Expansion Joondalup Falcons in the AFL?

[RedV3x]

It's about time some mods started being more consistent.

 

[WilloTree]

Yes and lets get rid of the MCG while we're at it.

?

 

[MakeshiftMartyr]

Interesting. Looks good.

What about Darwin and NZ? If considered, they’d be outliers too.

I initially considered them to be too unlikely, given all the extra travel they would have to do, but you could easily just put Darwin in with QLD and NZ with NSW/ACT.

 

[RedV3x]

?

Optus Oval would have a better overall percentage capacity usage than the MCG.

 

[mcfazza28]

I've never considered West Coast western/northern suburbs and I've followed them since 1987. They came in as a team to represent the whole of WA. Freo coming in then had an association with Fremantle and some southern suburbs, but that didn't negate the history of the Eagles. The only reason you'd associate them with the western suburbs is because they played at Subiaco, the only ground suitable for AFL games at that point. But so did Freo.

Most of the Eagles powerbrokers were from the top end of town and that is the western suburbs. Post game functions were at the Wembley Hotel in the western suburbs (as you probably know). As a Subi fan always felt Eagles were close to Subi and Claremont.

All changed now they moved to Lathlain. I think a ground share with Subi at Stirling was the answer.

I think Subi should still relocate to Stirling and East Perth to the WACA. Leederville can become flats.

 

[pz5151]

I initially considered them to be too unlikely, given all the extra travel they would have to do, but you could easily just put Darwin in with QLD and NZ with NSW/ACT.

Auckland is almost the exact same distance as Perth is from the East Coast, and in addition you have to go through customs and immigration both ways so it’s a much worse flight.

 

[MakeshiftMartyr]

Auckland is almost the exact same distance as Perth is from the East Coast, and in addition you have to go through customs and immigration both ways so it’s a much worse flight.

Exactly why I didn't include them in my initial post.

 

[RedV3x]

It's about time some mods started being more consistent.

 

[Coolangatta]

I initially considered them to be too unlikely, given all the extra travel they would have to do, but you could easily just put Darwin in with QLD and NZ with NSW/ACT.

Or:

A: 5 Vic (Vic West)
B: 5 Vic (Vic East)
C: West Coast, Fremantle, Joondalup, Bunbury, Darwin (Western)
D: Adelaide, Port, Norwood, Sturt, Tasmania (Southern)
E: Sydney, West Sydney, Canberra, Newcastle, NZ (Eastern)
F: Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Cairns, Southport (Northern)

30 teams, conference teams play each other twice = 8 games + play three other conferences once = 23 rounds a year (can still have Gather Round each year). They eventually play other conferences in different seasons, but Vic East and West conferences always play each other once each season to ensure ANZAC day etc are kept.

Conference winners + two best runners up = top 8, top 8 get double chance
Next best 8 ranked teams qualify for final 16

Week 1: 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6, etc, QFs; 9 v 16, 10 v 15 etc EFs
Week 2: Four QF losers v Four EF winners
Week 3: Four QF winners v Four week 2 winners
Week 4: Four week 3 winners play each other
Week 5: Two week 4 winners play each other

tl;dr I think it's good to try and keep the same number of teams in each conference wherever possible. I can't see there being the need for ever more than 30 teams max, with perhaps one or two struggling Vic clubs in the future relocating to regional Vic instead of moving interstate i.e. Ballarat Bulldogs.

 

[Farang83150]

A 30 team conference... imagine the standard of footy in comparison to now

 

[Coolangatta]

A 30 team conference... imagine the standard of footy in comparison to now

Well, we're talking about the reserves comp but I doubt it'll ever happen.

If you look at the existing secondary markets, or secondary markets used in recent years, teams in the ACT and NT after Tasmania don't seem far fetched at all.

I don't see Ballarat ever getting a team, but a struggling Vic club might be more persuaded to relocate there than interstate if things ever got dire for them.

I don't see NZ, SC, Newcastle, or wherever else getting a team unless we start seeing 2-3 games played a year there with good results, and Vic clubs that are unwilling to sell games to these places will probably stop expansion from happening there.

Apparently the Hawks are gonna play some games in Cairns after Launceston, and I doubt the AFL completely pulls out of ACT and NT, so I could see the ACT, NT, and NQ getting sides eventually, but I'm not sure beyond that.

3rd Sydney/2nd Brisbane may be seen as less of a risk since they already play games there frequently.

 

[WilloTree]

Optus Oval would have a better overall percentage capacity usage than the MCG.

OK. I'm still not sure why we're getting rid of it though?

 

[RedV3x]

It's about time some mods started being more consistent.

 

[WilloTree]

Or:

A: 5 Vic (Vic West)
B: 5 Vic (Vic East)
C: West Coast, Fremantle, Joondalup, Bunbury, Darwin (Western)
D: Adelaide, Port, Norwood, Sturt, Tasmania (Southern)
E: Sydney, West Sydney, Canberra, Newcastle, NZ (Eastern)
F: Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Cairns, Southport (Northern)

30 teams, conference teams play each other twice = 8 games + play three other conferences once = 23 rounds a year (can still have Gather Round each year). They eventually play other conferences in different seasons, but Vic East and West conferences always play each other once each season to ensure ANZAC day etc are kept.

Conference winners + two best runners up = top 8, top 8 get double chance
Next best 8 ranked teams qualify for final 16

Week 1: 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6, etc, QFs; 9 v 16, 10 v 15 etc EFs
Week 2: Four QF losers v Four EF winners
Week 3: Four QF winners v Four week 2 winners
Week 4: Four week 3 winners play each other
Week 5: Two week 4 winners play each other

tl;dr I think it's good to try and keep the same number of teams in each conference wherever possible. I can't see there being the need for ever more than 30 teams max, with perhaps one or two struggling Vic clubs in the future relocating to regional Vic instead of moving interstate i.e. Ballarat Bulldogs.

Why?

What's in it for Freo?

 

[Coolangatta]

Why?

What's in it for Freo?

Less travel.

Won't happen, I don't think there's ever going to be 4 teams in WA, and I doubt there'll be 3 in SA and so on.

But what I do know is that if the AFL keep adding 2 teams every 15-20 years then a single-tier competition will eventually become unviable.

And we won't get promotion and relegation since fans are used to seeing their teams play in the top league every year.

 

[WilloTree]

Less travel.

Won't happen, I don't think there's ever going to be 4 teams in WA, and I doubt there'll be 3 in SA and so on.

But what I do know is that if the AFL keep adding 2 teams every 15-20 years then a single-tier competition will eventually become unviable.

And we won't get promotion and relegation since fans are used to seeing their teams play in the top league every year.

It's more travel. Freo/Peel play in the WAFL.

Freo to Darwin is a s**t flight. Hello?

 

[Coolangatta]

It's more travel. Freo/Peel play in the WAFL.

Freo to Darwin is a s**t flight. Hello?

It's not.

In my layout, Fremantle would play 7 games within their conference in WA (1 in Darwin/NT). With the 15 other-conference games, 7 of those would be at home, 7 away, and 1 neutral. So that's 7 Optus games within their conference, 7 against others, so the Dockers would be playing 14 games a year at Optus.

 

[WilloTree]

It's not.

In my layout, Fremantle would play 7 games within their conference in WA (1 in Darwin/NT). With the 15 other-conference games, 7 of those would be at home, 7 away, and 1 neutral. So that's 7 Optus games within their conference, 7 against others, so the Dockers would be playing 14 games a year at Optus.

They play 20 games in Perth if they stay with the current set-up.

It works. It's not broken. No need to travel to Darwin.

 

[pz5151]

Hello, Perth to Sydney is about 3,300 km whilst Sydney to Auckland is about 1,300.
That's Perth twice the distance from Sydney.



It's a much better flight because you can fly Air New Zealand.

Not sure where you’re getting your info but a quick google search confirms my plentiful experience of flights to Auckland. 3:35 Sydney to Auckland, 4:10 Perth to Sydney. Air New Zealand is as trash as the rest. Only airline I’ve had refuse to acknowledge cancelling my flight without informing me was something g they should apologise for

 

[RedV3x]

It's about time some mods started being more consistent.

 

[Tigerlaird]

Could the National Reserves Comp be an avenue for testing out potential expansion teams?

It seems like the Victorian teams largely want to play themselves, which would leave a huge amount of travel for the interstate teams to wear all by themselves.

Would creating some new franchises (or allowing interested existing clubs to join) allow for enough local games to not totally disadvantage the interstate teams?

For example, all the interstate teams play each other at least once, but the teams in their home state twice.

You could then make a case for new AFL teams based on how the reserves sides are doing support-wise, plus they then have a history instead of starting from scratch.

It would be nice to have some existing state-league teams join, but I feel like the AFL would want full control.

Ideally we end up with something like:

WA division:
West Coast
Fremantle
Joondalup
Bunbury

SA division:
Adelaide
Port
Norwood
Sturt

QLD division:
Brisbane
Gold Coast
Southport
Cairns

NSW/ACT division:
Sydney
GWS
Canberra
Newcastle

Each team plays every team in their division twice, all other teams once.

The only outlier is Tassie, but they're probably better off playing in Victoria, playing any of the interstate teams is just extra travel.

Love this idea

 

[Coolangatta]

They play 20 games in Perth if they stay with the current set-up.

It works. It's not broken. No need to travel to Darwin.

What are you talking about? Because I’m talking about the number of home and away games they’re playing.

The Dockers play 12 games in 2024 at Optus, 1 away against the Eagles. I think that’s usually the case each year. Under my proposal they’d play 14 games a year at Optus.

But that said, I doubt we ever get 30 teams. I could see 26 teams of two conferences of five each in Vic, and 4 each in the others, with Tasmania going into SA, NT in QLD, NZ in NSW/ACT, and 4 teams in WA.

In that scenario, Fremantle would still get 14 games a year at Optus: 6 conference games in WA, and of their remaining 17 fixtures against other conference teams, 8 of those in WA. Sometimes they’d get 15 Optus games a year if Gather Round is in WA.

 

[pz5151]

Do a quick Google search - Perth to Sydney is about 3,300 km whilst Sydney to Auckland is about 1,300.

I’m pretty sure you’ve accidentally clicked miles instead of KMs on your Google search for Sydney to Auckland as it’s more than 2,100km (about 1,300 miles). It’s 2,645 from Melbourne to Auckland which is where most of the teams will be travelling from also. The difference is not big and would be overridden by the bigger inconvenience of adding clearing customs and immigration.

 

[RedV3x]

It's about time some mods started being more consistent.

 

[WilloTree]

What are you talking about? Because I’m talking about the number of home and away games they’re playing.

The Dockers play 12 games in 2024 at Optus, 1 away against the Eagles. I think that’s usually the case each year. Under my proposal they’d play 14 games a year at Optus.

But that said, I doubt we ever get 30 teams. I could see 26 teams of two conferences of five each in Vic, and 4 each in the others, with Tasmania going into SA, NT in QLD, NZ in NSW/ACT, and 4 teams in WA.

In that scenario, Fremantle would still get 14 games a year at Optus: 6 conference games in WA, and of their remaining 17 fixtures against other conference teams, 8 of those in WA. Sometimes they’d get 15 Optus games a year if Gather Round is in WA.

Oh. I thought you were talking about the National Reserves comp.