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Crap!.........The National Carnivals were exactly that, a carnival. When's the last time you ever heard anyone other that a Port Adelaide supporter talk about it?
If the WAFL and the SANFL were such great competitive leagues, how come the best West Australians and South Aussies (nd every other state for that matter) came to Victoria to play?
Wayne Carey, Polly Farmer, John Platten, Jason Dunstall, James Hird, Malcom Blight, Peter Hudson, all non-Victorians who chose to leave their home states and play footy in the VFL. Are you suggesting that there was players that were better than these blokes running around in the SANFL and the WAFL?
I'm amazed!! Can you name them?
Better still, can you name 5 non-west Australian champions that left their home states to go and play footy in W.A....remember, they have to be as good as the blokes I've listed.
Waiting with much interest in your reply...
If the WAFL and the SANFL were such great competitive leagues, how come the best West Australians and South Aussies (nd every other state for that matter) came to Victoria to play?
Wayne Carey, Polly Farmer, John Platten, Jason Dunstall, James Hird, Malcom Blight, Peter Hudson, all non-Victorians who chose to leave their home states and play footy in the VFL. Are you suggesting that there was players that were better than these blokes running around in the SANFL and the WAFL?
I'm amazed!! Can you name them?
Better still, can you name 5 non-west Australian champions that left their home states to go and play footy in W.A....remember, they have to be as good as the blokes I've listed.
Waiting with much interest in your reply...
There is no doubt the exodus of players in the 70's which accelerated in the 80's was a catalyst for the expansion to the AFL. The reality is this movement of players was not as great in earlier years and as such the gap was lesser. I do concede that merely based on size (of talent pool) alone the VFL was stronger than those other state comps, but the gap between the AFL now and those comps is WAY bigger.
Of course players like Farmer, Cable, Fiztpatrick, Moss etc played substantial parts of their careers in the WAFL and were good players back then (In fact Farmer & Cable & Moss played more WAFL footy than VFL). There are no Farmers, Cables Fiztzi's etc running around at WAFL level after age 18 anymore.
I am not doubting the VFL was the pre-eminent suburban comp most of the time but I am doubting that this gap was as big as you think for much of the years. The reality is many super players never left WA & SA to join the VFL. They all join the AFL now or we dont know who they are.
For the record, I reckon Austin Robertson was a handy player
There are many members of the WA team of the century that did not ever leave WA. That, by definition, had to mean that the WAFL comp was of a pretty high standard - it still remains one of my annoyances that Stephen Michael (Adam Goodes - 25 years before Adam GOODES) never played VFL!
My point remains, any comp that has Australias finest footballer playing in it lays claims to being a good comp (the WAFL with Bunton), the VFL has on average always been the best comp but the argument that a VFL premiership from the 20's or 30's when the best players were distributed accross 3 states is the same as an AFL premiership in the current decade (when all the best players play in that comp) is to either be deliberately argumentative or to be frankly a bit dim.
