Yeah, not sure why making a bunch of bad decisions is relevant, I don’t think anyone’s had 2 win season as a result of excellent decisions and bad luck. And they were just old fashioned incompetence, not some sort of elaborate tanking plan
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This year wasn’t even deliberate!
Agreed. Do not like some of the rumours. Bowes. Riccardi. These are increase the floor players.
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Gotta enjoy a lawyer with a mullet thinking he knows ball
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The absolute best we could hope for from an assistance perspective is to partially neutralize the impact of Tasmania on our FS /NGA.
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You know we are Farked when they think we are alright
I’d hope that they serve us those players on a platter.
AFL will not give us anything more than extra list spots next year if we are just as bad. They will be all in on focussing on supporting the Devils get set up. Already the draft will be heavily compromised.
They wont allow us a free swing at Bewick or any academy kid as they have already changed rules to make it harder
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The issue you then have is that teams that bottom out have an incentive to meet that criteria. I don’t think any club should be guaranteed assistance – the AFL should be able to weigh in the specific situation of each club.
Im inclined to agree after the slap in the face token ‘assistance’ this year.
Bailing out the competition for years has meant approximately bugger all in terms of credits the AFL owed us.
By not giving us assistance this year they are likely going to have to give us more next year and the year after. Honestly the best way to convince the AFL to provide assistance is by not showing up to games next year, which is a sad thing to say.
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Although AFL crowd numbers are good, kid soccer participation has exploded. Our club has too many teams now, to the point that training facilities can’t cope. Much of this is because of the increased girl participation after the world cup.
I agree with you though, Soccer in Australia is a non issue. It is the NRL that seems to have made some ground. The issue for the NRL is their game is ■■■■.
The AFL have a monopoly in 3 states. What they need is a breakaway competition to postentially shake it up. As much as they want to build the game everywhere, they have screwed over the teams that have kept it afloat through the tough years. If Collingwood, Essendon, Richmond and Carlton all threatened to walk, I garantee the AFL would wake up. It won’t happen though.
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What bailing out?
Propping up the AFL financially through the club’s massive fan base driving big revenue, through broadcast ratings, marquee fixtures bringing huge crowds and gate receipts (which the league redistributes to equalise and subsidise smaller clubs).
We have kept smaller clubs solvent for a long time.
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But we aren’t North
Plus we have swagger, with a spike and a horse.
Point taken, but the 18 team era started in 2012.
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It’s not about quantity, it’s the quality…oh wait.
of the 18 teams, only 3 have played finals less recently than us
That table is wrong. Richmond played finals in 2022.
Only two (West Coast and NM) have had longer stints of no finals than Essendon.
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apologies, I stand corrected