14 hours ago, Demon Disciple said:

Suns and Giants still get bugger all fans through the gates. They are soulless franchises. 

The Suns normally start a season strongly before tapering off. Rd 1 would have been tough for anyone facing the Swans, last week they couldn’t beat a undermanned Bombers. They are a mess on and off the field, trading away pick 7 last year due to salary cap issues highlighted how far backwards they’ve gone.

AFL currently 18 teams (population of Australia 25.6 million)

NFL Currently 32 teams (population of America 336 million)

19 or 20 teams would further dilute the talent pool, we have 3-4 clubs who are heavily reliant on AFL funding, are we foolish enough to think that 2 extra teams means 10 games a week and more in the next tv rights deal and that solves all our problems?

Lived around the corner from Norwood Oval in the 90s and watched Garry MacIntosh be their Michael Voss towards the tail end of his career

Crom are a franchise, Pear are a real club 

There’s no way that there’ll be a third SA side in the AFL ahead of a third WA side

Bringing in a 19th team - Tasmania - offers zero value to the competition and as such there’ll need to be a 20th introduced when the next tv license deal is arranged 

1 hour ago, Travy14 said:

It would become the Norwood v Port game,  are the two most successful clubs in the SANFL and a long rivalry.

Port hate Norwood as they backed out of joining the VFL in the mid 80's which meant they missed out and the crows were formed in 89

Had of it gone the way the VFL wanted Port and Norwood would have entered the VFL, meaning the Crows would have never existed.  If only we had that world!

Spot on. Why have a manufacturered rivalry when you can have a fully fledged old school SANFL rivalry.

Edited March 29, 20232 yr by layzie

13 hours ago, rpfc said:

Have you had much to do with them? GWS have worked really hard to build themselves into networks through Western Syd and Canberra. Here in Canberra there is a bit of a soul to the club.

It is going to take a generation to embed this in these markets. I don’t know what people expected. 

I wonder whether GWS will eventually relocate to Canberra.

16 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

I wonder whether GWS will eventually relocate to Canberra.

I doubt it. Market not big enough. To me, Canberra provides a base of support that can sustain the lean years for GWS in WS.

Both GC and WS are growth markets where we just need to keep cricket grounds with 8 posts ready to go as an alternative sport. In my view, we grow or we wither. Progress is never linear. Et al.

Is it just me, or is anyone else in shock that Gold Coast has lasted longer than Brisbane Bears?

20 hours ago, Demon Disciple said:

Suns and Giants still get bugger all fans through the gates. They are soulless franchises. 

Yep ...sun's to Nt and the the giants to  Tassie. Simple.

It still beggars belief that Afl clubs like Fitzroy can just be cancelled. 

I can't imagine if our club was relocated and called another name. It would be hard to admit all the angst and barracking and support were for nought.

Edited March 30, 20232 yr by leave it to deever

1 hour ago, leave it to deever said:

It still beggars belief that Afl clubs like Fitzroy can just be cancelled. 

I can't imagine if our club was relocated and called another name. It would be hard to admit all the angst and barracking and support were for nought.

Happens quite often

Preston probably had as many supporters as North back in the 60's and 70's. The whole VFA competition which was at one time as big as the VFL is no more.

St Kilda went into liquidation. Fitzroy was effectively bankrupt. Collingwood under McAlister almost went to the wall.

The more relevant question is why do we hang onto ten clubs in Melbourne when clubs rise and fall in almost every other competition around the world.

As an aside I wonder if Footscray rebranding itself as the Western Bulldogs was successful. Seems to me that given the explosion of the population in the west of Melbourne that it hasn't really had any meaningful benefit in membership numbers

Edited March 30, 20232 yr by Diamond_Jim

10 hours ago, The Jackson FIX said:

Surely if they are called the Redlegs and have the same song they must’ve copied MFC?  I actually am unclear on the story with Port Adelaide on whether they copied Collingwood or if the name/colours are just a coincidence 

Not sure about copying.  But Port Adel Magpies were established before Collingwood.  So if anyone stole it, it was actually Collingwood 

Port Adelaide didn't wear the black and white stripes until 1902, five years after Collingwood did (from their inception).  In fact, Port wore seven different jumpers before settling on the prison bars design.

I highly recommend the website footyjumpers.com for a thorough, pictorial history of every club's guernsey.

I have historical family ties to Norwood so there is a lot of nostalgia and sentimentality for me re news of them joining the AFL. But it is simply not going to happen. The energy, money, business interest etc... for all things AFL is totally consumed by Crows and Port and there is not enough surplus for another footy team.

Tassie will get a license, and then the narrative will move on to the vagaries of the 19-team competition, and so a 20th license will occur. Canberra is the only option but it will take 20+ years to be anything like successful because it is a graveyard for sports licenses. Very few people are FROM Canberra (they move in and out mostly) so it will feel a lot like GWS - soul-less.

We will then follow the model of many USA sports, and have 2 "conferences". 

I love my footy, and I love my Dees, but boy that sounds a depressing scenario.

20 hours ago, Maldonboy38 said:

I have historical family ties to Norwood so there is a lot of nostalgia and sentimentality for me re news of them joining the AFL. But it is simply not going to happen. The energy, money, business interest etc... for all things AFL is totally consumed by Crows and Port and there is not enough surplus for another footy team.

Tassie will get a license, and then the narrative will move on to the vagaries of the 19-team competition, and so a 20th license will occur. Canberra is the only option but it will take 20+ years to be anything like successful because it is a graveyard for sports licenses. Very few people are FROM Canberra (they move in and out mostly) so it will feel a lot like GWS - soul-less.

We will then follow the model of many USA sports, and have 2 "conferences". 

I love my footy, and I love my Dees, but boy that sounds a depressing scenario.

For those who follow US sport and the conference system, do the same teams remain in the same conferences every year? I would find it somewhat depressing if we went to two conferences and played against the same 9 teams every year and only against teams in the "other" conference in finals.

11 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

For those who follow US sport and the conference system, do the same teams remain in the same conferences every year? I would find it somewhat depressing if we went to two conferences and played against the same 9 teams every year and only against teams in the "other" conference in finals.

You stay in the same conference but you play cross conference games as well as intra conference.

US NFL has 2 historical groups.. NFC and the AFC. These two groups which once were separate leagues then have divisions with each division having four teams. Below is wikipedia's description of the NFC draw. Much the same for AFC

Each NFC team plays the other teams in their respective division twice (home and away) during the regular season, in addition to eleven other games assigned to their schedule by the NFL: three games are assigned on the basis of a particular team's final divisional standing from the previous season, and the remaining eight games are split between the roster of two other NFL divisions. This assignment shifts each year and will follow a standard cycle. Using the 2021 regular season schedule as an example, each team in the NFC East plays against every team in the NFC South and AFC West. In this way, non-divisional competition will be mostly among common opponents – the exception being the three games assigned based on the team's prior-season divisional standing.

At the end of each season, the four division winners and three wild cards (non-division winners with best regular season record) in the NFC qualify for the playoffs. The NFC playoffs culminate in the NFC Championship Game with the winner receiving the George S. Halas Trophy. The NFC champion then plays the AFC champion in the Super Bowl.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_Conference

Norwood’s SANFL side is playing against Woodville-West Torrens in a Friday night game and getting flogged late in the third quarter by 10 goals. They’ve only scored a single goal!