What if Australian Football was nr 1 in all states from the beginning?

[terrybull]

What would the AFL look like today if NSW/QLD/ACT had Australian Football as their number one winter sport and Rugby was little obscure sport?

Would it been a war of poaching players between the VFL vs NSWFL? How would the other states been affected with now more then 20 teams trying to lure their best talent way from them with big bucks instead of just 12?

How would have the AFL been formed? Would it have started with NSWFL getting teams from QLD, NT and the ACT to join them? While VFL would get teams from SA and Tas? While WA be split and have teams in both competitions?

And finally merging it all together? Divisions?

I think many clubs we know today would have folded or forced to join local leagues as what happened recently with Fitzroy.

While it would have probably good for our game, for many of today's AFL clubs it would be a disaster.

Thoughts?

 

[telsor]

Less than 2 months until off season is over....

 

[terrybull]

Less than 2 months until off season is over....

Being in Sweden in the middle of winter makes it worse, so need thoughts so my brain don't freeze

 

[Gavin Excell]

Grand final would still be played at the MCG

 

[Wackelpudding]

What would the AFL look like today if NSW/QLD/ACT had Australian Football as their number one winter sport and Rugby was little obscure sport?

Would it been a war of poaching players between the VFL vs NSWFL? How would the other states been affected with now more then 20 teams trying to lure their best talent way from them with big bucks instead of just 12?

How would have the AFL been formed? Would it have started with NSWFL getting teams from QLD, NT and the ACT to join them? While VFL would get teams from SA and Tas? While WA be split and have teams in both competitions?

And finally merging it all together? Divisions?

I think many clubs we know today would have folded or forced to join local leagues as what happened recently with Fitzroy.

While it would have probably good for our game, for many of today's AFL clubs it would be a disaster.

Thoughts?

NSW pokies money (their sporting clubs were allowed pokies decades before the rest of the country) would have made the "NSWFL" by far the strongest league and the national competition would be a Sydney-centric league, in the same way as the NRL is for rugby league.

 

[Gavin Excell]

NSW pokies money (their sporting clubs were allowed pokies decades before the rest of the country) would have made the "NSWFL" by far the strongest league and the national competition would be a Sydney-centric league, in the same way as the NRL is for rugby league.

Only trouble is theyd be crap at it if you look at the fact NSW is owned by Qld in league and a NSW dominated union team cant get pass bloody NZ

 

[74561347]

if wishes were fishes we'd all cast nets in the sea

 

[bluebob1]

you already should know the answer. the test team. the blue cap come with a baggy green as folklore goes. so 6 of the best 10 players in the league would be from nsw on average

 

[Rimmer]

Australian rules was invented to keep cricketers fit in the off season, if it was prominent in all states maybe we would be doing better in all forms of cricket

 

[Cmarsh]

Less than 2 months until off season is over....

I actually think the MB has has some really interesing threads this offseason.

 

[Supercoach Bargain]

No rectangular stadiums anywhere. No shi*fight over Sydney redevelopment.

 

[parmy2balmey]

carlton would have had the 1995 premiership taken off them and essendon would have pleaded guilty to doping

 

[HavUEvaSeenTheRain]

carlton would have had the 1995 premiership taken off them and essendon would have pleaded guilty to doping

I think you're confusing Carlton 95 with Essendon 93

 

[parmy2balmey]

I think you're confusing Carlton 95 with Essendon 93

i think carlton were confusing greg williams with a landscaper from Amigo Constructions

 

[terrybull]

Australian rules was invented to keep cricketers fit in the off season, if it was prominent in all states maybe we would be doing better in all forms of cricket

I think the problem was they called the sport Victorian Rules back then

 

[terrybull]

NSW pokies money (their ldsporting clubs were allowed pokies decades before the rest of the country) would have made the "NSWFL" by far the strongest league and the national competition would be a Sydney-centric league, in the same way as the NRL is for rugby league.

So a Western Suburbs Magpies would not have allowed Collingwood to use their moniker or play in black and white? Sweet

 

[Sttew]

What would the AFL look like today if NSW/QLD/ACT had Australian Football as their number one winter sport and Rugby was little obscure sport?

Would it been a war of poaching players between the VFL vs NSWFL? How would the other states been affected with now more then 20 teams trying to lure their best talent way from them with big bucks instead of just 12?

How would have the AFL been formed? Would it have started with NSWFL getting teams from QLD, NT and the ACT to join them? While VFL would get teams from SA and Tas? While WA be split and have teams in both competitions?

And finally merging it all together? Divisions?

I think many clubs we know today would have folded or forced to join local leagues as what happened recently with Fitzroy.

While it would have probably good for our game, for many of today's AFL clubs it would be a disaster.

Thoughts?

Interesting hypothetical. Raises such questions as:

• Would NSW be the 'seat of power' of Australian football?
• Would the MCG have been developed into the coliseum it is today?
• How many Victorian teams would there be in a national comp, and who would they be (assuming QLD and NSW had far greater numbers than present arrangement)?
• Would we have two genuine national competitions, e.g., AFL & NFL, with the winner of both competitions playing off in a "super Bowl" type final?
• What would Melbourne as a city be like? In winter and arguably 365 days of the year it is a football-centric city

 

[deflated]

Got a bit of time so let's merge some sporting histories:
- the rival VFL and NSWFL merge in 1950 to create a single AFL; expansion follows to QLD (1970), WA (1986) and SA (1991). Tasmania were briefly represented in the mid-90's during the Super League era only for the team to fold in 1998.
- the St George Swans do the Red V proud and win 11 GF in a row backed by WA imports and all sorts of dodgy money flowing out of the Football Club in Kogarah.
- the Magpies spiritual home is now Lidcombe Oval; the fans are exactly the same
- the struggling Newtown and Fitzroy clubs merge in the mid-80's to form the Fitzroy Jets, only to become the most boring grand finalist in living memory under the coaching of Warren Ryan
- the initial intake of Legends into the AFL Hall of Fame includes Jack Dyer, Haydn Bunton, Ted Whitten, Bob Skilton, Polly Farmer, Clive Churchill, Reg Gasnier and Mark Ella.
- the reintroduction of State of Origin in 1980 with a game between NSW and Vic was massively successful, sparked in no small part by Victorian Leigh Matthews belting club teammate Mick Cronin at the opening bounce followed by a series of brawls throughout the game. QLD, SA and WA join in 1995 for everyone to play a couple of games in the pinnacle of Australian Rules football.
- John Eales redefines the Ruck position in the 90's with a couple of Brownlows and a Coleman ending in a GF win for the Queensland Reds.
- a combination of unhappy Vic clubs and Rupert Murdoch's ego lead to the Super League split in 1997. The former 'big 4' VFL clubs with both Bulldogs (Canterbury and Footscray) and the newly formed Canberra Raiders plus expansion teams in Tas, Newcastle and Fremantle form a breakaway competition. After a bitter fight the rival competitions merged, losing Footscray, Hobart, St Kilda, North Sydney, Cronulla and Balmain in the process. The competition stabilised into a two conference 24 team league and after 45 years of wrangling Richmond finally wins the right to be the Tigers. The Fremantle Storm, buoyed by bucketload of Murdoch money look set for years.
- after 40 years of alternating GF's between the MCG and SCG Perth finally get a stadium big enough to host the game and get the 2000 GF between Essendon and an underdog Newcastle Knights team.
- 2012 saw the Fremantle Storm win the first of three GFs in the decade, built on their dynamic midfield of Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Sam Mitchell.
Their rise coincided with an unparalleled dominant run in State of Origin for Victoria, winning 10 straight games and raising questions on the relevance on SOO in the modern game.

 

[The Goon]

Got a bit of time so let's merge some sporting histories:
- the rival VFL and NSWFL merge in 1950 to create a single AFL; expansion follows to QLD (1970), WA (1986) and SA (1991). Tasmania were briefly represented in the mid-90's during the Super League era only for the team to fold in 1998.

Love the effort, but as you said mostly merging histories. Would love some good speculative fiction on this.

 

[kid_a]

Id guess eventually, probably around the 70´s the Vic and NSW league would merge to create a ´national league´, some of the smaller clubs in each state may not have the resources in the league and would probs drop down a grade to stay solvent.
You would assume not long after that happening new franchises from wa, qld and sa wold follow, pretty much just like what happened in reality but a bit sooner.
With the vastly larger number of teams (and indeed talent pool) the league would probably have to take on a divisional structure, probably something like the sports in north america.
One would imagine in addition to most of the current vic clubs and the 2 wa and 2 sa clubs we already have there wold probably by at least half a dozen nsw clubs, 3 or 4 qld clubs, a tasmanian and a a.c.t club.
So today it´d look something like this:
Wills Conference:
West Coast/Perth
Fremantle
Adelaide
Port Adelaide
Geelong
Melbourne
St.Kilda
Hawthorn
Richmond
Essendon
Carlton
Collingwood
Canberra
Tasmania

Barassi Conference:
North QLD
Brisbane
Ipswich
Gold Coast
Newcastle
Manly
Parramatta
Woolongong
South Sydney
Sydney
Cronulla
Penrith
Canterbury
New Zealand

State tournaments or at least state games id expect to probably still take place.
Understandably the pecking order of which state has the best footballing talent would drastically change also.

 

[Colonial]

Got a bit of time so let's merge some sporting histories:
- the rival VFL and NSWFL merge in 1950 to create a single AFL; expansion follows to QLD (1970), WA (1986) and SA (1991). Tasmania were briefly represented in the mid-90's during the Super League era only for the team to fold in 1998.
- the St George Swans do the Red V proud and win 11 GF in a row backed by WA imports and all sorts of dodgy money flowing out of the Football Club in Kogarah.
- the Magpies spiritual home is now Lidcombe Oval; the fans are exactly the same
- the struggling Newtown and Fitzroy clubs merge in the mid-80's to form the Fitzroy Jets, only to become the most boring grand finalist in living memory under the coaching of Warren Ryan
- the initial intake of Legends into the AFL Hall of Fame includes Jack Dyer, Haydn Bunton, Ted Whitten, Bob Skilton, Polly Farmer, Clive Churchill, Reg Gasnier and Mark Ella.
- the reintroduction of State of Origin in 1980 with a game between NSW and Vic was massively successful, sparked in no small part by Victorian Leigh Matthews belting club teammate Mick Cronin at the opening bounce followed by a series of brawls throughout the game. QLD, SA and WA join in 1995 for everyone to play a couple of games in the pinnacle of Australian Rules football.
- John Eales redefines the Ruck position in the 90's with a couple of Brownlows and a Coleman ending in a GF win for the Queensland Reds.
- a combination of unhappy Vic clubs and Rupert Murdoch's ego lead to the Super League split in 1997. The former 'big 4' VFL clubs with both Bulldogs (Canterbury and Footscray) and the newly formed Canberra Raiders plus expansion teams in Tas, Newcastle and Fremantle form a breakaway competition. After a bitter fight the rival competitions merged, losing Footscray, Hobart, St Kilda, North Sydney, Cronulla and Balmain in the process. The competition stabilised into a two conference 24 team league and after 45 years of wrangling Richmond finally wins the right to be the Tigers. The Fremantle Storm, buoyed by bucketload of Murdoch money look set for years.
- after 40 years of alternating GF's between the MCG and SCG Perth finally get a stadium big enough to host the game and get the 2000 GF between Essendon and an underdog Newcastle Knights team.
- 2012 saw the Fremantle Storm win the first of three GFs in the decade, built on their dynamic midfield of Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Sam Mitchell.
Their rise coincided with an unparalleled dominant run in State of Origin for Victoria, winning 10 straight games and raising questions on the relevance on SOO in the modern game.

Well done.

Except the part about Balmain dying. Again.

That and 10 straight Vic victories over NSW.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

[Benny78]

Being in Sweden in the middle of winter makes it worse, so need thoughts so my brain don't freeze

Go catch a 20kg Atlantic salmon spawning in the river or something sheesh

 

[coniglio_number1]

If NSW and QLD were both afl heartlands then Australia would suck at international sports

 

[didaksrightfoot]

I actually don't think this is that bad a thread. For me (and I know this isn't quite the point of the thread) it comes down to what an ideal national league would look like.
Personally, I think an ideal league wouldn't have much more than about 20 teams.

What I think would be ideal would be about 5-6 clubs in each of NSW and Victoria, maybe 3 in Qld, 2 in each of SA and WA, and possibly 1 in Tassie if established early enough.

Ideally a national league would've been formed decades earlier than the current one. (I don't know whether a strong NSWFL would've expediated or delayed that occuring).... and an earlier national league would have really focused on the financially viable, big supporter based clubs, and probably left behind those smaller clubs that have continued to struggle financially both in the AFL and NRL. (In this case assuming that NRL clubs would have just been playing Aussie rules instead).

I don't think conferences would work in Australia. The geography and population spread just doesnt make it easily workable.

 

[HTT]

This is actually a good thread. The GF would probably not be held in Melbourne or Sydney, to avoid a shitfight between the two states.