I'd be happy giving Sydney, Adelaide and Perth (once they built their new stadium) a grand final. All these stadiums are or will be 60k+
Perth yes. Adelaide, isn't AO only going to be about 50k? and serious question but does Adelaide the town have the atmosphere to deserve the grand final ie. will the restaurants, cafes, pubs and clubs and hotels etc step up. Sydney would be huge for the AFL but I think we have to convert a few more first. Imagine how embarrassing it would be to move the grand final there and stage a grand final parade where no one turned up or a grand final live sight at Darling Harbour with tumbleweeds rolling past. The talk of the New York superbowl was that New York was too big and too busy for it to become a superbowl town unlike other cities that get transformed by the big show. Melbourne in grand final week has an amazing buzz about it. I think you could get that in Perth especially if you had a WA team there, not convinced you could get that in Sydney currently.
I've got some unpopular opinions most of which have already been mentioned.
- I like Demetriou
- I didn't mind the NAB Cup
- I think people forget how random the old tribunal was and that the MRP and new tribunal is an improvement and requires only some small tweaking to produce a pretty fair job. It's done a good job of taking care of the stupid and down right dangerous. It's the middle ground where you can get off or get 3 weeks that needs some adjusting. It over penalises high but fair intentioned bumps (Ziebell) and legitimate but slightly slinging tackles.
- I think the priority pick after the first round for teams who win less than 5 games should be reintroduced but they have to have won less than 3 by the half way mark as well. No one wants to see a pretty decent Coll team get Thomas and Pendles after going the entire second half of the year with no wins but some help for bottom teams is good.
- I don't think we have tried enough to change the game back to a skilled based game instead of a crazy elite fitness game. You should be fit to play AFL but the amount of endurance required is taking some players out of the game and making others push their bodies too far. The sub and rotation cap is not the answer. It just means players will either be fitter or more tired. The 'games opened up' because half the players are out on their feet argument to me is rubbish, it's not real footy as much as a big scrum isn't real footy. It's the equivalent of adding another lap to the melbourne cup and saying well that will make the game more skilled based and slower when instead it will just increase the focus on endurance. I think we should try zone based rules as a start in preseason football. Having at least 3 players required to be inside each 50m arc for every stoppage may at least leave some guys in place. Shortening preseason may help as well. In fact you could give players time off up until after Christmas. Any stoppage in the back or forward 50 should be a maximum of 10 v 10 (centre midfielders, ruck, forwards/backs respectively). Any repeat stoppage in the centre square should be 4 v 4 or maybe 6 v 6. Goal umpires and the boundary umpires furthest from play could be responsible for counting players getting back to position. Could even introduce a 2nd goal umpire per end and 3rd boundary umpire per side. I'm not against more umpires if they make less decisions. To that extent simplifying the rule book could improve umpire standards. Alleviating the scrum around the ball may mean ball ups and throw ins are not so distasteful and we could do away with the deliberate rule. Any rule that has an umpire having to judge intent of a player is inherently going to be very hard to enforce.
- Both the games and the season could be shorter. 18 rounds isn't a bad idea, play everyone once plus a match against either a rivalry or against the team directly above/below on the ladder as a way of evening competition and producing a rounds worth of quality competitive matches. Games could either go to 18 minute quarters or even 15 or 1/4 and 3/4 time breaks could be cut to about 4 minutes. Considering bench rotations and that players are so fit they don't need 6 or 7 minutes to get their breath back it serves little purpose. If teams need a spray or a magical coaching intervention then they are struggling anyway. Half time could shave a few minutes as well.
- A high profile player needs to get injured (not badly, but enough to miss weeks) by ducking to draw high contact, and another by throwing their weight forward and dropping at the knees to produce a push in the back. Due to scrums around the ball and due to modern umpiring both of these tactics are used repeatedly by players from every side I'd say. Both are counter intuitive to the aims of football and at the moment get rewarded by free kicks way more than punished. If the AFL haven't and might not be able to ever be tough enough to start getting umpires to call play on with enough regularity then someone needs to get injured so the league and players see the error. Last year we started to get on top of players bending down and staying hunched over after they have picked up he ball in order to win high contact. The infamous Selwood knee drop to get an arm over the shoulder and the feeling pressure from behind and diving forward are next on my hit list of painful things to watch on the field.