That's a victorian centric view, look I love Richmond, but I love the game and live in Sydney and am a life member of a Sydney club, I want the game to dominate here more than anything
I respect that sentiment. Expanding the game is important.
I don’t believe my view is Victorian-centric. I am strongly of the opinion that sporting clubs start from the ground up, not from the top down like the expansion clubs have done.
A bunch of people somewhere start a club, they get behind it, support it, build it from scratch, pay their dues over time and, finally, succeed. If they are well-run. All the Victorian clubs in the AFL started like this but so did Claremont, Port Adelaide, Subiaco, Central Districts, Norwood, Port Melb, Williamstown and countless other clubs across the country. Adelaide and West Coast are essentially state teams and have an argument for inclusion in the AFL, but so does Tasmania. Even Sydney and Brisbane are relocated clubs with long histories.
Every one of these clubs has a stronger claim on a seat at the AFL table than the expansion teams.
The idea that the AFL can decide it wants to expand into uncharted territories is fine. Put them there, by all means, but only if they have ground roots support. Why start Gold Coast when a Southport already existed and had support? Why GWS and not Canberra, where AFL is already viable?
The follow up idea that a generation of young footballers have to be delivered to expansion clubs to make them instantly successful and compensate them for not having ground roots support is where I draw the line.
GWS and GC are an abomination. At least Gold Coast understands its place in the competition.
I guess my objection is to the idea that it will only work if the clubs have instant success. This is disrespectful to every Melbourne,, North Melbourne, Bulldogs, Fremantle, Port Adelaide supporter who stumps up for his membership for years without success. It is disrespectful to every Claremont supporter who would love his club to be in the AFL and to every Tasmanian football supporter, amongst many, many others.
I am just thankful that, so far, every GWS Finals campaign has been ended by a real club. Long may this last.
End of rant. I’m sure we all enjoyed being handed an extra 10,000 GF tickets because GWS have no-one to sell them to. A perverse Bonus!