This one's been on my mind for a while, and I believe is set to become more relevant with the imminent introduction of a 17th and then an 18th team into the AFL over the next handful of years.
Do we need to offer more of an incentive to clubs and supporters in the form of added silverware during our football season?
Obviously nothing will ever surpass the Premiership. That will always remain as the ultimate reward for AFL clubs and their respective supporters. It will hopefully forever stand as the pinnacle of achievement in our football code.
But over the last twenty years or so, the mathematical odds of a club (and I will continue to accompany this with the “and their supporters”) enjoying such success is continually declining. Even in a perfect setting with no hegemonies, settling for only one Flag every 18th year is a lot to ask of the modern fan. Especially given our proclivity to judge premierships as the only true measure of success nowadays.
And realistically, given that some clubs tend to dominate for a three or four year period, Premierships could very well be thirty or forty or fifity years in the making as the code unfolds into the future. In reality, some supporters will never get to taste success. A lot of people - mad footy supporters - reading this post will never know what it is like to see their club win a Premiership in the AFL.
So, with this in mind, is there a need to reward our fans a little more regularly – give them something else to hang their hat on in terms of silverware? Is the code big enough now to warrant a secondary incentive each season?
The English FA still holds the Barclays Premiership as the pinnacle, but rewards its clubs in other ways with the FA Cup, the Carling (League) Cup, as well as other carrots like Champions League qualification, Europa League qualification, and just the mere avoidance of relegation each season. For us in the AFL, it’s a bit of a case of Premiership, or nothing.
Does the Ashes lose any significance or merit due to the existence of the World Cup? Does the Superbowl mean less to a team because it has won the AFC or NFC title? Does an Italian Cup triumph detract from Series A success? In all of these cases, the answer is an emphatic 'no'. I doubt it would ever reach a point like Rugby League where State of Origin takes precedence over the regular Premiership season.
In my opinion, we have the perfect opportunity over the next decade to introduce a secondary competition offering a desirable piece of silverware at its conclusion each season. Not the feeble Wizard/NAB Cup pre-season type arrangement, which is really just a series or glorified practice matches to blood youngsters and try some new rules out. To be honest, I’m struggling to remember who actually won that bloody thing this year, let alone over the last half dozen years. If i was offered the choice, I will always prefer my team to have a win in Round 1 of the real stuff rather than all four NAB Cup games.
What I'm suggesting here is a real Australian Football League Cup title, running simultaneously with the Premiership season throughout the autumn/winter months, with a climax at about Round 14/15 each year.
It would probably require that the Premiership season be reduced to 17 rounds, with each of the 18 teams playing every other team once. 8 home, 8 away, and one shared derby. The other 6 weeks which currently make up our 23-week H&A season are to be dedicated to the AFL Cup, which would be interspersed throughout Rounds 1-14 as follows.
• Six groups of three teams per group (eg. Gp 1 – Geelong, Essendon, Brisbane Gp. 2 – St Kilda, Port, Richmond etc..) who will each play the other two teams in their group once – one home, one away)
• Maybe these round-robin rounds could be played - once pre-season and then between Rounds 2/3, 5/6 ?
• The highest ranking team in each group, as well as the best two second-placed teams, will progress through to the Quarter Final stage.
• Four Quarter Finals (maybe between Rds 8/9), then two Semi Finals (between Rds 11/12 ?), then one Final (between Rds 14/15 ?) will then take place.
Drawbacks clearly do exist.
• For instance, eight clubs would only be playing 20 games in a season, whilst two clubs would play 23. Maybe rookies could be available for Cup matches to ease the load on the 38 listed players ?
• Would the public support the concept? If the prize was made rewarding enough, the crowds and TV audience would come, especially to the finals series eg. From my own club’s perspective, I’m certain that if Richmond supporters had something to hang their season’s hat on in the form of a $2M Cup Final, despite the fact that they sit 14th on the Premiership ladder at Round 14, they would fill the MCG.
• Is a 17-round Premiership season sufficient to reveal the best 8 teams for a Finals series in September? Maybe, maybe not. At the very least it would bring equity into a present skewed draw process.
The easy thing would be to just go on as we are. Don’t get me wrong, despite the fact that there’s quite a few things wrong with the current system (eg. draw inequity, lack of reward for supporters over entire generations, reduced emphasis amongst some clubs on remaining competitive all the way through to Round 22 etc), we all still seem to love our footy season.
But I still reckon we need to re-assess every now and then, think out of the box occasionally, and maybe look for ways of further improving our code and enhancing our passion for the AFL. Especially when changes seem inevitable that could erode what we currently find most rewarding about our sport.
Do we need to offer more of an incentive to clubs and supporters in the form of added silverware during our football season?
Obviously nothing will ever surpass the Premiership. That will always remain as the ultimate reward for AFL clubs and their respective supporters. It will hopefully forever stand as the pinnacle of achievement in our football code.
But over the last twenty years or so, the mathematical odds of a club (and I will continue to accompany this with the “and their supporters”) enjoying such success is continually declining. Even in a perfect setting with no hegemonies, settling for only one Flag every 18th year is a lot to ask of the modern fan. Especially given our proclivity to judge premierships as the only true measure of success nowadays.
And realistically, given that some clubs tend to dominate for a three or four year period, Premierships could very well be thirty or forty or fifity years in the making as the code unfolds into the future. In reality, some supporters will never get to taste success. A lot of people - mad footy supporters - reading this post will never know what it is like to see their club win a Premiership in the AFL.
So, with this in mind, is there a need to reward our fans a little more regularly – give them something else to hang their hat on in terms of silverware? Is the code big enough now to warrant a secondary incentive each season?
The English FA still holds the Barclays Premiership as the pinnacle, but rewards its clubs in other ways with the FA Cup, the Carling (League) Cup, as well as other carrots like Champions League qualification, Europa League qualification, and just the mere avoidance of relegation each season. For us in the AFL, it’s a bit of a case of Premiership, or nothing.
Does the Ashes lose any significance or merit due to the existence of the World Cup? Does the Superbowl mean less to a team because it has won the AFC or NFC title? Does an Italian Cup triumph detract from Series A success? In all of these cases, the answer is an emphatic 'no'. I doubt it would ever reach a point like Rugby League where State of Origin takes precedence over the regular Premiership season.
In my opinion, we have the perfect opportunity over the next decade to introduce a secondary competition offering a desirable piece of silverware at its conclusion each season. Not the feeble Wizard/NAB Cup pre-season type arrangement, which is really just a series or glorified practice matches to blood youngsters and try some new rules out. To be honest, I’m struggling to remember who actually won that bloody thing this year, let alone over the last half dozen years. If i was offered the choice, I will always prefer my team to have a win in Round 1 of the real stuff rather than all four NAB Cup games.
What I'm suggesting here is a real Australian Football League Cup title, running simultaneously with the Premiership season throughout the autumn/winter months, with a climax at about Round 14/15 each year.
It would probably require that the Premiership season be reduced to 17 rounds, with each of the 18 teams playing every other team once. 8 home, 8 away, and one shared derby. The other 6 weeks which currently make up our 23-week H&A season are to be dedicated to the AFL Cup, which would be interspersed throughout Rounds 1-14 as follows.
• Six groups of three teams per group (eg. Gp 1 – Geelong, Essendon, Brisbane Gp. 2 – St Kilda, Port, Richmond etc..) who will each play the other two teams in their group once – one home, one away)
• Maybe these round-robin rounds could be played - once pre-season and then between Rounds 2/3, 5/6 ?
• The highest ranking team in each group, as well as the best two second-placed teams, will progress through to the Quarter Final stage.
• Four Quarter Finals (maybe between Rds 8/9), then two Semi Finals (between Rds 11/12 ?), then one Final (between Rds 14/15 ?) will then take place.
Drawbacks clearly do exist.
• For instance, eight clubs would only be playing 20 games in a season, whilst two clubs would play 23. Maybe rookies could be available for Cup matches to ease the load on the 38 listed players ?
• Would the public support the concept? If the prize was made rewarding enough, the crowds and TV audience would come, especially to the finals series eg. From my own club’s perspective, I’m certain that if Richmond supporters had something to hang their season’s hat on in the form of a $2M Cup Final, despite the fact that they sit 14th on the Premiership ladder at Round 14, they would fill the MCG.
• Is a 17-round Premiership season sufficient to reveal the best 8 teams for a Finals series in September? Maybe, maybe not. At the very least it would bring equity into a present skewed draw process.
The easy thing would be to just go on as we are. Don’t get me wrong, despite the fact that there’s quite a few things wrong with the current system (eg. draw inequity, lack of reward for supporters over entire generations, reduced emphasis amongst some clubs on remaining competitive all the way through to Round 22 etc), we all still seem to love our footy season.
But I still reckon we need to re-assess every now and then, think out of the box occasionally, and maybe look for ways of further improving our code and enhancing our passion for the AFL. Especially when changes seem inevitable that could erode what we currently find most rewarding about our sport.
