 1990 as the Victorian Football League (VFL) officially embraced a national league, Victoria’s remaining ten teams have been joined by two teams each from Western Australia (WA), South Australia (SA), New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland.
While the northern states of NSW and Queensland have won AFL premierships through Brisbane (2001-2003) and Sydney (2005 and 2012), as have West Coast (1992, 1994, 2006 and 2018), Adelaide (1997-1998) and Port Adelaide (2004), this article will elaborate on why WA and SA are the only states with a strong passion for AFL that rivals the Victorian clubs.
By emphasising the importance of a longstanding and strong Australian rules football culture in WA and SA, this article will then argue why Tasmania should also have an AFL team.
Adelaide and Perth, as the sole major cities of SA and WA, have always loved Australian rules football, unlike the northern states of NSW and Queensland where rugby league still has the cultural heart and soul of the most football code fans.
Quite simply, good crowds for Brisbane Lions (on a par with Victoria, SA and WA) only have occurred when the team was going very well, as was the case when their average home crowd was over 33,000 in 2004 and 2005 before declining quickly within a few years as the team stopped making the finals.
Since 2011, and prior to COVID, Brisbane’s home crowds declined rapidly to achieve a home match average above 20,500 just once (2019), a figure below the least popular Victorian sides for that period.
Sydney, on the other hand, have attracted a home crowd average above 30,000 since 1996 in a period where they have made the finals 22 of the 26 years from 1996 to 2019, although Greater Western Sydney (GWS) have a best year crowd average of 13,000 (2017) despite making the finals regularly.
(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
South Australian football, which began in the 1860’s, has a proud Australian rules history.
Prior to the two Adelaide clubs entering the AFL (Adelaide in 1991 and Port Adelaide in 1997), Victorians were made aware of their talents with many SA players becoming household names and VFL club favourites, including Malcolm Blight, Stephen Kernahan, Craig Bradley, John Platten and Mark Williams.
While its crowds never matched the VFL, they were arguably just as good on a per capita basis. In 1967, the SANFL’s ten teams had a record average crowd of around 10,500 (including finals) with a population of just 850,000.
The 12 Melbourne and Geelong teams in the same year averaged 25,000 with a combined population of around 2.7 million
A record grand final crowd of 66,987 also attended the 1976 grand final Sturt versus Port Adelaide played at Football Park with many turned away.
In WA, where Australian rules can be traced back to the 1880s at a time when the press reported growing dissatisfaction with rugby as a spectacle, the popularity of that sport at a club level also peaked around 1967 with an average crowd 10,900 for Perth’s eight teams at a time when it had a population of just 688,000 (1970 data), thus also indicating a high per capita turnout.
The 1981 WAFL grand final was also attended by a record 55,517.
Victorians have long been aware of the prowess of WA football given the talented players that played in the VFL long before West Coast (1987) and Fremantle (1995) joined the VFL/AFL, including Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer, Barry Cable, Graham Moss, Ross Glendinning and Maurice Rioli (originally from the Northern Territory).
In 1977, in the first proper State of Origin match, WA inflicted their biggest defeat on a Victorian team (94 points).
(Photo by Michael Dodge/AFL Media/Getty Images)
In both Adelaide and Perth, the importance of a longstanding Australian rules culture helps to explain why the local derbies have quickly become the most important games for the year with crowds for such matches regularly amongst their highest for the season.
In 2022, with AFL crowds down when compared to 2019 prior to COVID, the biggest crowd at the Adelaide Oval after 12 rounds was 39,000 when Adelaide defeated Port Adelaide by four points.
In contrast, local derbies in Sydney (Sydney versus Greater Western Sydney) and South East Queensland (Brisbane versus the Gold Coast) have much less local interest with the bigger crowds evident against Victorian clubs.
So why not give Tasmania, with its strong Australian rules history since the 1860s when the first clubs were formed, the AFL’s 19th AFL license?
Victoria has long celebrated the many great VFL players that came from Tasmania, which include Darrel Baldock, Ian Stewart, Peter Hudson, Royce Hart, Michael Roach, Matthew Richardson and Jack Riewoldt.
On 24 June 1990, playing before a crowd of 18,651 spectators at the North Hobart Oval, a Tasmanian team showed their talent by defeating Victoria by 33 points.
While Tasmanian club football has certainly fallen away in recent decades, after the Tasmanian Football League (six teams) averaged a 5000 crowd in 1967 at a time when its state population was around 380,000, its history shows that it can support a local team with reasonable crowds.
(Photo by Getty Images)
Recent AFL crowds in Tasmania watching Victorian teams have been better than some existing AFL clubs at certain venues.
In 2019, Hawthorn and North Melbourne hosted four games each at Launceston (York Park) and Hobart (Bellerive Oval) averaging 14,000 and 9900, while Ballarat’s Eureka Stadium only averaged 9300 when hosting the Western Bulldogs twice, Carrara averaged 11,800 for the Gold Coast Suns, and the Sydney Showground averaged 12,400 for the GWS Giants.
In 2022, GWS have attracted very poor crowds below 6000 on two occasions, while Gold Coast have attracted less than 9000 three times.
There is no reason why a Tasmanian team cannot regularly attract 15,000 to watch a home team, having previously achieved an attendance record of 24,968 in the 1979 TFL grand final between Glenorchy and Clarence at North Hobart Oval, especially in line with past reports that AFL clubs also have 90,000 Tasmanian members who support various Victorian clubs.
This is regardless of whether Tasmanians agree to build a new stadium with a current estimate of a proposed $750 million roofed stadium.
Tasmania’s 2022 entry into the National Basketball League with the Tasmanian JackJumpers has seen regular home crowds of just below 5000, so I would be surprised if a Tasmanian AFL team cannot draw good crowds given it now has a statewide population of over 540,000 with all Tasmanian cities not that far from each other.
The AFL should change tack, having already ventured into NSW and Queensland (two of three most populated states) because of the financial incentives, which has delivered mixed success given the poor support levels of GWS and the Gold Coast Suns.
While there is no doubt that the Tasmanian Liberal government (backed by Labor and the Greens) will have to make the bid attractive to the AFL club, currently with an offer to spend $150 million over ten years, I hope that they recognise Tasmania’s historical contribution to Australian rules and ongoing love of the sport to grant Tasmania the 19th AFL club license when they decide in August 2022.
Robey
Guest
If Tasmania is to be admitted, there is another established club in Australia that would make the 20th club in the AFL. Norwood is inarguably the best club outside the AFL and is the logical choice for many reasons. There is a huge rivalry with Port Adelaide, financially stable,hugely successful, a strong following and would have no problems attracting big sponsorship with famed companies like Coopers Brewery and Wolff Blass Wines. The surrounding eastern suburbs are very affluent and The Parade in Norwood is one of Australia's biggest shopping precincts.
Republican
Guest
It's a harsh reality of going national. I often wonder what the footy landscape would look like, had we stuck with state leagues and SOOs. The AFL are a governing body in name only. In reality they are a mouth piece for the tele networks that own them, to grow their dynasties. Our code devolves more commoditised and generic, subsumed by the American networks to satisfy a feckless global market. That true demographics are exploited to this end, flies in the face of any custodianship on their part. The likes of Kennett and his vested interests epitomise this philosophy. The AFL are inherently disingenuous, talking up growth while sabotaging a bid i.e. Tassies, disassembling historically significant clubs and throwing good money after bad on concoctions i.e. GWS and the GC to name two. They, the AFL are a symbiosis of our plutocratic world order.
Republican
Guest
PS Canberra is a real city of approx 450k people and growing while the region increases that figure significantly. Australian footy is inherent of Canberra's sporting DNA, more so than in those plastic concoctions i.e. GWS or GC. Thats a ridiculous argument, 'pollies going home'. Our cities are transient with populations moving around perpetually. I believe your stereotype of Canberra is sadly common and smacks of a dated prejudice. This type of anti Canberra sentiment pervades the more parochially feckless and ignorant demographics of this nation Brian.
Republican
Guest
.....thats a ruse Brian. The footy pedigree here, despite decades of neglect and expedience from the governing body, is healthier than both rugbies at the grass roots while Manuka attracts healthy gates of between 12 & 15k even for a fly in fly out farce i.e. GWS. They, the Rugbies, are worried, if the nations capital did realise a stand alone entity, that their precarious footprint would be further compromised. This could be why they, Union & League back a new rectangular stadium if built, as opposed to an oval/rectangular retro fit model that would attract the big games as well as Cricket of course.
Republican
Guest
.....love your half glass full persistence Rowdy. If Kennet and messers can sabotage Tassies hard earned bid then what hope does Canberra have. As Gillon retorted some years ago, 'Canberra already has a team - its called 'The Giants'. It won't happen in our life time, of that I have no doubt.
Republican
Guest
.....yep. The AFLs duty of care flies in the face of any true mission statement to do with true governance. Their rhetoric is grounded in plutocratic pathos, delivering their vision for our game at the behest of their masters in avarice, the tele networks.
Chris Lewis
Roar Guru
yes, wind chill is the culprit having sat in the southern stand at the MCG on a June night when it is very, very cold.
Martin
Roar Rookie
That's an interesting article you attached, and so now I'm open to the idea of not having a retractable roof. The experts in design can mitigate the effects of bad weather.
RT
Roar Rookie
Your second post is an improvement. Nevertheless I was making the point that your claim that the AFL make decisions to bring money in to Melbourne doesn't stack up. My comment about Gold Coast's opposition to another club supports that. The AFL have spend ludicrous amounts of money on GWS and Gold Coast. It has been at the expense of established clubs and their supporters and to the detriment to Tasmania. I absolutely agree that Tasmania should have had a team long ago.
PeterCtheThird
Guest
Oh dear, what a crime to be an occasional, not one-time, poster. Tell me, how does one become acceptable in your view? When one has made fifty comments? “Completely irrelevant to today.” Then by your logic anything the article’s author says about events that happened a total of more than eighty years ago is also irrelevant, yes? No? Why not? And no, the “Carrara Koalas” are NOT irrelevant to the Suns’ situation today. They are BOTH a demonstration of a Melbourne-based organisation with little knowledge of Gold Coast seriously over-estimating the level of interest in any football code on the Coast. And the first example was there for forty years to be seen and considered. And your comment that the major opposition to a Tassie team is from the Suns, as if somehow you are making a telling argument against my post. I suggest you go back and re-read. Tasmania should have had a team in the AFL yonks ago. Hence “Carna Devils!”, unless that’s too complex for you. Just as an aside, my liking for Tasmanian footy goes back to their performance in the 1961 interstate carnival in Brisbane. You will no doubt recognise the names Baldock and Withers in the All-Australian team in some mighty fine company. So that’s two posts, how many more do I need?
Brian
Guest
Giants already play 3 games there, its more RL territory now, smaller then the Gold Coast and the pollies all go home when Parliament off.
Johnno
Roar Rookie
Create sides in GWS & Gold Coast, in the meantime a Vic side struggles & is about to fold, move it to Tassie. That is the AFL plan.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Dr. Archibald 'Moonlight' Graham would agree.
RT
Roar Rookie
You could then have a 19 round season playing everyone once. That would be only 8 fewer home and away games than currently so really not significant from a TV rights point of view (more concerning for rights and gate takings is a lack of double ups for top 6 teams or big clubs). Not that I really want to only get 14-15 games in Melbourne to watch my team instead of the current average of 17.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Canberra is the 20th as it was once AF territory.
Brian
Guest
Ideally either the Suns or the Kanagaroos would effectively go to Tasmania. Suns should have never been setup in an area with a population about the size of Tasmania that doesn't care for AFL at a time when those few who did could watch the Lions anyway. However as it is the Giants and Suns projects are expensive, lots of clubs rely on AFL assistance and the supporters of Collingwood, Essendon, WCE, Hawks etc are rightly getting pretty fed up funding everyone else. So unless the Suns experiment is allowed to die as a failure or North agree to somehow move there's a real lack of money and rational thought behind a Tassie team, no-one wnats 19 teams long-term and there isn't an obvious candidate for the 20th license.
Chris Lewis
Roar Guru
fair enough, but key is to mimimise wind chill with appropriate stands design. Not an expert, but it could be way cheaper. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223539276_3D_CFD_simulations_of_wind_flow_and_wind-driven_rain_shelter_in_sports_stadia_Influence_of_stadium_geometry I assume it can be done, as Bankwest stadium was designed to minimise wind factor. https://the-riotact.com/renewed-push-to-get-stadium-back-on-the-agenda/382625
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I agree with Richie. I've driven just about every highway in Victoria, NSW, Qld & Tassie. If you'd care to look, look at all the upgrades of AF facilities in non-metropolitan NSW & Qld. And compare the lack of RL facilities in non-metropolitan Victoria, SA, Tassie, and l presume WA. ----- Over the age of 18 AF has more registered players than the others combined. (Post Covid l dunno the numbers)
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
That’s why inaction must be alchemised into action.
RT
Roar Rookie
A pretty silly couple of opening paragraphs by you PeterCtheThird, as we often expect from a one-time guest. Most of the money flows out of Victoria, not the other way around. How do you think GWS and Gold Coast have been kept afloat? Why mention South Melbourne and Bears that happened a collective 80 odd years ago. Completely irrelevant to today. The biggest opposition for Tasmania is coming from Gold Coast. Do you know why that is? No doubt they are concerned about the teet being restricted for them and a Tassie team being fianancially sound long before them.