The State Of Football

These thoughts are my own, and I welcome the thoughts of any poster, and indeed any corrections that might be required.

Firstly let me say I have been an avid follower of our great game since the 1970's, and I cannot recall our game ever being in such dissarray ..

The AFL - Has likely never been as confronted with as many issues, of such magnitude, as it is has recently faced - Including but not limited to: Draft Tampering, Salary Cap breaches, Tanking, Illicit Drug use, Performance Enhancing Drug use, match fixing. Some alleged, some confirmed. All tarnishing the profile of the game at the highest level.

The VFL - Is a shell of it's former self. The economic pie has shrunk several times, member clubs have continually had their allegiances altered, crowds have diminished over a long period of time.

The WAFL - Has faced the same challenges as the VFL, and now finds itself forced into accommodating AFL reserves teams against the wishes of a majority of it's members.

The SANFL - Reduced standard, crowds diminished over a lengthy period of time, several clubs in financial jeopardy, several periods of lowered standard of football.

Has the game nationally ever been under more duress?

Turning to our competition, it's been my understanding that the SANFL, upon establishing both AFL licenses had publicly emphasised/justified "this will ensure the health of South Australian football now and into the future".

I have to question, is the SANFL not the pre-eminent competition of this state? If yes, then how has the SANFL protected it's very own competition?

Since 1990 several clubs have faced such financial distress, that closing the doors has been a very real possibility. Woodville, West Torrens, North Adelaide, Sturt, Norwood, West Adelaide and Port have all felt the affect and fear of the possibility of ceasing to trade/exist. If I've missed anyone, please feel free to include them.

All clubs that have been in this situation need to take the majority portion of the blame, for allowing money going out to be higher than money coming in, for excessive periods of time. There can be no shying away from that.

But I have to ask, what is the responsibility of the governing body? What assistance has been given to these clubs (and that is not limited to financial) to ensure they manage their survival? It only takes the loss of one club to further denigrate the competition to the detriment of the remaining clubs, so I think the governing body is negligent in their duty of care if they allow it to happen!

Like many I fear for the future of this competition, and have done so on several occasions .. Each perhaps more concerning than the time before. But now I fear our competition is dangerously close to the precipice and point of no return.

What plan(s) does our competitions guardian have for the future of the competition? What becomes of South Australian football without the highest level of competition (as we know it) in the state?

Apologies if this is a bit "all over the place". Would be interested in the thoughts of others.

fantastic post ... I too have wondered where the strategic direction of the SANFL is when for the last 20 years or so it's been too easy to siphon off the profits generated by the 2 AFL licences (until recently when it all went pear shaped), whilst allowing th SANFL competition to meander aimlessly along, whilst clubs are struggling for survival.

great post

we need football people with the right credentials working for the league not businessmen, politicians & the like who haven't got the same passion, pride or intimate knowledge of what the league means to many many people


btw welcome aboard Scrunch

An excellent post Scrunch.
Are you running for the SA Footy Commission any time soon?

I just wonder if the administrators of the above organisations (and you can throw amateur and country footy in too), will ultimately walk away from their tenure able to say the game is in a better place than when they came to it?

In any league level decision making, surely "is it good for footy" should be asked first. They should be guarding the footy pyramid like the pharoahs' slaves. The way I see it the foundations of that pyramid are starting to crumble.

The SANFL competition has been living off the AFL licences and poker machine revenue. The reality is, take these away and it dies.

over the line wrote:The SANFL competition has been living off the AFL licences and poker machine revenue. The reality is, take these away and it dies.

The first part of your assessment is spot on. But I don't think it would necessarily die. Rather it may go back to something like it was before the AFL and the compulsive gamblers became our life support system. Which might be a good thing in many ways. Coming from a much earlier era and having lived in the country for the past 40 years, where football is still very much a grass roots affair, I could handle that.

I only discussed this with some friends the other day.

If it were not for the ingrained passion that many of us have for the game, which is typically generations old, I doubt many of us would adopt Australian Rules as the game we love, knowing what we know about the governance of the game, the social impact one of the main revenue streams of our clubs have ( pokies ), the constant rule/interpretation changes. It really does leave me a little confused as to why I continue to be so engrossed emotionally and financially by it all. Passion, thats what it is.

Having said that, passion and passion alone will not bring our clubs back from oblivion, like it or not clubs are now big business ( some are small business to be honest ) and many factors impact upon the viability of each and every business/club we love and support.

I fear the next generation ( current 15-20 year olds ) will in the main care very little about the SANFL and not really be concerned if it were to dissappear or become even more insignificant than it may already be. Perhaps it will only be the grizzling of those like me ( 35-40 year olds ) who will let those young'uns know what has really taken place.

The AFL, as much as I love my PAFC ( both sides ) is bewildering at best in the modern day.

Expansion teams on the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney have drawn 40+ of the best young players from clubs who sorely need them ( mine just happens to be one of them ) and both sides,IMO, seem certain to have meagre followings at games, memberships and despite the hype are both a long, long, long way from being a force on the field. Why was this done? Money. See, its a business.

The SANFL -

There really is no option but to feed financially off the mega-dollar AFL and the TV rights, sponsorship and gate takings it generates.

As much as I dislike the fact, without the SANFL taking on AFL reserves teams and being watered down further, the future for some clubs looks very, very bleak.

Like scrunch, this is all over the place, but so are my thoughts and feelings on our game.

My gut feeling is that most of us singing from exactly the same song sheet as you are Booney. I concur with all those comments.

We are searching in wilderness or hoping for some strand of a solution to be forthcoming, without a lot of concrete answers on the horizon.

Without a proper pyramid structure supported by all league levels, I don't think the current structure can be supported. Maybe Sturt could be the first go, but I doubt it would end there.

History shows that at all levels clubs disappear, or are allowed to, as it is too hard to get all affiliations in footy to be in alignment.

countrycousin wrote:

over the line wrote:The SANFL competition has been living off the AFL licences and poker machine revenue. The reality is, take these away and it dies.

The first part of your assessment is spot on. But I don't think it would necessarily die.

Where will the money come from then?

Chambo Off To Work We Go wrote:My gut feeling is that most of us singing from exactly the same song sheet as you are Booney. I concur with all those comments.

We are searching in wilderness or hoping for some strand of a solution to be forthcoming, without a lot of concrete answers on the horizon.

Without a proper pyramid structure supported by all league levels, I don't think the current structure can be supported. Maybe Sturt could be the first go, but I doubt it would end there.

History shows that at all levels clubs disappear, or are allowed to, as it is too hard to get all affiliations in footy to be in alignment.

I believe if the AFL, as the most powerful governing body in the game, were to impose upon all the states that they truly become AFLSA, AFLVIC etc and as you note become part of a greater structure to ensure all levels of the game are supported financially and remain as they are ( club #'s etc ) then most of us would agree to it.

Sadly and IMO always will be, there is a small enough portion of executive level management in all forms of the game who do their job because it is their job, not because they have the greater interests of the game at heart.

Great thread this one.

A side note to all of this of this discussion though is that the grass roots level of the game is as strong as it ever was, certainly down in my area anyway.

To me this shows that there is still too much of a disconnect between all levels of the game. In a way they are all still competing against each other rather than working with each other for the good of the game as a whole.

over the line wrote:The SANFL competition has been living off the AFL licences and poker machine revenue. The reality is, take these away and it dies.

These two incomes are the biggest at all of the SANFL clubs these days. Whilst sponsorship is still very important for all clubs it is not enough to survive on nor are gate takings anywhere near what they were pre AFL. Club membership numbers have also fallen to what they were years ago.

Another thing that all clubs have to contend with these days is that country clubs are paying enormous match payments plus signing on fees that most SANFL clubs just can't compete with.

testy wrote:

over the line wrote:The SANFL competition has been living off the AFL licences and poker machine revenue. The reality is, take these away and it dies.

These two incomes are the biggest at all of the SANFL clubs these days. Whilst sponsorship is still very important for all clubs it is not enough to survive on nor are gate takings anywhere near what they were pre AFL. Club membership numbers have also fallen to what they were years ago.

Another thing that all clubs have to contend with these days is that country clubs are paying enormous match payments plus signing on fees that most SANFL clubs just can't compete with.

can i please add that the SANFL (which is the 9 clubs) OWN the ''licence'' so let the 9 SANFL clubs sell the ''licences'' back to the AFL for 90,000,000, (10 each) the AFL can do what it wants with both Port & Adelaide, their players play elsewhere but not in the SANFL & everybody should be happy, healthy & vibrant, if any of the SANFL clubs squandered an opportunity like that then they would deserve to fall into oblivion

Where will the AFL get $90m from?

over the line wrote:Where will they AFL get $90m from?

it was a number i plucked out, however they get more than that from tv rights & it would be a one off payment for them to have those franchises free from the SANFL & into their hands, also if a buyer wants something bad enough they'll pay whatever the cost is

They would be lucky to be worth $9m let alone $90m

whose side are you on ?

the market place determines what anything is worth

imho

AFL = 20 cents

SANFL = PRICELESS

My initial post was intended to address multiple concerns, but one which doesn't seem to get addressed, is what are the SANFL doing? they are about as visible as the state Liberal party and the silence is deafening.
What are their plans to address the current concerns, prevent other clubs from running into the same troubles, ie, to ensure the league remains intact. What are the SANFL's plans toward rejuvenating the competition and ensuring the competition maintains relevance to the next generation of supporters? Or do they really only care about protecting and developing the 2 local AFL licenses? Someone from West Lakes needs to speak up and offer some form of blueprint on the competition today, tomorrow and in 20 years time.

Scrunch wrote:My initial post was intended to address multiple concerns, but one which doesn't seem to get addressed, is what are the SANFL doing? they are about as visible as the state Liberal party and the silence is deafening.
What are their plans to address the current concerns, prevent other clubs from running into the same troubles, ie, to ensure the league remains intact. What are the SANFL's plans toward rejuvenating the competition and ensuring the competition maintains relevance to the next generation of supporters? Or do they really only care about protecting and developing the 2 local AFL licenses? Someone from West Lakes needs to speak up and offer some form of blueprint on the competition today, tomorrow and in 20 years time.

This is where they make there money and that money feeds into the SANFL, without it and down the gurgler we go.
They have bought in many more night games in the hope of attracting more people. Successful, i'm not sure.
The only kids in the next generation who care about or even know about the SANFL are the sons and daughters of current SANFL supporters, most youngsters we know have no interest in any SANFL club, only the AFL, and to get them interested is all but imposible.

testy wrote:
The only kids in the next generation who care about or even know about the SANFL are the sons and daughters of current SANFL supporters, most youngsters we know have no interest in any SANFL club, only the AFL, and to get them interested is all but imposible.

that is true to a degree but when you have a child (not just mine) that does go to the SANFL footy & speaks about it at school the first thing the other kids that don't go to the matches do is look at the results so they can 'tease' on Mondays, others have a genuine interest in it but Mum or Dad can't be bothered taking them, this is where us diehards must enter, take you kids, nephews, nieces & their friends for the day out & in time they'll want to go maybe not all the time but sometimes

While it's difficult to see where the next generation of supporters are going to come from, there's two choices - Try, try and try again to get them onboard or give up. I don't think the latter should an option. The SANFL may well have plans to try and address this, I guess my point is I'd like to hear something, ANYTHING from them just so we know.

bayman wrote:

testy wrote:
The only kids in the next generation who care about or even know about the SANFL are the sons and daughters of current SANFL supporters, most youngsters we know have no interest in any SANFL club, only the AFL, and to get them interested is all but imposible.

that is true to a degree but when you have a child (not just mine) that does go to the SANFL footy & speaks about it at school the first thing the other kids that don't go to the matches do is look at the results so they can 'tease' on Mondays, others have a genuine interest in it but Mum or Dad can't be bothered taking them, this is where us diehards must enter, take you kids, nephews, nieces & their friends for the day out & in time they'll want to go maybe not all the time but sometimes

My son is now 24 but when we lived in the Port area and he was at school with Port junior players .LEading upto the weekend of Eagles v Port he was often threatened with violence if the Eagles won.
So no he didnt get bashed he just laughed his head off at them

Scrunch wrote:While it's difficult to see where the next generation of supporters are going to come from, there's two choices - Try, try and try again to get them onboard or give up. I don't think the latter should an option. The SANFL may well have plans to try and address this, I guess my point is I'd like to hear something, ANYTHING from them just so we know.

The Thursday Night SANFL show starts up on March 7th and one of our first guests will be Chris Davies from the SANFL. This is the type of question I'd anticipate Chris will be asked.

Scrunch wrote:While it's difficult to see where the next generation of supporters are going to come from, there's two choices - Try, try and try again to get them onboard or give up. I don't think the latter should an option. The SANFL may well have plans to try and address this, I guess my point is I'd like to hear something, ANYTHING from them just so we know.

Honestly we need to advertise often and over and over .

Maybe a TFSA think tank on various ideas to develop a plausible game plan for the future is in order. Some good ideas may just be out there for the sanfl and clubs to sit up and listen to.

The voices and minds of 50 constructive people may just unearth some very worthwhile lines of enquiry.

I am with Scrunch. I would dearly love the sanfl to consider how the competition is expected to continue for the next 20 years and in turn invite contributions from interested stakeholders.

I can understand that there is a preoccupation at the moment with the Oval and the 2 AFL licences. But consigning the prosperity of the sanfl to the backburner would be very foolish.