Portfolio NFC; Aussie Rules' SuperLeague

[Damo Crows Fan]

Other designers have worked up portfolios with this idea before (craegus , I think, was one?). So this isn't a new concept, but one I've wanted to put my spin on for a while.

OK, bit of background on this idea. It's set in an alternate version of the 90's, where the Murdoch Press aimed their money and ambition towards the AFL rather than the NFL. They established a rival league, cashed up and powerful, and went head to to head with the AFL. this portfolio is as much about this alternate history as it is a vehicle for some new designs.

In 1994, the Murdoch owned New Limited registered a trademarked name. The National Football Competition or NFC was officially born on the 12 of January of that year. Their aim was to create a truly national Australian Rules competition, representing each state, and with ambitions to include the territories.

They aimed to lure fledgling clubs to their cause, and entice existing Semi-Pro clubs.

In 1996, a Supreme Court injunction expired, allowing them to recruit AFL listed players, and buy the licenses of AFL clubs.

In 1997, the NFC ran it's first and only competition, before merging with the AFL to form the Australian Football Competition, or AFC.

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

Part 1:

The NFC launched in 1997, with a team in every state and 3 in Victoria, following a High Court decision allowing the competition to buy out the licenses of AFL clubs.

Initially, the competition focussed on semi pro or fledgling AFL clubs (Fremantle and Port Adelaide), but saw the need for a presence in Victoria.

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

clubs will be posted in the order in which they joined the competition.

Fremantle Dockers

The AFL had planned on inducting the Fremantle based team into their competition in 1995, but were ultimately blocked when the consortium behind the dockside club was wooed by claims from the NFC that there competition would, firsstly, pay more, and secondly offer a greater, less Victorian-centric competition. however the sweatner was the claim that the competition had already signed the Port Adelaide Magpies to the comp. This was a barefaced lie, but was enough to get the 'Dockers' onside.

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

Port Adelaide Magpies

Port Adelaide, after being burnt by both the AFL and the SANFL, were eager to join the new competition. This was great news for the NFC who needed to hold to their promise to the Fremantle Dockers that they had signed the Powerhouse SA club.

The Magpies entered the comp with a distinctly bold and 90's away jumper, sporting a lightening bolt and a unique colour choice in teal.

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

South Queensland Sharks

Another key to the NFC was having a strong presence north of the Barassi Line, which was something they felt the AFL had not yet achieved in 1994. Both Brisbane and Sydney were struggling on and off field at this stage and the News Ltd comp felt they were vulnerable to strong competition.

Immediately after securing two strong clubs in heartland states, NFC organisers now felt they could establish their presence in the expansion states, and quickly announced the South Coast Sharks, who re-branded as the South Queensland Sharks, as their champions in the sunshine state.

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

Sydney City Stingers

Sydney was a harder state to establish a presence in than Queensland, with a lesser state competition to draw a team form. So the NFC decided to launch their own club into the market, and so the Sydney City Stingers were born.

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

Tasmanians FC

Tasmania was the next state to some under NFC attention, but it wasn't until late in 1995, almost a full year after the signing of South Coast, Fremantle and Port Adelaide that the Tasmanians Football Club was born. This was in part due to a sever divide between Launceston and Hobart over who would/could host the club, and increased legal onslaughts from the AFL. This put the NFC project on the back burner for a full year, until the Tasmanian State Government stepped in, throwing their full support behind the Tasmanians FC, settling the fight over the North South divide (splitting home game numbers between the two cities) and even funding the project, allowing News Limited to push on further with their project.

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

Perth Royals and Norwood Sturt Unions

After the massive delays of 1995 and massive costs of legal battles with the AFL, the NFC had to look less at establishing brand new clubs, and focus on established state league clubs. They then turned to eager parties from the WAFL, SANFL and VFL, and eventually signed East Perth (renamed the Perth Royals), followed by the joint venture of Norwood and Sturt fomr Adelaide's affluent Eastern Suburbs.

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

North Melbourne

After establishing themselves in the football heartland and north of the Barassi Line, and after winning a prolonged high court battle with the AFL to allow the competition to go ahead in 1997, the NFC was on a high in 1996.

However, the competition organisers knew that the success of the competition hinged on having a presence in Melbourne.

Their dreams were realized in a shocking announcement by North Melbourne, who declared that they were willing and ready to join the fledgling competition. They placed this decision down to a need for greater exposure in interstate markets, and revealing that their financial situation was precarious at best following their failed merger bid with Fitzroy.

This news was greeted with jubilation by the NFC organisers, who saw this as their entry into the seriously lucrative Melbourne Market.

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

Southern Seagulls, Punt Road Tigers, and the Highwaymen.

The Kangaroos joining the NFC was a surprise for the AFL, but the effect of the club leaving was a complete shock to both leagues.

The Kangaroos, while struggling off field, were a powerhouse on, and would go on to win the AFL premiership that year. Seemingly buoyed by the idea of such a strong on field unit jumping ship, two more battling Melbourne clubs, the Richmond Tigers and St Kilda Saints, also announced an interest in crossing over.

For both clubs, the opportunity to exploit a Melbourne market was unique and lucritive, as was the promise of greater national exposure and massive amounts of money form the impending Pay TV rights deal.

The loss of these three clubs would shock the AFL into, what some have called, 'petty legal action,' and eventually won in blocking the clubs using the names Richmond and St Kilda, claiming them as trade marks. This bothered the clubs little, with the Tigers taking on the iconic 'Punt Road' moniker and the Saints seeing the opportunity to appeal to a much wider market then before by marketing themselves as 'Southern' Melbourne's team.

Once the two iconic Melbourne based clubs had joined the NFC, the News Lmtd organisers began to smell blood in the water, and recognised an opportunity to win the war with one battle. They realised that if they could take Geelong, that football mad city right in the heartland, they would go along way towards winning the war.
They began making extreme and exorbitant offers to the club and it's players, and for at least 2 months of 1996 the News lmtd and Geelong officials were engaged in negotiations. It took an impassioned speech by the great Geelogn stalwart Bobby Davis to convince the Cats to stay with the AFL.
This enraged the NFC officials, who swore to blow the Cats out of the water with their own team, which they created seemingly overnight- the Geelong Highwaymen.

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

AFL Clubs



During the 'Year of Two Leagues,' the AFL became a distinctly Victorian competition once again. 7 of their 11 clubs were now Victorian, and their plans for expanding out to SA and WA again had been dashed.

Surprisingly, this strong Melbourne presence was their saving grace. That year, the far flung NFC teams incured massive costs from travel. Their interstate clubs, many merely expanded semi-pro, state league teams, struggled against the big three Melbourne teams, and ugly blow outs started to become the norm.

Norwood Sturt Unions also suffered for popularity as their direct competition, the Adelaide Crows, would go on to have a dominant year and win the AFL Grand Final.

The NFC's expansion clubs north of the Barassi Line found the going very tough, especially as their AFL counterparts began to go through an unexpected resurgence. The Sydney City Stingers were immediately unpopular, and averaged a miserly 4,000 people to their home games, and the Southern Queensland Sharks struggled to gain any relevance in the NRL mad south Queensland market.

By the end of the 1997, the NFC was hemeraging money, as was the AFL, who were suffering form the costs of their legal challenges. The game itself was also suffering with a poor quality product on field resulting in a poor turn out from the general public.

At the end of the 1997 season, which saw the Crows win the AFL premiership, and the Kangaroos winning the only ever NFC Cup, the two leagues came together to merge their businesses. They would opporate together from the 1998 season, under the new banner of the Australian Football Competition or AFC.

 

[IQ3]

Love your work Damo

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

Love your work Damo

Thanks man means alot!

 

[Fizzler]

Does the story keep going?

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

Does the story keep going?

I should have part 2 up within the next few days I reckon.

 

[Fizzler]

I should have part 2 up within the next few days I reckon.

That's great then because this is a good thread

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

Part 2:

1998 was the first year the AFL and NFC had come together to form a competition. The new AFC competitions first challenge after establishing the leagues officials and corporate structure, was establishing the make up of th league. Which teams would be included, and in fact how many teams, was a subject of much discussion and in fighting amongst the clubs as to who deserved a spot in the new competition.

It was decided in the first year to allow 2 teams from each expansion states and all ten Melbourne clubs.

Both sides entered the arrangement with clear cut agendas. News Lmtd insisted on and succeeded in keeping ownership of their clubs in the comp. They also insisted on a clear mandate to increase the number of clubs based away from Melbourne to ten by 2010.
The AFL insisted on having control over the scheduling and season by season running of the league, keeping the News Lmtd agenda out of the running of the game.

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

Western Australia

In the countries West, a neat compramise was agreed to between the warring factions. The financial powerhouse West Coast Eagles were an obvious choice to remain in the comp. Fremantle were the obvious second team for WA, as both competitions wanted the presence the affluent dockside suburb.

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

South Australia

South Australia was also gifted with an obvious choice of teams. Adelaide were the reigning premiers from the AFL, and Port Adelaide had very quickly become a powerhouse of the NFC with a massively loyal supporter base and deep pockets.

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

Queensland

Queensland's team situation should have been very simple, just as SA and WA had been- the AFL and the NFC's teams both getting included and the News Lmtd running thier entity. However the AFL were hesitant to include a second team in the Brisbane market, despite the agreement between the twin managements.
It was agreed eventually to put a years conditional contract onto the South Queensland Sharks, and the teams ability to remain competitive would be reviewed before the 1999 season.

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

NSW

The NFC's Sydney contribution was immediately under threat from the moment the merger was achieved. The Stingers were simply not bringing in suitable crowds for a professional sporting team. Eventually it was agreed to merge the two Sydney teams, in which the Swnas would retain their colours and name, but gain the financial security of a News Lmtd ownership deal.

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

Victoria

Victoria, while initially rejoicing the fact that the merger deal aloud for all ten Victorian clubs to enter the new league, quickly discovered the new corporate world of football was a harsh one.
Tradition was quickly under threat as a the new league demanded new rules surrounding away kits, some name changes, and even complete relocations as all clubs (except for Geelong) were relocated to the MCG for games.

Collingwood were instructed to change their names to avoid a collision conflict with the Port Adelaide Magpies, who had a longer historical claim to the name. Essendon were told the name 'Bombers' was not 'PC' enough for new audiences and markets, and, despite a fan petition to the contrary, St Kilda remained the Souther Seagulls.

The Battle for Geelong, the fight that would win the wore, was won by the Geelong Cats. Their NFC opponents, the Highwaymen, quickly became the most hated team in Aussie Rules, despised by all in Geelong and across the football land. They were quickly scrapped at the end of 1997, and the Cat's were installed as the team for Geelong.

Carlton Blues


Collingwood Woods.


Essendon Jets


Geelong Cats


Hawthorn Hawks


North Melbourne Kangaroos


Melbourne Demons


Southern Seagulls


Richmond Tigers


Western Bulldogs

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

Part 3:

In 1999 the AFC went through it's first massive change up. A club threatened legal action over a jumper, a club was relocated interstte for the first time since the 1970's, two clubs were lost to financial turmoil initially, and two clubs were forced into a merger.

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

Essendon's Jumper Dramas:

Essendon had already encountered it's unfair share of forced changes since the merger of the leagues. They had already been forced to take on the name the Jets after their old name was deemed unpopular in new markets, but in 1999 they were forced to take on a new away jumper that didn't clash with the Southern Saints. This move was met with massive backlash from the fans, who already felt harshly dealt with compared to other Victorian clubs (at least Collingwood's/Port Adelaide's dilemma had a historical background), and when the jumper decision was handed down, many called for legal action against News lmtd to force an injunction against any more changes being forced upon the club. This call fell short, but the mistrust remained between league and club, and the jumper that was eventually approved ended up causing more lashes then it solved.

 

[Damo Crows Fan]

Southern Saints and Western Kangaroos.

By the end of the 1998 season, the Tasmanians FC had suffered massive financial losses. The split between the two home bases, as well as poor corporate support, led to the club having to fold.
This sad folding of a sentimental fan favourite completely flew in the face of the NFC's mandate to keep clubs interstate. To cover the loss, the competition decided to relocate one of their corporately owned clubs, and unfortunately for St Kilda fans, they chose to move the Seagulls, in order to also meet their unspoken mandate of having less teams in Victoria.

This gave rise to the Hobart based Southern Saints.

Before the News lmtd owned side moved, another 'corporate club' was in a bad situation. The North Melbourne Kangaroos had been suffering from financial issues since their move to the NFC. Despite the money made by winning the comps premiership, they still had trouble settling their long term debts. They were also suffering form having some of the worst facilities in the league at Arden Street, and a bleak economic outlook for the future. This lead to News lmtd losing patience with the club at the end of the 1998 season, and demanding the club merge or relocate out of Melbourne.
Eventually a willing merger partner was found out west. The Western Bulldogs had also been long time financial strugglers, and agreed to the security of News lmtd ownership, and the on field advantage of North Melbourne's championship list. The new club would base itself in Melbourne's West, but keep the title of Kangaroos.

Southern Saints


Western Kangaroos