FAQ Sections

• FAQ Home
• Introduction to Australian Rules Football
• The Rules of Australian Football
• What is the Australian Football League?
• Other Australian Football Leagues
• Australian Football League Clubs
• Major Awards
• Significant Players in the AFL
• Miscellaneous/Trivia
  • Football Periodicals and Publications
    1. Football Record
    2. Inside Football
  • Videos of Australian Rules Football
    1. Australian Football Video
    2. Football Record Video
  • Fantasy Australian Rules Football
    1. Play-On Premiers
  • What is the ___________ Conspiracy Theory?
  • What are the Docklands, and why are they driving everyone mad?
  • Football Traditions
    1. Going onto the ground after the game
    2. The Aussie Meat Pie

8. Miscellaneous/Trivia

This section contains information that does not easily fit into any of the other sections of the FAQ. Proposals for further additions are welcome.

(Prices here and elsewhere in this FAQ are quoted in Australian dollars, which are worth roughly $0.70 - $0.75 US.)

Football Periodicals and Publications

Football Record

GPO Box 1449N
Melbourne, Vic. 3001
Australia

Official Publication of the AFL. Issued weekly during the season in TV Guide format. $1.20 ea.
Sold for A$2.00 at the ground on game days with the familiar slogan "The game's not the same without your Record."

Inside Football

73 Atherton Rd
Oakleigh, Vic. 3166
Australia
61 (3) 9567-4200

Major football newspaper. 36 issues/year (weekly during the season, with off-season specials) in tabloid newspaper format. $3.50 ea.

For subscriptions:

ACP Direct
GPO Box 5252
Sydney, NSW 2001
Australia
1-800-252-515 (within Australia)

Videos of Australian Rules Football

These sources of Australian Rules Football Videos are known. They provide VHS tapes in the PAL-B or NTSC format.

Australian Football Video

Australian Football Video Pty. Ltd.
PO Box 456
South Yarra, Vic. 3141
Australia
1-800-035-665 (within Australia)
http://www.afana.com/merchandise/mer_videos.html

AFANA has teamed with Australian Football Video Pty. Ltd. to make any Australian football video you can think of available in the U. S. and Canada. They'll play in your VCR, too. A very partial listing and ordering instructions can be found at the link above.

Football Record Video

Polygram Video
PO Box 112
Alexandria NSW 2015
Australia

A "video magazine" released by the AFL. Gives a review of the last 4 rounds prior to each issue. Yearly review video is also available (7 issues in total each year.) Cost: $14.95 for regular issue, $19.95 for End of Year issue.

Fantasy Australian Rules Football

Two companies offer Fantasy Australian Rules Football Games as commercial services that are played weekly by mail. Details of one company is provided, contact information for the other one would be appreciated. Fantasy Leagues are also run on the net.

Play-On Premiers

Play-by-Mail Sports
PO Box 14219
Melbourne Mail Centre
Victoria 3000
Australia
Phone: (03) 9326 9711

or

PO Box 427
Greymouth
New Zealand
Phone: (03) 768 9379

Players act as coaches of a team, signing players to their club. Each league consists of 12 teams competing against each other in weekly games. Results are based on the real life scores and statistics of AFL players from that weeks games.

Free start-up packs including rules and sample turns are available.

What is the ___________ Conspiracy Theory?

Fill in the blank with your favorite struggling suburban-Melbourne-based AFL club. There is a view that has formed amongst football commentators and followers that Melbourne has too many AFL teams (nine currently; ten if you count in Geelong, as many do). They point to the financial difficulties and low levels of support for several Melbourne-based clubs as the basis for their view. The problem with having too many teams in one city, it is stated, is threefold:

a) AFL revenue is directed through the equalization fund to 'prop up' teams that are essentially net losers of revenue to the competition.

b) Expenditure on debt reduction, promotion and junior development of the game is therefore reduced.

c) Player payments are restricted in growth to that manageable by the financially weaker clubs. This contradicts the current move to greater professionalism and players receiving an equitable share of revenue growth.

The AFL to an extent subscribes to these views, with its preferred option being a merger of Melbourne-based clubs.

Opponents of this view state that tradition is the basis of support for clubs, and therefore tradition should be the basis of participation, rather than on economic viability. Original members of the VFL should therefore receive preferential treatment over that of recent expansion teams. Currently, preferential treatment is given to Sydney and Brisbane due to their ability to increase revenue through increased TV rights, and to promote footy in traditional Rugby League states.

The conspiracy theories generally state that (insert name of suburban Melbourne football club here) believe that because of their struggling status, the AFL is trying to make the team fold. The main catalyst of this debate in recent times was Fitzroy. The announcement of Port Adelaide's AFL license, dependent upon a reduction in teams, further increased such speculation.

Prior to Fitzroy, the main subjects of debate as to continued participation were Footscray (who actually announced a merger with Fitzroy in 1989) and Richmond. Both were saved through public fund drives; this has not been uncommon in VFL history.

Fitzroy was saved for a few years by investment cash from a business consortium led by the Bank of Nauru. When that money ran out early in 1996, the club finally accepted an offer of merger from the North Melbourne club. But when the Nauru party lost patience and sent in an outside administrator to run the operation (according to Aussie bankruptcy law), the League vetoed the merger and obliged what remained of the club to merge with the Brisbane Bears. Ironically, Fitzroy refused a VFL offer of relocation to Brisbane in 1987, which prompted the founding of the Bears.

An attempt to merge the Melbourne and Hawthorn clubs into a "Melbourne Dawks" organization was rejected in an emotional special meeting (and near riot) of the Hawthorn members after the 1996 season. Shortly thereafter, the Demons received a large cash infusion from mining magnate and Lubavitcher Hasidic Rabbi Joseph Gutnick, and named him club president. Subsequent intense efforts on the part of Hawthorn management have given the club some of the best membership numbers in Victoria, and an improved team on the field (at least in 1997).

What are the Docklands, and why are they driving everyone mad?

Colonial Stadium (naming rights sold to an Aussie investment firm) is an ultramodern 54,000 seat retractable-roof football park being built in abandoned railyards between Spencer Street Station and the docks on the edge of downtown Melbourne. The new stadium was justified as an Olympic venue for preliminary soccer matches during Sydney 2000. The AFL immediately saw benefit in making the smaller, cushier stadium its second home in Victoria. There will be seats for everyone (still unusual in Australia), some with computer terminals allowing wagering and food purchases without leaving them; the lowest levels will be movable to accommodate most any outdoor sport. There will be luxury suites in numbers previously seen only in America. Channel Seven will build headquarters and studios in the park. The AFL will move its headquarters there by 2003, according to sources. The very turf will be pampered in special pallets to be stored in the sun, out from under the roof, in a similar arrangement to that used to provide natural grass for World Cup matches under the Pontiac Silverdome in 1994. And with minor design changes, it will be big enough for football...

The league raised $30 million by selling its television rights long-term to Seven Network (?), and by offering up Waverley Park for sale, probably including the demolition of the stadium, and plans to use it to take over Docklands 25 years after the Olympiad for roughly ten cents on the dollar. Essendon, St. Kilda and the Western Bulldogs have volunteered to move in, and Hawthorn will be forced into the MCG. (The site happens to be near the end of a main artery to the western suburbs known as Footscray Road.)

What's so bad about a gorgeous new ballpark? Lots of people have already found something to hate about this:

Football has always been considered "the game of the people", from the time people showed up in incredible numbers to watch club matches in the 19th century. Most people are thus disturbed by the notion of an American-style stadium so blatantly designed to attract corporate executives and others not necessarily tied to a club ("theatre-goers", "the Chardonnay set") and take their money. More are disturbed by the prospect of paying twice over (or more?) for entry to the park plus use of one of those seats - if they can get one; Docklands' small size means only 5,000 seats available on game day, so supporters will almost have to buy club memberships to enter. The AFC insists that the extra money all this will pry loose is needed to guarantee the future of the game.

Waverley Park is abandoned by this plan. Ironically, Waverley was originally VFL Park, built in the late 1960s as a new home for the state league, expandable to 120,000 seats with a full second deck in place, containing a large, engineered playing surface, with its own commuter rail line, and no more worries about cricketers! The transit line never happened, though, so the best access was by freeway, which troubles people in a city which relies on public transit, and anyone who dislikes parking in mud. Most of the second deck never happened. The local climate inspired the nickname "Arctic Park." And the MCG's improvements made it instantly second-rate. On the other hand, your $13.50 entry fee got you a free bench seat, it was more than good enough for watching football (just don't get too close to the crowned field, or you won't see the other wing), and St. Kilda and Hawthorn were good geographic matches for it. In fact, so many people have moved east that Waverley is now in the geographic center of metro Melbourne.

Hawthorn didn't want to leave Waverley. Period. Club president Ian Dicker and his board were happy with it, and believed that moving the club away would shut out their traditional working-class supporters. (For a fair number of Australians, the membership ticket is the only luxury they can afford themselves.) The AFL made clear that Waverley was history, though, and made the MCG very attractive for Hawthorn.

The people who run the MCG want a bigger piece of the action already. But this plan would have to take games from it to move them to Docklands, unless they promised big enough crowds to justify moving them back. And the MCG have that deal with the AFL for 40 years' worth of games, until 2030. Also, Carlton Football Club did a deal with the league to host 16 games at Optus Oval each year through most of the next decade, so that Carlton could pay off their new Legends Stand. Reconciling all these agreements could keep lawyers employed for years to come.

Football Traditions

Going onto the ground after the game

In the tradition of suburban support for AFL clubs, it is customary for many spectators to go onto the ground (after a prearranged signal from ground officials) at the conclusion of a game and have a kick of the football with friends, etc.

Maybe this appeals to our desire to be like our Footy heroes - knowing we've kicked a footy on the same ground these footballers have lifts our own pride or whatever... -- Adam East

Unfortunately for the fans, many grounds have moved to end this practice, most notably Subiaco Oval in suburban Perth. The usual justification given is preservation of the playing surface, which in some cases is already heavily used.

The Aussie Meat Pie

Meat pies are to footy what hot dogs are to baseball. These Aussie finger pies, traditionally with a stewed beef filling in pastry crust, are served with a liberal dash of tomato sauce (pronounce "ketchup"), and usually accompanied by beer. Some food companies (Four 'n' Twenty especially) build their product marketing around this tradition. Four 'n' Twenty has been making pies for over fifty years now, and despite the fact that they make over 400,000 every week, they always seem to run out by three-quarter time.

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