Will the Alignments last?

AFL Victoria VFL
1

Just read St Kilda and Sandringham will end their alignment in the VFL with the Saints fielding their own VFL side in 2016.

“The objective for both St Kilda and Sandringham to field stand-alone VFL teams from 2016 would mean that there is a clear development pathway for players of each respective club,” said St Kilda head of football Chris Pelchen.

Seems the VFL/AFL alignments aren’t working too well. Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Footscray, Hawthorn (Box Hill) are all non VFA/L clubs.

I’m starting to think holes may be showing…

2

Just shows the alignment is a backup option for the two AFL clubs. Offer them stand alone teams and they will drop the alignment.

Always liked the idea of giving WCE their own team and give Peel to Fremantle. Cut back zones to 8 zones belonging to the 8 originals. So the 8 original clubs have league/reserves/colts teams, Wce and Fremantle have just a league team.

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100% Barny

4

I don’t understand why people on here don’t understand that as a Swans’ supporter I don’t want to go and watch Swans play the team formerly known as East Perth and see Naitanui playing against us. Similarly for the rest of the Swans’ players who are in the WA dimiciled AFL lists. The Eagles and the Dockers having their own teams does nothing to eliminate that. Further, for the WA domiciled AFL clubs to have their own reserves’ team they will be stuffing up not only the WAFL but other footy competitions which they will rape and pillage to provide sufficient players to field a team. Do we really want a supposed elite competition where one of the clubs would forfeit a game because they did not have any players. That most certainly would have been the case if Peel had a WAFl game scheduled for the same week end as the Dockers played St Kilda last season. What a joke the competition would be under those circumstances.

5

That attitude is exactly the reason why the WAFL is in a massive decline and will be dead inside ten years.

Most if not all clubs in serious financial strife, WAFC having to pay ABC to telecast a game a week because less than 7k people were watching games on tv last year. Attendence figures falling sharply and have been declining since 2008. More and more players turning their back on WAFL footy to play for cashed up country and amateur clubs.

But lets not change anything, we will sit with our eyes firmly shut and hands over our ears checking briefly every now and then to see if it is 1980 again.

Article yesterday stated that of all the sporting brands in Australia, WCE was the 5th biggest and Fremantle was the 8th biggest. Instead of using some of that brand recognition to try and spark up interest in the WAFL we continue to ignore it because for some reason having any slight interest in an AFL team is a treasonous action against the WAFL.

40K people go the AFL every 2nd week in Perth, nothing has ever been done to try and tempt any of those 40k to go to the WAFL on the off week. At its highest stage over 10k people paid over $50 just to be on waiting list to get a season ticket to football. That is 10k people who want to go to the football every second week but can’t get tickets and the WAFL has done nothing to get them to go to a WAFL game in the years they have to wait.

Nothing has been done because the fans of the WAFL are so insular that if anyone tried any kind of deal linking themselves with a nasty AFL club there will be hell to pay.

it is the selfish attitude of the fans that is strangling the competition. Can’t have aligned or stand alone teams because you will get upset at seeing a Swans colts player playing against Swans? Give me abreak, that has been happening since the competition started. How do you think South supporters felt when they came up against Swans and Kyle Hams.

instead of taking an ownership, almost slave trade attitude of the players you have supported since they were juniors why not actually be happy for them that they reached their goal? I’ve watched Dom Sheed since he started at Subi, if he plays against us I might be upset at first but then I will be happy for the kid and proud that no matter what colours he is wearing he will always be a Subi kid.

Move on with the times, stop living in the past and let the WAFL move on and survive. Instead of dreading a game against East Perth or Peel next season view it as a grudge match. Use it as a marketing opportunity to get more people through the gate and more money in the club coffers. Don’t look at it as a certain loss, look at it as an chance to prove that your WAFL club is better than an AFL club.

Nope, what was I thinking. Lets just complain about everything, live in the past and when the WAFL is dead blame everyone else for not doing something.

6

Barney if this was face book, and there was a like button, I would press it.If I was on another site called Talking Football.net I would press the thanks button.
But be aware that from here in you will be castigated treated like a traitor.You will cop it trust me.
But I could never have said it better.
Far too many still think about how good the WAFL was prior to the Eagles.

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Funny thing is it is not that hard to supoort two different teams in two different competitions at the same time but some struggle with the concept.

I am a WCE member as well as a Subi member. If they both play at the same time I tend to go to the Subiaco game more. Next year if Sheed plays against us I will sledge him but only jovial “you look horrible in the those colours Dom” or “hope you get promoted next week so you never have to wear ghose colours again” type sledges.

It is easy for some to move on but some struggle. Every post of S42 I read I almost pray for the WAFL because while the competition is run to keep the likes of him happy it will never survive.

Would love those in charge to have the courage of those in charge of the SANFL. Would love to do it myself, would only need six months to turn it around.

8

Barney that was a fabulous read.

My situation being a EP supporter from way way back is, I am totally disillusioned with us aligning with WCE. However I will not turn my back on WAFL footy, I still have a keen interest in it. I just tend to be drawn more towards the other teams and matches.

Saturday afternoons will always be footy of some sort in my house. I am disappointed but will hope like hell the wafl can find a way to get thru the negativity. EP is in my blood, but I just wished it was another team that aligned. I sense it may not last the full 5 years.

anyway it was well put by yourself. I hope others keep going to the footy and taking a mate occasionally.

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Once the corporate entity brands WCE & FFC have established their own bases - the alignments will be scrapped immediately and stand alone teams forced into the WAFL comp
Emissaries of both brands will be in Adelaide from this coming season closely scrutinising the SA model for key learnings

bet whatever you got downstairs on it

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That’s what I’m thinking as well Southerner.

But where will that leave EP & Peel? No longer I imagine or they’ll have to merge with another club.

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Here is an hypothetical for you Barney. Do you believe that Nic Naitanui would like to play against Swan Districts or with Swan Districts if circumstances dictate that he needs to play a match at WAFL level?

Exactly what has the WAFC done in terms of the alignment which could even vaguely pass as appeasement to people with a similar view to mine?

As for your your comments vis a vis Hams playing for Swans against Souths. The first point to make is that it was Hams’s choice to come to Swans. I have never suggested that that is not their right to choose which team they play for. Quite the contrary I have advocated that it is indeed the players’ right to choose. That is why I have indicated that the draft is a restriction of trade and if it were to be taken to court it would be struck down for that reason.

With respect to standalone reserves’ teams for the WA domiciled AFL clubs. I would respectfully suggest that it is their selfish and contemptuous attitude to the WAFL rather than mine. Where would they get all the addiotional players from? How many other competitions would they adversely affect? Just remeber that given the circumstances of Freo’s last game against St Kilda; they wuld need to have found close to an entire team or would they have just forfeited the game?

As for the 10,000 who were on the Eagles’ waiting list, the WAFL competition has been going for well over 100 years. There are stories about the WAFL competition in the local papers, the ABC have been showing live WAFL games for many years; you may well ask why they wouldn’t want to go to a local WAFL club and why they couldn’t, of their own volition, find a WAFL club and ground to attend and support?

Again let’s not use logic in any of your points. You mention an article about the relative position of Freo and the Eagles in terms of marketing. Well let’s see how many times 10,000 + attend the Peel games to watch the Freo players or watch the club formerly known as the East Perth to watch the Eagles’ players.
By the way how many of the Freo members would have known who Jeseph Kreiger was or gone to watch him play in the WAFl. Similar question for Eagles’ members with respect to Andrew Geddes?