An outsiders view of the AFL and how to fix it

[Breretonisahood]

34 game season (17x2) or 22 game season with 2 divisions of 12 teams. Gets rid of the FIXture and ensures a fair, balanced DRAW

Agree that the fixed draw is the main problem. Draw should not be used for equalisation purposes. Not sure what the solution is though. I reckon each team plays the 17 others once and then the match ups for the remaining games should just be randomly generated. Could randomly generate anomalies such as a bottom team copping extra games against all top teams, but at least it’s not rigged.

 

[bzparkes]

There's no evidence of Vic teams in particular benefiting from raiding interstate clubs.

 

[JohnZ]

Could randomly generate anomalies such as a bottom team copping extra games against all top teams, but at least it’s not rigged.

Current double ups are "randomly generated" a 17/34 game season ensures the AFL are accountable and cant influence the draw

 

[werdna78]

Current double ups are "randomly generated" a 17/34 game season ensures the AFL are accountable and cant influence the draw

Pretty sure there is a method and not random. AFL house want the bigger fixtures to get double ups, they don't leave it too chance.

Edit:
Top six: Play 0-1 team twice
Middle six: Play 1-2 teams twice
Bottom six: Play 2-3 teams twice

 

[Dr Awkward]

I wouldn't say I'm bitter....my points are much more to do with the overall running of the AFL than where I'm from. I haven't grown up here so don't have that burning passion of state vs state, rather I'm commenting on the competition itself. Overall you'd say the AFL is a competition that is fair and equal for every team? Take all things away and please tell me you don't think it's ok for people who are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to complain of 'homesickness' and ask for a trade to somewhere they can fly to in 45mins or drive to in 8hrs? I suggested some ideas to reduce this as I think it's an all too easy excuse. I get that more players come from Victoria and as such there's more of them asking to go home but think the whole idea of 'nominating' where you want to go silly!! Jack Gunston arrived in Adelaide and asked when the next flight home was....why play a sport that involves you getting drafted anywhere if you can't bear to be away from your home.....should just play VFL??

I know what you're saying and the "homesickness" thing is a bit of a joke excuse sometimes.

But players are not getting paid that much in the AFL, compared to european soccer leagues, NBA etc. If you're getting paid millions it wouldn't matter much where you live, but when you're only getting a few hundred grand you've got more lifestyle considerations to make imo.

 

[Dr Awkward]

I'm an outsider who loves the game as well. I've never even visited Australia, and apart from when the AFL used to send 2 teams to London at the end of the season, I've only ever watched on tv.

From my point of view, you've got a wonderful sport, which combines all the best attributes and action from the other football codes.

Every sport perceives that it's got huge problems, and moan about how the sport is dying. From NFL players getting concussion and not standing for the anthem, cricket needing to attract a younger audience, athletics being full of doping cheats, to financial corruption in soccer. In reality, they all seem to survive just fine.

Enjoy the sport you've got on your doorstep, and stop worrying about how national it is. It'll be just fine.

Don't worry, most people are aware that this is an amazing sport and a national treasure.

There is more negativity on this board than in real life about the AFL.

 

[Howard Littlejohn]

Don't raise the salary cap, lower the floor. It's ridiculous the developing or rebuilding teams are required to be paying so similarly to teams competing for a flag. Will allow them to be more astute with their list and then use the difference to potentially entice players as trade ins or free agents.

I'd scrap the draft to go with it, so they can use that space to entice the best young player. But that isn't entirely necessary, as draftees usually won't give the quick improvement.
And make the cap the actual cap. No "banking", no leeway for unexpected bonuses, if you don't factor everything into the cap you pay the price (not necessarily to the Carlton extent unless there is some serious cheating going on; there is a difference between oversight and deliberate acts).

Unfortunately the AFL missed the boat last media deal. They had the chance then to greatly increase the cap while decreasing the percentage floor. Players would still have got more overall, but clubs near the bottom could have cap space to access needed players. The AFLPA will not allow a floor drop in percentage of cap terms without a more than corresponding cap increase (so the actual floor at least stays as is in dollar terms).

 

[Hoops]

The main fix is not having such a high salary cap floor. Its like 95% or something stupid like that?

it means teams like gold coast shouldn't be playing the same wages as say tigers in 2019, and therefore they can roll forward their savings (by smart front loaded contracts) into 2020 and beyond to make a huge warchest bid for big name players

It should be a maximum of 1000% of the annual salary cap over any given 10 year time frame. For example if you pay 90% over 9 years you could go 190% for the tenth year. And if you do it would mean you have maxed out and would be limited to 100% for the year after that.

 

[Aussie in exile]

I'm an outsider who loves the game as well. I've never even visited Australia, and apart from when the AFL used to send 2 teams to London at the end of the season, I've only ever watched on tv.

From my point of view, you've got a wonderful sport, which combines all the best attributes and action from the other football codes.

Every sport perceives that it's got huge problems, and moan about how the sport is dying. From NFL players getting concussion and not standing for the anthem, cricket needing to attract a younger audience, athletics being full of doping cheats, to financial corruption in soccer. In reality, they all seem to survive just fine.

Enjoy the sport you've got on your doorstep, and stop worrying about how national it is. It'll be just fine.

Good post.
Some AFL fans have to accept the fact that the game will never make any progress outside of Australia on a professional level.
I live in Thailand and the game here has next to zero appeal in the bars to warrant the bar owners even showing the game on TV if there is soccer or either of the 2 Rugby codes on at the same time.
The fans have accept that its a domestic comp and enjoy it as that.
The AFL wont even put a team in Tassie let alone put one in NZ or anywhere else

 

[Aussie in exile]

I know what you're saying and the "homesickness" thing is a bit of a joke excuse sometimes.

But players are not getting paid that much in the AFL, compared to european soccer leagues, NBA etc. If you're getting paid millions it wouldn't matter much where you live, but when you're only getting a few hundred grand you've got more lifestyle considerations to make imo.

AFL players will never get as much money compared to European soccer leagues and NBA etc because it has no appeal outside of Australia. AFL fans just have accept is a domestic comp.

 

[Roaming Lou]

The salary cap is too low. If you increase the salary cap enough, Interstate teams can easily offer lucrative contracts to Victorian players. I guarantee the number of 'homesick' players drops dramatically once a half decent player can command $1 million a year! If this means clubs like Port Adelaide can't survive due to costs then so be it....18 teams is a lot for a country this size!

WTF!
You increase the salary cap then you create an absolute monopoly on the field.
The only clubs that will be winning premierships will be Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon, Richmond, Sydney and Westcoast because they are the only clubs that can afford to, leaving all other clubs in the dark. This will also create a culture of self-entitled brats who don't know their place on the Footy field. AFL is not soccer, it does not have super massive teams, it cannot afford or sustain crappy players receiving million+ dollars.
You use port as an example, do you know the history behind port, seeing it fold would be so sad, and its not just port, think about Melbourne, one of the oldest clubs in the WORLD. Do you want to see it die too?.

 

[dropbear101]

When the AFL introduces new teams, it seems to stay clear of already established clubs. I.E.: West Coast, Adelaide, Fremantle, Brisbane, GWS and Gold Coast. The only "expansion club" with prior history is Port Adelaide.

I agree South Port should be been aligned, but the AFL likes to have control of these teams without been tied to established clubs.

What, Fremantle came from south and east fremantle

But south and east freo hate each other so when it came time to work together they flipped the table and didn't (then gerard neesham came in recruited half of claremont which resulted in south and east fremantle to accuse us of abandoning them) So fremantle came from the fremantle clubs who are mistrustful of us and we're secretly run by claremont.

Crazy hey but thats fremantle. Pity as the fremantle clubs have won 42 premierships between them

All that is partially the reason why freo only made 2 finals series in its first 15 years.

 

[roacheee]

a fair fixure is one way to fix it but that wont happen because you cant have a 34 round season so everyone plays eachother twice.

Why not

 

[RUNVS]

Why not

A-League has shown why you don't want to have a season that is too long as people get bored, and individual matches lose meaning if you have 30+ rounds.

 

[Kwality]

Why not

$s, State League footy has got TV but no viewers. Who is going to pay, FTA pay less than Foxtel now.
Travel?
Are you expecting current fans to change allegiance?

 

[JPetro83]

Why not

Sooks in the AFLPA wont allow it.. they will want more money etc. they already want more holidays and time off.

 

[HTT]

Agree that the fixed draw is the main problem. Draw should not be used for equalisation purposes. Not sure what the solution is though. I reckon each team plays the 17 others once and then the match ups for the remaining games should just be randomly generated. Could randomly generate anomalies such as a bottom team copping extra games against all top teams, but at least it’s not rigged.

Same system as now but stop the 3-1-1 and 1-1-3 splits. And have a set range where the sum of the position of a team’s double ups should fall.

Using the previous years ladder to predict where teams might finish the next year is a reasonable way to do it. There will be stuff ups when teams rise and fall quickly but there’s going to be less variance than just a random draw.

 

[HTT]

WTF!
You increase the salary cap then you create an absolute monopoly on the field.
The only clubs that will be winning premierships will be Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon, Richmond, Sydney and Westcoast because they are the only clubs that can afford to, leaving all other clubs in the dark. This will also create a culture of self-entitled brats who don't know their place on the Footy field. AFL is not soccer, it does not have super massive teams, it cannot afford or sustain crappy players receiving million+ dollars.
You use port as an example, do you know the history behind port, seeing it fold would be so sad, and its not just port, think about Melbourne, one of the oldest clubs in the WORLD. Do you want to see it die too?.

You reckon clubs are paying the players out of their own pocket?
An increase in salary cap only really comes through an increase in AFL revenue which would then go to the clubs.

 

[Roaming Lou]

You reckon clubs are paying the players out of their own pocket?
An increase in salary cap only really comes through an increase in AFL revenue which would then go to the clubs.

No, but think about it, St. Kilda are in a bidding war for player with Richmond. St. Kilda are on a tight budget but they can squeeze out $600,000, Richmond though can afford to and offer the player $1m, St. Kilda and other smaller clubs just can't afford to go into a bidding war with the larger clubs. And he says it in a way to greatly increase the salary cap, he uses the example of a half-decent player earning 1m+ and this will solve homesickness. Then he says that clubs that can't keep up should fold. Maybe you should understand the quote a bit more.

 

[Underarm]

Why not

No time. Football would not be enjoyable in the middle of February.

 

[Furn2]

4 year contracts for how much ?

players association are going to want at least league average by year 4 which means if you have a couple of bad drafts you are stuck with a bunch of spuds taking up half your cap.

 

[Kwality]

You reckon clubs are paying the players out of their own pocket?
An increase in salary cap only really comes through an increase in AFL revenue which would then go to the clubs.

You wouldnt want any of the beneficiaries to be delisted, the shut up money would be big, big .... something like this

Holland sues Tigers for $530K

Holland sues Tigers for $530K

www.foxsports.com.au

FORMER Richmond player Ben Holland is suing the Tigers and former president Clinton Casey for more than half a million dollars for what he claims are unpaid benefits.
Holland, now playing at Melbourne, has issued a Supreme Court writ in which he claims he was promised a range of business and investment opportunities he never received. He is seeking $530,000 for loss and damages.

Holland alleges Casey gave him a verbal agreement that he would benefit from the deals in an incentive to keep him at Punt Rd.

 

[Roylion]

ABS stats

View attachment 761934

View attachment 761941

To add to the above

2050 projected populations (Australia is projected to have 37.6 million)

• Tasmania - possibly 650,000 (The Tasmanian Government has set a target to grow the population to 650,000 people by 2050 to drive economic growth)
• Sydney - 7.7 million
• South East Queensland - 6 million (including Gold Coast's 1.1 million and Brisbane's 4.2 million).

The AFL will persevere with the Suns for the above reasons. The medium to long term benefits will be significant.

 

[Adelaide Hawk]

Good post.
Some AFL fans have to accept the fact that the game will never make any progress outside of Australia on a professional level.
I live in Thailand and the game here has next to zero appeal in the bars to warrant the bar owners even showing the game on TV if there is soccer or either of the 2 Rugby codes on at the same time.
The fans have accept that its a domestic comp and enjoy it as that.
The AFL wont even put a team in Tassie let alone put one in NZ or anywhere else

Very true. There are Aussie Bars in Thailand where ex-pats and tourists can catch a game of Aussie Rules, but generally there is no interest in Aussie Rules outside of Australia. Growing the game overseas is pie-in-the-sky stuff, they've been trying for the part 50 years to no avail. Soccer is huge in Thailand and no way could AFL compete.

I've previously related the story of finding a massive book store in Siam where Manchester United books alone occupied three long shelves. I decided to search for Australian Rules Football, and there was one book ...... written by Brendan Fevola!!!! Hardly a great advertisement for the game

It's the same the world over, there's no interest in Aussie Rules, and that's not going to change anytime soon.

 

[Roaming Lou]

Very true. There are Aussie Bars in Thailand where ex-pats and tourists can catch a game of Aussie Rules, but generally there is no interest in Aussie Rules outside of Australia. Growing the game overseas is pie-in-the-sky stuff, they've been trying for the part 50 years to no avail. Soccer is huge in Thailand and no way could AFL compete.

I've previously related the story of finding a massive book store in Siam where Manchester United books alone occupied three long shelves. I decided to search for Australian Rules Football, and there was one book ...... written by Brendan Fevola!!!! Hardly a great advertisement for the game

It's the same the world over, there's no interest in Aussie Rules, and that's not going to change anytime soon.

I find it odd, most people who have seen AFL adore it, but word just never gets out