Ron Barrasi commented its was not healthy that Victorian teams have not performed well in recent years.?

Question

I tend to agree! Since Essendon won the 2000 flag,Brisbane won in 2001/2002/2003 Port Adelaide 2004 and Sydney 2005.In 2006 no Victorian side has made the preliminary final?

My opinion is there is one too many Victorian sides.With talent and finance spread too thin.

Unless the AFL acts soon in will be years until the Victorian sides are competitive again in my opinion.

What do you think?

Answer 1

i agree it is embarrasing! but what can you do its a national sport i suppose they can take comfort in the fact that all the interstate teams "used to be from victoria".

Answer 2

Yeh I completely agree. I won't be fully satisfied until there are 4 teams left one year all from Victoria - with one of them Collingwood! It is a bit disgraceful actually. Out of 10 teams in Victoria, 4 make the finals let alone no one making the prelims. Victoria will be a force to be reckoned with soon though...don't worry about that.

Answer 3

No there is not to many Victorian teams but WA & SA have a hugh home ground advantage particaly in finals remember not all Melbourne clubs play everyweek at mcg-docklands

As Eddie McGuire has pointed out over the years the lions & swans have a hugh advantage partically the swans with the extra concessions they recieve from the afl

but its just how it is when you have a national comp just look at the nrl they are only a few days away of having a BRISBANE v MELBOURNE grand final played in Sydney

Answer 4

OK, so no Victorian team has made the Prelim Finals and not one VIC side has won since 2000.   Where is Brisbane now? Where is the Power now? and in a few years again where will West Coast and Sydney be?

Those of you will long memories and age to match will remember St Kilda not winning a flag since 1966 and The Bulldogs not winning since 1954 (incidently the year I was born).

It happens all the time in sport so the talk of merging clubs and transferring them Interstate is irrational at best at this stage.  Tasmania (where I live) with its low population can not financially manage a full time AFL team and the other clubs would need to fly in every second week.  The big ***** down here is already on between the old North v South rivalry.  Games are played at Aurora Stadium (the old York Park) and some believe the home of football should be in Hobart and played at Bellerive (why not, they play Test Cricket there).   For teams to fly into Launceston they charter special flights, its ok if that is only 4 times a year and 4 different clubs share the costs but for clubs to do it every second week with the limited flights into Launceston.

I always thought the Kangaroos would do better if they relocated to the ACT but now they are not going to be playing their games there but at Carrara.  This smacks of some money talking from the AFL to get a second side in Queensland which would be bad.

The NRL tried that and the team went belly up and that was in a Rugby League orientated state.  Queensland should be left to the Brisbane Lions.

Same goes for New South Wales.  The Swans have taken a long time to build their support and trying to put in a second side would be stupid at least.

As for merging clubs, come on fellas we don't want to see clubs with long histories disappear. That is not what the game is about.

It would be better to try to build some kind of relegations stystem where you get the top eight in division 1 and the bottom eight in Division 2 playing each other and the top two in div 2 go up each year and the bottom 2 of Div 1 go down.  At least then we could probably sustain so many teams.

One thing the Interstate sides have done is open the playing field up and the finals this year have been excellant viewing despite all four VIC sides being eliminated.  I can see a big battle coming up next weekend and it won't be over until the final siren.

Good luck to all fans for next week.

Answer 5

I agree with you and Ron Barrasi, there are too many Victorian sides, so why are the AFL not pushing the case of trying to merge couple of struggling teams? This has been a problem for a long time now and I am glad  that  Victorian teams are struggling, simply because of the biased comments by Victorian media and commentators. To become a truly national comp, they must get rid of a couple of teams and come in Tasmania and NT.

Answer 6

In a previous question, I think it's a leveling of the playing field.  Victorians need to get used to the fact that it's now a national game.  I think its time the old teams either move out of state or call it quits and let new teams in new markets come up.

Answer 7

Of course there are too many Victorian teams - Victoria has 2.5 times the population of WA or SA but 5 times as many teams. WA and SA made HUGE sacrifices for there to be an AFL - our beloved WAFL and SAFL competitions were guttered forever. We didn't do that just to join the VFL, and to be bled of half our talent proping up the Melbourne teams, it's the AFL! There should only be 4-6 Vic teams in the comp and 12 teams overall to make the fixtures fair.

Answer 8

As victorians we simply have to accept it. I believe it's a cycle, the hawks and dogs are up and coming and who knows maybe the saints will get some luck with less injuries. The interstate dominance is great for the game but one day they'll be down and vic footy will be up again. All a cycle.

Answer 9

Talent & finance spread too thin? No. There is the draft system, and salary cap. All teams are equal, some just have more money for facilities than others. Look at Judd, best player in the league, and he`s a vic.

Its just a phase, the vic sides will rise again. Look at Bris & Pt. Adelaide, played off for the flag in 04, where are they this season?

Answer 10

Barrassi should just roll up and die!  This relic is of no use anymore to footy.  As a Victorian I am embarrassed by this suggestion.  How about we relocate Melbourne first and send them Alice Springs and make Barassi Life President.