Discussion Can AFL ever relax its away shorts rules like it was during the late 80s and mid-late 2000s, and even follow the AFLW's suite or ideas?

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neogh

neogh

Senior List
Apr 17, 2015
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217
AFL Club
Essendon
Other Teams
Dolphins, MVFC
I and many other footy fans have questioned the necessity for AFL clubs to strictly wear white shorts for away games EVEN if the short colours don't clash at all, whilst Gold Coast and Sydney (and all the clubs par each other) being always exempt.

Since 2008, I believe there was only 7 games where the shorts rules didn't strictly apply, and all of them involved North and which I ask if North, and to an extent West Coast and Bulldogs being similarly exempt like the Gold Coast and Sydney for most of their games, since Royal Blue ain't that of a dark colour, and to even add the Blue that North and Bulldogs wears now is lighter than it was before.

In reverse, like other sporting codes in the world, I believe that Homes teams - except the Finals and special occasions like the Indigenous or Retro Round - should wear the full Home colours, and that applies to Geelong too. Don't see why they have to wear white every home game and not doing so against Gold Coast, Sydney and Brisbane (only because they don't have a "Fitzroy Blue" away shorts), just feels inconsistent.

Did I mention AFLW? And YES in before periodic stress, I am not advocating for AFL to follow the exact same suite, but believe the men's comp can adopt some good ideas from women, such as Melbourne's Royal Blue shorts which is also a heritage material.

The AFL can say it's tradition that away teams have worn white, but I can make the case that it was used to distinguish teams from each other.

Simply, AFL needs to relax it's shorts policy as long the colours aren't the same or creates a clash, which still follows the tradition of short colours made to distinguish clubs.

Lastly, I made a little table before to categorise the clubs that wear particular colour schemes, and if they can be worn away.

1693580884841.png

Green: Can be worn away.
Yellow: Can be worn away as long there isn't a massive clash.
Red: Cannot be worn away as colours clash.
 
Clubs wear Home shorts against teams with Red shorts (Gold Coast & Sydney), so I don't see why not.
Another solution would be to have shorts in club colours where the club doesn't have White in it's palette.
Adelaide, Brisbane, Essendon, Melbourne, Richmond & West Coast only create clashes by wearing White shorts.
There's no reason why they couldn't wear Red or Yellow/Gold shorts.
 
Mero said:
Adelaide, Brisbane, Essendon, Melbourne, Richmond & West Coast only create clashes by wearing White shorts.
There's no reason why they couldn't wear Red or Yellow/Gold shorts.
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I would love to see the Red shorts back last worn in a pre-season 11 years ago, but is it really true that the club really sees it as a symbol of the stale days?

If Melbourne can bring a royal blue back as an away jumper - which is a symbol of the awful days - then why not red shorts.
 

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This might just be me but for some reason I like seeing teams wear their home guernsey with white shorts even when White isnt a team colour, like the crows. I also like it when teams who wear white have white shorts, e.g., the western bulldogs and freo. But I do think when a clash/away jumper is worn then white shorts shouldn't be the immediate choice unless it is a white guernsey design.
 
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, whatever colour is most prominent on the guernsey should be the colour of the shorts. For example, Geelong wear a white dominant jumper, then they should were white shorts home or away. Same with West Coast in their gold wings should be wearing gold shorts or the Dons in their predominantly red clash jumper should be wearing red shorts. It isn’t difficult.
 
Nedland said:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, whatever colour is most prominent on the guernsey should be the colour of the shorts. For example, Geelong wear a white dominant jumper, then they should were white shorts home or away. Same with West Coast in their gold wings should be wearing gold shorts or the Dons in their predominantly red clash jumper should be wearing red shorts. It isn’t difficult.
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Lions would look awesome if they did the Fitzroy red with blue shorts, so there are cases for a lesser colour being used.
 
Heardy_101 said:
I feel like North Melbourne are the main impediment to any change to the white shorts rule. Why the AFL caved to them is ridiculous.
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You say this, but the Port Adelaide white back panel makes most Port matches against dark teams a visual mess because the team Port are playing often has to wear a white/light clash guernsey with black/dark numbers same as Port, way too similar from the back, and half of football is from the back.
 
Nickimus Rex said:
Lions would look awesome if they did the Fitzroy red with blue shorts, so there are cases for a lesser colour being used.
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You eliminate a grey area when the rules are black and white! No pun intended
 
Nedland said:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, whatever colour is most prominent on the guernsey should be the colour of the shorts. For example, Geelong wear a white dominant jumper, then they should were white shorts home or away. Same with West Coast in their gold wings should be wearing gold shorts or the Dons in their predominantly red clash jumper should be wearing red shorts. It isn’t difficult.
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What is your stance on Hawthorn? Majority gold jumper, brown shorts, this IMHO is the best combo, yellow shorts look s**t
 
troybe said:
What is your stance on Hawthorn? Majority gold jumper, brown shorts, this IMHO is the best combo, yellow shorts look s**t
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If the rule is to work it has to be followed properly. Gold shorts for Haw current home
 

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Nedland said:
If the rule is to work it has to be followed properly. Gold shorts for Haw current home
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Nah, I’m still an advocate for the home team to wear whatever their heart desires and for the away team to accommodate not to clash on that basis.
 
troybe said:
Nah, I’m still an advocate for the home team to wear whatever their heart desires and for the away team to accommodate not to clash on that basis.
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Then the rule breaks down. If Geelong are allowed to wear navy shorts due to being the home team and are plying Collingwood, then the Pies will be forced to wear a black jumper with white shorts, making no way of avoiding a clash. This rule fixes that. Whether you think it doesn’t look good is irrelevant, as long as it doesn’t clash it works
 
The 70s/80s had some interesting choices with regards to shorts, I remember seeing footage of Fitzroy and Richmond trotting out some yellow ones for a minute, Footscray and Essendon doing red, etc.

The Saints all red kit for our practice match earlier this year was a winner for me, I think it should be done more often, but they should be club colours. I'd hate to see the Saints run out in a red clash strip with green or pink shorts, that would like a mess.
 
Freshwater said:
You say this, but the Port Adelaide white back panel makes most Port matches against dark teams a visual mess because the team Port are playing often has to wear a white/light clash guernsey with black/dark numbers same as Port, way too similar from the back, and half of football is from the back.
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Our jumper is primarily dark and we've had the panel since 1997 bar a few seasons when the BiB was first introduced.

Most of our matches against dark teams involve clash jumpers anyway.
 
Heardy_101 said:
Our jumper is primarily dark and we've had the panel since 1997 bar a few seasons when the BiB was first introduced.

Most of our matches against dark teams involve clash jumpers anyway.
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The clashes we are talking about are over 100 years old, and they still clash, time doesn’t change this. When Port wears a clash strip the uniform makes sense, because you have a white or light grey back with black numbers. The problem is when Port is at home and the away team is trying to wear an alternative strip to not clash but the white back on Port makes this a mess. I do think you have the right to wear what you please as the home team but it doesn’t help the visual quality of the matches.
 
Hmmmmm so each teams home shorts are:

ADEL: navy
BL: maroon
CARL: navy
COLL: black
ESS: black
FREM: dark purple
GEEL: navy
GC: red
GWS: charcol
HAW: brown
MELB: navy
NM: royal blue
PA: black
RICH: black
STK: black
SYD: red
WCE: royal blue
WB: royal blue

right off the bat ADEL, CARL, COLL, ESS, FREM, GEEL, MELB, PA, RICH and STK would need to change shorts against each other

obviously BL, GC and SYD against each other

and NM, WCE and WB against one another

GWS and HAW are weird could they get away with brown/charcoal shorts against that first group of teams (and Brisbane)?

NM, WCE and WB are unsure against ADEL, CARL, FREM, GEEL and MELB as to whether they should change shorts
 
Honestly in a lot of cases, you could wear the same/similar colour shorts if your jumper was different enough (as we're starting to see in AFLW).

For instance I think Geelong v Carlton/Freo would probably be okay if they were all wearing home shorts, as Geelongs white jumper is significantly different from the solid dark colours.

Prime example here is Bulldogs v North in the AFLW practice match. Yes it's probably nicer if North wore white but this isn't too bad. imagerender.jpeg
 
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