Which clubs are really the big four of the AFL?

Which clubs are really the big four of the AFL?

  • Essendon, Collingwood, Carlton & Richmond.

    Votes: 261 72.5%
  • Sydney, Essendon, Crows & Collingwood.

    Votes: 20 5.6%
  • Sydney, Essendon, Crows & West Coast.

    Votes: 79 21.9%

  • Total voters
    360
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TigerKnights

Team Captain
Jul 20, 2007
310
285
The Heartland
AFL Club
Richmond
Is that the best you have to try to rile me? You may want to try harder than that.

What are the pillars in IYHO that make a club "big"? Yes attendance is one. But anomalies like the fixture year on year can dent that argument. For mine the mags are in the convo but their position like the other 5 clubs is up for debate. Can we agree that it is between 6? WCE, ADL and the 'big 4'.
 
What are the pillars in IYHO that make a club "big"? Yes attendance is one. But anomalies like the fixture year on year can dent that argument. For mine the mags are in the convo but their position like the other 5 clubs is up for debate. Can we agree that it is between 6? WCE, ADL and the 'big 4'.

Finally a Tigers supporter here with reason and not intent on sledging. Don’t fully agree on this but getting more ballpark. Thank you Thank you Thank you
 
Feb 23, 2009
32,140
45,738
Melbourne
AFL Club
Richmond
Other Teams
New York Jets
Aside from the historical nickname which will always remain tagged to Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon Richmond, if I had to weigh up the biggest 4 clubs right now combining relative success, crowds, membership, brand, media power, supporter base, I'd probably have in no order

Eagles
Magpies
Tigers
Hawks

In time you could add Essendon and Carlton if they sorted s**t out, and the Crows but they are an absolute rabble and they lack historical success and longevity goes against them unlike the Eagles who have been much stronger on field.
 

TigerKnights

Team Captain
Jul 20, 2007
310
285
The Heartland
AFL Club
Richmond
In time you could add Essendon and Carlton if they sorted s**t out, and the Crows but they are an absolute rabble and they lack historical success and longevity goes against them unlike the Eagles who have been much stronger on field.

See I reckon the recent lack of success for ESS & CAR and in ADLs case history has to be considered in a different light to that. (those young enough will remember SOO) and many croweaters will spruik the glory days of the SANFL. (while we Vics merrily deride it) ADLs formation was out of a hatred of Port trying to escape the fish pond that had become the SANFL and who wanted to flex their historical muscle across the border, the rest of SA really and truly hated that Port thought they were better than the rest of them. I sometimes think we Vics underestimate the passion those west of us have. The Crows are big. IMHO the SA clubs and WCE, but for their stadium restrictions could fill 70-90K like the 'big 4' in Vic couple of times a year at least. Liverpool are no less a big club in their current nadir. Many folk will tell you Newcastle United are big club (just cannot get right) they said that about Spurs and Man City at various times while they were no good. Leicester with their success and money are not. And everyone knows it.
 

sounda

Cancelled
Apr 29, 2016
377
561
AFL Club
West Coast
See I reckon the recent lack of success for ESS & CAR and in ADLs case history has to be considered in a different light to that. (those young enough will remember SOO) and many croweaters will spruik the glory days of the SANFL. (while we Vics merrily deride it) ADLs formation was out of a hatred of Port trying to escape the fish pond that had become the SANFL and who wanted to flex their historical muscle across the border, the rest of SA really and truly hated that Port thought they were better than the rest of them. I sometimes think we Vics underestimate the passion those west of us have. The Crows are big. IMHO the SA clubs and WCE, but for their stadium restrictions could fill 70-90K like the 'big 4' in Vic couple of times a year at least. Liverpool are no less a big club in their current nadir. Many folk will tell you Newcastle United are big club (just cannot get right) they said that about Spurs and Man City at various times while they were no good. Leicester with their success and money are not. And everyone knows it.


With a big gap between WCE and number 5 Hawthorn:)

And the most successful club is…
In each of the ten tables above, clubs have been assigned a ranking position from one to 21. Hence, I have assigned 21 points for a first position, 20 points for a second position, 19 points for a third position and so on.

The grand table below shows the clubs ranked by their total points:

Overall rankings

RankClubAv. RankTotal Points
1Carlton4.40176
2Collingwood4.50175
3Essendon4.60174
4West Coast4.70173
5Hawthorn7.30147
6Geelong7.60144
7Richmond7.70143
8Adelaide7.90141
9Sydney9.20128
10Port Adel.9.20128
11Melbourne9.70123
12Fitzroy10.90111
13Brisbane11.0099
14South Melb.13.0090
15North Melb.13.8082
16F’scray/WB14.4076
17Fremantle15.1069
18St Kilda17.4046
19GWS Giants17.1144
20Gold Coast20.0020
21University20.4016
 

jsdsgn

Club Legend
Oct 29, 2018
1,132
1,632
AFL Club
Collingwood
Other Teams
Lakers
its obvious. why is adelaide there?

Collingwood, Richmond, Essendon, Sydney and Carlton are the top 5. Carlton or Essendon probably the 5th but Collingwood Richmond and Sydney easily the top 3 we dunno the order though
 
Oct 3, 2007
16,084
17,344
Perth
AFL Club
West Coast
Other Teams
West Perth
its obvious. why is adelaide there?

Collingwood, Richmond, Essendon, Sydney and Carlton are the top 5. Carlton or Essendon probably the 5th but Collingwood Richmond and Sydney easily the top 3 we dunno the order though

Haha no West Coast in your top 5. Arguably number 1 and maybe by some distance.
 

jsdsgn

Club Legend
Oct 29, 2018
1,132
1,632
AFL Club
Collingwood
Other Teams
Lakers
richmond fans seem to think that drawing 95k vs gws in a prelim a few years ago instantly means theyre bigger
richmond hadnt tasted success in 40yrs and their fans were obviously more inclined to attend games to witness a piece of history unlike collingwood fans who have seen countless prelims this 21st century.
a collingwood vs richmond GF i would say the fan bases attending would be even. im not going to sit here and say collingwood is miles ahead of richmond cause its not true and the same vice versa. theyre pretty close. we'll never know exactly. just give it up people
 

TigerKnights

Team Captain
Jul 20, 2007
310
285
The Heartland
AFL Club
Richmond

With a big gap between WCE and number 5 Hawthorn:)

And the most successful club is…
In each of the ten tables above, clubs have been assigned a ranking position from one to 21. Hence, I have assigned 21 points for a first position, 20 points for a second position, 19 points for a third position and so on.

The grand table below shows the clubs ranked by their total points:

Overall rankings

RankClubAv. RankTotal Points
1Carlton4.40176
2Collingwood4.50175
3Essendon4.60174
4West Coast4.70173
5Hawthorn7.30147
6Geelong7.60144
7Richmond7.70143
8Adelaide7.90141
9Sydney9.20128
10Port Adel.9.20128
11Melbourne9.70123
12Fitzroy10.90111
13Brisbane11.0099
14South Melb.13.0090
15North Melb.13.8082
16F’scray/WB14.4076
17Fremantle15.1069
18St Kilda17.4046
19GWS Giants17.1144
20Gold Coast20.0020
21University20.4016

The Syd/South, Bris/Fitz stats seem to have a bit of cherry picking about them..... And apart from the fact, that in particular WCE and ADL entered the league as virtual SOO teams, (no other clubs have entered the league with weapons that they had their disposal) it does have some legs, but again that is simply on field. And most folk I think would not agree that is the defining factor. (as much as attendance is not either) The Dons 16 flags and but only 14 GF wins deserves it own thread!
 

TigerKnights

Team Captain
Jul 20, 2007
310
285
The Heartland
AFL Club
Richmond
richmond fans seem to think that drawing 95k vs gws in a prelim a few years ago instantly means theyre bigger
richmond hadnt tasted success in 40yrs and their fans were obviously more inclined to attend games to witness a piece of history unlike collingwood fans who have seen countless prelims this 21st century.
a collingwood vs richmond GF i would say the fan bases attending would be even. im not going to sit here and say collingwood is miles ahead of richmond cause its not true and the same vice versa. theyre pretty close. we'll never know exactly. just give it up people

i don't think that is consensus on here even amongst the most one eyed. I think pies fans have been sold "biggest club' line for a while. And simply it is debatable. And possibly not true. WCE and ADL have real claims when up and about, and we all know why. RFC have shown their hand. And it is compelling. I think the pies may have better one. But then again where they are now they might be fully formed. You cannot ignore the the attendance and membership growth of both and for that matter the dons and blues fans biting the bullet and getting along when they are down will make for a more excitable discussion when winning no doubt (tiges were a sleeping giant for how long?). I suspect they both have 100K member base in them. Do the Pies?
 

sounda

Cancelled
Apr 29, 2016
377
561
AFL Club
West Coast
So ... we could try some off field stuff. And this was written before the 2018 GF win.


This one was written after the 2018 GF win. Makes interesting reading and questions much of the Vic myth and spin re the WCE. Cold showers and paying for the flights of Vic clubs to WA - and some say we had SOO when we started. Seriously, the Vic clubs and VFL (corruption house) did everything they could to screw us over once they had taken our cash.

 

Numero Uno

Club Legend
Mar 28, 2019
2,645
3,939
AFL Club
West Coast
who are the bottom 4 clubs is more interesting

Ill go in no particular order

Gold Coast
GWS
Freo
Saints
 

Muh Village

Debutant
Aug 18, 2019
54
34
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
No the pies haven't the tigers were the biggest club in the mid 70's to early 80's. Bombers in the late 90's to early 2000's then pies for a decade or more now the tiges back on top.
First off tigers have been terrible for like 35 years. Are we not allowed to be good to increase crowds, finances etc
Pies have played in that same time about 8 GF's and countless finals series. That keeps pies attendances high and ability to market your club.

I don't agree pies won the flag in 2010, runners up 2011, made another GF last year and you still on 85k, Pies have close to maxed out their membership numbers. 2014-2018 (4 of those years pies didn't make finals and wow membership dropped by 5K, one can only imagine if pies didn't do anything for 3 decades, no one is immune to this meaning failure to that level, not even Richmond.

TV ratings yes tiges/pies/bombers/blues/eagles etc depending on games and ladder position can fluctuate.

Now on Revenue? 2018 eagles 86 mill, pies 82 mill and tigers 80mill. Both eagles and tigers pull in big profits, tiges 4.2 mill and pies 112K
Curious to see revenue numbers for 2019 which come out soon.
I'm sceptical about that 80 mil figure, I've read the reports before, Richmond were not around that mark. Though I may be wrong. BTW, I'm Port Adelaide, not Collingwood.
 

Muh Village

Debutant
Aug 18, 2019
54
34
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
Aside from the historical nickname which will always remain tagged to Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon Richmond, if I had to weigh up the biggest 4 clubs right now combining relative success, crowds, membership, brand, media power, supporter base, I'd probably have in no order

Eagles
Magpies
Tigers
Hawks

In time you could add Essendon and Carlton if they sorted s**t out, and the Crows but they are an absolute rabble and they lack historical success and longevity goes against them unlike the Eagles who have been much stronger on field.
I like this, very reasonable.
 
Feb 23, 2009
32,140
45,738
Melbourne
AFL Club
Richmond
Other Teams
New York Jets
Nope incorrect again
It doesn't really matter, but unless someone played in 2010 and 1990, 1953 and 1958 would be the last time a Collingwood player had played in 2 flags for the club.

No one cares, but you might want to get your facts right before calling others wrong.
 
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