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Aussie rules dreams of going global
Scott Gullan
From: The Courier-Mail
July 07, 2011 12:00AM
http://forums.leagueunlimited.com/help/share/
FUTURE PROSPECTS: Could a South African team one day challenge for the AFL premiership? Source: The Courier-Mail
The AFL celebrates its 21st birthday this year, but what will the national competition look like in another 21 years? Forget derbys and suburban tribalism, the game will be played on a far bigger stage in 2032.
NEWS TWEET - September 30, 2032 - In a historic moment for South Africa, the Cape Town Cougars have won their first AFL premiership, defeating New Zealand's Christchurch Lakers in a nail-biter under the roof at the MCG. Cougars captain Neil Mandela kicked a nine-point goal from 55m with 10 seconds remaining to clinch the victory.
Sound strange? Well, don't scoff because that's a scenario that could eventuate, the game's most lateral thinkers suggest.
AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou, Geelong president Colin Carter and Greater Western Sydney coach Kevin Sheedy agree that in the next 21 years the competition will include at least one, possibly even two or three, international teams.
South Africa is thought the logical first venue, followed by New Zealand, and Sheedy also is keen on California.
"If anybody had thought 21 years ago what the AFL looked like today, they would have been delusional and kidding themselves," Demetriou said.
"Therefore, you'd hope in the next 21 years we've got the same 18 teams and if anything is going to happen, there will be more teams because that seems to be the pattern.
"The places that come to mind are Tasmania, northern Queensland and northern WA.
"And, quite frankly, it's not beyond the realms of possibility as the world gets smaller that you could have a team based abroad. New Zealand or South Africa would be a chance."
Carter, who in 1985 wrote a report for the VFL Commission that became the blueprint for the national competition, said the AFL should act on South Africa now.
"I'm disappointed the AFL is not taking South Africa more seriously," he said.
"If there is one opportunity to start serious overseas expansion that in 20, 30 or 40 years could lead to something as big as Australia, it's where you have a confluence of a massively young population who are Third or Fourth World, who haven't got enough things to do.
"The dollar goes a long way ... there are cricket grounds, they speak English.
"The confluence of all those things ticks every box. There is a vacuum in South Africa waiting and we've made amazing progress on $200,000 a year.
"So if you put $2-3 million a year there and stuck at it, I have no doubt that in 20 years you could have a population bigger than Western Australia's playing AFL football."
Sheedy said India should also be on the list of countries to target.
"We normally play on grounds conditioned for cricket, and cricket takes us into the subcontinent," he said. "I think it's possible in Asia and India to build stadiums and get the AFL up and running.
"I tend to think there will be a team in South Africa and there could be one in California because basically there will be 40 to 50 million people in California by then."
The three men differed on the size of the future competition, but agreed a conference system was more likely than promotion-relegation.
"If you get a large number of teams, then things like conferences become a talking point and you have to seriously look at them," Demetriou said.
Carter was adamant expansion should mean less rather than more and said 10 Victorian-based clubs would be unsustainable long term.
"I'm not sure I like a 20-team competition. I think 16 teams is about right," he said.
"I've always been attracted to two conferences.
"I actually wrote a proposal on it when I was on the commission and it never got up."
Ensuring the game was "visually attractive" was another key factor and it probably would require rule changes.
"I am personally very much in favour of rule changes which actually stop the game getting too dreadful," Carter said.
"Seeing all the players in one end of the ground ... ultimately it erodes the spectacle. I heard Leigh Matthews speak about the topic and how he thought that at every stoppage you ought to have a rule that forces three players from each team to be in each of the 50m arcs."
Sheedy is an advocate for reverting to the former VFA-style of 16 players a team on the field.
He said he he wanted to bring together a panel of experts and give it the specific charter to make AFL attractive to the world.
In 2008, a South African team played in Australia in an international series, with Benji Motuba being among the best players in a game against a Chinese side.
"We need a group of people to design the game to attract the world for 2030," Sheedy said.
"To make our game the most exciting football game the world would like to look at, we have to bring in these architects and designers, not AFL people, to look at it.
"We should get an American, we should get a South American, we should get a couple of Asian people, a couple of European people, a couple of English and say, 'Tell us what you like'.
"Soccer is a world game, but ... rice is a world food - it doesn't mean it's exciting. Let's put AFL out there as a world game."
Demetriou was adamant the key to a strong future was to keep the game affordable to fans, but admitted he had no idea how 2032 would look.
"Whatever we are doing today, you would assume it's going to be infinitely better in 21 years," he said.
"Whether that's your grounds, venues, training facilities, players ... everything could be different. We might have nine-point goals outside 50 because that's a rule people sort of like now," Demetriou said.
"Artificial turf could be an option and there might be a need for another boutique stadium in Melbourne.
"Actually, we might have a bigger MCG, and in 21 years I'd expect the MCG to have a roof. Why not?"
