What is happening in the AFL at the moment, is not too far off what happened to Rugby League in 1997. News Corp did the then unthinkable (and hopefully something that Telstra can't do re AFL, or maybe they could!) and started a rival comp… which lasted all of one year!
The problem was in the following year (and which is still a problem in the NRL today) too many teams and not enough quality players. With the cross section of sports in this country and the limited people resource to source from, the standards of all comps will continue to suffer.
With 18 teams in the AFL comp, it now means that there are players getting a game that are not at an elite standard (or even close)… I'm sure looking in our own backyard we know this to be true!
Wouldn't it be better to reduce the number of teams to say 14, have every team play each other twice (home & away) and therefore have more quality players spread into 14 squads, rather than 18? This would go for sponsorship, admin, etc as well, more quality spread regionally between the teams.
I know its about TV rights, etc but I simply don't watch games that the RFC dont play in, unless it involves 2 quality sides. If each game most times had a fairer 50/50 chance I would watch it, rather than knowing that at least two games per week will be a blow out.
And it would require folding/merging teams, but of the 14, surely we could (in an ideal world) make it WA 2, SA 2, TAS 1, NSW 1/ACT 1, QLD 2, VIC 5. It would spread the travel load of all teams more evenly so as most teams would travel interstate every 2-3 weeks, rather than just the SA, WA, NSW & QLD's at the moment. And then have a top 6 finals system and lotto style draft... but that's a whole other discussion!
If they really wanted to make the competition fairer, get more ad revenue from TV rights, and actually gave a stuff about the fans they would do something similar… unfortunately that has not been the case for many years.
The problem was in the following year (and which is still a problem in the NRL today) too many teams and not enough quality players. With the cross section of sports in this country and the limited people resource to source from, the standards of all comps will continue to suffer.
With 18 teams in the AFL comp, it now means that there are players getting a game that are not at an elite standard (or even close)… I'm sure looking in our own backyard we know this to be true!
Wouldn't it be better to reduce the number of teams to say 14, have every team play each other twice (home & away) and therefore have more quality players spread into 14 squads, rather than 18? This would go for sponsorship, admin, etc as well, more quality spread regionally between the teams.
I know its about TV rights, etc but I simply don't watch games that the RFC dont play in, unless it involves 2 quality sides. If each game most times had a fairer 50/50 chance I would watch it, rather than knowing that at least two games per week will be a blow out.
And it would require folding/merging teams, but of the 14, surely we could (in an ideal world) make it WA 2, SA 2, TAS 1, NSW 1/ACT 1, QLD 2, VIC 5. It would spread the travel load of all teams more evenly so as most teams would travel interstate every 2-3 weeks, rather than just the SA, WA, NSW & QLD's at the moment. And then have a top 6 finals system and lotto style draft... but that's a whole other discussion!
If they really wanted to make the competition fairer, get more ad revenue from TV rights, and actually gave a stuff about the fans they would do something similar… unfortunately that has not been the case for many years.
