It would seem obvious if the AFL expands, it would grow to 20 teams. A Set small text size A Set the default text size A Set large text size. The VFA clubs were Brighton, Brunswick, Port Melbourne and Prahran. The team is also helping spur on massive participation growth in the region. Roar Rookie . Every AFL team used at least 34 players in the 2019 season - the most players on any senior list was 40, plus a handful of rookies.O’Meara went on to suggest feeder competitions would be better with smaller AFL lists. The current deals for Hawthorn and North Melbourne to play four games a season in Tasmania expire in 2021, while the current AFL broadcast rights deal expires in 2023. Only 53 came from elsewhere.But on 2019 lists, there were 120 players either from non-traditional footy states - New South Wales and Queensland, plus the ACT - or overseas. Contrast that with the 686 players from heartland states.These growth areas are therefore carrying much of the load when it comes to finding new players.“When we recall the population growth that’s occurred in that space of time, it’s clear that thanks to these developing pools, there’s actually a far lighter burden falling on Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia than there was in the 1990s era,” Lawson and Atkinson wrote.The pair then used their own player value metric, Player Approximate Value (PAV), to determine the level of “inequality” within the AFL.In a truly diluted league, the best players would logically be recording a higher proportion of key stats like goals and disposals - Eagle Josh Kennedy’s going to be able to kick bags of goals more often if he’s playing against a competition that is weaker overall.“Using the Gini Coefficient, a common measure of inequality, it is apparent that player value across the league has become more even over time.
And AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan believes the right “building blocks are in place” for Tasmania to one day have its own team. That is to say, a greater spread of players are providing value, the output is more evenly distributed across the league,” they wrote.“It’s the earlier era of football which looks more uneven, with the late 1980s and 1990s being more characterised by smaller numbers of dominant stars along with more marginal fringe players.“This is consistent with the talent pool likely being shallower in the 1980s or 1990s than today, but also may suggest a more naive approach to tactics which suited the natural stars.”Of course, this “inequality” spiked when GWS and Gold Coast entered the league, but only to around the same level seen in the early 2000s. Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon has called on the AFL to consider expanding the competition by another one or two clubs, with one based in Tasmania. That’s surely true, given players who would otherwise be in contention for senior games would be instead running around in the state leagues.But there’s this great myth the AFL simply couldn’t sustain 20 teams - never mind 18. While Footscray, Hawthorn and North Melbourne were accepted in 1925, a number of existing VFA clubs were considered. This is also known as Online Behavioural Advertising. ', The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), 9 August, p. 16, viewed 28 June 2014, 1990 'Trio to miss Cats' final hit-out. 365 People really only use the word ‘diluted’ for two reasons: when talking about cordial, and when talking about AFL expansion. 3rd December, 2018. But they aren’t the only contenders. Whenever the idea of adding new teams to the AFL is brought up, or even when we look back at the introduction of Gold Coast and GWS a decade ago, it’s claimed expansion causes the talent pool to get weaker. It was a rich club in a strong industrial area, and was able to recruit players aggressively from the VFL. (AAP Image/Michael Dodge)Gold Coast entered the AFL as its 17th team in 2011.GWS monopolised the top of the draft when it entered the AFL, meaning it had a particularly young list.Mason Cox is an obvious example of the AFL finding players in non-heartland states. But it’s somewhat of a myth.Jaeger O’Meara was willing to suggest cutting list sizes was a good idea - brave from a current-day player. It first applied for membership of the VFL in 1919, and then again in 1922 and 1923. It then flattened out.But to sum it all up - there is no real reason to think the AFL would be noticeably worse, if at all worse, if it was to expand to 20 teams.A NOTE ABOUT RELEVANT ADVERTISING: We collect information about the content (including ads) you use across this site and use it to make both advertising and content more relevant to you on our network and other sites. In In another attempt to gain admission, North Melbourne proposed a merger with In the decade following World War I, Footscray became a powerhouse of the VFA. The first serious proposal was made in the mid-1990s, as the League expanded further.The second Tasmania bid occurred in 2008 as the League announced that it wanted to expand further into Queensland and New South Wales. ', The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), 21 March, p. 44, viewed 28 June 2014, Devaney, John "The Full Points Footy Encyclopedia of Australian Football Clubs, Volume 1", pg. Those dates are therefore likely inflection points for any Tasmanian expansion. It was admitted in In the mid-1950s there were additional discussions and an attempt by a club to gain admission into the VFL. These licenses were granted to the If successful, the team would play its home games at Listed below are potential clubs that have been suggested by lobby groups, local governments or the AFL itself as regions that the league has expressed interest in granting licences. While One impediment that the VFL encountered when considering admitting existing VFA clubs to its ranks in 1925 was the existing After the split between the VFL and VFA, North Melbourne became one of the stronger clubs in the VFA. Between 1919 and 1925 the VFL sought expressions of interest from clubs wishing to gain admittance to the League. (AAP Image/Michael Dodge)