Portfolio The AFL-Super League War

[rabbitoh21]

With deference to Freight Train and cannavo for the EA AFL 2000 and "Time Traveller Sneezes" (respectively) inspiration. They are much better than I am so make sure you check them out.

A time traveller sneezes and brings COVID-19 chaos to the world we thought we knew. Somehow, the history of Aussie rules has been changed and resembles a different sport that may have existed in a different universe, but doesn’t in this one… stay with me. You join our story, already in progress.

The year is 1997. For years, Australian football has been locked in the courtrooms in a battle of the billionaires. False starts, failed peace offerings and lucrative, secretive dealings have led to a schism in the game.

For over a century, the Victorian Football League was the sport’s premier competition, later expanding across state lines and establishing itself, under the Australian Football League branding, as the national league.


VFL logo (left), used prior to rebrand to AFL (right)
With the advent of pay television, the Seven Network, AFL’s long-time broadcast rights holders and minority partners in Optus Vision’s Sports Australia channels, came to an agreement to provide Optus Vision with exclusive rights to games that would otherwise not be aired on free-to-air TV.

Looking to bolster Foxtel’s fledgling Fox Sports channels, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and telecommunications giant Telstra, partners in the Foxtel service, began trying to sign clubs and players to launch their own competition, having been locked out of negotiations by the Seven-Optus consortium.



Super League logo

In 1997, the competition will be split into the AFL and the Super League.

Events off the field:

• Super League makes a massive financial offer to the MCC for exclusive access to the MCG. The AFL threaten to move the Grand Final to Waverley if the MCC allow ANY access to the ‘G. Super League is granted use for the Home and Away season only but not for any Finals. The AFL back down and will host their 1997 Grand Final at the ‘G.
• Super League announces it will counter the State of Origin series with its own All Stars match, pitting Melbourne “origin” players against the rest of the nation.
• Super League, having been locked out of the MCG for Finals matches, announces plans to build a new stadium by 2000 in the dilapidated Docklands area of Melbourne. Initial plans suggest a domed stadium, but this is unlikely given the cost…
• Having previously announced interest in an amalgamation, the Fitzroy and Brisbane clubs withdraw from their planned merge given Fitzroy’s wish to remain in the AFL and Brisbane’s to jump to the new competition. The AFL agree to bail out the Roys, in exchange for taking over its administration, and agree to indemnify the club from having to merge or relocate for 5 years in AFL competition.
• Having lost its Queensland club to SL, the AFL partner with Southport to launch the South Queensland Sharks, playing out of Carrara.
• Super League gets its first Victorian club, Geelong, having committed to funding redevelopment of Kardinia Park in order to build a Victorian headquarters and secondary stadium (along with the planned Docklands development).
• Hawthorn, North Melbourne and St Kilda are also lured to Super League, promised immunity (along with Geelong) from any potential merger or amalgamation for 10 years under Super League administration.
• Originally expressing interest in joining the Super League competition, the Sydney Swans (formerly South Melbourne) decide to remain loyal to the AFL. The SCG Trust previously announced it would lock any Super League football out of the ground, handcuffing the Swans who would be without a home ground.
• With the Swans’ late backflip, a New South Wales team is launched by the Super League. The team negotiates with the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW to play out of the Sydney Showground, adjacent to the SCG, as well as gaining access to the new Showground being built for the Olympics when the RAS gets the keys. Plans are also made to take certain games to North Sydney, Newcastle and Coffs Harbour in anticipation of possible expansion in future SL seasons.
• After the SANFL and Crows remain loyal to the AFL, Port Adelaide withdraw from the SANFL, revoke their bid to join the AFL and fully commit to the Super League. They will enter SL as the only existing club from outside of the AFL.
• While the West Coast Eagles initially express interest in the Super League, the WAFL fail to secure the Super League “Super Final” as planned, with Super League planning to have the higher-ranked team host it, and remain loyal to the AFL.
• The Super League entice Fremantle to join and ensure SL’s presence in the West. Freo will play out of the WACA after being locked out of Subiaco by the WAFC.
• The AFL launch a pre-emptive strike to Super League’s expansion plans by launching a New Zealand franchise, initially based out of McLean Park in Napier but with the aim to move to the planned new Wellington stadium once completed. The AFL commit funds to assist in the construction and secure their 12th club.
• Super League launches a franchise in Canberra, initially playing out of Bruce Stadium with plans for a renovation of Manuka Oval to allow for the ACT’s plans to convert Bruce into a rectangular stadium for the 2000 Olympics.
• Super League launches another franchise, this time in Tasmania and ensuring that SL is the only leaguer with a presence in every state. The side will play out of North Hobart Oval with the blessing of the Tasmanian administration, who also align with Super League, the first state to do so. This gives the Super League its 10th club.
• The Super League signs an agreement with part-News-owned Ansett Australia to serve as the official airline partner of the new league. The AFL hastily signs an arrangement with Qantas to do the same. Both airlines receive naming rights to the respective Premiership competitions in exchange for free transport for their clubs.

 

[rabbitoh21]

The AFL clubs:

Existing clubs:

Adelaide – Football Park


Carlton – Optus Oval


Collingwood – MCG & Victoria Park


Essendon - MCG


Fitzroy – Waverley Park (at the AFL’s request) & Optus Oval


Footscray – Optus Oval


Melbourne - MCG


Richmond - MCG


Sydney Swans - SCG


West Coast – Subiaco Oval


New clubs:

New Zealand Tasmans – McLean Park, Napier: The AFL scramble to put together a new club across the Tasman Sea, having to essentially throw together an identity a few months before the first bounce. The resulting jumper and logo is the proverbial “Homer”, trying to avoid the black-and-white national sporting colours which would clash with Collingwood and a number of darker-coloured teams. The “Tasmans” name is just about an afterthought, with the league’s focus on cutting the Super League out of a potential market rather than setting up a successful club.


South Queensland Sharks – Carrara Stadium: Another team having to avoid black-and-white (the colours of Southport who will operate the AFL club), the Sharks will adopt a unique jersey featuring “shark blue”, gold and Southport’s black and white.


And AFL State of Origin, the triangular series between the three top footballing states of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia:

South Australia: Football Park


Victoria: MCG


Western Australia: Subiaco Oval

 

[rabbitoh21]

Existing clubs (all from the AFL unless noted):

Brisbane – The Gabba


Geelong – Kardinia Park


Hawthorn – Optus Oval


North Melbourne – Optus Oval


Port Adelaide Magpies (from the SANFL) – Adelaide Oval


St Kilda – Moorabbin Oval/Optus Oval


New clubs:

Canberra – Bruce Stadium: The capital gets its team in the colours of the ACT and the nation. The new “screenprinted” polyester jerseys allow for weird and wacky designs, taking the traditional “V” design to another level (shared with NSW and Tasmania).


Fremantle – WACA Ground: Fremantle’s Dockers wear a stylised anchor with port and starboard colouring, with the 90s’ favourite “new franchise” colour (not teal, the other one). Shares a template with St Kilda and Geelong (with modification for the inclusion of the anchor).


NSW – RAS Showground: Borrowing the state colour of sky blue and the city’s blue and gold in stark contrast to their red and white neighbours, NSW take the “safe route” by trying to cast a wide net. Shares the template of Canberra and Tasmania.


Tasmania – North Hobart Oval: Using the state football colours and the V, the jersey combines the old and the new using the shared template with Canberra and NSW.


Super League chose to run an All-Stars concept, pitting the best players with “origin” (or legally non-infringing synonym) from Melbourne (the “Melbourne All-Stars”) against the rest (the “Superstars”), the Saturday night prior to the sigh Super Final.

Melbourne All-Stars


Super League Superstars

 

[rabbitoh21]

What happened next?

The AFL’s mid-season State of Origin series is won by Victoria in the third and final match, defeating Western Australia at Subiaco Oval and jumping South Australia on percentage. On the final Saturday afternoon in September, Adelaide defeat Footscray in front of 100k at the MCG in the QANTAS AFL Premiership Grand Final.

In the Super League, it became apparent very quickly in the Finals Series that a Victorian club would likely host the Grand Final, based on the highest-ranked team’s “home state stadium”, something not predicted by the administration who were hoping for an out-of-Victoria Grand Final given their national aspirations (and also lack of access to the MCG).

Kardinia, Optus and Moorabbin were not going to be able to contain the size of crowd that an all-Melbourne Super Final would bring – the MCC had padlocked the ‘G for Super League at the end of the H/A season but the AFL had Waverley Park sitting dormant with their season having already ended. In the first “official” move towards “peace”, Super League offered a considerable amount of cash to the AFL in exchange for hosting the inaugural Super Final, which was accepted.

On the first Saturday night of October, having allowed a week off for the All-Stars game, won by the Superstars at the Gabba the night of the AFL’s GF, Super League’s Ansett Cup Super Final is won by St Kilda over North Melbourne at Waverley Park, with a crowd of over 70k – 30k less than the AFL’s Final but higher than any other stadium available to the league, inside or outside of Victoria.

At the end of the tumultuous 1997 “split” season and with the “forbidden door” having been opened at the end of the season, the AFL and Super League agree to a compromise and the launch of a new Australian National Football League (ANFL) and a unified national commission, owned 50/50 by each party. The new league will consist of 16 teams, down from the 22 across the 2 competitions.


Australian National Football League logo

Details of the “peace treaty” are as follows:

• The AFL will wind down its New Zealand and South Queensland franchises, but both will be given concessions and the opportunity to bid for re-entry in future expansions. The Super League will also wind down Canberra, NSW and Tasmania, with similar concessions to the disbanded AFL clubs. All expansion franchises (bar Fremantle and Port, see below) ran at a significant loss.
• The AFL will sell Waverley Park to fund the construction of Super League’s planned Docklands Stadium which will become the ANFL’s headquarters, while Grand Finals will still be held at the MCG. The planned redevelopment of Kardinia Park will be scaled back, with no need to establish headquarters there given the new joint project at Docklands.
• The ANFL will honour the immunity provided by Super League to Geelong, Hawthorn, North Melbourne and St Kilda, but only until the end of the 2002 season (5 years).
• The ANFL cease their administration of Fitzroy, who opt to merge with Brisbane as originally planned to become the Brisbane Lions, in exchange for the AFL paying off all debts owed by the club. The ANFL will establish a reserve side for the Brisbane Lions in the VFL to continue Fitzroy’s presence in Victorian football.
• The ANFL will admit Port Adelaide to the new competition on the condition of avoiding clashes in guernsey design and club identity with Collingwood. The national commission also require the SANFL to readmit a “reserves” side of the club to its premiership competition.
• The ANFL will readmit Fremantle to the new competition.
• The ANFL will negotiate with the Sydney Olympics organising committee to factor the league into a future redevelopment of the Olympic Stadium, with the view of potentially becoming a secondary headquarters for the league. The ANFL also negotiated with the RAS to keep the access afforded to the SL’s NSW franchise to the new Showground.

 

[Freight Train]

primo stuff

 

[troybe]

This is elite

 

[rabbitoh21]

Behind the scenes with Rabbitoh21

What was the inspiration for this portfolio?

The EA AFL 2000 portfolio originally had me thinking about what a video game war between the ARL and Super League would have looked like. In my head, the ARL’s partnership with EA would have meant ARL 97, probably based on the Jonah Lomu Rugby engine, while the Super League, whose referees were sponsored by PlayStation, might have partnered with Sony to do a league game based on the NFL GameDay series. Then, I thought about what AFL teams might have looked like in rugby jerseys in the 90s. Some people call it a superpower but they don't have to deal with the NDIS…

How did you come up with the designs for the clubs?

Some of them were relatively easy. I mostly did them in alphabetical order. I came up with a simple conversion in my head: vertically striped teams I'd put in hoops, sashes become vee’s and yokes become saddles, etc. Then, I let my head take over and dive into the 90s aesthetic of weirdness.

Adelaide were originally going to be in the Easts style hoops with gold replacing white, but I went with the Sydney Tigers style hoops instead but also tried to remove a dark clash by using the SA colorway.

Carlton could have been really boring without a monogram so I decided to take inspiration from the Jets and Steelers.

Essendon I had wearing a V but decided to go “supersonic” with another Tigers design. I figured it was the 1990s, so a natural progression.

Fitzroy bears resemblance to Norths - two proud clubs who the 1990s weren't kind to. I focused on their “maroon, blue and gold” while turning a relatively simple banded design into a more exciting Norths-style design.

Footscray was easy - its resemblance to Souths’ Minties strip was definitely accidental…

Melbourne I wanted to give a V initially but thought a Knights styled yoke gave them a bit more flair.

West Coast was tricky - I didn't want them to look like Parramatta in navy but without the existence of the tripanel back then I had to avoid white. I feel like theirs is the weakest so I tried to tie them in with the WA origin design.

For Collingwood and Richmond, simpler is better. I felt that the most Tiger-esque design was hoops akin to their former vertical stripes. For Collingwood, they're black and white. Butcher stripes like their pinstripes gives them a point of difference and a classy look befitting them.

For the SL clubs it's trickier - Hawthorn and North get psychadeli-fied but stay true to their colours. Geelong get the Cowboys-style yoke with stripes as we needed an extra light coloured contrasting kit. St Kilda get a nod to the Crusader that they wore in the preseason the year prior and Freo take the yoke and use it, quite literally, to anchor their jersey.

For the new clubs, it was make or take a design and recolour it.

Of the “new” designs, I like the Sharks one most. The Chargers and Giants have a baby with Southport’s V as the “meat” of the sandwich. Also, a shark fin resembles the state outline, who knew?

New Zealand I'm not proud of but it's bad enough to be what the 90s would have dished up.

How did you decide loyal or rebel clubs?

The Super League war in rugby league was based around having teams across the country. The key was nationalising the comp but keeping SOME heartland clubs.

In my universe, Geelong was a key battleground as a regional one-club town. SL throws money into Kardinia Park to secure the deal.

Hawthorn, St Kilda and North were all in merger talks but key “Melbourne” clubs - could you blame them for joining SL with the money and safety offered, vs the AFL who were turning the screws on them?

The WAFC and SANFL, and therefore the Eagles and Crows, are likely to stay with the AFL to ensure Origin and all that. Fremantle and Port have no such obligations and, in Port's case, a foot in the door potentially, and are easy candidates to jump and have the cities to themselves. I reckon Port would actually have loved to jump, given the roadblocks that the AFL and SANFL had put in front of them, plus they get to remain the Magpies in SL. No brainer, for mine.

Their jersey takes the idea of the prison bars and turns it around, resembling Penrith’s 1991 design. They also have the benefit of their existing sponsorship deal, while other club’s sponsors have withdrawn from the “rebel” competitions. They are the only SL club with their own badge as they already existed but had no licensing issues with the AFL.

How did you decide the Grand Finals and Origin/All Stars results?

Googled 1997 State of Origin and Finals Series results and, in the case of the All Stars, just guessed. Looked at the Prelims, sprinkled some poetic license on the results and there you go.

What about the other stuff in the backstory?

ASD, ADHD and too much free time on that particular day.

 

[Fizzler]

Pretty solid portfolio this one, great stuff! I reckon the selection of teams in each league is pretty on par with what would’ve happened IRL save for some minor things, but those are obviously accounted for when considering this is an alternate history. I reckon there’s a bit in the idea of a Super League competitor to the AFL having sleeves on the uniforms as an extra space for teams to fit a sponsor.
Would love to see a follow-up to this portfolio that’s set in the present as there’s a few things I’d be interested in knowing how you’d have them go. Obviously the Crushers were a placeholder team that was never supposed to exist outside the Super League, but in Southport’s case do they end up in the ANFL eventually? How long do Tasmania have to wait to get back into the league? If/when NSW get a second team is it going to be a successor to your NSW side? Lots of hypotheticals I’d be very keen to see you explore but nonetheless this is a brilliant portfolio. Keep it up!