AFL's rubbery white shorts policy

[No BS!!]

WCE have only worn in once against the Bulldogs, which was a mistake. Someone packed the wrong jumpers They got fined for it.

The royal blue IS the eagles main jumper in most supporters opinion. It's what we have worn in 5 Grand Finals. The club has it wrong with the home jumper. The sooner they get rid of the 'white' the better. It just makes more clashes with striped teams like St Kilda and Collingwood.

And the white clash jumper is also a mistake. They should either wear:
Main - Royal Blue/ Yellow Wings
Clash - Yellow / Blue Wings (away v Bulldogs & Bris, plus our yearly yellow fundraising @ home game)

or
Home - Navy Blue / Yellow Wings
Away - Royal Blue/ Yellow Wings (& Home v Carlton)
Clash - Yellow / Blue Wings (Away v Bulldogs, bris & plus home fundraising game)

TBH, they can play nude with a leaf covering their crotch.

it's not just about WCE. i used WCE as an example that the AFL allow teams to change strips every weekend, which increases the potential for clashes, and reduces the amount of control the AFL have over the issue.

the AFL have to implement policy which is clear, consistent, and allows them to maintain control of the presentation of the game, and not be dictated too by clubs. some who want utilise a wardrobe of strips, and others who are protective.

the presentation of the game is the responsibility of the AFL, not the clubs.

 

[Father Jack]

Why they threw out the white strip I simply don't know.

I seem to recall it was because they are 'the Blues'.

 

[No BS!!]

I seem to recall it was because they are 'the Blues'.

i loathe getting into what a club specifically should be wearing as an alternate, but a softer sky blue is a good colour for CAR - not as fluoro as the current one, but not as powder blue like the NM effort.

the alternate blue they came up with looks like it got thrown in the wash with a Blue Staedtler highlight marker. too bright.

 

[Father Jack]

i loathe getting into what a club specifically should be wearing as an alternate, but a softer sky blue is a good colour for CAR - not as fluoro as the current one, but not as powder blue like the NM effort.

the alternate blue they came up with looks like it got thrown in the wash with a Blue Staedtler highlight marker. too bright.

I thought the white one was a terrific strip, and a strong complement to their branding. The current one is neither. This is the same trap Essendon fell into, thinking that altering their home jumper to maintain some arbitrary traditional 'rule' somehow strengthens it when it does the opposite.

 

[Kimbo]

Are you being ****ing serious?

Yep, absolutely. Home team gets to wear home strip, away team has to have genuine clash strip. Simple.

Personally, I think the Eagles should have had a reverse yellow/blue one as mentioned by others. I detest the homogenisation of the game with the white/dark (wtf) which is creating a tendency for my team to wear bland, nothing white shorts instead of our actual strip, or at least with less royal blue. Hate it.

The idiots at the AFL seem to think white/dark is the only contrast possible. Idiots.

 

[larrikin]

Yep, absolutely. Home team gets to wear home strip, away team has to have genuine clash strip. Simple.

Personally, I think the Eagles should have had a reverse yellow/blue one as mentioned by others. I detest the homogenisation of the game with the white/dark (wtf) which is creating a tendency for my team to wear bland, nothing white shorts instead of our actual strip, or at least with less royal blue. Hate it.

The idiots at the AFL seem to think white/dark is the only contrast possible. Idiots.

Our yellow would be the perfect contrast to pretty much every jumper in the comp.....

 

[Kimbo]

Our yellow would be the perfect contrast to pretty much every jumper in the comp.....

But, but... it's not white.

 

[No BS!!]

I thought the white one was a terrific strip, and a strong complement to their branding. The current one is neither. This is the same trap Essendon fell into, thinking that altering their home jumper to maintain some arbitrary traditional 'rule' somehow strengthens it when it does the opposite.

i dont disagree on that point. IMO, the ESS effort continues to bastardise their main strip, like the 'fat sash' did.

i can understand the premise behind CAR thinking. White alternates are becoming generic and considered an opportunity to be unique. the outcome was just horrendous though.

 

[El_Scorcho]

It's so simple.

The home club wears absolutely whatever they like.

They inform the AFL.

The AFL direct the away team to wear a strip that avoids a clash. The AFL approves every combination of guernsey and shorts that avoids a clash. The away team chooses their favourite from the approved strips.

For a lot of teams, there might only be one approved strip. But, for example, for West Coast playing Sydney away, every combination of guernseys and shorts would be approved.


I do however believe that it would be much easier to avoid clashes if clubs that do not have white as a club colour had a set of light coloured shorts that weren't white. Eg Richmond-yellow, Essendon-red, Adelaide-yellow.

For example, Richmond playing Collingwood away: Richmond wearing white shorts creates a clash, Richmond wearing yellow shorts avoids a clash.

 

[melbournemartin]

North vs Weagles looked fantastic. West Coast have a lovely away jumper (their home jumper is urggh though) and it looked lovely against the white of North.

Melbourne vs Richmond would have benefited from yellow shorts on Richmond but it wasn't a big deal.

 

[melbournemartin]

I feel this debate would be a lot easier too if all of the clash jumpers were decent.

Take note:

Hawthorn
West Coast
Adelaide

 

[larrikin]

I feel this debate would be a lot easier too if all of the clash jumpers were decent.

Take note:

Hawthorn
West Coast
Adelaide

Melbourne

 

[El_Scorcho]

Off topic I know but why West Coast relegate the beautiful and unique wings design to away strip status to wear their relatively boring home guernsey is staggering.

Bring back the wings, home and away.

 

[oak79]

Melbourne

Disagree. Melbourne have a good clash jumper because it keeps the design of the main jumper. Same with Freo, Port and Carlton (white was better). All good

Jumpers which are some dodgy unrelated design like West Coast (white), Hawthorn & Lions last year are the bad ones. They should stay true to the icon jumper design of each team, just with a light (white, yellow, grey etc) version.

 

[melbournemartin]

Melbourne

That may be your opinion but I reckon you'll find a fair bit of praise for Melbourne's clash jumper, as far as clash jumpers go. What would you prefer? Did you like our cartoon demon?

We were told it had to be white, so we took our classic guernsey design and made the best possible strip (imo). The same goes for Fremantle, Port, Collingwood and a couple of others who keep the basic pattern but just tinker with the colours.

Cartoon designs like on the jumpers I mentioned =

 

[melbournemartin]

Disagree. Melbourne have a good clash jumper because it keeps the design of the main jumper. Same with Freo, Port and Carlton (white was better). All good

Jumpers which are some dodgy unrelated design like West Coast (white), Hawthorn & Lions last year are the bad ones. They should stay true to the icon jumper design of each team, just with a light (white, yellow, grey etc) version.

I have an idea for what I reckon would be a good Hawthorn one. My computer graphics skills suck though, but it'd keep the same basic stripes but with white added, and white shorts of course. Nice and simple and effective in avoiding clashes. You might call it poo and wee with added toilet paper

 

[Admiral Byng]

It's so simple.

The home club wears absolutely whatever they like.

They inform the AFL.

The AFL direct the away team to wear a strip that avoids a clash. The AFL approves every combination of guernsey and shorts that avoids a clash. The away team chooses their favourite from the approved strips.

For a lot of teams, there might only be one approved strip. But, for example, for West Coast playing Sydney away, every combination of guernseys and shorts would be approved.

Yeah this.

To make it better, this should all be done before the season starts. Say by the middle of January each club informs the AFL of what uniform (shorts, jumper and socks) they'll be wearing for each of their homes games, including any promotional or special occasion type of thing. The AFL approves and sends this information on to each of the away clubs and tells them to come up with something that doesn't clash, and more than just wearing white shorts, the jumpers themselves must not clash. Let's give them a month to sort that out and for the AFL to approve. So by the middle of February every jumper for every round should have been decided.

Simple.

 

[jethro11]

TP's post should be framed and sent to AFL House. Perfect logical solution.

 

[No BS!!]

It's so simple.

The home club wears absolutely whatever they like.

They inform the AFL.

The AFL direct the away team to wear a strip that avoids a clash. The AFL approves every combination of guernsey and shorts that avoids a clash. The away team chooses their favourite from the approved strips.

For a lot of teams, there might only be one approved strip. But, for example, for West Coast playing Sydney away, every combination of guernseys and shorts would be approved.

so:

1 - AFL operations need to consider and adjudicate on club match-day combinations that may never be used.; &
2 - AFL operations need to set aside time each week to consider the next week's strip clashes.

that's a not a very efficient way to operate. in the age of eliminating waste and streamlining processes, your suggestion adds to it.

 

[Kimbo]

North vs Weagles looked fantastic. West Coast have a lovely away jumper (their home jumper is urggh though) and it looked lovely against the white of North.

Yeah, see this is the problem. It works from a clash point of view, but not a home team getting to play in their preferred/home strip point of view.

It's so simple.

The home club wears absolutely whatever they like. They inform the AFL.

The AFL direct the away team to wear a strip that avoids a clash. The AFL approves every combination of guernsey and shorts that avoids a clash. The away team chooses their favourite from the approved strips.

For a lot of teams, there might only be one approved strip. But, for example, for West Coast playing Sydney away, every combination of guernseys and shorts would be approved.

I do however believe that it would be much easier to avoid clashes if clubs that do not have white as a club colour had a set of light coloured shorts that weren't white. Eg Richmond-yellow, Essendon-red, Adelaide-yellow.

For example, Richmond playing Collingwood away: Richmond wearing white shorts creates a clash, Richmond wearing yellow shorts avoids a clash.

Yep. You'll never get a job at the AFL though with this kind of simplistic thinking.

 

[Kimbo]

so:

1 - AFL operations need to consider club combinations that may never be used.; &
2 - AFL operations need to set aside time each week to consider the next week's strip clashes.

that's a not a very efficient way to operate. in the age of eliminating waste and streamlining processes, your suggestion adds to it.

It could actually be worked out at the start of the season to ensure that the minimal no. of clash strips/combos were needed/used. In fact, this could be worked out 'once' and never changed until a team changed it's preferred home strip.

 

[larrikin]

so:

1 - AFL operations need to consider and adjudicate on club match-day combinations that may never be used.; &
2 - AFL operations need to set aside time each week to consider the next week's strip clashes.

that's a not a very efficient way to operate. in the age of eliminating waste and streamlining processes, your suggestion adds to it.

By "whatever they want" that means 1 jumper/shorts combo for the year.

 

[No BS!!]

It could actually be worked out at the start of the season to ensure that the minimal no. of clash strips/combos were needed/used. In fact, this could be worked out 'once' and never changed until a team changed it's preferred home strip.

TP's suggestion allowed home clubs to choose what strip they wanted each week and the AFL to work out every conceivable combination that would be suitable.

yours is interesting though. and sounds familiar.

primarily, it allows the AFL have to have control of the presentation of their product. at the moment, it is a week to week fiasco dependent on what a club intends to wear that game, and then the AFL makes a call.

it gives the clubs the opportunity to register a first-choice strip that they will be identified with each season.

registering the first-choice strips in advance allows the AFL to determine which first-choice strips are similar and provides opportunity for affected clubs to register modifications, second and third choice (if they choose) strips based on other clubs first-choice strips that the AFL deem they clash with.

there have been numerous examples over the years of clubs releasing strips mid-year and to be used in its next match due to reactive responses of the AFL.

not even in OS leagues administrations - which significantly utilise alternate strips - do they allow such a free for all that the AFL do.

 

[DardySingh360]

What happens when Sydney play GC at home? All 3 of the suns guernseys clash with Sydney's

 

[Admiral Byng]

The other option is for the AFL to declare a default clash uniform that applies to all clubs. Make it something hideous like light green with pink polka-dots. If the away team can't come up with a sensible non-clashing jumper then they wear light green and pink. No excuses, no exceptions.