Why would THE founding Club be killed? Simple: pure and unadulterated corporate greed.
Our brand is meaningless? Well, as other posters have already stated, what exactly are the other clubs ‘brand(s)’ apart from revenue for the AFL? What is Collingw&%$’s brand? What is Richmond’s brand? What is the Dogs or the Roos brand? Cartel was and, without Pratt probably still would be, a basket case. Did the AFL ever summon them to their slaughterhouse because of the meaninglessness of their brand? The conjured ‘clubs’ like Adelfade and the Wiggles stand for nothing vis-à-vis the history of THIS competition.
Vlad is on a mission to increase the size of his and his successor’s pay packets. Antecedent cows to the killing floor have dodged the bolt of death. Whilst the sacred cow known as Cartel was spared, Vlad’s greed has decreed that nothing other than a cash cow is sacred. Hence our moment of truth on the killing floor of the AFL’s slaughterhouse.
By killing the founding Club, Vlad runs the risk of losing tens of thousands of followers of the game (of which I shall be one). However, by spreading it’s carcass over the Gold Coast or Western Sydney, he is potentially gaining hundreds of thousands of more followers of the game. Hundreds of thousands more followers equals hundreds of millions of dollars more revenue for the AFL and that equals tens of thousands of dollars more for the pay packet of Vlad, his cohorts and their successors.
If the AFL actually gave a flying about the history and traditions of our game, the last Club that would be sent to the slaughterhouse would be OUR GREAT CLUB. THE ORIGINAL CLUB AND THE GREATEST CLUB.
So the next time you hear some male chicken sucker in the media pleasure themselves over the ‘meaninglessness’ of our brand, you can always find solace in the fact we’ve been summoned to the AFL’s slaughterhouse for the benefit of Vlad’s hip pocket.