Expansion Divisional Restructuring and Expansion.

[fumbler]

Ok just calm down and think about it before reaching for the Ventolin and smashing your keyboard.
Have a look at the NFL, MLB, NHL and MLS as examples, and then transfer that to our beloved AFL.

Currently we have 18 sides in a lopsided competition and realistically has been since we moved away from the 12 team comp.
IF we added two more sides we then have a 20 team comp and could restructure it into 2 divisions of 10 or 4 divisions of 5. The possibilities are endless and could deliver a more even competition, to use the AFL's own propaganda.

This is an example of what I would go with, others will have differing ideas and that's great just add them and lets see what we can come up with.

Expansion sides:
Tasmania. Don't care where they locate them, just add them FFS.
NT Thunder.

Now for the Divisions I would go with four times five sides who play home and away against the others in their division for 8 games and against the other three divisions once on a mix of home and away for 15 games would make 23 full games.
This would also minimise travel as much as possible, hopefully. It was a toss up whether to have NT Thunder in the Division or the one with the SA sides, but since they play in the NEAFL currently I left them there.

Division North
Brisbane Lions
Gold Coast Suns
GWS Giants
NT Thunder
Sydney Swans

Division West
Adelaide Crows
Fremantle Dockers
Port Adelaide Power
West Coast Eagles
Western Bulldogs

Division Central
Carlton Blues
Essendon Bombers
Geelong Cats
Melbourne Demons
North Melbourne Kangaroos

Division South
Collingwood Magpies
Hawthorn Hawks
Richmond Tigers
St Kilda Saints
Tasmania FC

Of course there will be arguments about who and what should be where and why, I chose Bulldogs to be in the West as they want to be the western side in Victoria.

I'd like to hear what others think.

 

[Colonial]

Victorians really dont want to travel do they.

Edit. Wow. Not a fan of the dogs eh?

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Tyler Hodges]

Dogs would be spewing

Divisional ideas are great when they are competitive, but I can already tell that Sydney/GWS would finish top of the ladder every year having that division. When a division gets too weak players flock to the only strong team and you have a less balanced league.

Patriots in the AFC East are a prime example, you have the best team in the worst division- bad for both the quality football and expansion in QLD/NSW

 

[basashi]

Ok just calm down and think about it before reaching for the Ventolin and smashing your keyboard.
Have a look at the NFL, MLB, NHL and MLS as examples, and then transfer that to our beloved AFL.

Currently we have 18 sides in a lopsided competition and realistically has been since we moved away from the 12 team comp.
IF we added two more sides we then have a 20 team comp and could restructure it into 2 divisions of 10 or 4 divisions of 5. The possibilities are endless and could deliver a more even competition, to use the AFL's own propaganda.

This is an example of what I would go with, others will have differing ideas and that's great just add them and lets see what we can come up with.

Expansion sides:
Tasmania. Don't care where they locate them, just add them FFS.
NT Thunder.

Now for the Divisions I would go with four times five sides who play home and away against the others in their division for 8 games and against the other three divisions once on a mix of home and away for 15 games would make 23 full games.
This would also minimise travel as much as possible, hopefully. It was a toss up whether to have NT Thunder in the Division or the one with the SA sides, but since they play in the NEAFL currently I left them there.

Division North
Brisbane Lions
Gold Coast Suns
GWS Giants
NT Thunder
Sydney Swans

Division West
Adelaide Crows
Fremantle Dockers
Port Adelaide Power
West Coast Eagles
Western Bulldogs

Division Central
Carlton Blues
Essendon Bombers
Geelong Cats
Melbourne Demons
North Melbourne Kangaroos

Division South
Collingwood Magpies
Hawthorn Hawks
Richmond Tigers
St Kilda Saints
Tasmania FC

Of course there will be arguments about who and what should be where and why, I chose Bulldogs to be in the West as they want to be the western side in Victoria.

I'd like to hear what others think.

I don't want any system that makes a team more or less likely to play other teams. If I am sitting here in Sydney, I don't want to be waiting longer to see Eddie Betts or Dusty than if I was in Perth or anywhere else.

I also am not interested in any model that sees disparity in travel any higher than it absolutely needs to be.

Fail and Fail

 

[fumbler]

Victorians really dont want to travel do they.

Edit. Wow. Not a fan of the dogs eh?

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

I did have this but thought people would go off.

Div A
Adelaide
Brisbane
Geelong
Saints
Tassie

Div B
Bulldogs
Essendon
Richmond
Sydney
WCE

Div C
Carlton
Collingwood
Gold coast
North
Port

Div D
Freo
Hawks
GWS
Melbourne
NT Thunder

 

[fumbler]

I don't want any system that makes a team more or less likely to play other teams. If I am sitting here in Sydney, I don't want to be waiting longer to see Eddie Betts or Dusty than if I was in Perth or anywhere else.

I also am not interested in any model that sees disparity in travel any higher than it absolutely needs to be.

Fail and Fail

Freo may not play Adelaide at home for one or possibly two seasons now.
Your argument is flawed.

 

[HaroLad]

NT can’t sustain a team. It’d have to be Darwin and they have a population of about 140,000.

 

[FootyJunkie]

Split the league in two....

5 VIC and one each from the other main land states.

Australian Division ( foundation )
Car, Col, Ess, Mel, Stk, WC, Ade, Syd, Bri

National Division ( expansion )
Gee, Haw, NM, Ric, WB, Fre, Port, GWS, GC

16 Division games plus 6 against sides in the other division

Top 2 are division champs, next best 6 regardless of division get 3rd - 8th

 

[Power Raid]

Ok just calm down and think about it before reaching for the Ventolin and smashing your keyboard.
Have a look at the NFL, MLB, NHL and MLS as examples, and then transfer that to our beloved AFL.

Currently we have 18 sides in a lopsided competition and realistically has been since we moved away from the 12 team comp.
IF we added two more sides we then have a 20 team comp and could restructure it into 2 divisions of 10 or 4 divisions of 5. The possibilities are endless and could deliver a more even competition, to use the AFL's own propaganda.

This is an example of what I would go with, others will have differing ideas and that's great just add them and lets see what we can come up with.

Expansion sides:
Tasmania. Don't care where they locate them, just add them FFS.
NT Thunder.

Now for the Divisions I would go with four times five sides who play home and away against the others in their division for 8 games and against the other three divisions once on a mix of home and away for 15 games would make 23 full games.
This would also minimise travel as much as possible, hopefully. It was a toss up whether to have NT Thunder in the Division or the one with the SA sides, but since they play in the NEAFL currently I left them there.

Division North
Brisbane Lions
Gold Coast Suns
GWS Giants
NT Thunder
Sydney Swans

Division West
Adelaide Crows
Fremantle Dockers
Port Adelaide Power
West Coast Eagles
Western Bulldogs

Division Central
Carlton Blues
Essendon Bombers
Geelong Cats
Melbourne Demons
North Melbourne Kangaroos

Division South
Collingwood Magpies
Hawthorn Hawks
Richmond Tigers
St Kilda Saints
Tasmania FC

Of course there will be arguments about who and what should be where and why, I chose Bulldogs to be in the West as they want to be the western side in Victoria.

I'd like to hear what others think.

W League
West Coast Eagles
Fremantle Dockers
WA 3
NT Thunder
Port Adelaide Power
Adelaide Crows
Canberra
Geelong Cats
Richmond Tigers
St Kilda Saints
Western Bulldogs
Essendon Bombers

E League
Brisbane Lions
Gold Coast Suns
GWS Giants
Sydney Swans
NSW 3
NSW 4
Tasmania FC
Carlton Blues
Melbourne Demon
Hawthorn Hawks
Collingwood Magpies
North Melbourne Kangaroos

this evens out the travel

 

[Deep]

NT can’t sustain a team. It’d have to be Darwin and they have a population of about 140,000.

Ever been to darwin? Once they get their own team they'll be like Tassie. At their lowest point of their club history they'll hit 15K still

Darwin just doesn't care for Melbourne Demons.

 

[HaroLad]

Ever been to darwin? Once they get their own team they'll be like Tassie. At their lowest point of their club history they'll hit 15K still

Darwin just doesn't care for Melbourne Demons.

Yeah I’ve been to Darwin, it’s like a country town.

 

[fumbler]

Ever been to darwin? Once they get their own team they'll be like Tassie. At their lowest point of their club history they'll hit 15K still

Darwin just doesn't care for Melbourne Demons.

I tossed up between NT and Cairns.

 

[RupieDupie]

IMO A Darwin team would be one of the toughest teams to ever enter the comp.

 

[PumpyChowdown]

Nope. No divisions.

The ONLY way the AFL will be fair is when it expands to 22 teams and each team plays each other once a year, with the home team alternating annually.

21 rounds. 231 regular season games.
Top 10 go into finals. 11 finals games. Draft playoffs to determine lottery draw. 9 draft games.

Total 251 games. Over two years - excluding finals - each team plays each other on both home grounds.

Will take forever to reach that many teams and make the competition sustainable though. It's a long way off. Fun to hypothesize though.

SA Teams
Adelaide Crows
Port Adelaide Power
Central Wattles (Central Australia - Based in Adelaide, also play in Alice Springs and Darwin, incorporating Northern Territory)

WA Teams
West Coast Eagles
Fremantle Dockers
Perth Dolphins

NSW Teams
Sydney Swans
GWS Giants
Riverina Rams (???)

QLD Teams
Brisbane Lions
Gold Coast Suns
Northern Marlins

Vic/Tas Teams
Carlton
Collingwood
Essendon
Hawthorn
Geelong
Melbourne
Richmond
St. Kilda
Western Bulldogs
Tasmanian Kangaroos (North Melbourne relocated)

 

[BK Eaglesfan]

Split the league in two....

5 VIC and one each from the other main land states.

Australian Division ( foundation )
Car, Col, Ess, Mel, Stk, WC, Ade, Syd, Bri

National Division ( expansion )
Gee, Haw, NM, Ric, WB, Fre, Port, GWS, GC

16 Division games plus 6 against sides in the other division

Top 2 are division champs, next best 6 regardless of division get 3th - 8th

If a conference path was ever considered, this looks a lot brighter than a lot of models I've seen. Splits the travel burden evenly between conferences, while still allowing for derbies. With some tidying up of how ladder positions were formulated, this is a good starting point.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

I’ve said it for a long time, the league needs to be smaller, not bigger.
14 teams, playing 11 twice, and the lowest from the previous year once (so premiers would not play 13 and 14 twice. Runners up would not play 12 and 13 twice and so forth)

Top 6 finals, with top two getting week off in week 1.

I know - good luck merging/folding to reduce the league, but the standard is very low, and will not improve.

 

[FreoMonocle]

If a conference path was ever considered, this looks a lot brighter than a lot of models I've seen. Splits the travel burden evenly between conferences, while still allowing for derbies. With some tidying up of how ladder positions were formulated, this is a good starting point.

Got to get over the derby concept if you like sport. It's only value is as entertainment. How silly to have 2 local teams beat the snot out of each other and then be a bit unhinged for the following week or two because of extra suspensions, injuries and general bruising, it's not good for either teams season.

 

[Blackas87]

W League
West Coast Eagles
Fremantle Dockers
WA 3
NT Thunder
Port Adelaide Power
Adelaide Crows
Canberra
Geelong Cats
Richmond Tigers
St Kilda Saints
Western Bulldogs
Essendon Bombers

E League
Brisbane Lions
Gold Coast Suns
GWS Giants
Sydney Swans
NSW 3
NSW 4
Tasmania FC
Carlton Blues
Melbourne Demon
Hawthorn Hawks
Collingwood Magpies
North Melbourne Kangaroos

this evens out the travel

With 24 teams why not just play everyone once over 23 rounds?

 

[RupieDupie]

I got as far as;

GWS - regional

But one issue would be;

2018 premiers - GWS
2019 premiers - GWS
2020 premiers - GWS
2021 premiers - GWS
...

Thus the AFL has to base them in an area where they don't have a home advantage / have a small supporter base, to even up the comp.

 

[Furn2]

Conferences are dumb better off having 2 divisions with promotion.

 

[BK Eaglesfan]

Got to get over the derby concept if you like sport. It's only value is as entertainment. How silly to have 2 local teams beat the snot out of each other and then be a bit unhinged for the following week or two because of extra suspensions, injuries and general bruising, it's not good for either teams season.

Personally I agree with you, just can’t see the AFL putting into place any solution that removes the Showdown, Western Derby etc from the fixture.

 

[Power Raid]

With 24 teams why not just play everyone once over 23 rounds?

that's where I think its headed

 

[fumbler]

I’ve said it for a long time, the league needs to be smaller, not bigger.
14 teams, playing 11 twice, and the lowest from the previous year once (so premiers would not play 13 and 14 twice. Runners up would not play 12 and 13 twice and so forth)

Top 6 finals, with top two getting week off in week 1.

I know - good luck merging/folding to reduce the league, but the standard is very low, and will not improve.

No way will the Broadcasters allow the AFL to go backwards.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

No way will the Broadcasters allow the AFL to go backwards.

Would it be that bad? If the quality of footy improves, more fans will tune in (at least in theory)

Secondly, more games would offset some of the negatives.

 

[Snake_Baker]

Tasmanian Kangaroos (North Melbourne relocated)

It took 14 posts this time.

Things are looking up.