AFL Divisions / Top Heavy / Solution?

[TigerLand]

North getting smashed, Tigers getting smashed, Essendon losing to Freo at home, Melbourne been woeful for 3 years.

With the competition so heavily weighted, thoughts on this new structure of the AFL, looking forward to going to the footy each week seeing a competitive match.

AFL Split into 2 Divisions
- Premier League (Top 10 teams from 2010)
- Championship League (Bottom 6 teams in 2010, plus 2 new franchises a Tassie team and 1 more side
- Both Leagues have 10 teams


Premier League:
- Top 10 teams from 2010
- 18 round fixture
- Teams play each other twice 1 home 1 away.

Premier Teams:
Geelong
Hawthorn
St.Kilda
W.Bulldogs
Brisbane
Collingwood
Sydney
Fremantle
Adelaide
Port Adelaide

Championship Teams
Carlton
Essendon
North Melbourne
West Coast
Richmond
Melbourne
Gold Coast
Western Sydney
Tasmania
Port Melbourne/Darwin/New Zealand? or 2nd Tassie team.

Promotion?
Winner of Championship gets promoted to Premier. Wooden Spoon gets relegated.

How will the Draft work?
Bottom team in Championship pick 1, 2nd bottom in Championship pick 2 etc.
Wooden spoon of Premier would get a pick ahead of Premier of Championship.

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Positives:

- Even competition. Less blow outs and one sided contests = better quality of entertainment more bums on seats better TV Ratings
- More games per week = Better TV deals.
- 20 teams creates more jobs, more opportunity to play AFL football
- Tasmania gains a team.
- Possibility to branch into New Zealand
- Top 10 draft picks have a high percentage chance of playing when they are teenagers. Top 10 draft picks will generally go to Championship teams which is an easier introduction to Senior football. = Less injuries (Sean Rusling eg, young Ruckman wont be versing monsters every week etc)
- Gives a chance to rebuild whilst still being competitive by being in a league will 30-40% of teams in the same boat instead of 10-20%.

Negatives:
- Players, especially with Free Agency, will want to leave to play Premier football. A remedy for this should be in place.
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At the end of the day I don't care who plays for Richmond, I don't care if we don't attract a Chris Judd I don't care if we have poor foot skills and so do the opposition. At the end of the day I've enjoyed watching Coburg just as much as I do Richmond if not more possibly for the fact that I get to feel the 3 qtr time jitters. The competition is so top heavy that maybe 1 or 2 games this year I’ll get to feel that. I envy the likes of Adelaide, Sydney, Geelong, Brisbane all who have never bottomed out all who have no top 2 draft picks yet have all played in 2 GF's since the late 90's.

I buy a membership cause I'm loyal. I don't buy won cause I think we're going to win a premiership I buy one cause I love nothing more than going in the weekend wearing my Richmond scarf and pumping the firsts when we score a big goal or stand up and cheer a gutsy mark or spoil. I go to be entertained. The reason why we loved Richo cause regardless of the result we were entertained.

I'm in fear I wont be getting entertained for some time. For that our history is to blame but the supporters suffer not the people that are no longer employed at the club. If we can't do it well for gods sake I hope the AFL do something and split divisions I seriously think is an answer.

- Pope.
 

[Ramps]

i like the 2 division idea even if it means we are guaranteed to start in d2.

[Infamy]

The main reason I don't like it is that it excludes any team from Division 2 from competing in a grand final
Plenty of bottom teams improve substantially to rocket up the ladder once everything starts working together.

I don't mind the idea of divisions though, where everyone from Division 1 plays each other twice and teams from Division 2 once (and vice versa). That way you have a single AFL ladder, everyone can still win the flag and you have more evenly matched games. Problem is it would need a longer season, however scrap the NAB cup and you could do it easily.

[TigerLand]

Sorry forgot to add the Divvy 2 have a finals series exactly the same as Divvy 1

Top 4 play off in both leagues.

[crannyvegas]

This has some merit Pope!! I like the idea of every game being relatively even.

Having said this the gulf between the teams may only widen in time, as good teams constantly play good teams, the skills of the lesser teams may not improve at the same rate.

Looking at Premier League, its very rare that the top four teams ever change Man U, Arsenal, Chelsea & Liverpool are always there abouts. In this decade alone we have had 7 different teams win the premiership.

[Infamy]

Sorry forgot to add the Divvy 2 have a finals series exactly the same as Divvy 1

Top 4 play off in both leagues.

See, not sure about that one either, perhaps a 6-2 split would be more fair
The bottom division gets a far easier draw so they shouldn't get the same entitlements to the number of teams going through to the finals.

[TigerLand]

The premier league don't have a draft system that is weighted to the teams in Div 2 and 3.

They also don't have a salary cap.

I'm just sick of multiple 10 goal wins in a round. How good was watching Melb vs Coll and Haw vs Geel. More of it for mine. Sick of seeing young developing sides getting smashed. There is no point fixturing a Richmond St.Kilda game just a waste of electricty and power at Etihad.

You'll find in the Premier League the most successful teams are the teams that are owned by the richer owners. Teams like Man City fly up the table on the back of being bought by an Arabian King and forking out hundreds of millions of dollars on players.

The relagation battle will also bring heaps of interest for low clubs in Divvy 1. I'm sick of being at the bottom of the ladder and having nothing but a hot shower to play for. AFL needs to change something IMO.

[HD]

I'm not such a fan of a 2 division comp like this. What happens if after several years of running like this we end up with all vic teams in one div and all interstate teams in another - with 10 teams in each it could come close and if we ended up with Div 1 having all but say 2 teams located in Vic the rest of the country misses out on the Premier comp for nearly the entire year and those 2 vic teams that are in the Div 2 comp only see their team once or twice a year.

Not saying that it would happen but the potential for it turn into the VFL again is there........ Also as crannyvegas said, there is a huge potential for the gap between the Premier teams and the Championship teams to just keep widening.

[TigerLand]

Sorry forgot to add the Divvy 2 have a finals series exactly the same as Divvy 1

Top 4 play off in both leagues.

See, not sure about that one either, perhaps a 6-2 split would be more fair
The bottom division gets a far easier draw so they shouldn't get the same entitlements to the number of teams going through to the finals.

Sorry I've confused you.

Top 4 of Premier League play in a 4 team finals series.
Top 4 of Championship League play in a 4 team finals series.

Premier League / Div 1 winner wins the AFL Premiership Cup

Championship League / Div 2 winner is the AFL Championship Shield and promotion to Premier League.

[TigerLand]

I'm not such a fan of a 2 division comp like this. What happens if after several years of running like this we end up with all vic teams in one div and all interstate teams in another - with 10 teams in each it could come close and if we ended up with Div 1 having all but say 2 teams located in Vic the rest of the country misses out on the Premier comp for nearly the entire year and those 2 vic teams that are in the Div 2 comp only see their team once or twice a year.

Not saying that it would happen but the potential for it turn into the VFL again is there........ Also as crannyvegas said, there is a huge potential for the gap between the Premier teams and the Championship teams to just keep widening.

The gap in standard I'd argue would rarely get out of reach with the best talent in the country being available to Divvy 2 first.

With all clubs from Vic in Div 1 it wouldn't stay like taht for long with relagation and promtion for the next year. 10 Vic teams wow that's a positive for mine, maybe not for interstate clubs. Its about time something went for the Victorian Clubs. Sick of Interstate clubs being put in cotton wool. Vic clubs have been suffering for 20 years.

[TigerLand]

Forgot to mention another posistive is less rounds of footy which the AFLPA have been crying out for, for ages to have more split rounds etc.

To lengthen the season if the AFL weren't happy with it =
An AFL knockout league Cup where all 20 teams are randomly fixtured to play knockout games leaving 1 winner after so many weeks.

[dizza]

i like the idea mate. not only would it make it easier for teams to develop younger players in a less demanding competition, it would also create more opportunities for expansion in the future since there would be more weeks available to play extra matches if needed. maybe teams in the Championship could play home games at their own club's headquarters (we'd play at Punt Rd, Carlton at Princes Park etc.) so that there would be less demands on Etihad Stadium and the MCG. the finals could consist of the top 6 teams from Div 1, and then the top 2 teams from Div 2 could take on what is currently positions 7 and 8 in the finals structure, keeping it a final 8. i think it would work better if the top 2 teams from Div 2 promoted, and the bottom 2 from Div 1 went back.

[TigerLand]

Some local leagues do use the grand finalists as promotion. Works well but some have complained that finished 2nd bottom by percentage is very harsh to be relagated.

I'd just love to see competetion instead of what has become a farcical result of teams that have used the draft better than others. With the way things are it's just a merry-go-round with teams rebuilding and teams in premiership contention.

[Infamy]

Sorry forgot to add the Divvy 2 have a finals series exactly the same as Divvy 1

Top 4 play off in both leagues.

See, not sure about that one either, perhaps a 6-2 split would be more fair
The bottom division gets a far easier draw so they shouldn't get the same entitlements to the number of teams going through to the finals.

Sorry I've confused you.

Top 4 of Premier League play in a 4 team finals series.
Top 4 of Championship League play in a 4 team finals series.

Premier League / Div 1 winner wins the AFL Premiership Cup

Championship League / Div 2 winner is the AFL Championship Shield and promotion to Premier League.

Sorry, that's an instant "hate it" decision for me.
That means you are having completely separate leagues, not divisions
Look at the way the divisions work in the NFL, NBA, etc
It's still segregated, but everyone can win the title if they are good enough
What you are proposing is more like the Premier League & Championship

[TigerLand]

Infamy I'm not the Adrian Anderson its not set in stone. Maybe Divisions would work better.

A way where we don't have to face a Collingwood, Carlton, Geelong, WB, Sydney, Saints in the space of 2 months needs to be found. Or any team thats trying to rebuild.