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Jeffles wrote:These headline always overstate the thing. It's not like there'd be "no SANFL" but it would be vastly different to the one people know today. Players getting paid less, facilities not as good, maybe higher ticket prices etc. Still a threat but not as sensationalist.
The facilities, honestly are pretty horrendous and are falling way behind the WAFL's which has had government investment respond to increasing crowds...
Claremont are the next to get new 10 million dollar club rooms from 2014...
Last year's premiers are bottom and I see Centrals are second to Norwood. Hard to tell by the ladder only, but are they still good enough to make the grand final again this year? Amazing run they've had.
This is a bit off topic, but I had the absolute pleasure of watching the 1990 SANFL Grand Final a couple of days ago. What a sensational game. As a Victorian completely disalusioned with the new VFL, I was wondering, what was the true impact of the AFL on the SANFL and South Australia in general? In my mind and heart, if I had my way, I would like to revert to a 4 Conference AFL, with a conference in each 'main' state, being the WAFL, SANFL VFL (original VFL teams) and the New North East League which would include teams from NSW, NT Canberra and Tas. Minimum number of teams in comp to be 10. Or something like that. i just hate the way the AFL has gone, with only 2 grounds for 9 teams in Melbourne, and the seeming destruction of once massive state competitions.
^^ Well, it's been well and truly covered in discussions gone by, and having left Adelaide some years ago it doesn't stir the same passion in me to dig it up too much. But if you want to put a number on it, the average SANFL gate went down from ~8,000 to 4,000 in the first AFL year, and then took another hit after the Paa entered, and now sits at a long term average of ~3,000. The SANFL finals of the late 80s were truly special. Massive crowds, and we're talking true passion on the field. Hell, Port and Norwood players once went on with it during the singing of the national anthem. And players like Dave "Grave Danger" Granger still stick in people's minds from cleaning up Graham Cornes. This was all before we had the blood rule as well, so the newspaper photos would always have players soaked in blood.
Any self respecting fan of the code has these finals on video.
Thanks to yob abandoning them, West Adelaide have made the Grand Final. Apparently a feed of the game is being screened in Sydney. I'll try and make it.
