AFL - Time for 2 divisions?

[JuddsABlue]

In theory its a fun and interesting way to run the game, in reality it would just destroy it

 

[le dominateur]

This fred belongs on 442. Shit idea.

 

[McCrann]

The

Alas, another week, a few more thrashings, and a growing discrepancy between the good, the bad, and the ugly.

It is time for the AFL to consider taking at least some sort of measures to stop the rot of thrashings every week. While the AFL tries hard to be the NBA, it should take a leaf of football/soccer's book and bring in two divisions with promotion and relegation. Not only would this result in more competitive games every week, it would make it much easier for expansion teams to be brought into the league, starting in the 2nd division and building their way up while not getting flogged as often.
Here is how it could potentially be structured

• 2 divisions of 9 with the current teams, with the potential to expand into Tasmania and Darwin (or wherever) making 10 teams in each division
  
• each team plays each other twice, resulting in 16 H&A games and 18 with 10 teams. Solves the AFL's confusing "everybody plays each other once then plays 5 other teams again" idea
  
• top 2 of div 2 get promoted automatically, and bottom 2 of div 1 get relegated
• 3rd placed in div 2 in a playoff against 3rd last div 1 for another spot (perhaps)
• In division 1 the Top 4 goes into the finals; 1v4, 2v3 etc.
• Draft pick order stays the same, last in div 1 gets pick 9, 1st in div 2 gets pick 10
• Removes favorable fixturing and adds equal home games to each team

If the AFL wants more games (of course they will), they could have an national cup competition separate from the league. This could include the state league teams as well (although this may cause problems with the reserve sides) or just the AFL teams. It would also allow div 1 and 2 teams to verse each other and get the big-crowd games the AFL froths over. If they want even more games, the 16 H&A games would allow good time to bring back SoO (but that is a topic for another thread).

Discuss!

They could also get rid of the oval ball and replace with a nice easy to kick round one.

#Innovation

 

[McCrann]

Pretty sure there ar

Bullshit. This quote gets thrown up all the time but nobody ever proves it. There has always been thrashings. There will always be thrashings. In a game that lasts for 120 minutes with 44 players on the field, there are simply too many variables to produce 18 teams that are all of similar ability and never beat each other by large margins.

Show me some proof that the "discrepancy between good and bad" is growing and I will read the rest of your post. Maybe start with average winning margins.

Pretty sure there aren't 44 on the ground all the time.

Are you including the umpires?

 

[McCrann]

They do conference in the states mate. Divisions is what they do in Europe

I prefer divisions to conferences as an option, but conferences are a far more logical option for Aussie rules if the league ever decided they wanted an alternative system than the obviously broken system it has now

But at least with divisions you could have everyone playing each other twice in that division so a true H&A season plus then you could have a inter-division cup competition that could be knock out like the FA cup or any of the other football cups played in Europe

FYI They also do divisions and promotion/relegation in Australian Football - it's a long-standing tradition in Australian Football.

 

[Hoops]

I support 2 divisions with promotion and relegation.

12 teams in the premier division playing each other twice = 22 games

The 6 teams in the second division can play each other twice and the reserves of the premier division once = 22 games

This is more do do with having a fair draw than anything else

 

[lethalsaints]

Born in 94.
Give him a break hes only a bandwagon Sydney supporter, the true bloods supporters wouldnt have suggested it because they actually watched there team battle for decades.
# silverspoon

 

[Bokonon]

Problem I have is every year you will have teams in second division that were clearly better than teams in the fìrst division. To me it replaces one problem with another. Think in a fierce competition blowouts are a fact of life, and chance for supporters to show the depth of their commitment. I know what it's like heading into certain floggings from our early years. That's what makes you appreciate success.

 

[Sam_Malone]

Problem I have is every year you will have teams in second division that were clearly better than teams in the fìrst division. To me it replaces one problem with another. Think in a fierce competition blowouts are a fact of life, and chance for supporters to show the depth of their commitment. I know what it's like heading into certain floggings from our early years. That's what makes you appreciate success.

Not if you had a promotion and relegation game to move up and down.

Last year Collingwood (12th) would have played Melbourne (13th) for trhe right to be in division 1.

 

[SdKfz 181]

Alas, another week, a few more thrashings, and a growing discrepancy between the good, the bad, and the ugly.

It is time for the AFL to consider taking at least some sort of measures to stop the rot of thrashings every week. While the AFL tries hard to be the NBA, it should take a leaf of football/soccer's book and bring in two divisions with promotion and relegation. Not only would this result in more competitive games every week, it would make it much easier for expansion teams to be brought into the league, starting in the 2nd division and building their way up while not getting flogged as often.
Here is how it could potentially be structured

• 2 divisions of 9 with the current teams, with the potential to expand into Tasmania and Darwin (or wherever) making 10 teams in each division
  
• each team plays each other twice, resulting in 16 H&A games and 18 with 10 teams. Solves the AFL's confusing "everybody plays each other once then plays 5 other teams again" idea
  
• top 2 of div 2 get promoted automatically, and bottom 2 of div 1 get relegated
• 3rd placed in div 2 in a playoff against 3rd last div 1 for another spot (perhaps)
• In division 1 the Top 4 goes into the finals; 1v4, 2v3 etc.
• Draft pick order stays the same, last in div 1 gets pick 9, 1st in div 2 gets pick 10
• Removes favorable fixturing and adds equal home games to each team

If the AFL wants more games (of course they will), they could have an national cup competition separate from the league. This could include the state league teams as well (although this may cause problems with the reserve sides) or just the AFL teams. It would also allow div 1 and 2 teams to verse each other and get the big-crowd games the AFL froths over. If they want even more games, the 16 H&A games would allow good time to bring back SoO (but that is a topic for another thread).

Discuss!

Your dreaming pal.

 

[tigs2010]

Pretty sure there ar


Pretty sure there aren't 44 on the ground all the time.

Are you including the umpires?

Only in Hawthorn games. Amidoinitrite?

 

[ziad]

It is inevitable - to:
1. better support development and growth of the game (or be overtaken by soccer through participation growth). Survival is not compulsory.
2. address the gap between the haves and have nots while protecting what integrity is left - ie: no tanking or dodgy draft deals just relegation. And an even draw with equal H and A fixtures.

 

[JackFlash]

It will never happen, we are in a top heavy competition though. 18 teams is way too many and they won't do a cull either, so expect no change. How do we get to 16 teams including a side based in the apple isle and one only in QLD? The AFL will put that one into the too hard basket.
The AFL completely bungled the Tasmanian thing and there really is only room for one team in QLD. Of course Gilligan will say "bollocks" to all that, but they live in a bit of a fantasy world over there at AFL headquarters. Gold Coast is a disaster, it didn't work with the "Bad News Bears" as it hasn't done with a number of sporting codes. The place is a sporting graveyard just ask these clubs:

Soccer - Gold Coast United 2008 - 2012

Basketball – Gold Coast Cougars/Rollers (1990-96), Gold Coast Blaze (2007-12);

Rugby Union – East Coast Aces (2007);

Baseball – Gold Coast Clippers/Daikyo Dolphins/Gold Coast Cougars (1989-99);

Not even the Biggies make a fist of it.

NRL - The NRL brand first arrived on the Gold Coast in 1988 with the Gold Coast-Tweed Giants. Morphing into the Seagulls, the Gladiators and then finally the Chargers before folding in 1998. Now they have the ever struggling Gold Coast Titans who just a few years ago were $35million in debt? Poor performances, salary cap breaches, cocaine scandals and voluntary administration sees them teetering on the edge.

AFL - The Gold Coast Suns look doomed with little prospect of keeping whatever good players they have and nobody giving a fat rats clacker about attending games in Australia's 6th biggest city district! On face value it’s a highly-lucrative market, ripe for the picking by any expansionary sporting organisation, but every single sporting body that goes there ends up in the poo! It's already an incurable money bleeding sore that needs to be put out of its misery.

Leave the Gold Coast to the retirees and surfer dudes, a sporting mecca it isn't!
The AFL don't need two divisions, they do need a strong 16 team competition.

 

[Bomberboyokay]

Would be a pointless ****ing disaster. The closed shop, salary cap model gives hope to supporters of all clubs. Tell half of them they literally can't win the flag but oh here's a 'B flag' you can pretend is kind of the same instead and thousands simply won't hand over their money for tickets, memberships, merchandise etc in the 'B' seasons.

Promotion/Relegation is accepted in soccer in some countries because it's been like that since the start, there's too many professional clubs to put in one league (not an issue in the AFL), and the finances work more like raw capitalism so the biggest clubs representing the biggest cities almost never get relegated.

If the AFL wants more games (of course they will), they could have an national cup competition separate from the league.

Isn't it cute when people have just started watching soccer?

 

[greatwhiteshark]

Should of happened in 1987, can't happen now. The horse has bolted.

 

[frenchfri12]

Rugby Union – East Coast Aces (2007);

The entire league folded, dosen't count.

 

[Seeds]

Alas, another week, a few more thrashings, and a growing discrepancy between the good, the bad, and the ugly.

It is time for the AFL to consider taking at least some sort of measures to stop the rot of thrashings every week. While the AFL tries hard to be the NBA, it should take a leaf of football/soccer's book and bring in two divisions with promotion and relegation. Not only would this result in more competitive games every week, it would make it much easier for expansion teams to be brought into the league, starting in the 2nd division and building their way up while not getting flogged as often.
Here is how it could potentially be structured

• 2 divisions of 9 with the current teams, with the potential to expand into Tasmania and Darwin (or wherever) making 10 teams in each division
  
• each team plays each other twice, resulting in 16 H&A games and 18 with 10 teams. Solves the AFL's confusing "everybody plays each other once then plays 5 other teams again" idea
  
• top 2 of div 2 get promoted automatically, and bottom 2 of div 1 get relegated
• 3rd placed in div 2 in a playoff against 3rd last div 1 for another spot (perhaps)
• In division 1 the Top 4 goes into the finals; 1v4, 2v3 etc.
• Draft pick order stays the same, last in div 1 gets pick 9, 1st in div 2 gets pick 10
• Removes favorable fixturing and adds equal home games to each team

If the AFL wants more games (of course they will), they could have an national cup competition separate from the league. This could include the state league teams as well (although this may cause problems with the reserve sides) or just the AFL teams. It would also allow div 1 and 2 teams to verse each other and get the big-crowd games the AFL froths over. If they want even more games, the 16 H&A games would allow good time to bring back SoO (but that is a topic for another thread).

Discuss!

They did come up with an idea last year that would fix a lot of the problems. The clubs and fans rejected it because they naively believed there is no problem. The afl should just adopt it for next season and ignore the fans and clubs.

 

[JohnnyFontane90]

no this will increase the gap between good and bad sides

 

[tige19]

I think there just needs to be 2 conferences.

 

[frenchfri12]

Just need to get up to 32 teams first. At least some loser teams like Melbourne might actually have a hope then.

 

[Furn2]

How do division 2 sides hold on to their players if they come out of contract in a year in which they are relegated? Players don't want to waste a year playing only for a chance of promotion.

How do crap sides rebuilding hold onto their players now when out of contract ?

The pay them more or they leave.

The Dee's , blues and Lions have had a steady stream of players leaving over the past few years.

 

[Furn2]

Like with the 17-5 fixture proposal most of the problems people find with the change already happen now.

The only real issue that would be new is teams rising up quickly which is incredibly rare as far as winning the flag from outside the 8 goes.

No need for it with 18 teams but 50 years from now when there's 24 it could work well.

I mean what interest do fans of the Saints and Dee's have for this season ? Won't play finals so all they can gain is draft picks.

Much more exciting if they were a game out of from promotion playoffs no ?

 

[Furn2]

Can you imagine a Melbourne club getting stuck in a division with both Perth clubs, both Adelaide clubs, both NSW clubs, they would have to leave the state almost every second week.

They will be drummed out of that group very quickly.

They would have a clear home advantage every 2nd week. How good would that be ?

 

[Jack Bradley]

Yes there should be two divisions.

How bout one division for the teams which get sanctioned cheating like COLA and then one division for the non cheaters?

Didnt you guys cheat the salary cap with Kurt Tippet?

 

[The Old Dark Navy's]

How do crap sides rebuilding hold onto their players now when out of contract ?

The pay them more or they leave.

The Dee's , blues and Lions have had a steady stream of players leaving over the past few years.

The bottom 9 clubs are not all genuinely crap though. Some are on the up. Finish 10th while on the up and it is at least 2 years before you see finals instead of possibly 1. That could alter your thinking.