Mega Thread Port Forum General AFL Thread Part 25

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Introducing a third WA team doesn't dilute West Coast at all. If it dilutes anyone, it's Freo.

West Coast are the state team. They're the powerhouse. They're the team that's won 4 flags and played in 7 grand finals. They're the club of the rich and the famous. They're the club that the business community want to be associated with.

Freo are the challenger brand. The underdog. They're the club you support if you don't want to support West Coast for whatever reason.

You introduce a third team and you're halving Freo's support, not West Coast's.

In any case, we need less teams in this bloody league not more.
 
Introducing a third WA team doesn't dilute West Coast at all. If it dilutes anyone, it's Freo.

West Coast are the state team. They're the powerhouse. They're the team that's won 4 flags and played in 7 grand finals. They're the club of the rich and the famous. They're the club that the business community want to be associated with.

Freo are the challenger brand. The underdog. They're the club you support if you don't want to support West Coast for whatever reason.

You introduce a third team and you're halving Freo's support, not West Coast's.

In any case, we need less teams in this bloody league not more.
Yep, that was the other bit I forgot to mention. Would be too counterintuitive compared to the ideal outcome (in my eyes at least, West Coast would disagree).
 

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In theory I agree, and I think WA is the most deserving of a 3rd side out of every state, but in actuality I don’t see a 3rd WA team having the desired effect. A 3rd side needs some point of difference and the obvious one is location - a South-West WA side in the Peel/Mandurah/Bunbury areas (I think, I don’t live there though). The problem is though they tried the location specific thing with Freo and I don’t think it broadened their support how they would’ve liked.

GWS make Western Sydney and especially Canberra work because they represent different things than what Sydney as a whole does. Gold Coast and Brisbane are two distinct cities as a whole so you can see why they went to add a team there. We also thrive off being the only pre-existing SANFL side in the AFL, the strongest one at that, and our opponent’s support base is an amalgamation of the rest of that league. We’d struggle if it was made up of 9 Norwoods, but it’s Norwood and other semi-decent sized clubs along with the s**t of the league so it evens out.

The other problem Freo faced when entering the league was trying to convert the footy public of WA on to their side when West Coast had 3 major things in their favour which I’ll contrast to our situation vs Adelaide.
1. West Coast’s identity is generic enough as a pseudo state team. It’s not Perth Swans wearing Yellow and Black but it’s probably as close as they could get without infringing on another club (unlike Adelaide). Easy choice for a WA fan to pick.
2. With their generic name compared to Fremantle going for a location name, what incentive is there for someone to go for Freo if they weren’t from Freo? On top of that, yeah we had to change to the Power, but it’s still clear that Port Adelaide = Port Adelaide no matter the competition. The Dockers fill the spot East and South had in the WAFL but they also aren’t a successor to either club, meaning there’s probably a good chunk of Easts and Souths fans who didn’t feel properly represented by the Dockers and might have just stuck with the Eagles upon Freo’s entry.
3. The 8 year head start West Coast had came with 2 flags, including one directly before Freo came in. Good luck convincing someone to ditch a successful side in favour of a complete unknown. Adelaide won their two flags but that was after we’d already joined, and it wasn’t like our SANFL existence was success starved.

This then begs the question, how does a 3rd WA team avoid the hurdles Fremantle faced and not get stuck being the even smaller brother in the equation? To me it doesn’t seem possible. Sure West Coast suck, but they’ll probably get out of this situation quicker than any other club could, and even though they wouldn’t be competing with a successful West Coast right out the gate, they instead have to compete with the fact that third-generation Eagles fans exist now, could you get them to switch if they didn’t live in the immediate area this team was representing? I’m not so sure.
Fold West Coast & create 2 new teams (e.g. North Perth & South Perth). Easy;)
 
Crows must be filthy on Rachelli.The footage shows no out or possible appeal,at the tribunal.He just lost his marbles.
Recon the Crows will trade him when his contracts up.He will end up at Norf or West Coast.
 
On the Couch they're talking about his brain fade and the stats that followed where they were soundly beaten, except for inside 50s where they were +32. Wtf?
 

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I love the way they call it "wildcard" when all it is is an extension of the finals series by a week and including more teams - that is, a money grab.

The fact that 12th would potentially qualify for finals in an 18-team competition essentially makes the minor round competition pointless.

The AFL would be much better off working on making the fixture fair, this giving all teams an equal chance of playing finals.
 
...surely the teams who dont make finals would rather just put the year behind them and focus on charging at next year after a break rather than going deeper and taking a week from the valuable pre-season training?

I bet the wildcard was the long game the AFL were playing with the finals bye. I bet the wildcard happens on the bye week.
 
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