Expansion Alternate AFL World 1987

[greatwhiteshark]

Yeah I don't disagree with you there. I was confusing your "state of the game is in trouble" to mean the "look" of the game was the problem.
Although I think rule changes to protect the players from certain injuries are necessary.

The rules implemented to prevent injuries are good and I have no issue with that, head high contact is rife in the game however and we are blaming the bloke with the ball?
The AFL removing the thuggery from the game the last 30 years has been excellent. I don't like players being suspended for accidents but thats what they do.

 

[footyfan1978]

Yeah I don't disagree with you there. I was confusing your "state of the game is in trouble" to mean the "look" of the game was the problem.
Although I think rule changes to protect the players from certain injuries are necessary.

This getting too much off topic mate.
Plenty of threads to discuss this further.
I started this thread to both imagine and and discuss an alternate expansion path in 1987 and keep the state leagues strong and played on different weekend day to the elite league in the country. I did not really want another thread discussing the current state of the game in 2020. Plenty of threads for that and discussing rule changes to protect players from injury. Please contribute to what the thread was started for or take the off topic stuff somewhere else.

 

[Hot Diggity]

For those of us that lived through the football in the 1980's and saw the transition of so much of football clubs and leagues in next couple of decades I wonder if we can imagine an alternate footy world where things took an alternate path as if two worlds branched off in reality.

Suspend every little detail of the time and how this came about, just imagine it did.
Somehow the leagues got together for the good of the overall game and things change which would not be to everyone's liking but it got decided for the good of the sport overall this was what is happening from 1987 onwards:


The VFL adopt it's name change to AFL for 1987 and it is to be a 14 club league for now on.

7 current VFL clubs stay as is. Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Richmond, Geelong, Melbourne and North Melbourne
The two worst historical clubs on premierships get told they can keep their identity as a club and their debts are cleared but have to go play in the VFA... St.Kilda and Footscray

Two clubs each, from WAFL and SANFL are added to the expanded AFL. Port Adelaide Magpies, Norwood, East Fremantle Sharks and West Perth Falcons
Hawks relocate to Tasmania as Hobart Hawks
Fitzroy relocate to Brisbane as Brisbane Lions and debt all cleared.

The AFL agree to that Sunday football is off limits except for Sydney Swans and all traditional state leagues including the VFA get the niche market of Sunday for them to get AFL free in their state. AFL games can be played Friday night to Saturday night on weekend but apart from Sydney Swans no other games can ever be programmed for a Sunday. Sunday is state league football day forever more.
SANFL becomes an 8 club league for Sunday's.
VFA gets Footscray and St.Kilda added to it and Sunday football market in Victoria.
WAFL has to decide if it runs as a 6 club league in Perth on Sunday's or invites two other suburban clubs to remain as 8 there for Sunday's.

TV broadcasts rights are advanced and all finances are underwritten to fix club and league finances in the late 80's.

Would we be in a better situation of the sport in such an alternative footy world timeline ?
Would all the fans have an AFL club they follow in first part of weekend and a state league club each Sunday ?

Doesn't make sense, because at the start of 1987 Hawthorn was one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest club. Carlton, Hawthorn and Essendon were top dogs then.

 

[footyfan1978]

Doesn't make sense, because at the start of 1987 Hawthorn was one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest club. Carlton, Hawthorn and Essendon were top dogs then.

Agreed was just a suggestion based on Hawk ties to Tassie via guys like Hudson, Rodney Eade etc etc and provoke discussion to imagine what could happen in 1987 based on that type of path. It was not really a suggestion based on strength of team or finances at time.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

This getting too much off topic mate.
Plenty of threads to discuss this further.
I started this thread to both imagine and and discuss an alternate expansion path in 1987 and keep the state leagues strong and played on different weekend day to the elite league in the country. I did not really want another thread discussing the current state of the game in 2020. Plenty of threads for that and discussing rule changes to protect players from injury. Please contribute to what the thread was started for or take the off topic stuff somewhere else.

Fair enough mate, my apologies.

 

[Hot Diggity]

Jim Stynes doesn’t run over the mark.

 

[footyfan1978]

Fair enough mate, my apologies.

All good, I know you not trying to get off topic on purpose but right now I am trying to move those posts to a more appropriate thread if mods can help with that and try to keep this thread about the time period and imagining a different path in that actual time period I started this thread for.

Feel free to continue that type of discussion there

The State Of The Game

The game might be 6-6-6 when they bounce the ball but if the ball moves slowly it ends up 0-0-18, most clubs score more from defensive rebounds than they do from stoppage clearances because the game is so congested and all the coaches are at fault.

www.bigfooty.com

 

[footyfan1978]

View attachment 969522

Those images etched on my mind forever from this period.
Horror show.
Simon Eishold....

 

[Hot Diggity]

Those images etched on my mind forever from this period.
Horror show.
Simon Eishold....

Eishold, Yeats, Campbell. Should have buried us.

 

[Hot Diggity]

Agreed was just a suggestion based on Hawk ties to Tassie via guys like Hudson, Rodney Eade etc etc and provoke discussion to imagine what could happen in 1987 based on that type of path. It was not really a suggestion based on strength of team or finances at time.

No dramas!

 

[megadeth92]

Looked up last round of 1986 for WAFL and the top two was already decided and nothing changed on ladder all day.
Was complete opposite to an exciting last round of a season.
You are clearly talking more about the fact the next season Eagles started and WAFL dead man walking sadly for it's health.

West Perth could still have made finals, if I remember correctly, but were annihilated by a brilliant Subiaco. But, yes, I was aiming at a sort of dry humour to say that 1986 was the "last round" before the WAFL had its crowds cut in half. Obscure humour doesn't often work well on a forum, my bad.

 

[megadeth92]

I am pretty sure you couldn't watch or listen to live broadcasts of sport on planes in the 1990s.

I think it was updates of scores, not live broadcasts. The incident is in Malthouse's book (the one written by his daughter?) it's been a while since I read the book. It was taken as an example of Malthouse wanting players to set their focus fully on the AFL and not get distracted by trivial Perth-based local allegiances. In other words, Malthouse's daughter portrayed the incident in a positive light. (Apologies for going off topic.)

 

[telsor]

The bolded is exactly the problem that non vic fans don't get, imagine an alternate AFL world where wa or sa was the largest populace and one of those leagues was the destination for any players / fans from outside that state.

How would they like it if the Vic whatever club new franchise walked in and their fans were advocating for culling clubs and other changes for their own / clubs gain at the expense of? Yeah not too good I imagine.

As for the sport of Australian Football, yes that is a discussion for another thread(s).

The closest we have to a similar case was with Tas when the TANFL commissioned the Evers report.

It recommended a state league, with being 5 clubs from the north, and 5 in the south. But the biggest comp (TANFL...Hobart) was the one driving it and couldn't make the hard call on dropping a club (yes, losing 1 from 6 was too hard)

Buy in from the North was limited (in part because it was a TANFL report that the TANFL wouldn't follow themselves), so they ended 8 with an 8 team league that was really just the TANFL with a couple of extras that never really took off.

Sound familiar?
Big comp can't/wont make hard calls, and the end result is that the new league is the big comp+extras that satisfies nobody.

Difference is that the VFL was big enough to dominate the TV rights long enough for it to evolve into something better (not perfect, but better).



Point is, it's not 'evil Vics', it's just what anyone would do in a similar situation.