Aside from the absolute die-hards who fought trying to keep Fitzroy alive through the years since 1996, not many people see the FFC that exists today as the same FFC that existed back in 1996 and before. I live 1.5km from Brunswick Street Oval and go watch a couple of time a year... but it's not the same club. For most old Fitzroy supporters I know, the club either died or relocated in 1996. People made a choice: Follow the jumper and the song to Brisbane, select another Melbourne based club, or lose interest in AFL entirely.Is it sad that Fitzroy plays in the VAFA now and is a shadow of what it used to be? Yes. But it's also sad that every SANFL and WAFL club also plays in an inferior league and is also a shadow of what they used to be (besides Port). They had fans who lost out too. And yet, they're so rarely mentioned.
Just feels like a double standard that rationalisation for SA and WA for the big time is taken for granted, but every VFL club ought to be playing in the top league and based in Melbourne.
(Apologies to anyone who is part of the current FFC who thinks otherwise!).
The fact is the AFL was born out of the VFL, which is why the Melbourne based clubs hold the right to remain. Try telling a North Melbourne or St. Kilda supporter that GWS or GC have a greater right to remain in the AFL. Based on 2023 membership numbers, North Melbourne have almost as many members as those 2 clubs combined.
Of all the newly introduced clubs, only Port got a license from the state league. The remaining clubs in the WAFL & SANFL didn't disappear, they can still be supported. Absolutely they are diminished as the semi-professional status and small salary caps mean they can't compete with the AFL, but they still exist.
We don't have promotion / relegation for poorly performing clubs because strategically the AFL wants/needs clubs in each city. If Brisbane were relegated in 2017 after finishing 17/17/18 the AFL would lose too much ground to the NRL, and where would they have been relegated to? The traditional football states could perhaps manage it, but you can't have relegation based on a clubs location.
All that aside, relocating or merging a Melbourne based club won't grow the game. A few members will stick around, but most will not. So what's to gain by removing a club from it's supporters, other than reducing the number of clubs in Melbourne? The argument that they need financial support falls completely flat when you consider the additional funding the northern clubs get (excluding Sydney).
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