Doss
Ass
- Aug 1, 2011
- 75,219
- 112,343
- AFL Club
- Essendon
Aside from Fitzroy, if there is a group of clubs that have been really stuffed by the whole national expansion thing, it's the old VFA clubs.
Many of them have basically disbanded altogether, and others have been completely eviscerated to a shell of what they were once were; clubs like Preston, for example.
At the end of the day, it was the VFL that made the move to expand nationally in 1986 (or really, 1982), not the SANFL or WAFL. And, given the relative population sizes, that was always likely to be the way it went. It's not fair for the WAFL or SANFL clubs, no, and you could argue that a better model might have been to create a separate national competition altogether. To start afresh rather than trying to cobble together something from the existing competitions.
You could also argue that the better idea might have been to keep the competitions as state based. Whether the economic strength of the various competitions in 1986 would have really allowed that is another matter.
Many of them have basically disbanded altogether, and others have been completely eviscerated to a shell of what they were once were; clubs like Preston, for example.
At the end of the day, it was the VFL that made the move to expand nationally in 1986 (or really, 1982), not the SANFL or WAFL. And, given the relative population sizes, that was always likely to be the way it went. It's not fair for the WAFL or SANFL clubs, no, and you could argue that a better model might have been to create a separate national competition altogether. To start afresh rather than trying to cobble together something from the existing competitions.
You could also argue that the better idea might have been to keep the competitions as state based. Whether the economic strength of the various competitions in 1986 would have really allowed that is another matter.