Target North – The AFL Agenda

Group 13 Simon Stout & David Erjavec

The AFL push to become the dominant national Football code has been the primary focus for the league since the expansion into Sydney in the mid 1980’s, when the besieged South Melbourne Swans were relocated to the Harbour City as a means of reinvigorating the then Victorian Football League. Further expansion included logical moves into Aussie Rules dominated Eastern states complimented with the initially foray into Queensland with the Brisbane Bears, which occurred in 1987.

 

The Bears struggled, to put it mildly, (being located in a Rugby League dominated market) and when the weakest of the remaining Victorian clubs the Fitzroy Lions was on the edge of extinction, the now AFL grabbed the opportunity to reinvigorate their Brisbane identity with the remnants of the team from Fitzroy, and in 1996 the Brisbane Lions were born.

In the 2000’s the two primary AFL northern clubs witnessed the ultimate success.The Brisbane Lions took an amazing three in a row (2001 to 2003) Premierships and Sydney Swans in 2005 taking one also. This solidified the AFL brand in the sporting landscape of the Northern capital cities.

 

After over 15 years of consolidation, the AFL’s desire for a greater presence in the high population growth areas of northern Australia’s continued to be an identified target market and with negotiations forthcoming for the Broadcast rights the AFL was keen to act. In 2009 an offer for relocation to the Gold Coast was made to another struggling Victorian based Club in North Melbourne, given the success of the Brisbane Lions, this was seen as the best opportunity to take a recognised brand into the new territory.

When North Melbourne rejected the reported $100m offer, the AFL was not going to let their push into the new territory wane, particularly with another burgeoning market in Western Sydney in mind.

The birth of two new expansion teams was brought to fruition, the Gold Coast Suns (2011) and Greater Western Sydney Giants(2012) were include as part of the now 18 club national competition, timely with the inking of a $1.2 billion broadcast deal that began in 2012.

To assist the clubs in building brand awareness and connection amongst their target markets, the AFL facilitated 2 major recruiting coups from their most obvious competitors within these particular markets. They built rapport with potential supporters through the addition of Rugby League icons to the new AFL clubs. The news that Karmichael Hunt to the Gold Coast Suns and Israel Folau to Greater Western Sydney Giants resonated throughout all sporting news outlets as the new recruits cut their teeth in their new codes.

With multimillion dollar contracts in place the Clubs built their newly formed brands around their prized additions.

Fast forward to 2015 and both Folau and Hunt have seen out their contracts and exited the game, both signing high priced Rugby Union contracts. Additionally, Hunt has left a trail of destruction with criminal proceedings related to illicit drug use and tarnished the Club and its young list with an alleged endemic drug culture.

 

The young talent that has been stacked at the two expansion clubs have both shown signs of great brilliance, but as is the case with young players, their physical and mental capacity to maintain this level over the course of a season is not quite there. Combine this with the ongoing issues surrounding the AFL’s equalisation model which is built around ensuring that weaker clubs are subsidised to remain competitive with the stronger ones and the question remains….Can the AFL sustain four teams in NRL dominated markets with the current 18 team structure?

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/afl/time-the-afl-stopped-treating-northern-clubs-like-outposts-writes-andrew-hamilton/story-fn842gep-1227199983756 http://www.theroar.com.au/2015/05/08/an-unwanted-storm-looms-for-the-afl-as-the-reality-of-expansion-bites/