Sydney NRL teams own suburban areas/ distinct boundaries. Are there boundaries/maps of AFL club areas in Melb?

Question

You could draw up a map of Sydney, with pretty much the entire metropolitan areas and suburbs covered by an NRL club. The areas are more or less equal, with the outer suburban clubs being bigger in geographic area, and the inner city clubs having smaller catchments. Have the expanding suburban areas of Melbourne ever been divided up among the AFL clubs. I know the Bulldogs are located in western Melbourne, St Kilda in the south, Hawthorn in the east, and the rest are right in the middle of the city. Have these city clubs been given extra suburban areas outside the city centre? Is there a map with footy club catchment areas? If not, where do these clubs get their supporters and junior players from, seeing as families have moved out of the gentrified inner-suburbs, just as they have in Sydney?

Answer 1

In the old VFL every team had an area that they could gain players from, but now with the AFL, it's all down to drafts.

Answer 2

When the Vfl only had 12 victorian teams the whole state was divided up in to 24 sections each club got 2 1 suburban 1 rural

Footscray for instance had the western suburbs and the Latrobe valley and parts of gippsland while Collingwood had the North eastern suburbs and the south west coast around portland and warrnambool

Interstate players came across on form 4's. As the richer clubs started taking the poorer clubs best players and in the end started to send themselves bankrupt the Vfl brought in the draft and scrapped zones

As for supporters every one is free to choose whoever they want if you live in geelong there is no reason why you can't support hawthorn or anyone else for that matter

Answer 3

Since the VFL became national (AFL), those rules no longer apply,  junior players are selected from the draft so they can come from anywhere in Australia.

As for supporters, well with interstate sides they generally only have 1 or 2 teams to pick from, but here in Victoria the new supporters are either inherited from kids barracking for what their parents do, or they pick a team that is within their general vicinity?

Interesting question and food for thought!!  Thanks :)