You’re AFL President for 10 years, what direction do you take the league into?

Roaming Lou

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I’m really curious to see how good women could become in AFL too. I look at the success of someone like Sam Mitchell and wonder... could a female be similar size physically to Mitchell? 184cm 80kgs - quite probably. Could they have the same speed and endurance? Definitely. Strength - probably not, but not far off, and it’s not that critical to the game. What made Mitchell a great footballer wasn’t core physical attributes, it was his skills, ability to read the game, temperament, etc. I could totally see an AFLW player being as good as Mitchell in my lifetime (which might still be 30-50 years away - as a comparison the 100m sprint record for women was set at 10.49, about 60 years after men first reached the same level). At that point, it’s the question of ability is as moot as whether athletics should have women running at the Olympics. With 50 years of professional investment in AFLW we almost certainly reach that level (if not just having women play in the main comp by then)
Woah, woah, woah, hold your horses.
I'm all in support of the AFLW (I just don't like it being shoved in our faces or being used by lefties as women showing the men up), but they shouldn't play in the AFL. Although there are good footballers in the AFLW there are two things you have to look at. Firstly look at the competition, its nowhere near the AFL, while over time it will get better it is not right to judge someone as good enough or not without seeing her against people similar to the men's size. Secondly the build of a woman is completely different to a man's. A man's body goes up and out at the top of his chest, this is where the man will take most of the bumps in the AFL. Having a woman play with a deeper chest is just plain dangerous, will we need to have a serious injury before many realize this?. The AFLW is for women the AFL is for men and that's the way it should stay.
 
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Jul 2, 2010
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If we're starting from now, and not in some idealistic utopia?

1. Add a Tasmanian team. Just a tasmanian team. A bye is not a dirty word. WA3 is a pipedream while the WAFC hold licenses, and nothing else is a realistic proposition.
2. Bye shares in the Seven Network and take over 7mate. (note precedent for something like this has occurred with Rugby in NZ taking 5% share in Sky sports NZ)
3. Start an "AFL Network" streaming service.
4. Play games on Thursday nights rotating from city to city, with periodic double headers on Friday nights.
5. Allow AFL teams in non victorian areas to host matches on their states public holidays.
6. Randomise the draw for all fixtures over a 2 year period.
7. Phase out non contractual distributions to clubs ie. compensatory payments. Teams that cant survive without these handouts offered demotion to their state competition.
8. Two week preseason to 2 weeks, extend main season.
9. A moratorium on rule changes unless a preponderance of medical evidence requires it.
10. Professionalise umpires.
11. Allow all clubs a home game in the preseason or primary season at their traditional home ground.
12. With the Grand FInal locked in to the MCG until 2057, kick start a post season Origin series with matches in states other than Victoria where possible.
13. Expand the International Cup to allow immediate ancestral connections (as the RLWC has done successfully) and increase international development funding.
14. Establish a Commission into grassroots football to get to the bottom of issues routinely ignored by the top league.
15. Continue to expand the womens competition until its a full season, in so far as its commercially viable to do so.
16. Establish a separate womens league executive with its own CEO and seat on the Commission.
17. Draft age lifted to 21.
18. TAC Cup modified and expanded to number of AFL clubs, replacing Academies and similar programs.
19. No compensation for out of contract players
 
Sep 15, 2007
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For me,

Decision number 1 - reduce the amount of victorian teams and increased the amount of interstate teams in the AFL competition. My focus would be ultimately make this a truly national competition and completely cut through the VFL ties on the competition.

- Collingwood, Richmond, Essendon, Carlton remain untouched.

- Retain Melbourne Demons, first ever club in aussie rules, maintain them for the history of the first ever club...nah kidding, cull them, this is my league and I get to make this decision.

They’re economical viable, through success and failure and that’s important here. They’re the backbone to the competition and their supporter bases are very large which will support the league throughout this change.

-Western Bulldogs, relocate them to W.A, where they can keep their name because well...They’re in the west of Australia, I would hire a team to find the proper area in W.A to relocate them. WA is strong enough for three teams. Instantly benefits Fremantle and West Coast, who will both play less Victorian games and a few more WA games.

- Relegate St. Kilda to a VFL team, their lack of success for the past 120 years is more than enough of a reason. (We’re down to 17 teams now)

- Northern Territory Kangaroos (red kangaroo as their mascot) to be christened as the first team from N.T where they can play games in Darwin, Alice Springs, Etc. Now we’re getting truly national. This is the relocation of North Melbourne.

- Coaster Cats (with a cat on a surf board as it’s mascot) will be Geelongs relocation and the end of Gold Coast Suns. Coaster Cats or ‘cats of the coast’ will done the wonderful Geelong colours and carry Geelongs history. Which works well for Gary Ablett too. They’ll represent a wider margin of the coast which includes The Sunshine Coast and Cairns, they can play home games along those major parts of the coast and give more people the opportunity to attend games. We’ve eliminated Gold Coast so we’re down to 16 teams now) Go Coasters

-Relocate Hawthorn to Tasmania, calling them Tasmanian Hawks, keeping the colours and the history.

- Include a third and fourth SANFL team in the AFL, to provide a passionate South Australia a great third team. Would allow all current clubs to vote on either Sturt, Norwood, South Adelaide, North Adelaide and West Adelaide

- Include another WAFL club - Subiaco based on history and success.

- Brisbane to rebrand to the Bears, Fitzroy Lions revived in a new and improved VFL competition, which will now include Melbourne Demons, Hawthorn Hawks, North Melbourne Kangaroos, Geelong Cats, St. Kilda Saints and Footscray Bulldogs, University to return too.

Overall -
VICTORIA
Collingwood Magpies
Carlton Blues
Richmond Tigers
Essendon Bombers

TASMANIA
Tasmania Hawks

SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Adelaide Crows
Port Adelaide Power
Norwood Football Club
South Adelaide Panthers (?)

WESTERN AUSTRALIA
West Coast Eagles
Western Bulldogs
Fremantle Dockers
Subiaco Lions

QUEENSLAND
Brisbane Bears
Coaster Cats

NORTHERN TERRITORY
Northern Territory Kangaroos

NEW SOUTH WALES
Greater Western Sydney Giants
Sydney Swans

2. Bring back state of origin.

3. Bring back Champions of Australia tournament to include top teams of all state leagues to go against the top teams of the national league.

4. Fund grassroots and state leagues to make them produce great talent, have state games as curtain raisers to AFL games to give fans more value and players more opportunity to be seen by a wider audience.

5. review fixture, every team to play each other once, teams from same state to play each other twice for 22 games per year, won’t be perfectly fair, but wayyyyyyyy better than current system.

6. work with state governments to increase capacity to adelaide oval and Perth stadium, grand finals to be played in the state of the finalist that wins the right to a home advantage, won’t work for tassie, and Northern Territory because of small stadiums

7. Give myself a pay rise for creating an equal competition.

8. Rewrite history to make VFL premierships stand as VFL premierships and AFL premierships to remain as AFL premierships, for example, Collingwood will only have two AFL premierships 1990 and 2010, whilst they’ll have 13 VFL premierships.

9. Support former AFL sides in their relegated leagues financially.

10. Rebuild Victoria Park and increase capacity to be Collingwoods home ground, same with Optus Oval for Carlton, Richmond to stay at the MCG, and build a brand new stadium in Tulla for the bombers. Work together with clubs, state and government to fund these, provide facilities for the community to use.

11. ban clubs from investing in gaming.
And I retire, boom,
You are an effing moron. Do you realise the population of victoria is far greater then south australia and western australia combined?

There is some stupid sh** posted on this forums. Victoria needs to have more teams then those two states combined.
 

aflfootyfanatic

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You are an effing moron. Do you realise the population of victoria is far greater then south australia and western australia combined?

There is some stupid sh** posted on this forums. Victoria needs to have more teams then those two states combined.

Well I guess you're from Victoria
 

Lsta062

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I think this league probably needs a relegation system of some sort like the EPL. Right now you have the bottom-placed teams being rewarded by finishing last with good youth, but I think the standards in the top league would improve if the bottom 2 or 3 are relegated to a lower tier league each season or maybe every 2 or 4 seasons so that teams can be mindful of how they perform over a stretch.

That way you’ll have teams at the top trying their best to win the Premiership and the bottom teams fighting to not be the ones to be relegated rather than competing to have the higher pick by doing nothing on the field.

I don’t know how it would work with the current equalisation measures such as the draft though.
 

jmac91

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1. Tassie Team is a must (Expansion Only)
2. Relocate teams like North and St Kilda to Canberra or (long shots) to New Zealand or Northern Australia (NT and Nth QLD)
3. Add the 20th team in Perth to limit travel for WA sides. This is just a logical move with the new stadium and the Mad Footy Culture in Perth.
4. If Port Adelaide continue to play 'Away' games in China. Make it their home just to justify the other team going over there.
5. if they get rid of the China game. Play Pre-season game(s) in Ireland. At least they will get the rules over there. This will also get more Irish eyes on our game and maybe a bigger player pool in our league.
6. Make Gold Coast play 2-3 games a year in Northern Australia if No one relocates there. this would be to try and broaden their supporter base across the country.
7. with a relocated team now in Canberra, GWS will play all their home games in Sydney
8. Hawthorn will now play all their home games in Melbourne

9. The 20 team competition will be still a 22 game fixture with a 19-3 modal (Every team plays everyone once before playing their double ups in the last 3 rounds)
10. their will also be an added bye week in mid season
11. This will be for State of Origin. Teams will be VIC, WA, SA and the ALLIES. (the competition would later expand but for the early stages it is just the 4 teams)
12. Pre-season is just a 2 week competition
13. There will be now an extended trade period from 2 weeks after the GF to the Draft.
14. The Draft will now include trading for players
15. Now there will also be a 3 day mid season trade period to go with the mid season draft.
 
I think this league probably needs a relegation system of some sort like the EPL. Right now you have the bottom-placed teams being rewarded by finishing last with good youth, but I think the standards in the top league would improve if the bottom 2 or 3 are relegated to a lower tier league each season or maybe every 2 or 4 seasons so that teams can be mindful of how they perform over a stretch.

That way you’ll have teams at the top trying their best to win the Premiership and the bottom teams fighting to not be the ones to be relegated rather than competing to have the higher pick by doing nothing on the field.

I don’t know how it would work with the current equalisation measures such as the draft though.

I can tell you that this will never, ever happen. The AFL would backflip once they lost 100k Collingwood or Richmond supporters to the VFL.
 
I obviously disagree.

Women make up 50% of the population and women’s sport is going to be the next big explosion. That’s why AFL, cricket, netball are all investing heavily into it

No, that would be because the government made a big deal about it and effectively made all funding from them dependent on support for women's sport.

Think about it...Do you really think all sports in the country suddenly worked out the potential of women's sport at roughly the same time without some serious prompting?
 

Belnakor

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could totally see an AFLW player being as good as Mitchell in my lifetime (which might still be 30-50 years away - as a comparison the 100m sprint record for women was set at 10.49, about 60 years after men first reached the same level). At that point, it’s the question of ability is as moot as whether athletics should have women running at the Olympics. With 50 years of professional investment in AFLW we almost certainly reach that level (if not just having women play in the main comp by then)

an AFLW would never be as good as Mitchell. Mitchell wasn't quick but he could kick 50m off both feet from one step, was hard as nails and a solid over head mark.

Its like the 100m sprint record for women - Thats the men's record from almost 100 years ago. U18s have beaten that time.
 

NeXus Nick

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1. Merge Melbourne and Footscray and call them Melbourne Bulldogs. Bring in Tassie and call them Hobart Devils.
2. Bring in another new team in SA and WA.

20 team comp playing each other once = 19 rounds
Top 10 broken into 2 top 5's.

Winner of each top 5 play in Grand Final.
 
Sep 27, 2018
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an AFLW would never be as good as Mitchell. Mitchell wasn't quick but he could kick 50m off both feet from one step, was hard as nails and a solid over head mark.

Its like the 100m sprint record for women - Thats the men's record from almost 100 years ago. U18s have beaten that time.
I reckon part of being able to kick long distance is having a kick everyday as a kid just like how the english bowmen built up those back muscles during the hundred year war. Women didn't have the programs in place so during those teenage years they missed out on crucial kicking practice.
 

Belnakor

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I reckon part of being able to kick long distance is having a kick everyday as a kid just like how the english bowmen built up those back muscles during the hundred year war. Women didn't have the programs in place so during those teenage years they missed out on crucial kicking practice.

its part of it but wouldn't make a huge difference. Its like women throwing balls. A man with no training would able to kick about the same distances as a woman with significant training
 

btdg

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an AFLW would never be as good as Mitchell. Mitchell wasn't quick but he could kick 50m off both feet from one step, was hard as nails and a solid over head mark.

Its like the 100m sprint record for women - Thats the men's record from almost 100 years ago. U18s have beaten that time.

Are you implying that a woman will never be able to:
- kick 50m off both feet?
- be hard as nails?
- be a solid overhead mark?

Even if I pay it lip service and say that hypothetical future woman is 10% worse than Sam Mitchell it’s a moot point. At that point in time the AFLW is good enough standard that there isn’t even a discussion as to whether it is worthwhile. It’ll reach that point in our lifetime, in the same way there’s no discussion about swimming, tennis, athletics, etc
 

Belnakor

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Are you implying that a woman will never be able to:
- kick 50m off both feet?
- be hard as nails?
- be a solid overhead mark?

hard enough to play in a mens league? hell no.

kick 50m off both feet? hell no.

Overhead mark? not by mens standards.

There is a reason they didn't want that guy playing in the women's league because of the massive advantages you get just by being born a man.
 

pablo668

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First, and going by the relations on this forum, I'd forcefully merge Essendon and North Melbourne.
Just for a laugh.
 

ItsAllAboutMe

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I order of priority
1 - Tasmanian team
2 - AFL Reserves comp, could have it in conferences like they are doing with AFLW
3 - Give clubs back the power in Trade negotiations and allow trading of contracts without the need for the player to agree like happens in NBA
4 - change rule, no mark from a kick backwards
5 - AFL Take control of tv rights and sell an AFL league pass that streams directly from the AFL website, might take an initial hit with tv rights but will eventually be far more profitable.
6 - If Gold Coast Hasn’t worked, pull the trigger and end it.
7- Play games at Princes Park
 
Are you implying that a woman will never be able to:
- kick 50m off both feet?
- be hard as nails?
- be a solid overhead mark?

Even if I pay it lip service and say that hypothetical future woman is 10% worse than Sam Mitchell it’s a moot point. At that point in time the AFLW is good enough standard that there isn’t even a discussion as to whether it is worthwhile. It’ll reach that point in our lifetime, in the same way there’s no discussion about swimming, tennis, athletics, etc

Swimming, Tennis, Athletics are good examples.

They're all mature in their development of women's sport, and still the very best women players wouldn't be able to match up with top men, and the depth tails off rapidly.

To use that as a yardstick, in 30 or 40 years time in AFLW, after hundreds of millions are invested, the best women *might* be in the ballpark of the worst men in AFL squads (but probably not), while the lesser members of the teams (let alone squads) wouldn't even get a look at from state level clubs.

The question remains as to if they'd make any of that investment back, let alone contribute on anywhere near the same level as the men. There are very few examples in women's sport where that in the case after all.
 
I order of priority
1 - Tasmanian team
2 - AFL Reserves comp, could have it in conferences like they are doing with AFLW
3 - Give clubs back the power in Trade negotiations and allow trading of contracts without the need for the player to agree like happens in NBA
4 - change rule, no mark from a kick backwards
5 - AFL Take control of tv rights and sell an AFL league pass that streams directly from the AFL website, might take an initial hit with tv rights but will eventually be far more profitable.
6 - If Gold Coast Hasn’t worked, pull the trigger and end it.
7- Play games at Princes Park

1. Spend money, negligible extra revenue.
2. Spend money, negligible extra revenue.
3. Spend money, no extra revenue (AFLPA would need to be bought off big time to agree to this).
5. Spend money, negligible extra revenue in the short-medium term.
6. Write off an investment of hundreds of millions before it has a chance to pay off.
7. Spend money, negligible extra revenue.

So...After you drive the AFL broke, what are you going to do then?


nb. This seems to be a common theme of many of the suggestions in this thread....spend more, earn less...
 

btdg

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Swimming, Tennis, Athletics are good examples.

They're all mature in their development of women's sport, and still the very best women players wouldn't be able to match up with top men, and the depth tails off rapidly.

To use that as a yardstick, in 30 or 40 years time in AFLW, after hundreds of millions are invested, the best women *might* be in the ballpark of the worst men in AFL squads (but probably not), while the lesser members of the teams (let alone squads) wouldn't even get a look at from state level clubs.

The question remains as to if they'd make any of that investment back, let alone contribute on anywhere near the same level as the men. There are very few examples in women's sport where that in the case after all.

The point is that in mature women’s sports there’s no question about whether the sport is worth it or entertaining. It might not be at the same standard as the top men but it is a necessary part of the sport. Imagine the Olympics decided that athletics would be male only? Or Wimbledon got rid of the women’s singles? It would feel like something huge has been lost and the public outcry would be huge.

That should be the goal for AFLW - a 50 year plan to get to the point where women’s competition sits alongside the men’s, as two sides of the same coin. Hard to do that with. 7-match competition played by amateurs while everyone is on their Christmas holiday - and yet the grand final of that Mickey Mouse competition drew 53,000 people in its third year. The aptitude is certainly there for it from fans... just needs proper time and investment
 
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