Australian Football Association of North America

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/drupal5/

Football Record

140 Harbour Esplande
Docklands, Vic. 3008
Australia

Official Publication of the AFL. Issued weekly during the season in TV Guide format. $3.50 ea.
Each week, there are 8 editions published, one for each match of the round. The only difference between the 8 editions are the team inserts and team information for the two teams each edition is covering.

Inside Football/drupal5/

International Publishing Group (IPG)
GPO Box 107
Sydney,NSW 2001 
Australia
(2) 9327-1266

Major football newspaper. 36 issues/year (weekly during the season, with off-season specials) in tabloid newspaper format. $4.95 ea.

For subscriptions: address above

Videos of Australian Rules Football/drupal5/

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

Australian Football Video/drupal5/

Australian Football Video Pty. Ltd.
PO Box 456
South Yarra, Vic. 3141
Australia
1-800-035-665 (within Australia)
AFANA Video Sales

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 DVD player, too.  Follow the above link to see what is available and place an order.

Fantasy Australian Rules Football /drupal5/

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 /drupal5/

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? /drupal5/

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?/drupal5/

Colonial Stadium (now known as Telstra Dome) is an ultramodern 52,000 seat retractable-roof stadium which was completed in 2000. It is located in an area which once contained 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 are movable to accommodate most any outdoor sport. There are luxury suites in numbers previously seen only in America. Channel Seven was one of the primary investors in the ground and the AFL is now headquartered there.

The league raised $30 million by selling its television rights long-term to Seven Network (?), and by offering up Waverley Park and its surrounds for sale, 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; the Dome's small size means only 5,000 seats available on game day, so supporters will almost have to buy club memberships to enter, or purchase tickets for reserved seating in advance. The AFC insists that the extra money all this will pry loose is needed to guarantee the future of the game.

And the Dome has been surrounded by controversy from Day 1. First up was n industrial strike which delayed the complettion of the ground. Then the AFL insisted on opening up the park for business against advice that it was not fully ready. A number of planned ticketing booths were scrapped from the origninal plans and for weeks, massively long lines to admit those with tickets and for those wishing to purchase tickets frustrated fans and management and brought the ground under heavy criticism.

And the playing surface, 6 years on, is still under fire. Part of the problem has been the roof which often remains closed when there is no game, depriving the grass of much needed sunlight. And even with the roof open, there is one section which is blocked from sunlight by psrt of the roof. The stadum management has worked diliigently to correct these problems, but many players still complain about slippery conditions at the ground as well as the hardness of the surface.

The Dome's management has addressed some of the surface problems by installing special turf and routinely replacing sections of that turf. However, the hardness of the ground is another issue. Part of the problem is the fact that the playing surface sits directly above an underground parking lot with its concrete roof several feet below the playing surface.

Waverley Parkwas 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 Telstra Dome, 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. Up until 2005,  Carlton Football Club refused to negotiate on a deal it did 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. However, in 2005, the Calrton board decided it was in the best financial interests of the club to abondon Optus Oval (now MC Labour Park) in favor of splitting games between the Dome and the MCG. This was due to the fact that their home ground had a capacity of less than 30,000 and no lights for night games.

Football Traditions /drupal5/

Going onto the ground after the game /drupal5/

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 /drupal5/

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.