The way forward for
the state leagues (written 2013 with minor updates here and there)
What
is the way forward for the tier-two state leagues around the country? The two
obvious paths forward, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive, are the
“retro” approach of the WAFL and the expansion approach of the Queensland Cup
rugby-league competition. A third, out-of-left-field approach would see clubs
like Port Melbourne from the VFL apply for and join a competition in another
state, for example the SANFL. Obviously this option applies to exceptional
cases and not to the majority of clubs in a league. A new issue to have
recently emerged (not covered in detail in this book) is the fielding of
Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide Power reserves team in the SANFL and West
Coast and Fremantle reserves teams in the WAFL. In the WAFL host clubs are presently
(as at December 2016) East Perth for the West Coast reserves and Peel Thunder
for the Fremantle reserves.
The
Queensland Cup, the former Brisbane suburban rugby-league competition, has
expanded to include teams in all of the major Queensland coastal cities, not
presently servicing an NRL team, including Cairns (Northern Pride); Mackay (Mackay
Cutters); Rockhampton-Yeppoon (CQ Capras); and Sunshine Coast (Sunshine Coast
Falcons)[1].
The competition has also expanded south-east to the Gold Coast (Burleigh Bears and
Tweed Heads Seagulls), south-west to Ipswich (Ipswich Jets), and overseas to
Papua New Guinea (PNG Hunters). Toowoomba Clydesdales formerly played in the
competition and hopes to re-enter.
On
balance, the Queensland Cup has probably been right to follow the expansion
course because the Queensland regional cities are of reasonable size (50,000 to
250,000 people) and rugby-league fans in those cities do not have a local NRL
team. I recall once watching Central Comets (now CQ Capras) play a Saturday
night game under lights within the cosy confines of Browne Park, Rockhampton,
where everyone is within 20-metres of the pitch. The club does a wonderful presentation
of the whole event there and, with a crowd of around 3,000 people in a cosy
ground, the atmosphere is compelling. However, entry prices remain relatively
cheap and there is always a vacant seat directly behind the fence for someone
arriving a few minutes before kick-off.
Channel 9
televised Queensland Cup matches from 2012 (replacing the ABC) which has provided
a further boost for this second-tier league. Television cameras appeared at the
grounds of the three north-coast clubs, CQ Capras (Rockhampton, formerly
Central Comets), Mackay Cutters, and Northern Pride (Cairns), for the first
time in 2012.
Western
Australia is a different proposition in that towns in Western Australia are
much smaller than those in Queensland (10,000 or 20,000 people compared to
50,000 or 150,000 people) and any expansion club in the former state would
probably follow the path of mediocrity followed by Peel Thunder. On balance, I
believe that the WAFL competition should not further expand although clearly
the Goldfields and Geraldton regions have appeal. Australian Rules football has
a long and wonderful history in the Goldfields region in particular stretching
back over a century. The WAFC/WAFL hierarchy should keenly study Queensland Cup
developments as well as, more obviously, developments in the SANFL and VFL.
I now turn
my attention to two interesting 2011 developments involving state league clubs
in Hobart and Perth. Firstly, Jason “Aker” Akermanis’ turned out for Glenorchy
versus Clarence in the Tasmanian State League (TSL) competition on Saturday
night 2 April 2011 in Hobart. Because of the presence of Akermanis this game attracted
a record crowd of 8,480 people.[2]
It is certainly wonderful to see such an accomplished and decorated player give
something back to second-tier football. It is probably because Hobart had and
has no regular AFL team that Aker attracted larger average crowds at Glenorchy
than he would have attracted had he signed on with a WAFL club.
Secondly,
Swan Districts’ players were praised by letter writers to the Brisbane-based Courier-Mail newspaper, Wendy and Darren
Schultz of Sherwood, as a result of 64 Swans players arriving via charter plane
in Sherwood, Brisbane to assist in clean-up operations after the floods of
January 2011.[3] Of
course the letter-writers could not refrain from utilizing the expected poor
pun of swans taking well to water! The great attitude of the players involved
(there are far fewer unmanageable egos at this level of the game) and the fact
that Swan Districts could mobilize as many as 64 players quickly suggests that
the smaller WAFL club operations can respond more effectively to at least some
emergencies than the AFL corporate behemoths. The actions of the Swans club and
its players are consistent with the club’s modern (re-)branding as a
community-based club with a community ethos. The cleaning efforts got the club
some coverage in the Courier-Mail
newspaper whereas it would be close to impossible for it to gain newspaper
coverage in Brisbane for its actual on-field footballing exploits.
Swans’ act
represents existential acting-out of a strategic re-branding which is really
just a tinkering and a slight re-emphasis of attributes that the club has
possessed throughout its life. The concept of a community-based club assisting
a community on the other side of Australia is an interesting one and it
suggests innovative ways and approaches for tier-two clubs to carve out niche
markets and brand-names for themselves which do not involve fighting head-on
the hegemonic AFL clubs. The Foxtel Cup (2011-14) also offered some hope and
extra meaning for second-tier clubs around Australia as players and supporters
got to test themselves out on the national stage. However, the games should have
been played at the clubs’ traditional home grounds instead of as
curtain-raisers to AFL matches. With the Foxtel Cup axed the only hope for
forgotten traditional tier-two clubs now is a rebel competition outside the
auspices and control of the AFL.
To return
to the topic of ground redevelopment and rationalization, Subiaco Oval today is
a fully corporatized ground, sold out to West Coast season-ticket holders for
West Coast home games, and surrounded on all sides by homogeneous grandstands
and the ubiquitous, horrible, plastic bucket seats. The once great traditional
ground with the atmospheric, concrete terracing, so close to the play on the
Roberts Road scoreboard wing, is now a hollow corporate shell and is completely
distasteful for traditionalists. As the French philosopher Michel Foucault
would have said, the corporate people aim to control, physically as well as
psychologically, every aspect of a football supporter’s game-day environs and
experiences. They cannot understand that some people like to watch games from
grandstands but others prefer either grassed banks or concrete terracing.
[1] Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensland_Cup [accessed
4 November 2016]; http://www.qrl.com.au/intrust-super-cup/clubs.html [accessed
4 November 2016].
[2] Source: Anonymous
(2011a), “Akermanis can still draw crowd”, The
Courier-Mail [Brisbane, Australia], 4 April, p. 63.
[3] Source: Schultz, W. and D. Schultz (2011), “Swans arrived
at right moment”, Talkingpoint [Letters to the Editor], The Courier-Mail [Brisbane, Australia], 26 January, p. 50.
No comments:
Post a Comment