18 clubs. Does it affect us?

[Go_Dogs]

I'm a bit skeptical about the whole thing at this stage, however for the long-term I can see the benefits of extending the game to different regions.

Not too sure exactly how it would effect us, and what sort of establishment deals the AFL would allow for the new franchises. Will be interesting to follow over the next few years, but if the move has the club presidents support, I'm in favor.

[FrediKanoute]

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.......

The AFL will want to avoid another Brisbane Bears fiasco and near bankruptsy of the Sydney Swans. To achieve this they CANNOT start a team from scratch with no "Marquee" players otherwise who is going to come along and watch them be humiliated each week? Similarly Foxtel/Commercial Networks are NOT goign to pay $$$ to show amateur football.

The only way around this is to provide them with the ability to sign "UNCONTRACTED" players. if we take this year as an example uncontracted players included:


Judd
Charman
Hasleby
Seaby
Kosi
Morten (Mitch)
Chick
Bolton
Lade
Gardiner (Charlie)
Headland
McPharlin
Farmer
J.Smith
B.Dixon
Shaw
Fraser
McMahon

That's a fairly decent list of players and if you split that between 2 clubs then its a fair base to work from. Put simply the AFL will not let what happened with the Bears (precursor to the Lions) again.....it wont be a case of every club "donating" 2 players each all of which are pretty much duds!

[Dry Rot]

In the long term, this means that any club that isnot financially viable in Melbourne, only has two paths to follow, merge or fold. I don't believe there will be the option to transfer interstate, unless they go to Tassie.

Good point.

And has the AFL actually publicly explained how the 2 new teams will get their playing list together?

[LostDoggy]

Yes where are these 80 extra players going to come from?

[The Underdog]

Yes where are these 80 extra players going to come from?

Existing lists, uncontracted players, junior grades (ie, the 2 new teams getting the cream of the draft picks for a few years), also allowed access to the local juniors for a couple of years too I would imagine. The AFL will bugger around with drafting and access to players rules to make these teams as strong as possible on the field s quickly as possible.
Ad if you were referring to the depth of talent in the comp, well that will probably suffer too.

[GVGjr]

if you were referring to the depth of talent in the comp, well that will probably suffer too.

Thats my query with this. At the moment I don't think the depth of the AFL competition is that great and another 80 players will spread the competition too thin.

The TAC and state based programme's are strong but there is a huge gap between that and being an AFL standard player.

[LostDoggy]

Existing lists, uncontracted players, junior grades (ie, the 2 new teams getting the cream of the draft picks for a few years), also allowed access to the local juniors for a couple of years too I would imagine. The AFL will bugger around with drafting and access to players rules to make these teams as strong as possible on the field s quickly as possible.
Ad if you were referring to the depth of talent in the comp, well that will probably suffer too.

Unless they are mostly these 2 and good ones at that, It will be at least 5 years before these teams will be competitive.
Say they draft 10 rookies per team. 30 players would be from the other clubs. Almost 2 per team. Double that for 2 new clubs.

[The Underdog]

Unless they are mostly these 2 and good ones at that, It will be at least 5 years before these teams will be competitive.
Say they draft 10 rookies per team. 30 players would be from the other clubs. Almost 2 per team. Double that for 2 new clubs.

So say each team loses 4 players to the new teams, then has to replace them with guys who are picked up after the new teams have had 2 picks in each round plus already own 3 years worth of youngsters from their own territories (more an issue in Qld than NSW, where the talent is getting better). Existing teams will lose talent and depth and have to replace it with guys who may not have been considered AFL quality under pre-expansion circumstances. The new teams will not be competitive straight away, but the old teams will also will come back to their standard a little as well, as the talent on their lists lessens to meet the new teams in the middle.

[Dry Rot]

So say each team loses 4 players to the new teams

How will that work?

And the draft priorities will have an uneven effect on existing clubs at differing points in the cycle eg Club A has just been rebuilding before this, so has good stocks of young players, Club B was really good for many years, now in decline and needs to rebuild, and can't.

[The Underdog]

How will that work?

And the draft priorities will have an uneven effect on existing clubs at differing points in the cycle eg Club A has just been rebuilding before this, so has good stocks of young players, Club B was really good for many years, now in decline and needs to rebuild, and can't.

The existing clubs would have a certain number of players they could protect, then the 2new teams would be able to pick from the others, maximum of 4 from each club. Not saying that is what will happen, but don't be surprised. The new teams will also be able to trade their draft picks for existing players, which will be tempting for them. Expect to also see top players from clubs being offered longer contracts to get them past the entry of the expansion teams.
I don't think the AFL will be too worried about your scenario. Club B will therefore be closer to the level of the expansion teams making them look better earlier.