WAFL Reborn

[greatwhiteshark]

Absolute horse sh!t buddy
-Peel were near the bottom in crowd numbers yet again
-The 4k at the SD vs WCE Reserves game was in fact largely due to in large to it being our junior council day as you will find all clubs get a big spike in attendances on their respective junior council day game

The crowd was 3k and they certainly didn't go to watch Jack Darling, the last thing Jack would want is people seeing him in that jumper!!! The poor bloke would of been physically ill putting that jumper on lol

 

[Silent Alarm]

Still reckon WA drafted players should be able to allocate their WAFL club when not playing with their AFL side.

All the interstate draftees can play for Peel and East Perth, but the few rusted on die hards and kids who care about their WAFL clubs should be given the ability to represent that team.

 

[Freofalcon]

Absolute horse sh!t buddy
-Peel were near the bottom in crowd numbers yet again
-The 4k at the SD vs WCE Reserves game was in fact largely due to in large to it being our junior council day as you will find all clubs get a big spike in attendances on their respective junior council day game

I was at that game. Great crowd and a good atmosphere.

Kids and bouncy castles and the like. Should be more of it.

Edit : I know what 3k looks like at Bassendean and there was definitely more than 3000.

 

[Barney44]

They did it exclusively for almost 30 years without a helping hand from the WAFL ... picking up the tab as they went along the way. Seven reckons they shouldn't spend a cent on the coverage. Typical arrogance.

ABC covered the game without a helping hand from The WAFL? What other than the $200K+ per year?

 

[Nicks1]

The WAFL will never regain its former status but it certainly could do much better. The reason young people know nothing about is mainly because of exposure as you said. Channel 7 has not helped that at all as they are the AFL partner and no way in hell will they promote another comp fully. This is why 7 got the gig. They did not put a cent into it and the WAFL has to pay 7's cost for broadcasting their games. Channel 9 and 10 could not even get a meeting and both were prepared to cover their own costs so that shows you how much influence the AFL have over the WAFL.
Young people also like only being seen at elite things, it's not cool to go to the WAFL it is cool to go to the AFL.
As for your thoughts re alignment that may be correct for new supporters. I myself have no issue with the alignment except how it is operated.
An aligned club should get only 1/4 of the salary cap yet they still get to spend over 3/4 of the cap and get 24 AFL listed players on their list.
In my view if you align then you now have thrown your eggs into the AFL clubs basket, your clubs success must rely on the AFL club. That's the drawback from the alignment.
East Perth exist purely in name now, the Eagles run them. Eagles are happy but not sure how happy East Perth supporters really are.
My opinion is Eagles enter their own side, The dockers take over Peel Thunder officially and be called the Peel dockers.
10 team comp with both the Eagles and Dockers not playing finals. They have no interest in winning the WAFL so their games during the year will be exactly what they see them as, scratch matches.

I'm a Royals fan and newly paid up member but I am 100% against this alignment and so are 90% of East Perth supporters I have chatted with, but I will remain loyal forever and hope the alignment ends soon

 

[Mr_Bojangles]

They could get fans back by reversing every single decision they have made in the past 20 years. Someone could also send a T-800 back in time to take out Grant Dorrington and other sacred WAFC cows before they could irreparable damage to the competition would be great too.

Is it savable? That ship may have passed without some clubs going to the wall. It's a ****ing travesty.

 

[shrekswamp15]

East Perth - Eagles alignment has done wonders for the younger players coming through the reserves and colts, being taught at a higher standard than they otherwise would

 

[DAT8]

The WAFL is falling away for many reasons in my view.
First and foremost is the WAFC would rather keep AFL house happy than their own WAFL clubs, the WAFC is run by AFL puppets who wants what is best only for the AFL clubs and not what is best for the WAFL clubs.
Their lack of advertising of their product, their poor TV deal with the AFL partner network, their complete and utter distain for the history of the WAFL and the lack of promotion of their finals series are just some of many examples of a very poorly managed product.
The nine WAFL clubs should run the WAFL, the WAFC can still be the parent but the WAFL clubs run their own comp, get away from channel 7 and get a TV channel that want to promote their product. Nine would be a good start as they wanted to do it but could not get a meeting with the WAFC which is mind boggling to say the least.
They should make Sunday night their footy domain, the AFL clearly don't like this timeslot so it makes sense to jump on it. Have a night WAFL grand final next year with a huge celebration of WA footy history, get a huge band like Cold chisel etc to perform, fireworks and heavily promoted by a decent TV partner. Huge pre game with all the trimmings.
Lets face it the Eagles and Dockers don't seem to be in any hurry to celebrate WA footy history, been waiting 30 years and still nothing as yet so when are we going to let people know about our rich history?
Play the preliminary final and Grand final after the AFL grand final.
No alignment sides or AFL reserves side to play finals. Play for points all year but as those clubs don't care about finals there is no point in them participating.

And if really serious about saving the WAFL and or the SANFL for that matter then the two leagues should join forces and play some type of knock out comp during the year on Monday nights with a huge prize attached to it and no AFL involvement what so ever.

All that being said the AFL have buried the WAFL, the Eagles and Dockers have jumped in and helped them do it and I think to be honest the WAFL is pretty much doomed now, unless someone with a huge amount of money and clout stand up for them I don't see the them surviving as any type of comp in the future.

That is very true. To celebrate WA footy's history do you guys think a heritage round played at Subi would be a good idea? maybe have it on WA day with EP, Wp and EF, SF ?

 

[DAT8]

They could get fans back by reversing every single decision they have made in the past 20 years. Someone could also send a T-800 back in time to take out Grant Dorrington and other sacred WAFC cows before they could irreparable damage to the competition would be great too.

Is it savable? That ship may have passed without some clubs going to the wall. It's a ******* travesty.

Grant Dorrington, Mr Westar Rules. They should destroy evidence of something so stupid

 

[DAT8]

I was at that game. Great crowd and a good atmosphere.

Kids and bouncy castles and the like. Should be more of it.

Edit : I know what 3k looks like at Bassendean and there was definitely more than 3000.

Yes, Swans are being more innovative than other clubs to try and be more appealing with music after goals and stuff like that

 

[Kram]

Still reckon WA drafted players should be able to allocate their WAFL club when not playing with their AFL side.

All the interstate draftees can play for Peel and East Perth, but the few rusted on die hards and kids who care about their WAFL clubs should be given the ability to represent that team.

As if their AFL team would be happy with them doing that though.

The alignments have been good for making it easy to keep an eye on on our AFL players coming through but overall it's damaged the credibility of the comp.

 

[greatwhiteshark]

As if their AFL team would be happy with them doing that though.

The alignments have been good for making it easy to keep an eye on on our AFL players coming through but overall it's damaged the credibility of the comp.

They were happy with it for 20 years and it worked fine, it wasn't until Alistair Clarkson did it that all the other coaches decided to be sheep and just followed it.
Yes I agree it's better for them to all play together but does it really make any difference in your AFL clubs results? Absolutely not

 

[Kram]

Yes I agree it's better for them to all play together but does it really make any difference in your AFL clubs results? Absolutely not

It may only be very minor as an advantage but of course it could potentially make a difference to the future of the club's performance otherwise they wouldn't bother doing it..

For the record I was against having the alignments.

 

[Silent Alarm]

Wow, Clarko came up with the idea of a single affiliate? I thought Freo/Souths, Eagles/Royals was happened at least two or three seasons before Clarkson took over.

From a coaching, AFL-team perspective, it is an awesome innovation. Unfortunately there is collateral...

 

[Kram]

What do most country/bush leagues charge to get in these days?

 

[Silent Alarm]

What do most country/bush leagues charge to get in these days?

Remember the cheeky pricks trying to charge players in the GSFL years ago. I think an adult was almost ten bucks, definitely at least $5.

 

[MortlockWatcher]

Under a tenner in most, if not all, grassroots leagues in home and away games.

 

[Kram]

Remember the cheeky pricks trying to charge players in the GSFL years ago. I think an adult was almost ten bucks, definitely at least $5.

Charging the people providing the entertainment, wtf.

 

[Silent Alarm]

Charging the people providing the entertainment, wtf.

They only did it once or twice. I was playing colts and was fairly shit so I don't think that's 'entertainment!' It was ****ing galling though.

 

[Kram]

In Perth it was the opposite, free to watch ammos but on top of fees you had to pay $10 per game as a player.

 

[Silent Alarm]

In Perth it was the opposite, free to watch ammos but on top of fees you had to pay $10 per game as a player.

Ahhh true actually! I remember that. Even league was free for my club; Coughlan coached by Earl Spalding for free!

 

[Ausbenito]

The WAFL are community clubs and need to get more involved with their local community they do this by getting bigger each club to have a womens team and bring back the fourths u17 teams.
The Fourths are created from their local zone elite players local teams will have to merge their Yr11s and Yr12s to create one team it is very chaotic amongst the teams in those age groups anyway and may help to soldify the local clubs the two year age group was done not that long ago anyway not a big deal. Peel would have to be left out of the fourths with their current numbers.
The Fourths will give a pathway for more volunteers and coaches and more importantly players and their families to get involved with a WAFL club some of these players will go on to higher levels some wont but will be introduced to WAFL football the games could be played on Sundays as required. The WAFC is already pushing for increased training of juniors leading up to state championships this is an even better way of improving them.
So there would be 5 teams tied to a WAFL club thats well over 100 hundred players and 150 parents involved a good start on involving the local community funding may be an issue but not insurmountable?
Any thoughts on this idea can it happen?

 

[footyfan1978]

AFL doesn't want the WAFL to be a competitor which takes away crowds from them. The WAFL should have no AFL Reserves sides and have an eight team competition playing 21 rounds with a final Four (like it was for many years).

Eagles and Dockers should have Reserves sides in an AFL Reserves League.

I am starting to come around to this being the only thing left for WAFL, SANFL and VFA footy clubs.
Their status as league's and clubs are never coming back. The AFL has over 800 players across 18 clubs in the league now.
That leaves little left for league's beyond this to be a decent level. When the VFL was running in early 1980's and other leagues still had their own decent following there was only 12 clubs in the VFL which probably took up the equivalent of half the talent pool absorbed by AFL now and would have had a good 400 other decent standard footballers spread across WAFL, SANFL, VFA and even Tasmania.

So we either live with the mess we have seen for over two decades now or pull all the AFL reserve sides out of the league's and run AFL Reserves League and leave a clean slate next tier down for WAFL, SANFL and VFA to at least have competitions that retain those clubs name and heritage.

8 stand alone club in these clean slate state league's
21 rounds each and final four each probably the way to go.
They are going to be nothing more than the best metro league's in each region but I honestly think that is as best as we can hope for any of these league's now.
Too much time has gone by to expect a bigger status can be salvaged from the mess of last two decades.

 

[the40metreMan]

WCE and Fremantle need to have reserve sides in the WAFL to make it somewhat more of spectacle. If they can emulate what the SANFL has done then that would give it a major boost. Plus having more publicity and advertisements rather than the typical "Football Budget"

 

[Garlic muncher]

The WAFL are community clubs and need to get more involved with their local community they do this by getting bigger each club to have a womens team and bring back the fourths u17 teams.
The Fourths are created from their local zone elite players local teams will have to merge their Yr11s and Yr12s to create one team it is very chaotic amongst the teams in those age groups anyway and may help to soldify the local clubs the two year age group was done not that long ago anyway not a big deal. Peel would have to be left out of the fourths with their current numbers.
The Fourths will give a pathway for more volunteers and coaches and more importantly players and their families to get involved with a WAFL club some of these players will go on to higher levels some wont but will be introduced to WAFL football the games could be played on Sundays as required. The WAFC is already pushing for increased training of juniors leading up to state championships this is an even better way of improving them.
So there would be 5 teams tied to a WAFL club thats well over 100 hundred players and 150 parents involved a good start on involving the local community funding may be an issue but not insurmountable?
Any thoughts on this idea can it happen?

The WAFL clubs have early 14's, late 14's, early 15, late 15, 16's and 18's, that is a bloody stack of teams and kids as many teams have also 30-40 players per team and are rotated.