There are 800+ listed AFL players

[gorilla92]

Is this not too large of a number? Surely the competition would be better off with less teams, less players, and more talent. Fold a few teams. The quality players from the folded teams disperse to the remaining teams, with the remaining teams delisting their spuds and replacing them with the quality players. This will result in higher quality and more interesting games, and will attract more fans. Thoughts?

 

[vide0n]

Fold a few teams? Okay, yours first?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[raskolnikov]

Merge the WA teams for a start.

 

[bzparkes]

Fold a few teams? Okay, yours first?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Merge the WA teams for a start.

OP is a troll but gotta laugh at the minnows getting righteous with indignation and suggesting 2 of the most profitable clubs merge or fold...

 

[chriso_luke]

There are too many teams in Melbourne and it's holding back the competition. While it clings to its state league past it will never move forward nationally the way it should

 

[Mr Gurns]

There are too many teams in Melbourne and it's holding back the competition. While it clings to its state league past it will never move forward nationally the way it should

Agreed, I propose the lowest ranked Victorian tems for the next four years drops into the VFL. Starting in 2016

 

[Bokonon]

OP is a troll but gotta laugh at the minnows getting righteous with indignation and suggesting 2 of the most profitable clubs merge or fold...

OP is a troll, that's the issue you skipped over.

 

[wally funk]

[Abe Simpson voice]
Dear AFL Comission,
There are too many teams nowadays. Please eliminate three. I am not a crackpot.

 

[kreglze]

Drop the game to 16 on the field... Opens up the play so it isn't as congested, and you already eliminate 36 players who are plodders right there.

 

[HairyO]

Fold a few teams?

Start with the ones which are each costing an additional $100m over 5 years beyond what any of the other clubs get in compensation.

We can then merge a few teams and get to 14. Dump the preseason and have a 26 week year with every team playing twice. And have a Final 6.

Means the talent at every team will be stronger, and the quality of umpires will improve. Crowds will be better.

The only loser is Foxtel, because they wont be able to show 7 rubbish games and 2 good games each week. Instead they will have 6 good games and 1 rubbish game each week.

That said, given the greed of the AFL the odds of them increasing to 20 is way more than even dropping back to 16. And they will never do something sensible like going back to 14.

 

[Redeye Rambler]

Surely the best way to implement this idea is to eliminate 16 teams and put all the best players into 2 teams. In fact it will work even better if we reduce team sizes to maximise the quality. 1 player per team will give us the highest skilled game. Dangerfield vs fyfe. Every week.

 

[Nutsngum]

An easier way would be to just close Bigfooty and all these kinds of complaints suddenly cease.

 

[Xenthor]

Take away all teams and make it a permanent state of origin. No go home factor and would be bloody amazing watching the Vics destroy someone like NT or Tassie

 

[SterlingArcher]

We should decrease the number of players per team to 3 so we just have Robbo's top 50 + 4 wildcards entering a draft every year.

 

[Dazb86]

There are too many teams in Melbourne and it's holding back the competition. While it clings to its state league past it will never move forward nationally the way it should

Agreed. This years spoon winners should fold and give all their money to the premiers.

 

[Lensen]

There are probably 1000 players who could competently play AFL footy across the country in 2017

Unfortunately because of primarily the draft but also an all encompassing obsession with youff, probably 600 of those top 1000 will be in lists next year with a couple of hundred speculative kids developing in the elite comp

 

[PenAndPaper]

Drop the game to 16 on the field... Opens up the play so it isn't as congested, and you already eliminate 36 players who are plodders right there.

No matter how small the list number is you're still going to have people saying "Oh it should be smaller so we have less of the lower quality footballers"

 

[blitzer]

Some threads appear once every year. They can be annoying. This thread (or variations of it) appears every single month. Its never going to happen. AFL wants more teams, more $'s. The only part the OP got right is that the AFL needs to work on developing more talent to support its current and future number of teams (make no mistake there will be further expansion in 2020s).

Everyone just says "Just get rid of some of the Vic teams" but I absolutely don't support this. These teams have deep histories, loyal fans that have followed them for generations. Honestly I think it would hit the AFL's pockets if they were to just get rid of 2 Vic teams. People would begin to feel differently about AFL. The history and tradition is a big part of why people come back to AFL year after year. Its not like soccer which is just the "in" sport at the moment. People follow AFL for different reasons.

The only realistic thing that could conceivably happen is a relocation or partial relocation (split between 2 locations). Can't see one on the horizon though.

 

[jedi mind tricks]

The issue I have is for every team the AFL introduces the talent pool thins out. 18 is too much especially when some AFL teams need heavy financial support.

 

[The Passenger]

The history and tradition is a big part of why people come back to AFL year after year.

In 120 years only two teams - University and Fitzroy - have been removed from the VFL/AFL, whilst South Melbourne relocated to Sydney. Very few professional sporting leagues around the world could lay claim to such stability.

 

[Heardy_101]

*Reads title, sees thread started by gorilla92*

Please don't be a troll.....

AANNNNDD it's a troll thread started by a blatant troll.

Come on Mods and Admins, why is this clot still allowed to post??

 

[Bokonon]

Some threads appear once every year. They can be annoying. This thread (or variations of it) appears every single month. Its never going to happen. AFL wants more teams, more $'s. The only part the OP got right is that the AFL needs to work on developing more talent to support its current and future number of teams (make no mistake there will be further expansion in 2020s).

Everyone just says "Just get rid of some of the Vic teams" but I absolutely don't support this. These teams have deep histories, loyal fans that have followed them for generations. Honestly I think it would hit the AFL's pockets if they were to just get rid of 2 Vic teams. People would begin to feel differently about AFL. The history and tradition is a big part of why people come back to AFL year after year. Its not like soccer which is just the "in" sport at the moment. People follow AFL for different reasons.

The only realistic thing that could conceivably happen is a relocation or partial relocation (split between 2 locations). Can't see one on the horizon though.

Hence the academies providing a pathway to the AFL in the Northern states. Heeney for example was a prime athlete that the Swans academy brought into AFL. You never know alternate futures but no academy for a Newcastle boy likely would have meant he played another sport. Realistically an AFL player needs to commit at a young age to develop physically to our game. We saw with Hunt and Folau that adults cant convert. Both were prime athletes who'd spent years in the gym developing strength and explosive speed needed fir the Neanderthal game.
I get the argument that all clubs should have academies on the same terms and it makes sense to me. I even support the argument from a WC supporter that the WA clubs should get recruitment advantages if their outreach programmes in WA increase the pool of talent available.
It's clear to me that to expand the academies not to whine about the help they undoubtedly give the Northern clubs is the answer.
Also bear in mind they are funded by the clubs through donations and soonsorships.

The last thing the game needs is to close or fail to support any club .

 

[jameses]

There are too many teams in Melbourne and it's holding back the competition. While it clings to its state league past it will never move forward nationally the way it should

lol... so easy in theory. Fold a couple of teams and all their supporters, will of course, just choose to support another team, just as passionately right?

If Hawthorn were to fold or merge I would not follow any team in the AFL. Fold a couple Victorian teams and you would lose a massive chunk of supporters invested in the game. People follow club's, not the 'growth of the game'.

 

[Cmarsh]

In 120 years only two teams - University and Fitzroy - have been removed from the VFL/AFL, whilst South Melbourne relocated to Sydney. Very few professional sporting leagues around the world could lay claim to such stability.

True.
There have been so many incarnations/relocations of US teams in the major leagues

 

[Sttew]

Agreed, I propose the lowest ranked Melbourne teams for the next four years drops into the VFL. Starting in 2016

EFA.....Geelong is not in Melbourne