The trouble up north

With Ablett's departure will the Suns now build a team culture?

The AFL has had a stellar two seasons culminating in ground-breaking and historic wins by competition stalwarts the Western Bulldogs and Richmond. Yet there still remains the troubled areas north of the AFL heartland. Greater Western Sydney, Brisbane and especially the Gold Coast remain troubled entities that require significant attention.

What about the fans?

The trouble is largely game day based, performances and the lack of crowds. Whilst the GWS are performing well now that's not guaranteed in the long run, Brisbane look like they have the young talent to greatly improve but it's the Gold Coast that have crosses in both columns. Are there solutions or are these entities doomed to fail? Many people say that success will bring crowds but only Brisbane has a proven track record of large crowds when they have been successful.

Brisbane, Gold Coast and GWS crowds are on average 6000 less per game than the next best team.

During the Lions' glory years, 2001-3, they averaged over 30,000 people at their home games. There is a market, and there is a history of attendance that sustained success should rebuild. The Gold Coast has not had a sustained period of success but is in a sporting market where loyalty to teams by fans, owners and organisations has not been evident. The carcasses of teams from football, AFL, basketball and rugby league is self evident. Success may not guarantee crowds, but it cannot hurt them.

The Greater Western Sydney has had success, albeit fledgling at this stage but it's crowds are not evident. In their past two years they have made the preliminary final but have only averaged just over 13,000 per home game. We need to give the franchise time to build but how long can we give them? The answer should be as long as they need.

Why can't we lose them?

The AFL won't want to lose these teams now that the decision, time and resources have been allocated towards them. The AFL needs these teams to succeed based on their geography and competition for other neighbouring teams.

The GWS are located in the largest growth area in metropolitan NSW. They have competition from rugby league and in particular the Western Sydney Wanderers. The AFL has the NSW stalwarts in the Sydney Swans that will help grow GWS by providing annual competition and opposition.

Brisbane and the Gold Coast are in large population areas and are only an hour apart, if the traffic on the M1 is kind! They provide reference points and opposition to each other.

In short, if the AFL is to be a truly national game it cannot afford to lose these teams.

Solutions?

Marquee players are used in other sports to bolster crowds, merchandise sales and most importantly hope. The Gold Coast has tried this experiment and at face value the experiment was a failure. Whilst Gary Ablett Jnr played extremely well when on the field it was his injuries and the loss of young talent to other teams that has meant that the Gold Coast are a long way back from most teams in the competition. Marquees are costly and there is a dearth of available talent at the present moment. This is not to say that future marquee opportunities should not be considered.

The GWS and Gold Coast and, to a lesser extent recently, the Brisbane Lions have received extra draft picks as well as salary cap concessions. Whilst the draft picks would be largely frowned upon by the rest of the competition salary cap concessions, especially to keep younger players taking the lure of the go home factor, should be continued and revisited for the northern franchises.

The administration of all three clubs has great experience and depth, the AFL must remain vigilant and maintain a say in the quality of appointments made by each club for this to continue.

The question asked by many people is can, why and should the three clubs continue? The question should be how can we ensure they do, and more importantly how can we help them thrive?

By Paul Frederickson