The AFL Is Really An Expanded VFL
Watching Fox Footy you cannot escape the fact that it is Melbourne-centric in its coverage. Virtually all its footy experts are based in Melbourne and they pander to the big local clubs like Collingwood, Carlton and Richmond. The AFL is really an expanded VFL and, indeed, that is how it came about. If you barrack for an interstate team, you will feel the neglect when you watch your side on Fox Footy. Channel 7 probably does a better job of having some tokenistic input via local boundary riders when covering home games for the interstate teams.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_bias_in_the_Australian_Football_League
Expansion Clubs In AFL Struggle Against The Allure Of Melbourne
Right now, we are seeing another forensic examination of the failings of the expansion club, Gold Coast Suns. That it is, somehow the fault of this interstate based club that players like Ben King and Bailey Humphrey want to go home. The elephant in the room is the never ending rapacious attitude of the Melbourne based AFL clubs wanting to poach their talent. Temptations are placed before Gold Coast players like the opportunity to regularly play at the MCG, the home of football, in front of 80, 000 adoring fans. The inference being that you have not really played AFL unless you have played for a big Melbourne club. This hangs over the interstate clubs like the sword of Damocles. Is it any wonder that it is hard to keep top talent at an expansion club starved of success and the trappings of the big Melbourne AFL clubs? Victim blaming is popular among men, just ask their wives and girlfriends.
The Fox Footy AFL media blame the Gold Coast Suns for their inability to succeed on an uneven playing field.
AFL Is Big Business In Melbourne
Local radio stations in Melbourne thrive on AFL content. The AFL media is intensely Melbourne based. It is a fact that the AFL is really an expanded VFL. Thus, interstate clubs must struggle against the allure of Melbourne, when trying to keep their players. Now, we live in an age where million dollar AFL players are run of the mill, much like million dollar homes in our suburban streets. Speaking truth to power is a rare commodity in the AFL. The AFL controls the media around it, ensuring friendly coverage in the main. Money and power speak volumes for most involved in the feeder and associated sectors. We have the ridiculous situation of clubs like Essendon, Richmond and West Coast failing to put up AFL sides capable of competing with the rest of the competition. Talk about rewarding mediocrity. This in a billion dollar industry. This is mismanagement on a grand scale.
Melbourne-Centric Footy Competition Rewards Mediocrity
Still, we all have to put up with this crap because the AFL is really an expanded VFL competition. Suburban loyalties must be indulged for forever and a day. A decade and a half of North Melbourne being easy beats week in and week out. Percentage boosters for the final’s bound teams competing. West Coast descending to the same level over the last 7 years. Richmond cannot win games and nor can Essendon. Why is this mismanagement of playing lists allowed without there being consequences?
This Melbourne-centric faux national competition rewards mediocrity.
“It’s a brave man who bites the hand that feeds him. Adelaide Football Club chairman John Olsen and his Port Adelaide counterpart David Koch are sharpening their teeth to attack the Melbourne-based “totally Victorian-centric AFL”.
Their populist mission – that brings back the era of South Australians wanting to “Kick a Vic” “
The Commercialisation of AFL Reaches New Depths
AFL is a cash cow for the elites who play the game. Commentator David King endlessly banging on about the stars of the game. Of course, this pandering doesn’t hurt his own pay cheque, I am sure. Sponsorships and advertising in this age of corporate bookmaking on sports betting are big business. Fox Footy reminds me of the John Laws radio show of yesteryear, with its product sponsors mentioned in every second breath on every show. The claim of no ads during televised matches is wearing thin, as they flash up banner ads on the screen during the game. These bastards will do anything for a buck, it seems.
Caveman Sports Not Ideal For A Healthy Noggin
“Contact sports, in the guise of AFL or rugby, are coming under increasing scrutiny in regard to head knocks to players. The truth is that modern human beings are not designed to crash and bash into each other at speed. We have, obviously, evolved away from the need to do so in the natural world. Survival does not call for such behaviour these days and that has long been the case. It is, rather, recreational pursuits in the form of team contact sports which have become the unhealthy danger in recent years. The professionalism and commercialism within these sports have motivated players to become bigger, stronger and faster in pursuit of material rewards. The resultant clashes between these modern day gladiators are fuelling an increasing amount of brain injury diseases showing up in past and present players. Is it a situation where caveman sports have no place in a healthy life? “
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK
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