How The VFL Took Over Australia (by nearly dying)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ส.ค. 2024
- Before the AFL, there was the VFL, which was sitting pretty having just survived the VFA's last great attempt at seizing the football throne. But there was trouble over the border - Western Australia had just defeated the Victorians at an Interstate Carnival. This wouldn't do. Victoria had to show the other states who the true footballing force was, by manifesting their destiny - or, in other words, taking over the country by force. Could they get it done before their financial reserves went bust?
In this 9-part series, the GAZ-man explores the full history of how the AFL came to be the massive empire it is today. Part 6 covers the time period from 1955 to 1990 - the battle between the three major footballing states for control of the direction of football, and how the Victorians cemented a power base from which they absorbed other states to form Australia's first true national league.
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DISCLAIMER:
All match content is the property of the Australian Football League, with additional material from Fox Sports and Channel 7, and is used for entertainment and educational purposes under Fair Use.
All music and backing tracks were humbly, and clumsily, self-made on GarageBand and BandLab.
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Nothing like expecting a 15 minute video and being met by almost an hour of the best footy TH-camr
Thanks for the nice words! Glad you were pleasantly surprised - apologies that it took a while for it to come out!
Good work into the video. Been watching a lot of old videos of SANFL games and VFL games from suburban grounds from the 1980's and really feel we are missing something in football this century when nearly all matches are in big stadiums with loud speakers, video screens and reviews that mess with the natural footy day atmosphere that made me fall in love with the game as a kid. The Gather round games at Norwood remind me what we are missing mostly. Think the VFL, SANFL, WAFL and NFL really messed things up for our sport between the mid 80's and 90's and all we are left with running the sport is the AFL running it like a big entertainment industry business and have left the sport itself fall by the wayside. To see what has happened to the VFA, SANFL and WAFL is really sad that all had really great football cultures that still existed whilst the big league of the VFL did not need to take over everything at such a cost to the grass roots culture of our sport. Still love the sport but the state of the game is no longer something I feel glued to like I once was. To over coached to have the flair and instinctive play in real time that once what made the game addictive to me. I still hold out hope someone in a position of power sees how much we have lost and course corrects but it looking more and more to me like it might be too late.
If I could go back in time would have seen at the end of 1988 all the main leagues and VFA got together with the governing body of the NFL and found a way to solve all their issues together. Sunday should have been agreed to be VFL/AFL free. That should have been the time for VFA, SANFL and WAFL be theirs and the big league run it's round from Thursday night to Saturday. We could have had the best of both worlds but alas they all dropped the ball in that time and did not work together for the good of the sport.
Agree 100%. The current AFL has a contrived feel.
From an SA perspective it's a travesty the Port-Norwood rivalry wasn't to be showcased on the national stage. In its place the Port-Crows rivalry is a synthetic imitation.
A Port-Norwood Friday night blockbuster would've been a Showdown like no other.
@@timdixo It is a travesty from a football perspective beyond just one state. Port Adelaide and Norwood were some natural choices to join the bigger league rather than some contrived Crows and Power outfits that gives me no feel for sense of history to the past. SANFL could have still had a healthy following with the other 8 clubs continue to have a strong state league every Sunday. We could have all had our national league club to follow in first part of weekend and state league club every Sunday. That the powers that be never saw that as the best solution to have state leagues still be followed strongly each Sunday has been a disaster for the sporting culture in my opinion. VFA had a decent following every Sunday in Victoria until the VFL/AFL encroached into Sunday's with Sydney, then West Coast and Bears. Someone somewhere should have pushed hard that with the expansion of the big league there also need to be some protection to the next level down. If Sunday's was an VFL/AFL free zone I still think to this day we could have had VFA, SANFL and WAFL be really good leagues for us to follow each Sunday.
Weirdly, one of the reasons I love the Giants is that their games feel like a mix of AFL and country/state league games.
Sadly greed and self interest prevented a proper national competition being implemented - I still think regular state leages leading to a national championship at year's end would have been so much fun, albeit being potentially Vic-dominated due to player transfer fees, assuming that league survived the 1980s and 90s. Then State of Origin could have continued on in all its glory.
I'm sad I didn't get to experience the patriochal footy times, proper state versus state stuff as you've described.
As for the Norwood-Port rivalry, as cool as it would have been to see that rivalry on the big stage, those two teams fail to represent a lot of Adeladians. I would have somewhat followed a Norwood-Sturt team, I guess, if they were the second team to join, but my heart would belong to a Woodville-West Torrens team in what would be a dying SANFL without its powerbrokers.
I do like the idea of Sundays being state league days - I'd even suggest a promotion/relegation system to/from a proposed NFL or AFL, to ensure the big clubs didn't get bloated and lazy up the top, like some of them are now.
Absolutely love these sorts of discussions though, really awesome to hear viewpoints on what people would have wanted for a national league/cross-state integration.
The best AFL content on TH-cam. Calms my mind better than a Bob Ross painting video or a ten hour binaural beat compilation ever will.
Haha cheers! Being more calming than Bob Ross is one hell of a compliment, thanks!
Amazing research for this one mate.
Tip of the cap to you.
Thanks! There's a couple minor errors here and there, and more than a few things I wish I could expand upon, but I was happy with the overall balance.
Ah, Musgrave, right next to Dasdenong and Wheesers Hill
One of my favourite parts of Mesbourne 😅😅
Yes , Musgrave, the home of Arktik Pahk , and Woild Seereez Clicket , those were the daze
Another great vid. Slight factual correction regarding the foundation of the Bears. The former actor who was involved alongside Skase was Paul Cronin. I do concede it could be argued that Skase was an actor given how successfully he managed to deceive so many people.
Great line about Skase 🤣🤣
Ahh right, thanks for that and apologies about the confusion - I did wonder why Skase didn't have an IMDb page
Yeah, Paul Cronin from that late 70's tv show called The Sullivans, He was also on some cop show called Matlock and another show Solo One where I think he was a cop on bike in regional areas of Victoria. But I mainly knew him from the Sullivans. He was certainly a big part of how the Bears got started. Good luck to him but starting them out at Carrara near the Gold Coast was a massive mistake. Should have started from the Gabba from the start. Fitzroy really should have moved up their in the late 80's after they lost another home ground of Junction Oval. Could have been Brisbane Lions from the start and avoided all the mess and heartache of Bears and Fitzroy fans that would eventually happen anyway.
This video if full of errors.
I love your shit dude. I umpired in the AFL in the late 80s and then in Tasmania in the 90s but the best thing is that I love any mention of Waverley Park cos I grew up near there!
Damn that's cool! What was it like to be running around on those grounds on matchday?
Excellent effort, well done mate. For anyone interested, I highly recommend Football Limited by Garry Linnell that is a brilliant insight into VFL-AFL operations throughout the 1980's and early 1990's. Despite being published nearly 30 years ago, I would rate it as one of the best books ever written on the game.
Couldn't get my hands on that book, but The Phoenix Rises (Ross Oakley's autobiography) uses it as a main source, and Linnell features in interviews which I reference in this and the next part.
Extremely knowledgeable man.
Excellent work again, I don't have anything to say beyond trying to boost this video in the algorithm.
Haha cheers!!!
12:00 was just uncalled for, especially considering you support Adelaide. Seriously though great video.
Sorry, couldn't help myself 🤣🤣
Also, Adelaide can barely hit a target with a football now, let alone a crowbar haha
Football park open in 1974, And it did not only host finals, Many a regular season game was played there. It was also the home ground for West Torrens for a period of time.
Apologies, that was an error in my research - had to cut some things and lost some facts in the rush.
@@thegaz-man It was only after the crows joined the AFL Football park was only used for finals for SANFL games
50 minute Gazman video? Damn you spoil us
Haha cheers, I'm just sorry it took so long for me to get this video out for you guys!
@@thegaz-man nah it's okay
TV was important for the future of the VFL, classic games could be remembered years after they were played especially in the 1980s when VHS became an important medium to relive classic Grand Finals from the 60s and 70s.
1961, 1965 - onwards were all captured on VHS tape despite some messed up quality of time with the footage.
But TV did provide really important capture of magic moment especially for Channel 7 in Melbourne.
I think it's incredible that TV archive records began that early in Australia, considering how we tend to lag well behind the US in TV terms.
Would be nice to have a qider array of archived games from the 60s, especially as for 44 years there was no TV footage of a Geelong Premiership (I'm fairly sure 1965 is the first GF that has full siren to siren footage?)
@@thegaz-man The technology didn't exist in the early days: there was no videotape so recordings were done on a kinescope which was, effectively, a camera filming a monitor showing the program to be recorded. You can tell kinescopes by the 'rounded' edges of the picture. Most TV was live at that time, the last quarter of some VFL matches were broadcast live on all 3 channels who could do whichever match they chose so often they doubled up. Mostly, the old kinescopes weren't kept. When VT came along it was very expensive so once a replay had been shown it wasn't considered to be worth keeping and they taped over it with another program. There wasn't much consideration given to archiving TV content until the 1980s because it was an added cost that seemingly didn't provide any revenue. It was disposal 'pop' culture. Then came the problem of storage: betamax vs VHS. The National Film & Sound Archive decided to use betamax, LOL
21st century people don't understand how spoiled they are by the scope of technology in existence today.
Great video lad. Love the mention of Eggfooty. Both doing great things. Keep it up GAZ man
Thanks!! He explained the Bears way better than I could, and from a place of passion and knowledge.
The 10 year rule in 1972 was a disaster that almost killed the VFL.
But the team that took advantage of the short term gain was the one who needed success the most.
I'm hoping to cover North's rise thanks to that rule early next year. Amazing what they were able to accomplish, recruiting-wise, in such a short time
@@thegaz-man Now that I think of it, the 10 year rule might have been 1973, I do remember from Sensational Seventies (1979) and the 100 Years of Australian Football League (1996) that they did mention the year, but I often think of 72 instead of 73 as the year it only lasted for a few months before things went crazy with players asking fortunes for a few years.
Obviously, Fitzroy and South Melbourne were the worst offenders of this and it cost them dearly in the long run.
I am under the impression certain parties were aware the ten year rule would become a reality.I attended school with a North Melbourne supporter who told me, people at the club believed Alan Aylett (NFC President) was pocketing club money.Turns out they were partly correct.He was not keeping the money though.He was filling up a bank account to lure players to Arden Street.
Absolutely brilliant and so interesting to me….an Englishman who loves AFL…..my team since 1986, the Hawks…..would love to watch some games live, but live 10,500 miles away…..but get to watch 8 AFL games on TNT every week…..incredible documentary, reminds me of that brilliant film, The Club…..very apt…..now, let’s try and make this fantastic game more a world game……up the Hawks…
Awesome to see fans of the AFL outside Australia! Did you manage to get to the exhibition game the AFL played there? I think it might have been late 80s or early 90s?
@@thegaz-man Hi, absolutely loving your channel, a huge knowledge of the game….I did not realise in the 1900 time the umpires stood on the mark…amazing stuff….yeah I first saw the game on World Trans Sport back in mid 80’s…I saw highlights of some VFL games, then Channel 4 in the UK showed a game a week….and some exhibition games played at the Oval Cricket Ground in London…often a grudge game…I loved watching the game,picked Hawthorn due to the nickname, the Hawks…at the time and now also I love an old British Spacerock band called Hawkwind….look them up…..hehe…so it was obvious my choice, plus I really enjoyed seeing Dermot Brereton playing with his golden locks and attitude, I remember seeing Gary Ablett Senior and of course Collingwood s Brian Taylor….at the time I lived in Scotland, and I was in talks with a fellow guy who loved footy, we were looking at setting up a Scottish team…..it never came to anything sadly…..and as such the interest dwindled……roll on 2014…and our UK channel called BT Sports now called TNT Sports, started showing lots of AFL games…..now I get to watch at least six and sometimes 9 games a week…..I just love the game, the passion, the respect, the excellent well behaved crowd, the inclusion and the respect shown to indigenous past present and emerging…..I have to admit, having been to Melbourne and Victoria twice in past 7 years, I love the country and the can do attitude…this December I am off to Tassie for an adventure holiday, and a few days in Melbourne….my plan is to celebrate my 65th birthday in April 2027, watching an Anzac game, to give my respects to those fallen Australians and New Zealanders…..of course at the G……I hope the the game gets bigger around the world, it is played in Britain and in Europe, one day we could even have international games, not a hybrid as with International Rules, though I respect the Gaelic version…..anyway…for now it’s the tv for my interest…..and one day I’ll get to see my Hawks…..or even the new Tassie team…cheers and thanks for such brilliant videos, a lot of work done on them, cheers from a rather cool so called summer day on my island of Jersey..
@@thegaz-manthe infamous carlton vs Nth exhibition game...if he was there he would've seen future Hawk coach Alister Clarkson start a blood bath.😂
The Father Son rule was perhaps made family ties with football more tighter, making Football Clubs feel like a Family to many players who got into the VFL/AFL thanks to their genetics.
However there were a few occasions when Genetics and Talent went hand in hand as well as hard work making some son's of champions stand out on their own. Daicos, Watson and Ablett are the names that come to mind.
For me, Fletcher's also up there.
Ablett, Daicos, Tuck and Cloke are the only fathers I can think of with multiple sons in the AFL system - amazing that most of those sons have won flags.
Silvagni, grandfather, son, grandchild.
@@blueycarlton great shout, the first true hat trick of generational talent
I believe you said Musgrave when the suburb is Mulgrave Gaz!
Yep, you're right, apologies about that!
Maybe im just old and nostalgic but I genuinely miss Waverley park! It was never the standard of stadium we have today but when it was packed it had an amazing atmosphere the likes of which ive never experienced at docklands
Having only been to Waverley after it's demolition, I can only imagine what a full 80 to 150 thousand seat behemoth would have felt like. Would have been awesome to keep it around.
@@thegaz-man The best thing about the ground was there was really no need to book tickets beforehand unless it was going to be a 70 to 80 thousand type crowd which would normally only be a few times a season like a public holiday match or finals match in September. Was also easier to get to for outer suburbs people in East or South of Melbourne metro area. The downside was when it was wet and cold it was worst place to be.
Still would give up Docklands to have it back in a heartbeat. Bloody Wayne Jackson.....
"Notice Me Senpai"
I am really familiar with that term.
As a fan of Love Hina manga back in the day, I knew of that term back in the early 2000s.
It kinda sucks that Australia doesn't understand fine culture.
This series is up there with the best of the Secret Base mate!
Thanks so much! Hoping the quality of the series has been constant, moved cities halfway through production!
Football Park was home to some classic Victoria Vs South Australia games under the short lived State of Oranges banner.
Opps, State of Origin.
State of Oranges 🤣🤣🤣
Wish I could have seen an Origin game in the flesh, what a concept that was.
@@thegaz-man I went to my first one in 1989 at the MCG. Was crazy good considering the Big V always seemed to play in Adelaide or Perth every year as a kid. Did see a couple in the 90's but state of origin was already being killed of by then by clubs stopping best players taking part to field a truly state worthy side. They should have killed of the pre-season comp for a night premiership and give state of origin it's own time in early March for one or two weekends each year.
Mate I just need to tell you I’ve binge watched nearly all of your videos over the last 3 days and it’s actually criminal how under rated your channel is. Keep it up, it’s an absolute gem 👍👍
Thanks so much!! Glad you're enjoying the vids, I'll do my best to keep up the quality!
I'll watch it later... off to the footy. East Perth put a bid for AFL in early 1980s. I think West Perth did too leading into the mid 80s. IPL (West Coast) had to pay $4 million upfront in 1986 money and then from memory had to pay to travel and pay for opposition teams to travel to Perth. Ultimately the IPL started to go under. For the team to survive the WAFC bought the Eagles, but the Eagles had to provide a dividend back to the WAFC to pay for WA junior footy. This is still ongoing. Dockers do the same. That is why its vitally important for the Eagles to be reasonably successful. They are the golden goose for WA junior footy. IF the Eagles can't keep the mney flowing through then the WAFC will just go to the AFL, who will have to fund WA footy like the other states. The AFL will not want that. The WAFC ownership impacts decision making by the Eagles and Dockers.
Wow, I didn't realise that WC were that critical to junior sport! This current era of Eagles footy has the capability to be really damaging then, if the Eagles can't turn it around.
@@thegaz-man Eagles in good years can give $3m plus. Dockers more around the $1m max but growing. But they've already taken a hit from the last year or two. I dare say that was a significant reason that Simmo wasn't sacked as the $6-$7 million payout (which includes 200% soft cap tax by AFL) would have come out of the dividend. So I think they would have been very unhappy to sign off on that. At the end of the year, the amount will be a one year contract payout. The press know all of this in Melbourne and Perth but mischieviously misrepresent what is happening and why.
Cheers to GAZ for travelling to all of the south-eastern states for this video... and I'm only 23 minutes in
Haha I'm not quite that good!
Luckily I managed to plan the filming in advance whilst I was in Melbourne and Sydney last year
Am i the only one to remember the hungry jacks on George Street just handing out piles of Sydney swans tickets? Buy a burger, and take as many as you want
Wait really? That's so insane!!
Can't imagine these days getting free family passes just by grabbing a Whopper...except maybe at the Suns and Giants haha
Great video… love the details and presented well
Thanks so much!
Another great video thank you. Just keep producing solid content and the subs will come. Slowly for longer than you'd like but then in a hurry once you crack it. Don't give up. Your content is top notch!
Thanks for the kind words! It's already gotten way bigger than I thought, hoping that the channel can continue to grow!
WA flogged Vic in the original 1977 state of origin. Vic was having none of that and all vic clubs made it hard for star WA and SA players to be released to play for their states ...in other words the vics were butt hurt and rigged it in their favour and subsequently killed state of origin..well done Victoria 😜
Well in 1982, VFL President Jack Hamilton explicitly said (according to Ross Oakley) that his refusal to admit an SA side was due to the potential side's high quality compared to Vic teams, and implied that the Vics relied on poaching interstate talent to remain competitive, so the chaging of SoO eligibility rules kinda matches well with that haha
This is good. well done
I know not just afl related but isn't in interesting that not only the afl but nrl and aru all made west Australian teams to pay for original clubs to travel to them
Yep, seemed to be a main reason why the Perth NRL side went bankrupt
@@thegaz-manthat the super league
Amazing video!!!
I love that the image of Tasmania is superimposed over the photo of VFL Park. I don’t know why, just seems ominous.
Honestly that was just me coming up with the presentation idea and forgetting that Tasmania existed 😅😅
Incredible video, I love this series dearly. Also at 44:44 - thign
Thanks, glad to hear you're enjoying it!
Wish Premiere had a spell check, made so many typos over the years
@@thegaz-man haha sorry for being a stickler, qual of the video is so good it doesn't matter
The Barassi line holds strong
Superb work again. Machiavelli has got nothing on this lot.
I'm honestly surprised how much dirty dealing, infighting and selfishness has happened in the V/AFL, and so much of that is foundational to the structure of the organisation.
And that's even before the Merger Era and the Money Years.
@@thegaz-man I am old enough to have seen the end of the era of "tribalism", which I suspect was the significant driver of conniving deceitful conduct of earlier years. Don't underestimate the catholic, protestant/masonic divide of the 1880's to 1960's adding significant fuel to this fire, and I reckon that would also make an excellent case study for one of your "video-essays". Question: how can I become a patron of your work Gaz (I am not computer finance savvy)? IMO, the quality of your work is actually worthy of a degree/masters/PhD in Australian history, and you should investigate this from a scholarship perspective.
Funny how they thought crowds would go down if we had more games televised, yet the game has never been more accessible and more attended.
Yeah, it's hard to understand the logic they had with the knowledge we have now.
Ahh the VFL and VFA TV War. I did my final year 12 english assignment on this.
Nice! Really interesting portion of history, basically the VFA's final shred of resistance before going out like a hero
@@thegaz-man exactly and the extent the VFL went to to play footy on Sundays and take back that TV market in the process of expansion
Footy Park hosted SANFL minor round games mate. Every week.
Yeah apologies, I kinda rushed that segment a bit - should have said that no teams played 'home' games there
@@thegaz-man all good, keep up the great work. 👍
Interesting they called the introduction of a draft a “Football Dictatorship”
Yeah, isn't a draft completely the opposite of a dictatorship, really?
Genuinely think that the club presidents saw equalisation as actual Communism considering this was the 50s and 60s, and were terrified of it
Could you please do a video on the night competition and the history of when wafl played sanfl and vfl? I know you touched on it in this video but I reckon you could do a special fantastic video.
Definitely something I can look into! Would definitely like to go into more detail on that series, as well as the Championship of Australia that came before it.
Actually, it was not always night matches even though primarily that was it was considered overall. Quite a few matches in 1980 or 81 or 82 when I was a kid were in the day. Mostly, the matches in Perth when say Swan Districts or South Fremantle hosted a Vic based club in the early rounds of it. Also, I think Fitzroy played New South Wales or ACT in the day at SCG or Canberra. Think Queensland, Tasmania, ACT, and NSW were in it for a couple of seasons. All the finals were night matches at VFL Park. Usually, on a Tuesday night between a VFL round. Usually finished in late April or early May. Think the last year the night competition was still running in the actual normal football season was 1987.
@@shaundgb7367 you are correct
Great video but you really can’t include Davis, Rantall etc going to North to demonstrate that successful clubs & wealthy clubs recruited high priced top players as North hadn’t won a premiership until AFTER they arrived at Arden Street.
True, I was more using the North lads as a 'clubs that had money' example, kinda worded that badly in-script. North definitely made the best use of free agency, plus the Davis signing story quote was really quite funny so felt like I had to work it in there.
A similar story is told about rugby league in NSW
I'd love to cover the formation of the NRL one day. The whole Super League story fascinates me.
SA (as in SANFL) beat Vic (as in VFL) at the MCG in 1963
Wish we had state of origin back.
SA and WA would field some pretty scary teams today, and NSW would be a real threat
Great fucking video
The lack of views kinda hurts.
Ahhh cheers, tbh I'm just happy if anyone watches - the channel's already grown way more than I ever thought it would!
@@thegaz-man Best footy channel on TH-cam by a long shot
Bonza quality
Musgrave!? Gaz pls...
No idea how I got that wrong, so sorry!
After my butchering of Prahran and Corio, I think I'm just working my way through mispronouncing every location in Victoria haha
I thought VFL days were better days than the present, because, for me living in Hobart, with our cream, being recruited by VFL clubs,we all tuned into Mike Williamson and and Butch and Captain Blood bragging about how good "Victorian" football was, knowing,(whilst laughing down our sleeves) at how interstate footballers were the standout players
Haha yep, the classic Victorian talents that are Daryl Baldock and Peter Hudson 🤣🤣
Think SA had a similar relationship with the VFL - proud to see our boys succeed, but annoyed that the Vics suddenly thought they owned them
@@thegaz-man Yup
Gaz, in the sixties you could field a team, by Tasmanians,representing every VFL club, in almost every position, on the field!
It is galling at how the strong teams are basically propping up the poorer teams. Its not sustainable, and now there will be Tasmania and a 20th team too. Ultimately, it takes money away from footy. Sure there are more matches, but the players can't be paid as much. I think that 14 teams is about right. But AFL lack the courage. They won't even force North to better service an outer suburb region that is dominated by soccer and rugby. North want to take and not give back.
If the current funding rates continue, the AFL will be spending over $60m on its newest three teams per year. Definitely a concern.
14 seems a pretty good number but Vic sides would need to be culled, which won't happen. I'd like to see a promotion/relegation model, which would allow for two groups of 14 teams, allowing a lot of new markets to enter.
Of course, what that would do for the already shallow talent pool might be disastrous.
@@thegaz-man I think Tasmania is pretty lucky to have a team. But unfortunately the clubs in Melbourne didn't contribute as much as they should have. So Tassie people will be happy, but still a concern. Hopefully kids won't all switch to basketball in the meantime.
@@thegaz-man Relegation won't work. If the Eagles or Collingwood get relegated then you'd have a lot of the 100k members canncelling their membership. Possibly never to return to full membership. Then that causes stadium deals to fall apart. Revenue falls away. For the Eagles they haven't won a game for 3 years barely, but got over 47k on the weekend, with 95% barracking for the EAgles. If they were relegated then you'd struggle for 20k. I know you're putting it out there as a talking point, so thats fine.
I'm amazed that people with soccer seriously are pushing for it. Can you imagine how that would devastate clubs and soccer fans in Perth Adelaide Brisbane if they didn't get a good quality A league match... The fans would be lost forever. But people are seriously pushing for it. They don't understand the Australian market.
The NFL was shafted by the VFL and they created the AFC night competition.
True. What could have been a really cool national carnival of football turned into a massive power grab.
Can there be a third team in Western Australia. It will depend on whether WA Football Commission agree that it will mean more money for WA footy. WAFC owns Eagles and Dockers and earn a good dividend to fund WA junior footy, if the teams are playing well. With Eagles struggling the dividend has reduced. Then you have stadium deals to be renegotiated. If it could be proven that WAFC could earn more money consistently then they will push for a third team and the AFL would likely agree. Because the AFL see that a successful club would mean less of a drain on the AFL, and would also benefit WA footy, thereby allowing AFL to be totally removed from any funding. But I think it will be tricky and WAFC may end up taking the safe option.
It's an interesting question - a third WA team might work financially but would result in increased travel time, and would cause issues with broadcasts if two WA games are on in the same weekend.
Plus, it might mean Optus hosts three games per fortnight - can they manage it? And would it be worth abandoning the push to corner disputed markets like the ACT or NT?
Honestly, I can't really say one way or the other. Might take a dive into it one day, seems like a cool hypothetical.
@@thegaz-man Increased travel time for who? If played at Optus Stadium it would be the same time for other teams. Mandurah is about the same as Geelong to Melbourne, an hour down the road. Bunbury is 35 minutes from Busselton in which teams would fly in direct.
@@thegaz-man No issues with broadcasting as matches are played Thursday to Sunday currently. The 2 hour time difference makes it much easier to broadcast and fit games in. That's an advantage.
@@thegaz-man Three games a fortnight at Optus? Hardly an issue in Perth which only rains 3 months a year. MCG plays 4-5 games each fortnight. Remember Melbourne has continual rainfall and often shocking conditions. And yet people tolerate the MCG surface.
@@thegaz-man NT totally out of bounds and can't happen. ACT I doubt its feasible. Giants need to work it better and in fact GWS should have included Canberra in the name instead of hoping that "greater" would embrace the rest of NSW. Only planners use the term "greater". I reckon GWS should play (for e.g.) Melb North and Saints for home and away matches at Canberra. That is 6 matches straight up. Then if Canberra is packing out the stadium then they have some ammunition. Its a fairer way of fixturing with both clubs playing on a neutral ground in a sense. Same can happen with Darwin, Alice and N Qld.
The VFA acting as a feeder league for the VFL? That'll never work🤣
Haha I have no idea how a merged VFA-VFL would transition into the AFL era. Imagine Sydney getting relegated and replaced with like Coburg or something 🤣
33min - "the VFL couldnt afford the $4mil VFL license" (to make the new composite WA team) what!?
Haha the creation of the AFL was wild!
Yeah apologies that was meant to be the WAFL not being able to afford thr 4 mil, hence the selling of the licence rights to Indian Pacific Limited.
Still, absolutely crazy.
God that LA idea is one of the worst I've ever heard
Can't imagine how it would have gone. Would have been kinda funny if LA got a team before Canberra and Tassie ngl
Took over half of Australia*
Probably did so more successfully and permanently than the NRL's attempt, even if NSW and QLD are proving very resistant.
Just want the Adelaide Rams back in the NRL haha
@@thegaz-man nah not at all. Nrl is the more profitable and the more watched sport last year. It’s half and half. I’m from the nt and I’m an nrl fan. NSW+QLD is half of Australia’s population.
@@baccycones7644 I can see what you mean, but AFL participation and viewership rates are higher nationally, and rugby is ostensibly a non-factor west of Mildura.
I do love watching it though - big fan of both.
@@thegaz-man it’s not called rugby btw. That’s rugby union. No one cares about rugby union in Australia. Half of Australia watches league, half watches afl. NSW +8,000,000 qld +5,000,000 = 13,000,000. Aus is 26,000,000. It’s half and half
Many factual errors in the video regarding SA. Firstly Football Park was opened in 1974 not 1977. And matches were played there every week, It wasn't reserved for finals only.
Also post ww2 Port was by far the most successful club in SA. Playing in 33 Grand Finals between 1950 and 2000 winning 23 premierships. Norwood won merely 5 during the period.
Apologies about the Footy Park errors, that was just poor script editing on my behalf.
Norwood were still a glamour and power side in that period, even though Sturt were more successful
The WAFL comp was once the best league in Australia and popped at at times in the 70’s and 80’s to thrash the Vic’s. Pitty the AFL boffins don’t even recognise our great league and it’s champions 😂
Similar sentiment for the SANFL. Austin Robertson Jr stands out to me as a WA player that just doesn't get talked about enough for how talented he was.
@@thegaz-man yes, absolutely. I don’t know much about the SANFL - didn’t mean to leave them out.
Remember when WA flogged Vic in the 77 state of origin? Also remember how the VFL made it impossible for WA and SA players to be released to play for their home states after that, basically rigging the series in the Vic's favour always..cheating barstards
It's a curious thing , Victorian Football fans were adverse to state of origin , it didn't flop , it was just a nothing game mid season that as a Carlton Supporter had nearly our whole team playing for Sth Australia, West Australia , and Victoria , team mates , all year except for 2 games, no one wanted injuries , so it didn't take off here , But Rugger love the State of origin , but Aussie Rules fans , we are more true supporters, why average game attendance 32,000 , NRL 17,000, Memberships AFL 1.9 MIL, NRL 320,000. , we love our teams more ,and it will attract more passionate follower , and this is why ! It's a much better spectacle , the amount of people now discovering AFL world wide is not the least surprising, it's a given , time is proving this ,
@@Ducatirati no the real reason is WA flogged Vic in the inaugural 1977 state of origin. Vic was having none of that and rigged the competition by not releasing star WA and SA players from their VFL clubs from then on..that's the reality of why the competition failed..but you can't tell a Victorian that ..also ,I noticed NRL has higher TV viewership than AFL?
The AFL was a mistake, we should have stayed with State competitions and had end of season championships.
Top two teams from WAFL and SANFL and four from
The VFL to play in a Finals series.
Honestly would have preferred that system, sounds really cool - the game still grows nationally whilst keeping clubs connected to their communities. My personal preference, in hindsight, would be a promotion/relegation system with a 12-team national league at the top, then state leagues, then amateurs.
@@thegaz-man
Yes, and once the NSW, Qland and Tasmania State leagues were strong enough, you could add a team from those competitions to compete in the National Finals.
The AFL is a monster and has ripped the heart out of the sport we love. It’s just a business now and has no soul.
I've lived in Australia my whole life and had never heard of the VFA before 😅
Honestly it took me a while to find out about them too. For an organisation that was so pivotal to footy, they get swept under the rug most of the time