Competition "What If" Wednesdays - Time Traveller Sneezes Edition: Week 6 - Skittles sponsor Essendon and release special guernsey

[cannavo]

Welcome to ...

​

Marty McFly has done himself a mischief and has altered the course of Aussie footy in ways you can't imagine!
Get ready to dive into alternate futures!​

What is “What If” Wednesdays?
"What if" Wednesdays was a competition comprised of real-life football team proposals, merger propositions, former teams and a few hypotheticals brought to life by the FJGD community (eg. If the Melbourne-Hawthorn merger went ahead, if University/Fitzroy/Bris Bears stuck around, if Gold Coasts nickname were the Lifesavers etc.) it became this boards longest running competition (8/9/14 – 29/5/19). It has been revived under a meme cultured spin-off! Time traveller sneezes memes are all about butterfly effects on various things caused by a time traveller altering the past by means of a simple sneeze.


What’s new this time around?
This time or these times around, we will be flung into various timelines where our universes former teams, mergers, relocation proposals never existed or had its outcome altered slightly or severely! The list below is comprised of alternate timelines and the butterfly effect caused by our cheeky time traveller. Your job is to envision this outcome! Each comp will run for 1 week and the poll will run for 3 days. The winner picks the next team from the list below or can use their one-time self-imposed idea where they put forward an idea not listed below.

There are some routes you can go by if you're stuck:

• The chosen team has entered their designated competition in the current year (unless specified) along with the current teams OR
• You may design kits at any point in time unless strictly specified OR
• Accompany your kits with a backstory on how the team came to be to help better envision the outcome

Bare minimum for an entry is:

• A home kit with the front of the jumper showing
  (Back, shorts, socks are optional)
• OPTIONAL Away kit (Home with white shorts is acceptable)
• OPTIONAL 3rd kit
  • Clash kit
  • Heritage kit
  • Other kit
• OPTIONAL Club Logo (Highly Encouraged!)

Let’s see what has happened this time

​

Our Timeline: Carlton wear special one-off jumper to promote M&M's
Altered Timeline: Essendon wear special one-off jumper to promote Skittles​

Basic Rules (Read Carefully):

1. Kits and Logo must be in 1 picture (Makes polls easier to fit everything in)
2. The kits can consist of just a Jumper (Shorts and socks are encouraged to give a full identity effect)
3. Minimum 1 kit and there's no limit to how many kits you can include after that
   eg. Home and Away and/or Clash and/or Heritage and/or Others
   1. Designing a Home and away/clash kit is highly encouraged for that authentic feel and to develop that alternate universe experience
4. Attempt to stay close to the altered timeline
5. Directly copying current football team kits/logos are not allowed
6. Creating a logo is encouraged but you may take inspiration from and/or alter any existing sports logo to drive home your design.
7. Maximum 2 entries per person
8. Any questions at all, please ask!

Specific Category Rules:

Specials Rules:

1. You are bound by the special conditions stated
2. If no year is specified, create your kits/logo at any point in time

Alternate timeline categories
Bold - Completed with poll results

Mergers

• Melbourne and St Kilda merged - 1995
• Tasmania - Fitzroy Merger
• Sydney - Fitzroy Merger
• Gold Coast Suns seek merger with Sharks to stay alive
• Fitzroy merge with Brisbane to become the Fitzroy Bears
• Tasmania agree to merger with North Melbourne

Relocations

• Saints relocate to NZ
• Essendon relocates to NT to become Alice Springs
• Hawthorn relocates to Canberra
• Fitzroy relocates to Canberra
• Fitzroy move to Brisbane in the 80s (Prior to the Bears existing)
• South Melbourne relocate to Tasmania
• South Melbourne relocate to Canberra
• Fitzroy complete move to North Sydney - 1980
• Footscray relocate to Queensland - 1981

League transfers

• West Coast Eagles enter the SANFL
• Brisbane Bears enter the SANFL
• Fitzroy to the SANFL - 1981
• Footscray to the SANFL - 1981
• Adelaide Uni to the SANFL - 1991 (cannot use only black and white)
• Collingwood to the SANFL - 1997
• East Perth to the VFL - 1980
• Norwood accepted as the 2nd SA team in the AFL
• Launceston apply for the AFL
• Essendon apply for the WAFL

New Teams

• Port Adelaide crows join the AFL - 1991
• Papua New Guinea enter the AFL
• Mount Gambier join the SANFL
• Limestone Coast join the SANFL
• Sydney enter as a separate team (Bloods stay in Vic)
• Darwin join the AFL - 1991
• Public Service Football Club join the VFL
• Gold Coast fold, new North Queensland team take their place - 2030
• NZ enter 90's State of Origin
• Broome become the 2nd WA AFL team
• Gold Coast hijack Brisbane Bears AFL entry - 1986

Colour Corner

• West Coast Eagles VFL kits altered due to Williamstown sharing the same colours
• GWS keep their 'Team GWS' colours
• Port Adelaide retain their Magenta
• Adelaide's hurried concept
  (Adelaide board hastily attain clothes from local sport store and use the 5 colours to design their new AFL team)

Specials

• Hawthorn release Ochre jumper - 2000
• Skittle's sponsor Essendon and release special guernsey
• Heidelberg Warriors align with Collingwood for 1 season - 1996
• Melbourne remain as The Fuchsias
• Melbourne remain as The Invincible Whites
• Collingwood remain as Brittania

 

[SunsphereParker]

cannavo out of interest which year was this slated to happen?

 

[BigChippa52]

It was 1997, Essendon and Carlton would face off in a special one-off match the "Candy Man Match" with Carlton representing M&M's in a sky blue kit, Skittles gave the dons a good cash incentive to have something made up, what they ended up with was the skittles rainbow being used as a sash with the Essendon bomber making said rainbow, red numbers, and collar and cuffs were added to the kit to have the clubs colors still in the kit, with skittles sponsors on the kit as well, Essendon would go on to win the match giving skittles the title of the best candy in Aus

 

[cannavo]

cannavo out of interest which year was this slated to happen?

Just like Carltons, this takes place in 1997 (See weekly graphic)
In short just slap on the old AFL logo and go nuts

 

[SunsphereParker]

Just like Carltons, this takes place in 1997 (See weekly graphic)
In short just slap on the old AFL logo and go nuts

Ah my bad, took ages making a clipping mask for the logo so I'll just pretend this is a 2024 retro throwback edition of that universe.
*(might come back and re-do if I get time this week)

 

[Haymo_of_thor]

The late nineties and early noughties were an interesting time in Australian football, the invention of printed guernseys made old woolen and canvas uniforms old and obsolete, and because of how much easier and faster it was to make guernseys, the clubs experimented with some famous and more commonly infamous designs. Adelaide's flying crow, Collingwood's barcode magpie Fremantle's 3d anchor, the well-known West Coast ochre design, but possibly the most infamous and universally disliked design was the Essendon Bombers Skittles Guernsey.

In 1997 Essendon signed an exclusive sponsorship deal with Skittles, one which still runs to this day. A major component of the Skittles sponsorship was that Essendon had to wear a guernsey that carried a heavy inspiration to the American Candy, this guernsey had to be worn in one televised game every season. Much to the dismay of its members Essendon's Skittle's jumper was debuted in Round 1, 1997 against the Bomber's arch-rivals, the Carlton Blues, who were also fulfilling a contractual need. They wore an M&M-inspired guernsey, and so Round 1 1997 saw the first, and only "SUGAR SHOWDOWN" where Essendon defeated Carlton by 7 points at the MCG.

The Bombers later discovered a loop-hole in their contractual obligation, and now due to the amount of pre-season games that are televised on FOX, have worn the 'Skittles-Sash' in all pre-season games since 2011.

 

[cannavo]

Ah my bad, took ages making a clipping mask for the logo so I'll just pretend this is a 2024 retro throwback edition of that universe.
*(might come back and re-do if I get time this week)

View attachment 1896789

Yeah a modern throwback will suffice

 

[cannavo]

It's 1997 and Essendon have pocketed a neat $250k thanks to a sponsorship and marketing initiative never before seen in the AFL. Confectionary giants Mars, Inc. reached out to the footy world to propose a one-off marketing stunt to promote Skittles. Rumours swirled that rivals Carlton were closing in on a similar venture with M&M's, so the club jumped on board and got to creating a one-off guernsey. They settled with the Skittles rainbow featured in their logo as the sash enveloped in the clubs traditional black and red colours. The back featured a single Skittle candy which had the players number inside it. After the game, the jumpers were auctioned off resulting in more funds for the Bombers and exposure for Mars, Inc down under. James Hird's jumper brought in the most cash as the '5' looked like an 'S' which made it look like a Skittle!