Forgot to mention that the fixture issue can be fixed and can be truly equal by having 23 rounds. 17 games against every team, every second year is at home and every second yeasr is away. an additional round for rival round no. 2, mainly just foir interstate clubs. and additional 5 rounds would work like this. after round 18 the ladder is broken up into 3 sections, top 6, middle 6 and bottom 6. simply teams in those sections only vs teams in the same section resulting in 5 games each, thus fixting the last 5 rounds evenly. where the teams finish will mjean they cannot move in or out of the section. for example if a team finishes 3rd after 18 rounds the worse they can finish is 6th and the best is 1st. Simple and can easily be applied

Read through a bit of this. Id like to contribute to the conversation firstly by having my opinion on expansion, which has always been a much loved topic of mine.

The AFL needs to expand or have some big changes happen every 10 years in order to grow and succeed. Now whether expansion is on the table or not in 10 years (9 years) time we wont know, but something needs to happen or evolve. whether that’s introduce new venues, relocate teams or merge teams or maybe not so rapid, something needs to happen each decade.

Personally id like to see no more than 20 teams at a single time, without having a divisional system or second and third tier competitions, with is clearly as while away. Interesting seeing on the news last night, they reckon our population will double in 50 years. I didn’t catch the full broadcast but, was interesting, but id expect a large majority of those people will be from other ethnic backgrounds and from other countries. this means that for people who probably haven’t seen or heard of the game, it is important from our game to always be number 1 and continue growing in each and every area of Australia. Sports like soccer, rugbies, cricket, etc. all have a significant edge over aussie rules because of our lack of global exposure. This is why it is more than ever more important for our code to grow and keep growing.

There is however a large push and continue push and financial backing for global growth. Now more than ever and it’ll continue year after year, which can only be beneficial for global exposure, awareness and all round global growth.

The sooner Australian football has its own truly professional and competitive “world cup” the better for the code, itll create huge amounts of exposure as time goes on, in terms of our own global exposure. The international cup is great and grows every 3 years significantly, but is still only an amateur or semi-amateur at best competition. But im sure as the years pass, and the game gains larger exposure international through television and local competitions, it will naturally grow and move from suburban grounds in Australia to the big stadiums, to even games overseas and who knows maybe as sson as 20 years the all Australian team could compete (very optimistic)

I got gradually off topic, but it has been my first comment in over a year, although I do read the emails everyday.

Expansion or types of variations wont be discussed unto leading into to 2017, when the new tv rights comes in,

which is very unlikely that any new teams or mergers will be even mentioned, so naturally, assuming the AFL smash another tv rights record and obtain a further 5 year agreement, the amount of teams and games wiont change unto 2021. even then looks unlikel. although Etihad will be close to owned, burswood will be up and running, a third boutique stadium in Melbourne may have arrived and other stadiums will surely be redeveloped and larger capacities.

I think that 2025 would be the appropriate year to consider new teams, etc.

This is what I want by/or from 2025 onwards:

18 teams
6 teams in Melbourne, you did read that correctly!
the 6 strongest clubs stay, meaning weaker clubs merge, relocate or cease to exist.
The other 8 interstate clubs remain
Tasmania is a must, even if the economy isn’t as strong, the exposure isn’t enough, lack of business etc. it is a must and the AFL will make it happen, it has to be next.
that leaves us with 3 more spots.
Some of you may not like it, nor did I at first but, it is enormously important for “New Zealand” to gain a spot for global exposure, even national exposure and to tap into another area to develop kids.
The AFL is numerously reported Tasmania is next and New Zealand would be great.
Id think, North Queensland/Northern Territory would work and would be great so lets pencil that in.
1 more spot…. 3rd Perth/western Australia or Canberra???? Im leaning towards Canberra, theres enough of a population in and around there, the other codes don’t mean a thing.

In terms of ground being played at, just the premiership fixture, id like to think sunshine coast, Newcastle, ballarat, Bendigo, Albury/Wodonga, mt gambier, bunbury and mackay should be considered plus a few more. Maybe adopt, would be weird saying that seeing how all codes especially NRL copy or ‘adopt’ the AFL, but the A-leagues rural type round thing, I thought is a great idea, give all these places 1 game a year, would be sick. or even international games?

Imagine this every 2 years an area gets a afl premiership game from 2 teams pick at random. would be heaps good.

Good Riddance!

He was useless anyway.

Sydney if i have my way

It will be interesting to see what Kevin Sheedy does about this, because at the beginning of the year he was determined for GWS to play a home match, the first home and away season game played overseas, in china.

All this talk about 20 teams is realistically not in the distant future. its probably 10 – 15 years away, although A.D won’t be incharge then, so who knows.

Tasmania is next, then it will be another team in Australia, it won’t be a international team, guarantee you.

Love the fixture idea, love it. The first draft idea is the better one, but im still not sure its the best idea we can come up with.

My only question is, and i may have missed it, does the winning team from each division move up and losing team move down?

I believe he has. Next year he will improve again.

Port Adelaide they claim to not be in a crisis or they are, there is a crisis and that crisis has esculated over time and will only continue to get worse.

Their only supporter base is a small portion of the good old alberton days. A lot of even their old magpies supporters refuse to support such a team.

Their crowds are bewarely better than the two expansion clubs, they have pastic sheets covering a large portion of the crowd.

Kevin Bartlett even suggested they remove from the competition and tasmania be granted a licence. My view on that is south australia must have two teams and tasmania will only get a team if two vic clubs merge and thus becoming a 17 team competition or a vic club relocates there or they may have to wait until we move to a 20 team competition.

My solution to the port adelaide saga is clean up the club. Drop the ‘PORT’ and they become the Adelaide Power or even something else like ‘Rams’. Get rid of all the port adelaide arrogance and become like adelaide crows a ‘State wide’ supported team. Change the colours, change everything, lets face it it was always going to be a failure, ever since they were granted a licence. Adelaide and south australia has a long and proud history.

Its definetly not a two horse race. Sure sydney are first but we’ve got 5 massive games coming up. Hawthorn and collingwood look the goods if i had to pick two teams. I wouldnt rule adelaide out either, they should win their next 5 games and if they gain a home field advantage then they will be hard to beat. North melbourne are in very good form, fremantle have a good run home. Geelong have a very experienced team and their young stars are stepping up. West coast can gain experienced players back at the right point. I wouldnt rule essendon out either they only need one or two wins to find.

Something has to be done to save a second Adelaide team in the AFL. I know the AFL is banking on the fact that Adelaide Oval will save them, this doesn’t seem likely. Not sure what can be done. Maybe a name change and colour and image change. This probably wouldn’t work because the old Port Adelaide supporters would ditch the club and it would be unlikely that new supporters would jump on board. A crowd of 17,000 for a home game after being well-established is unacceptable.

Well when a sport only captures the hearts of people in nsw and queensland and doesn’t have a national dominance like “Australia’s Game” it’s only limited to certain things…….Hence the reason we got rid of it.

Treat him like a first year player, which is what he essentially is, like he got drafted last year. With a strong preseason and the rest of the season and you watch how much better he’ll be.

They talk us down, we rise to the ocassion by becoming victorious.
They try to pull us down, we win some more.
They try to force us down, and yep, you guessed it, we win again.

Don’t ever underestimate the “Blood Stained Angels”, it’s time the haters, start respecting our abilities on the field and off the field.

You mentioned Mumford is in great form in the ruck. He missed from memory atleast 4 or 5 weeks with a back injury 2 weeks ago and hasn’t played nowhere near as much time as he should spend in the ruck. Ted Richards and Josh Kennedy have been outstanding, but Ben McGlynn hasnt performed at his best and was nearly cut from the side a few times. On the other hand Shaw, Jack, O’keefe, JETTA!, McVeigh, Bolton, hannebury, roberts-thompson and smith to name a few have all been in outstanding form. Parker and Rohan were in brillant form before getting injured. Pike has been killing it in the ruck. When Reid can kick straight and goodes comes back in the team look out. Also Armstrong was in very good form against the bombers. Mitch Morton, Tommy Walsh and Jesse White have been kicking bags in the twos. mitch morton kicked 8 on the weekend. Also we have plenty of youngsters who can step-up at anytime, Brown, Cunningham, Lamb, Mitchell.

Love how you failed to mention the swans, who beat essendon away, hawthorn away, fremantle and lost to adelaide by 5 points. Oh well i enjoy going under the radar like we do every year. Last time when we were 5-0 there were a few articles and then we lost 3 of the next 4. just pretend were not there like usual.

all i have to say about this article is Rome wasnt built in a day and its going to take time. The club has been in the AFL for less than half a season and has only won one game. With a population of 2.2 million people plus other surrounding areas and add in southern nsw and act. its going to take a long time.

I think this is a good move for footy and for St. Kilda they clearly need another source of revenue and a home away from home could be it. Theres not many viable places in Australia left. North to Hobart, Hawks in Launceston, Bulldogs, Melbourne and Port Adelaide in Darwin, Giants in Canberra, Tigers in Cairns. Theres maybe Newcastle/Central Coast, Townsville and Bunbury left, even they are questionable.

It looks like it’ll be between saints and Giants to see who hosts the very first AFL game overseas. Giants and Sheedy wont be easybeats, they’re looking to China.

In a true national competition, you cannot have 10 teams in 1 state and 8 other teams, 2 from each state. 3 or 4 maximum in the one city.

By 2030:
AFL: 16 teams
Adelaide
Port Adelaide
West Coast
Fremantle
Sydney
GWS Giants
Gold Coast
Brisbane
Tasmania
Northern Territory
Mandurah/Rockingham
Cairns/Towsnville
Melbourne Wildcats (Richmond/Melbourne/North Melbourne)
West Melbourne (Western Bulldogs/Collingwood)
Victorian Team (Hawthorn/St.Kilda/Essendon/Carlton)
Geelong
2 conferences, change every year (1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, 15th & 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th). play everyone from your conference twice and everyone from other conference once = 22 rounds.

Foxtel Cup = 32 teams
SANFL/WAFL = 16 teams
VFL/TFL = 16 teams
NSW/ACTFL/QFL/NTFL = 16 teams
NAB Cup knockout competition, once you lose play off against another team.
State of Origin = 8 teams (Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory, New South Wales/ACT, Queensland, Tasmania, International)
Played 2 weeks after Grand Final over 3 weeks. 2 Divisions, 4 teams each. the best 4 teams all vs each other, the worst 4 teams vs each other and the best team of the 2nd division and the worst team of the 1st division switch each year.
International Cup includes Australian-AIS Academy team, then eventually All-Australian team.

Agree with this article 100%

clearly international rules is going down the drain. We need some form of representation. State of Origin has to be it. I say every year 2 weeks after the grand final and go with michael’s idea, except, combine Qld and NT and NSW and ACT. 3 games, friday, saturday and sunday night, promotion relegation each year???

North (NT QLD) vs South (Vic Tas) vs East (NSW ACT & Int.) vs West (WA SA)

Agree with everything you say, exept this should be it.
Vic vs SA
Wa vs Tas
Qld/NT vs NSW/ACT

teams shouldnt have to wait 4 years to play in it again and by joining qld and nt and nsw and act, it improves quality of players and crowds

Everyone has forgotten that west coast is underfeated and they also beat hawthorn, etc. Dont all suddenly jump on board.

Just bring back the true and original state of origin. Over an Annual Weekend halfway through the season, it’s been said before Friday Night Vic vs SA, Saturday Night WA vs Tas and Sunday Night NSW/ACT vs Qld/Nt. Each year the winning teams move up and the losing teams move down. (note Friday night is essentially division 1, saturday night is division 2 and sunday night is division 3). Like i said its been said before. just bring back the original state of origin, surely this form of it, can be sustainable. Injuries are always a risk, but thats the same week-in week-out. AFL HQ harden up and bring it back, full stop.

K.Hunt is quickly becoming a key midfielder not only of the Gold Coast Suns but oin the AFL too. Just with 2 preseasons under his belt and the fact that he didnt grow up with the game, really makes it an extradinary effort