Should the AFL to introduce an FA Cup style competition with regional teams

[WCE2000]

Do you think the AFL should organize an FA Cup style competition between all the clubs in the regional leagues -

VFL: Werribee, Springvale, Box Hill Hawks, Frankston, Sandringham, Coburg, North Ballarat, Williamstown, Tasmania, Northern Bullants, Bendigo. (the VFL feeder sides to AFL clubs would not compete, i don't know if any of those sides i haven't deleted are feeder clubs) - 11 sides

SANFL: Central Districts Bulldogs, Glenelg Tigers, North Adelaide Roosters, Norwood Redlegs, Port Adelaide Magpies, South Adelaide Panthers, Sturt, West Adelaide, Woodville-West Torrens Eagles. - 9 sides

WAFL: Claremont, East Fremantle, East Perth, Peel, Perth, South Fremantle, Subiaco, Swan Districts, West Perth. - 9 sides

QAFL: Northern Eagles, Redlands, Morningside, Mt Gravatt, Southport, Broadbeach, Labrador, Western Magpies, Mayne. - 9 sides

SFL: Brighton Robins, Channel Saints, Clarence, Claremont Magpies, Cygnet, Glenorchy, Hobart, Hounville Lions, Kermandie Kangaroos, Kingston Tigers, Lauderdale Cats, Lidisfarne Blues, New Norfolk Hawks, North Hobart Demons, Sorrell Eagles. - 15 sides

SAFL: UNSW-ES Bulldogs, East Coast Eagles, St George, North Shore, Pennant Hills, Campbelltown, Balmain, Western Suburbs. - 8 sides

There is 61 sides there, so we could see if we can get 3 other clubs from somwhere.

The questions you have to ask:

1. how much would it cost the AFL to run the competition
2. Would the public support it

What do yous think??

 

[raboyle]

Your idea sounds pretty good. I remember reading about the old style Champions of Australia thing. I read that Norwood played East Perth in the Grand Final, where the Redlegs downed the Royals to win the Ardath Cup, and North Adelaide playing Carlton at Adelaide Oval in the early 70's.

That would be cool to bring it back. As for adding sides to an FA cup style thing, the Northern Territory Football League probably wouldn't join because of their seasonal clashes--see, they play their footy when we are watching cricket! But no matter, seeing as the NT will probably be joining the SANFL in 2002 or 2003 so the AFL would have the bases covered for such a competition.

 

[play on]

Frankston, North Ballarat, Tasmania, Northern Bullants and Bendigo are the only stand alone VFL clubs. AFL stand alone clubs are Carlton Essenscum, Geelong and Murray Kangaroos. All other AFL clubs are with a VFL side.

I would love an FA cup style series. I would have VFL sides involved who have merged with an AFL club. Any VFL side who have merged with an AFL side would not be allowed to have any AFL players in the side. They would have to use some of the players in the VFL reserves. I would not have any stand alone AFL clubs in the comp.


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[ptw]

I think it would be great !!!

but stuff the AFL we don't need them to run it....the state leagues just need to get together.

You could cut down on costs by making it a bit like the European cup compeitions.

From the end of year ladder....

take the top 4 sides from SA, WA and VFL plus the premiers from Tas, QLD, ACT and NT and you have a 16 team cup.

This can be played over 4 weeks which could be built into the draws as byes for the club teams and state games could be played on some of these as well.

If you started with all the SA sides playing each other and all the WA sides then it would not cost much as you would not have to travel until the last 8 sides.

ptw

 

[Uncle Steve]

A Lament

Nice idea - but that's about it.

It would have been nice if the "national" football league had been put together like this to start with. Back in the '70s and '80s the better SANFL (and I assume WAFL) sides were strong enough to have been competitive with the then VFL sides, as they often demonstrated in the preseason and end of season comps. Having them all play together as individual clubs in an FA cup style format would have been viable, IMO. SA & WA teams' stocks would have been bolstered by the fact that the SA & WA sides would command the same level of sponsorship & funsing as the Vic clubs, as they would all have been playing in the same league with national exposure - and this would have very much slowed the player drain to Victoria as well. We could have had a real national (well - 3 states) competition with real clubs.

Instead we have the AFL, which was never about making the game national, but rather it was about propping up the weaker Victorian clubs. Those Victorian clubs can hardly be described as "clubs" anymore. Having long left their suburban roots, they are more akin to businesses than football clubs. They have no life, no soul; the average supporter cannot get near them. The non-Victorian "clubs" have even less claim to the moniker; amorphous identities with no history.

In response to your initial suggestion, again I say that I like the idea - but I think footy is too far gone to be able to do this. There are many factors working against it. The $ required to stage this would be huge - hard to see it coming when the AFL commands the sponsorship dollar. The various leagues have vastly different skill levels - did you see the result when the SANFLs wooden spooner played one of the higher ranked QAFL teams in a trial match this year? Interest in the state leagues is much, much lower compared to that of the AFL - and while a "superleague" like this would create more interest, it would also be seen as competition to the AFL - and I don't think Mr. Jackson and his cronies would be too happy about this. As far as the SANFL is concerned, the SANFL teams are strongly linked to the 2 local AFL teams - the SANFL clubs need the Crows/Port profits, and Crows/Port need a league in which to field their reserves.

So - nice idea, I do like it, really - but it isn't going to happen. Ever.

 

[Joe Mama]

I think that's a top idea, but i've got another suggestion. Whoever wins the Victorian Country Football League or V.M.F.L Championship or similar competitions in regional and metropolitan areas in W.A and South Australia should play for this championship, similar to what Rugby League did in the seventies where they had regional rep. teams like the Riverena play against the big clubs.

I could imagine a Ovens and Murray, Eastern League and Goulburn Valley rep.team really taking it up to a Glenelg or a West Perth.

 

[Sydneyfan]

Yeah, I reckon it's a good idea. I'd like to see it if it ever happened. The good thing about the FA Cup is that every year there's at least one surprise packet team that goes far into the rounds beating more fancied opponents. It'd be good if the same thing ever happened in Aussie Rules.

 

[WCE2000]

I was going to let his topic fade out, but because SydneyFan brought back up, i thought i'd also mentioned there are a number of other leagues that could get a run in it.

Just a quick look on Yahoo! and a found out of a number of other competitions:

Black Diamond AFL - Newcastle and Central Coast Region
Diamond Valley Football League - North Melbourne
Eastern Football League - East Melbourne
Geelong Football League - Geelong
New Zealand AFL - 14 teams over in New Zealand
Northern Territory Football League
Victorian Amatuer Football Assocation
Victorian Country Football League

So, if you got a whole number of leagues together, you could easily get 64 teams, that would all at least be competitive. And if you wanted a really expansive competition you could probably get 128 teams together - however there could be a large descreptancy in the team's.

 

[play on]

Add the Essendon district football league to that.


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Play on says the umpire
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[play on]

This league still has no website.


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Play on says the umpire
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[killer]

Just for info
Northern Territory Football League went broke
and was bailled out by the afl its now called "aflnt"

 

[Rob]

The problem is cost. 64 teams travelling all around the country would cost millions, and unless you can find sponsors to pay for it (which is unlikely), it aint going to happen.

You'd be better off campaigning for the premier sides in Australia to play off against each other. There'd only be 5 or 6.

 

[raboyle]

I agree with the last poster, Rob.

This FA cup thing should be a competition where the Premiers of each state league could play each other. That would have been cool for me last year because my team Centrals are the reigning premiers in SA. We could have played teams like Sandringham, East Perth etc. But there would not be enough teams.

 

[mud n blood]

We've discussed this before .... it does cost bucks, and I can assure you only 3 Qld clubs could afford the travel.

I do love the idea .... we used to have it in the mid-70s and early-80s in the form of the Escort Cup. (I still have results of how the local teams were belted by you southerners!) We then began to field our Qld rep side against the big boys. We went okay at first, but eventually the professionalism of the Vic, SA and WA clubs killed us anyway.

I remember going to Footscray v Qld at the Gabba, VFA v Qld at the Gabba and Port Melbourne v Qld matches at Zillmere. I vaguely remember going to a Windsor-Zillmere v ? match at Mayne (thinking back, it may have been a SA club ....) as well. Needless to say, we won none of these Escort Cup games!!!!

 

[ptw]

You can overcome some of the costs by having all the teams in one state play themselves first. You then only travel once you get to 16 or even 8 teams.

Again, if you start with the finalists from the previous year in each comp then it also reduces the number of teams and hence the number of weeks the comp needs to be played over.

ptw

 

[BomberBoy]

no nt team in that list

 

[BomberBoy]

Originally posted by killer
Just for info
Northern Territory Football League went broke
and was bailled out by the afl its now called "aflnt"

umm i dunno where u are getting your info from

Yes, the NTFL is now called AFLNT ( a crap name i must say)

but it did not go broke.

Unless they are hiding something.

 

[Sturt4AFL]

I suggested something similar last year on aus.sport.aussie-rules the variation however being that the Grand Finalists only in each league (I think I had identifed 8 leagues) and IIRC the premiers getting to play round 1 home. Assuming no draws then you have:-

16 teams week 1 with 8 teams flying.
8 teams week 2 with at most 4 teams flying.
4 teams week 3 with at most 2 teams flying.
2 teams week 4 with at most 1 teams flying.

The leagues have already changed but as there are 6 States and two Territories 8 is a good number.

Four rounds also lended itself (in my mind) to a pre-season competition. I had also suggested that all current AFL listed players are ineligible (to make up for differing eligibility rules in leagues).

That means at most 15 teams flying, which suggests an airline as a sponsor. It would give an opportunity for recruiters, managers etc to also get a look at up-and-comers.

I even emailed this to the AFL at the time. There was no reply.