Has anyone else lost faith in the AFL?

[chef]

As in to run a fair and even competition with every team having an fairly even chance to win a flag.

I must say I have, maybe it's due to having a few flat and tough seasons but I'm close to giving up hope on every seeing a Western Bulldogs flag.

[ledge]

A lot of people going back to VFL

[Flamethrower]

Hard to lose something that you have never had. AFL stands for Amoral Farcical League.

[Greystache]

Completely and utterly.

I can't remember another time where the game was less about the fans. The entire agenda of the AFL is to manipulate every aspect of the sport to drive it's own short term agenda.

So laughable are the lame excuses offered for blatantly orchestrating outcomes that the public en mass can predict with accuracy what is going to occur.

[azabob]

Chef, I've known and accepted this reality for sometime.

Dogs, Roos, saints, Melbourne will not win a flag in the next fifty years. Only Melbourne has a chance due to the possible off field money they have access to.

I still buy a membership and go to the footy, but it's more so to see mates and my dad.

[bulldogtragic]

The AFL is starting to feel a bit like WWE as a younger kid.

Vince McMahon saying all the things, but it was only ever a race between Stone Cold and The Rock which was where the real money was. Sure Mankind, Kane, The Undertaker and the rest were good, but everything was rigged for maximum dollars to be spent. The AFL mustn't believe that boil overs with the underdogs can be just or even more exciting or profitable.

[Webby]

When is the AFL going to realise that "growing the game" will not be achieved by Collingwood, West Coast, Geelong, Adelaide and Hawthorn dominating year after year. Do they realise that most of the dormant supporters are in Victoria and they follow Melbourne, St Kilda, the Dogs, North, Richmond, Carlton etc etc?

Thing is, 75% of them are finding other things to do with their time other than watching their teams getting repeatedly flogged at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon! Not just that, but KNOWING that they have buckleys and none of seeing their club win a flag.

This is why equalisation is so important. Do you think Collingwood or Geelong are more likely to get their membership up by 20k, or do you think a strong 5 years from Melbourne and the Dogs would be more likely to provide an extra 30k energised members between them!? Victorians largely already have a team. Many simply don't consume the product because their teams are perceived by them as having a snowball's chance in hell. If the competition had an "any given Sunday" feel to it, the AFL would find that the pie grows itself.

Look at the top 4 and the bottom 4 from
2013 to 2014... Did they change??

Christ, the Yanks are the kings of capitalism. The NFL is full of 95% privately owned teams. They're owned by the kings of capitalism in the most capitalist country in the world!!! And even they realise that making the NFL as even as possible is absolutely key to growing their league - and their collective bank accounts.

We have been fully professional since the mid-late 1990's. The NFL has been fully professional since the 1920's. The AFL signed it's first $1M TV deal in the late 1980's. The NFL were signing $100M+ TV deals in the 1970's. We adopted the draft system in the late '80's, the NFL did it in the 1930's.... We are literally decades behind the NFL and have been copying them for years.

The fact that we're so, so far behind on waking up to this says to me that there are just too many egos amongst AFL presidents to allow the league to prosper. Either that or the AFL Commission are just a bunch of grade A dills. There are hundreds of thousands of latent Bulldogs, Melbourne, St Kilda, Richmond and Carlton supporters lying around the place!.... Many more than in greater western Sydney, I guarantee it!!

[Maddog37]

Great post Webby.

[Go_Dogs]

Based on the poll, those who have responded with a post are speaking for everyone.

[Drunken Bum]

I lost faith in the afl a long long time ago, i used to go to every game i could, i loved it and i always held out hope that one day...
i can't even type it it seems so ridiculous to me now.
I didn't make a game this year and have been to maybe 15-20 over the last 10 years, part of it is because i have other things on most weekends but in the past i would make time and plan around the football, now i'm content to download the games on monday and get around to watching them if/when i can. I rarely talk to others about afl at all unless it is me bitching about the afl and how corrupt it is so i try not to because it makes me angry.
Sometimes i just wish we had of folded completely so i could ignore the "competition" completely and get on with my life such is the regard i hold the afl in.

[Rocco Jones]

The AFL is starting to feel a bit like WWE as a younger kid.

Vince McMahon saying all the things, but it was only ever a race between Stone Cold and The Rock which was where the real money was. Sure Mankind, Kane, The Undertaker and the rest were good, but everything was rigged for maximum dollars to be spent. The AFL mustn't believe that boil overs with the underdogs can be just or even more exciting or profitable.

I wish it were like the WWE! We are a bit like Mankind back in the mid to late 90s. They sold him as the unfashionable underdog who won the title against an elitist. I want that!!

[KT31]

I selected 'Somewhere in the middle', the reason being I am somewhat isolated from most coverage and AFL issues.
I have lost faith in the fact that we will get a equal draw , but I still (naively) believe we will win a flag in my lifetime.
I am sure if I was still in Melbourne and was confronted by the bias each week I would have selected 'yes' hands down.

[anfo27]

Once I saw our fixture for this year that was enough for me. Have hardly watched any Friday or Saturday night games because I have just had enough of being bent over and be expected to come back for more. I challenge anyone to find any team in any year that had a worse fixture than what we had this year. That fixture is something I'd expect from Ross Oakley.

The AFL couldn't give a stuff about us!

[anfo27]

I wish it were like the WWE! We are a bit like Mankind back in the mid to late 90s. They sold him as the unfashionable underdog who won the title against an elitist. I want that!!

We are more like George 'the animal' Steele.

[bulldogtragic]

I wish it were like the WWE! We are a bit like Mankind back in the mid to late 90s. They sold him as the unfashionable underdog who won the title against an elitist. I want that!!

We are of a similar age I'm backing then... I think Mankinds development as a character tapped into that narrative perfectly between the hilly billy hero worshipping of Austin and the Yankee's people's elbow arrogant fun of The Rock. Didn't Mankind then join forces with Vince McMahon after that as well from memory? That would be fun, Gillon forcing a deal with a swinging fold up chair and the dogs casually walking down to pin them for the win and the shock value on the crowd...