Too many teams for 1 league

[kell]

There are simply too many teams in the league to provide an appropriate level of talent ato sustain a level of competitive interest. If the leagues were split as with the EPL including relegation and promotion to different divisions that may sustain interest. With without that the game is dying... All but me in family have stopped watching.....my sons just laugh at the Saints performances....this is sad

[Toy Saint]

There are simply too many teams in the league to provide an appropriate level of talent ato sustain a level of competitive interest. If the leagues were split as with the EPL including relegation and promotion to different divisions that may sustain interest. With without that the game is dying... All but me in family have stopped watching.....my sons just laugh at the Saints performances....this is sad

My boys also laugh at Saints performance....it's a bit the Catholic church...the faith will not pass to the next generation

[kell]

It is worse than a generational problem. My dear old mum (82) was a Saints supporter. I would catch her wandering up to the pub to watch the Saints when it wasn't free to air. She says, I cant be bothered with it now...I don't know any of the players now Rooey and Joey have gone and they just lose all the time.....this is causing repairable damage to the club. The Board MUST go !

[iwantmeseats]

Spot on Kell. Club is in free fall and needs a circuit breaker post haste.

[Vazelos]

My passionate 13 years old son says “ Dad I don’t care anymore I’m following Liverpool FC and our NFL team Redskins I can’t take this anymore I get teased every day at school....
I promised him some good times 2018 onwards I have been made to look like a liar...
Agreed too many teams

[happy feet]

Yes, I fear we have become the Fitzroy of the new millennial . The GWS experiment is fast becoming a farce, Gold Coast too, tiger will be a temptation to collapse us into one of those teams and then we are gone.

[saint64]

Yes, I fear we have become the Fitzroy of the new millennial . The GWS experiment is fast becoming a farce, Gold Coast too, tiger will be a temptation to collapse us into one of those teams and then we are gone.

Best we merge with GWS then. Lets take the initiative and push that idea. The alternative may be a forced merger with the Suns!

[Con Gorozidis]

Agree with the op.
If I was being ruthless I would cut my losses with GC and GWS. Axe the Saints.
Start a new side in Tassie (Devils) and have a 16 team comp.

[Saintly66]

It’s just gws and gold coast, take the guns drafted by those two clubs and sprinkle them over the 16 and it’s be a much better comp.

[Devilhead]

Pathetic responses all round - Tissue supporters

Terrible injury list and currently playing with a super young side

Been through a lot worse times than this

Hardened up and stop sooking as I am sure you wouldn't be complaining about the comp if we were sitting in the 8

[Saintly66]

Pathetic responses all round - Tissue supporters

Terrible injury list and currently playing with a super young side

Been through a lot worse times than this

Hardened up and stop sooking as I am sure you wouldn't be complaining about the comp if we were sitting in the 8

Haha we wouldn’t be in the 8 trust me, Richo has lost them and that’s final. People really need to wake up to themselves and stop living in a fantasy land.

[Con Gorozidis]

Pathetic responses all round - Tissue supporters

Terrible injury list and currently playing with a super young side

Been through a lot worse times than this

Hardened up and stop sooking as I am sure you wouldn't be complaining about the comp if we were sitting in the 8

I think this is just a thread about the AFL in general.

Objective comments putting Saints allegiance aside.

Also our injury list is fairly normal. We just had a dream run the last two years so normal service resumed.

We've also had 7 years to do something about our list age profile.

Also we aren't in the 8. We are miles from the 8.

[The_Dud]

Yeah this thread is a bit silly.

Commercial agreements guarantee a certain amount of games, less games means less $$$, no way the AFL will do that.

Also we’ve played in 3 GFs and plenty of prelims in the last 21 seasons. I think in that time every team but the 2 new expansion teams have played in a GF, and the Giants a prelim.

So seems like a pretty balanced comp to me, this thread is a bit reactionary due to our current circumstances.

[Devilhead]

Pathetic responses all round - Tissue supporters

Terrible injury list and currently playing with a super young side

Been through a lot worse times than this

Hardened up and stop sooking as I am sure you wouldn't be complaining about the comp if we were sitting in the 8

I think this is just a thread about the AFL in general.

Objective comments putting Saints allegiance aside.

Also our injury list is fairly normal. We just had a dream run the last two years so normal service resumed.

We've also had 7 years to do something about our list age profile.

Also we aren't in the 8. We are miles from the 8.

Yes it's normal for most teams lose 8 of their most experienced players

You are saying that's thread is about the AFL general yet typical you made about the Saints

Any numb nut can see we have been decimated by injuries and are currently playing with one of the youngest ... if not the youngest team in the league who pushed the reigning Premiers and West Coast in Perth yet we are the team that needs to be axed from the comp

Your agenda is plain shite clear Con

[Zed]

Agree with the op.
If I was being ruthless I would cut my losses with GC and GWS. Axe the Saints.
Start a new side in Tassie (Devils) and have a 16 team comp.

Since Fitzroy’s demise we’ve been waiting for the next 2 teams from Melbourne to exit. It was always going to be us , North or the Dogs under the pump. We missed our chance to climb out of that group by not capitalising on the 2004-2011 era.

Now it comes down to whether we fold, merge or relocate.

Like it or not, this club is in a death spiral now. Members will not renew, attendances will continue to drop, sponsors will drop off, revenue will decline. With a pathetically passive and passionless management team, the AFL will be forced to step in during the 2020 season. The club will cease to exist in its current form in 2022.

Option 1 - Saints will merge with the Hawks. I know it’s unpalatable, but they have successfully preyed on and absorbed our traditional turf in Melbourne by stealth for the last 20years. It’s the most logical merger choice. We will need to negotiate a way to keep our identity. I suspect however we will only survive as the VFL team for the Hawks. Perhaps they will wear our colours during pre-season games or some nostalgia round against Brisbane wearing the old Fitzroy kit.

Option 2 - relocation to Tassie, NZ or the NT. This will be the clubs preferred option as we retain our colours and most of our identity - but AFL will be reluctant to have another club like GWS and GCS completely reliant on the AFL teat for the foreseeable future.

Option 3 - the club folds or permanently leaves the AFL. It may resurface in the VFL , but effectively the club is dead. No representation at AFL level. Drastic yes - but if the clubs membership and revenue numbers fall below either GCS or GWS, then this will be the logical move of the AFL

GWS and GCS will be kept alive for at least 20 years imho. They are needed for television rights $ - ie the promise of more advertising reach. The Saints add nothing significant to the TV rights equation

The writing is on the wall. The point of no return is rapidly approaching. If we go into 2019 with no significant change at the coaching and management levels, then the window for change will be lost. A great many hearts will be broken. I hope I am so wrong.

[Linton Lodger]

Agree with the op.
If I was being ruthless I would cut my losses with GC and GWS. Axe the Saints.
Start a new side in Tassie (Devils) and have a 16 team comp.

Oh dear! Don't disagree on GC & GWS, no one cares, but why would you cut the Saints? We have a bigger supporter base than Nth Melb and the Bulldogs put together and a bigger supporter base than Melbourne. Despite been 1-1-9 and not having won a game for 11 weeks, we still drew a crowd of 27,000 last night. What would the 3 Clubs I mentioned have drawn in our circumstances?

The only way we would be relocated or merged was if we voluntarily allowed it to happen, which would be as weak as p*ss.

[Teflon]

There are simply too many teams in the league to provide an appropriate level of talent ato sustain a level of competitive interest. If the leagues were split as with the EPL including relegation and promotion to different divisions that may sustain interest. With without that the game is dying... All but me in family have stopped watching.....my sons just laugh at the Saints performances....this is sad

Great post
It's got little to do with where we are on the ladder and more to do with the general state of the game - AFL know it and hence why they've wheeled out old cronies in Blight, Matthews and von to "get us back to the good times"
The games skill levels are nowhere near what they used to be 15-20 years ago when Carey's, Hirds, Harvey's, Buckley, Voss, Williams, Lockett, Dunstall, Ablett Snr, Koutifides, Bradley's (I'm missing some I'm sure) - point is the comp now feels bereft of this deeper talent pool......it feels thin. The day of the "athlete first" has overrun us and almost commoditised the modern AFL player to the detriment of what made our game unique - individual brilliance.
Top it off with rising societal changes in a multicultural landscape where, let's face it, many traditional sporting ties reside internationally and not with a domestic game and you have trouble
My kids never even talk AFL at school - it's soccer soccer soccer basketball, Le Bron James, soccer
We are at real risk of in years to come following that novel little game called Australian Rules............while the "real footy" is being broadcast late at night on SBS.....
Oh the times they're a changing...

[iwantmeseats]

Pathetic responses all round - Tissue supporters

Terrible injury list and currently playing with a super young side

Been through a lot worse times than this

Hardened up and stop sooking as I am sure you wouldn't be complaining about the comp if we were sitting in the 8

Haha we wouldn’t be in the 8 trust me, Richo has lost them and that’s final. People really need to wake up to themselves and stop living in a fantasy land.

It staggers me,beyond belief, that anyone thinks this list is of a top 8 standard. It’s not and it’s not even close!
Yes the coach is a major problem. But it’s also the quality of the list that will need work. Lol. It is NOT anywhere within a bulls roar of finals standard !

[chico2001]

Some fantastic posts. I firmly believe that Tasmania would be the spot for saints to stand alone in this great state. They would be supported to the max with crowds of 15k -19k every week. Could play a few games at Etihad to get the bigger crowds. AFL would hand over a shedful of dollars. Why would you want any other solution? To merge means you are totally gone forever. To go into the VFL. What for ?