3 hours ago, Fritta and Turner said:

I tend to agree with your comment on raiding but they do have the following who started elsewhere :

Amon, Chol, D'Ambrosio, Frost, Ginivan, Gunston, Impey, Meek, Scrimshaw, Windgard; 8 of these played last night

And Battle and Barrass and soon to be Merrett

They certainly have relied on raiding other clubs.

34 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

And Battle and Barrass and soon to be Merrett

They certainly have relied on raiding other clubs.

Woops, I was looking at last years record...

Equalisation it’s a joke! When top clubs are winning flags and playing in GFs can swoop on the best free agents or trade in The best players, get prime fixtures, more revenue and rest get scraps to play on Sundays against expansion teams for 1st of month of the season & no home games for a month!

Edited yesterday at 11:441 day by Demonsone

I’m happy Pies lost, but Lions are set to play their 3rd grand final in as many years. This after a three peat at the turn of the 21st century.

that is a probleM In my book. Especially when you have North struggling to finish higher than bottom 4. For the last decade.

Well the Lions have access to a genuine academy, so that's the big issue there. It's a massive advantage these days, I mean it's not like Australian Rules football is a new thing in QLD (Not even thinking about NSW....)

But regarding free agents, why not add something into the compo formula based on position on the ladder of both teams? Or the other option is a team that takes a free agent gives up draft points. It's clearly a rort at the moment for the big sides, but the biggest question of all is - does the AFL even care if the big sides rape and pillage the rest?????

5 hours ago, BigBadBustling said:

Well the Lions have access to a genuine academy, so that's the big issue there. It's a massive advantage these days, I mean it's not like Australian Rules football is a new thing in QLD (Not even thinking about NSW....)

But regarding free agents, why not add something into the compo formula based on position on the ladder of both teams? Or the other option is a team that takes a free agent gives up draft points. It's clearly a rort at the moment for the big sides, but the biggest question of all is - does the AFL even care if the big sides rape and pillage the rest?????

No. $$$$$$$$

20 hours ago, GS_1905 said:

There are a whole raft of measures that can be employed. The problem is that the AFL has constantly been virtue signalling regarding equalisation but in reality is lured away by the commercial aspect.

The AFL virtue signalling when anyone brings up equalisation…

The bottom half of the comp will continue to have to pay overs to keep players - "I want to play in a premiership" or "I want to strengthen my brand" - and by paying overs will operate with less room in the salary cap than teams in the top half who can pay unders but offer a better chance of a premiership (and other, ahem, opportunities.

Free agency was always going to be an issue.

Can't see how the AFL couldn't see this coming when every man and his dog could.

On 18/09/2025 at 07:42, Kent said:

I think we have seen the zenith of this product

Despite all the pumping and razzle dazzle the game is in trouble at grassroots and is not being addressed adequately (See Devils BS) and it will gradually wane as a spectacle and become second ratevc

This is slightly off topic, but I keep a close eye on the scores of around a dozen leagues and while this year had an amazing number of close prelim and gf results, the scores were often in the 40 to 60 pt range. I wonder if zone defence is killing local footy. Once upon a time high scoring full forwards ruled the roost, for instance Ron Best around Bendigo. But now local footy is a bit of a grind. I guess the people playing now don't mind so much as they've grown up with it, but I don't want to see an arm wrestle in mud and rain. I miss the days of the hundred goal kickers.

20 hours ago, Tarax Club said:

“It has completely backfired on the AFL and I think it was predictable.”

What upsets me is not that it was entirely predictable, it's that anyone who said so was fobbed off by the AFL and its echo chamber in the footy media.

Edited 20 hours ago20 hr by Tony Tea

Lions are likely to get another top 5 as an ACADEMY HANDOUT again this year. They win or a runners up and still get a FREE WIN from their academy. It’s not coincidence. Father son and Academy had been exceptional for them.

9 hours ago, Fritta and Turner said:

I tend to agree with your comment on raiding but they do have the following who started elsewhere :

Amon, Chol, D'Ambrosio, Frost, Ginivan, Gunston, Impey, Meek, Scrimshaw, Windgard; 8 of these played last night

I mean they're not really world beaters. All very good role players. Geelong has landed Dangerfield, Cameron and Smith, three of arguably the top 50 players of the past decade. Collingwood

3 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Lions are likely to get another top 5 as an ACADEMY HANDOUT again this year. They win or a runners up and still get a FREE WIN from their academy. It’s not coincidence. Father son and Academy had been exceptional for them.

Wait until things start clicking for GC.

1 hour ago, rjay said:

Free agency was always going to be an issue.

Can't see how the AFL couldn't see this coming when every man and his do

They probably did but theyre too soft to stand up to the aflpa.

Danga dog and co want more money, they dor care about equalisation and fairness. They only care about what they take.

Just look at the players ability to dictate to clubs where they go. It's a complete joke and the AFL has no spine let alone integrity to the competition as a whole

Edited 19 hours ago19 hr by Golden fist

1 hour ago, praha said:

Wait until things start clicking for GC.

Queensland is no longer the Australian Rules backwater it once was. Neither is the whole state in the shadow of the Victorian and New South Wales hegemony. Brisbane/Gold Coast is now right up there with Melbourne and Sydney as a mega metropolis. Southern migration of families must have boosted under age participation in Aussie rules significantly.

Yet the AFL’s colouring in book still myopically misidentifies Lions as Bears. On the Gold Coast the most recent begging bowl of draft concessions, surreptitiously joins the Sun’s other skeletons in the closet.

Can visualise CEO Dillon feeding the chickens. Maybe Chris Masters services could again be in demand in the Sunblest State.

Edited 17 hours ago17 hr by Tarax Club

2 hours ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Lions are likely to get another top 5 as an ACADEMY HANDOUT again this year. They win or a runners up and still get a FREE WIN from their academy. It’s not coincidence. Father son and Academy had been exceptional for them.

And with Greg Swanny at the helm, you can be sure that what ever he does, the Lions will not be disadvantaged significantly. But the whole NGA rule change that screwed the Dees with MacAndrew was because the Doggies got JUH and yet we sit here watching the Lions do a mini rebuild on the fly while playing prelims. I mean, come on they must be laughing in the boardroom with how the managed to get away with this.

With Pies and perhaps Geelong on a downer due to age in coming years Brisbane and GCS may establish a window of dominance

Entry of Tasmania also helps Brisbane and GCS in that they retain their academy bump while the high draft picks held by lower clubs are compromised by the Tasmanian concessionary picks

Edited 17 hours ago17 hr by Diamond_Jim

On 20/09/2025 at 12:39, praha said:

It was hard to be excited about last night. The media banged on about it being a huge game but for many of us we watched it with a lingering sense of bitterness. It reality that combination of teams is boring to everyone except Geelong and Hawthorn supporters. The outcome is hardly surprising. And we all know it'll be a Collingwood v Geelong Grand Final. They'll each be playing in Grand Final No. 7 since 2007. Of which only two will be against each other. Meaning 10 of the last 19 Grand Finals have included one of them.

Brisbane or Hawthorn winning wouldn't have been much different.

The sad thing is that Hawthorn is the only one that has done this without really raiding other team lists, and done it through strong drafting. I'd have been okay with them winning this year precisely because it would show how quickly things can turn if you trust your list and players.

I agree about the sentiment, but not about the idea that Hawthorn hasn't "raided other clubs".

For starters, their rise up the ladder last year wasn't a coincidence. At the end of 2023 they traded in Ginnivan, Chol, D'Ambrosio and Gunston (second time they've taken him off another club!), which they then backed up after one good year with Battle and Barrass. They've also traded/FA acquired Impey, Amon, Meek and Scrimshaw.

Brisbane have their fair share of players from other clubs too, but nailed the 2016 and 2017 drafts (McCluggage, Berry, Rayner, Bailey and Starcevich in those two years alone) and then when they were already a good side but weren't winning finals, pulled Wilmot at 16 and Lohmann at 20 in the 2021 draft, topped off with Morris at 31 in 2023 and Gallop at 42 in 2024.

As for the topic overall, I am generally in the "equalisation's not working" camp. Cutting off at 2001 is arbitrary but 25 years is a reasonable period to look at, and we know in the last 25 years Geelong, Collingwood, Hawthorn and Brisbane (plus Sydney) have been miles in front of everyone else.

It was fun having Brisbane in the GF in 2023, given they'd been terrible for most of the previous 20 years. But seeing a rotation of Grand Finals with Geelong, Collingwood, Brisbane and Sydney for four straight seasons is boring.

Perhaps we were blessed with the run we had from 2016-2021, where all bar two GFs had at least one "small" club, or a club facing some sort of drought (2016 - Dogs, 2017 - both clubs, 2019 - GWS, 2021 - us, if not both clubs).

For Brisbane to get the Ashcrofts and Fletcher without proper competition, and then be able to get Allen and Draper for no cost, does not help.

Some practical ways to address the issue:

1. Either get rid of Academies and Father/Son, or keep them but increase the price significantly - if the best player in the draft happens to be the son of a club's former player, that club should have to pay through the nose to disrupt the draft to get them. I'm talking 2-3 times as much as they pay now.

2. Amend the first round to give more picks to the bottom 4-6 and/or fewer picks to the top 4-6.

3. Apply some sort of tax to the top 2/4/6 clubs when acquiring Free Agents - the AFLPA will never allow a ban to Free Agents joining the top clubs (that's the whole point of Free Agency), but we can't keep having good players from bad clubs walking to preliminary finalists at no cost.

4. Conduct a proper investigation of what all 18 clubs are doing to remunerate players outside the salary cap. Whether it's sponsorship deals, third party payments, whatever it is, properly investigate it, and crack down on it.

5. Make Geelong pay a reverse COLA tax - everyone lauds their list management as genius, when in reality they just benefit from being based in a regional town playing against 17 clubs based in big cities.

On 20/09/2025 at 15:09, Brownie said:

I love the game, but not this competition anymore. It's a lopsided circus.

Agree 100%

Those in charge of the game remain, as have their predecessors , to have an ongoing commitment to ensuring continuing success for the marquee clubs. Any of the “also rans” have to get their on their own merits.

2 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

With Pies and perhaps Geelong on a downer due to age in coming years …..

Geelong for several years were “too old”.

Unfortunately they have proven to be too old, too slow, too good.

2 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

As for the topic overall, I am generally in the "equalisation's not working" camp. Cutting off at 2001 is arbitrary but 25 years is a reasonable period to look at, and we know in the last 25 years Geelong, Collingwood, Hawthorn and Brisbane (plus Sydney) have been miles in front of everyone else.

It was fun having Brisbane in the GF in 2023, given they'd been terrible for most of the previous 20 years. But seeing a rotation of Grand Finals with Geelong, Collingwood, Brisbane and Sydney for four straight seasons is boring.

Perhaps we were blessed with the run we had from 2016-2021, where all bar two GFs had at least one "small" club, or a club facing some sort of drought (2016 - Dogs, 2017 - both clubs, 2019 - GWS, 2021 - us, if not both clubs).

For Brisbane to get the Ashcrofts and Fletcher without proper competition, and then be able to get Allen and Draper for no cost, does not help.

Some practical ways to address the issue:

1. Either get rid of Academies and Father/Son, or keep them but increase the price significantly - if the best player in the draft happens to be the son of a club's former player, that club should have to pay through the nose to disrupt the draft to get them. I'm talking 2-3 times as much as they pay now.

2. Amend the first round to give more picks to the bottom 4-6 and/or fewer picks to the top 4-6.

3. Apply some sort of tax to the top 2/4/6 clubs when acquiring Free Agents - the AFLPA will never allow a ban to Free Agents joining the top clubs (that's the whole point of Free Agency), but we can't keep having good players from bad clubs walking to preliminary finalists at no cost.

4. Conduct a proper investigation of what all 18 clubs are doing to remunerate players outside the salary cap. Whether it's sponsorship deals, third party payments, whatever it is, properly investigate it, and crack down on it.

5. Make Geelong pay a reverse COLA tax - everyone lauds their list management as genius, when in reality they just benefit from being based in a regional town playing against 17 clubs based in big cities.

Free agency should be structured so that the team that gets the startplayer has to give up their allocated draft pick - Allen going to Brisbane should not mean that WCE gets another first round draft pick and then everyone else shuffles back. Brisbane should give them their 1st round draft pick in return and then some based on the 'recipe' that the AFL uses. Perhaps even give back 10% of the first years wage from the free agent to the club that loses the player ( Geelong of course might have give some of the land back too)

F/S and academy should be not be paid for by bundled junk picks at the end of the draft. If they are a good enough player then pay the right amount. If you can's pay up then you don't get the player

7 hours ago, Tony Tea said:

The bottom half of the comp will continue to have to pay overs to keep players - "I want to play in a premiership" or "I want to strengthen my brand" - and by paying overs will operate with less room in the salary cap than teams in the top half who can pay unders but offer a better chance of a premiership (and other, ahem, opportunities.

Max contracts need to be established pronto.

The minimum salary cap also needs removing. Or at least lowering significantly