Tom CravenFootball Is Dead, Let's Resurrect It
May 2nd 2008 13:56
As the AFL season rages on with Geelong and the fall of West Coast the big news, few of us are aware that an equally important competition is also going on, that of the WAFL.
In years gone the WAFL was bigger then Ben Hurr and it provided WA fans with more then its fair share of football action. Many footy greats played their best years in the WAFL; examples include Polly Farmer, Brian Peake and George Doig. Well what has changed? WA is the still producing awesome footballers, WA is still a prominent football state but WA has changed, and changed for the worst.
Many people remember the WAFL and SANFL glory days; the days where the WAFL grand finals would attract 70,000 plus screaming fans, in fact the 1970 Grand Final had the biggest WAFL crowd ever 77,000. But yet here we are 28 years later and only 20,000 people could be bothered to show up to the 2006 WAFL grand final. Where have all the crowds gone? Well the crowds have been lost, in a sea of flashy commercialism and franchises. In WA we have two, 1 is markedly worse then the other and those 2 franchises will wear the shame of destroying WA footy for ever.
Prior to 1986 the WAFL was doing great, many people will infact tell you the WAFL was doing poorly and all clubs were in financial difficulties. Well nothing could be further from the truth. Did you know the WAFL actually produced more money per club in its league then the powerful VFL did in 1986? The fact that crowd attendances were at an all time high also proves my point. Everything was hunky dory, everything was simply great. We had real teams: teams like East Fremantle with real history and tradition dating back 150 years and 29 premierships including 2 Australia Cups where East Fremantle defeated the best of the VFL and the SANFL.
So if the WAFL was so good, why did it fall so quickly? This question is a common one and can be answered quite easily. The VFL happened to be the first league to nationalize, had the WAFL nationalised first as opposed to the VFL then perhaps it would be Collingwood not Swan Districts in financial difficulties.
The VFL decided in 1986 that it would introduce a Western Australian franchise into the VFL. The key fact here is that the Victorians entered the Eagles not the WAFL that proves that West Coast is about as West Australian as the Eifel Tower is Nigerian.
At first people were slow to take to the West Coast franchise, however after some time and some cash injections from over east Western Australians succumbed to the commercial might of the East Coast Eagles business machine, they fell for its shamanistic charm and with the fall of the supporters came the fall of 150 years of tradition and history.
Football history is often quoted in the office and the school yard. Most people will know who the greatest goal kicker in AFL history is and who the best player in the league is at any one moment. In fact if
you were to ask a normal Western Australian who the greatest goal kicker was in footy history they would most likely reply quickly ‘Tony Lockett’ or ‘Gary Ablett’. By doing so they usurp 150 years of football history they concede that no player of any importance played in the WAFL, they also admit that as far as their concerned that 150 years did not happen. They admit that WA has and always will be bad at football.
Is this what we want? A state that does not even admit football was played here prior to the VFL ‘rescued’ us in 1987? Of course not but our youngsters and not the only ones corrupted by the AFL. Even our Western Australian Hall of Fame which is set up to acknowledge Western Australian football players has collapsed. There are 30 Western Australian players in the Hall of Fame of which exactly 12 played for West Coast. So in 150 years of Western Australian football, 40% of the best players happened to play in the last 23 years. The chances of that happening are 5-1. Of course a person with common sense knows it didn’t happen. What we do know however is that Western Australian Football Commission has looked past 127 years of football and focused on the last 23. Those 127 years need to be recognised.
We as the Western Australian public have forgotten our own history, even our own paper ‘The West Australian’ only listed 1 WAFL moment in its top 10 of football history in WA. According to the paper in the past 20 years we are fortunate enough to have witnessed 90% of great WA football moments; we seem to have forgotten that football did occur prior to 1986.
Western Australia is a great state, WA is great at most activities its gives ago. Its especially great at football as proved by its long diverse history, supporting West Coast is not the way to go about supporting Western Australia. Supporting Western Australia is Western Australians going to their own competition instead of a Victorian one. We have lost everything and gained nothing.
In years gone the WAFL was bigger then Ben Hurr and it provided WA fans with more then its fair share of football action. Many footy greats played their best years in the WAFL; examples include Polly Farmer, Brian Peake and George Doig. Well what has changed? WA is the still producing awesome footballers, WA is still a prominent football state but WA has changed, and changed for the worst.
Many people remember the WAFL and SANFL glory days; the days where the WAFL grand finals would attract 70,000 plus screaming fans, in fact the 1970 Grand Final had the biggest WAFL crowd ever 77,000. But yet here we are 28 years later and only 20,000 people could be bothered to show up to the 2006 WAFL grand final. Where have all the crowds gone? Well the crowds have been lost, in a sea of flashy commercialism and franchises. In WA we have two, 1 is markedly worse then the other and those 2 franchises will wear the shame of destroying WA footy for ever.
Prior to 1986 the WAFL was doing great, many people will infact tell you the WAFL was doing poorly and all clubs were in financial difficulties. Well nothing could be further from the truth. Did you know the WAFL actually produced more money per club in its league then the powerful VFL did in 1986? The fact that crowd attendances were at an all time high also proves my point. Everything was hunky dory, everything was simply great. We had real teams: teams like East Fremantle with real history and tradition dating back 150 years and 29 premierships including 2 Australia Cups where East Fremantle defeated the best of the VFL and the SANFL.
So if the WAFL was so good, why did it fall so quickly? This question is a common one and can be answered quite easily. The VFL happened to be the first league to nationalize, had the WAFL nationalised first as opposed to the VFL then perhaps it would be Collingwood not Swan Districts in financial difficulties.
The VFL decided in 1986 that it would introduce a Western Australian franchise into the VFL. The key fact here is that the Victorians entered the Eagles not the WAFL that proves that West Coast is about as West Australian as the Eifel Tower is Nigerian.
At first people were slow to take to the West Coast franchise, however after some time and some cash injections from over east Western Australians succumbed to the commercial might of the East Coast Eagles business machine, they fell for its shamanistic charm and with the fall of the supporters came the fall of 150 years of tradition and history.
Football history is often quoted in the office and the school yard. Most people will know who the greatest goal kicker in AFL history is and who the best player in the league is at any one moment. In fact if
you were to ask a normal Western Australian who the greatest goal kicker was in footy history they would most likely reply quickly ‘Tony Lockett’ or ‘Gary Ablett’. By doing so they usurp 150 years of football history they concede that no player of any importance played in the WAFL, they also admit that as far as their concerned that 150 years did not happen. They admit that WA has and always will be bad at football.
Is this what we want? A state that does not even admit football was played here prior to the VFL ‘rescued’ us in 1987? Of course not but our youngsters and not the only ones corrupted by the AFL. Even our Western Australian Hall of Fame which is set up to acknowledge Western Australian football players has collapsed. There are 30 Western Australian players in the Hall of Fame of which exactly 12 played for West Coast. So in 150 years of Western Australian football, 40% of the best players happened to play in the last 23 years. The chances of that happening are 5-1. Of course a person with common sense knows it didn’t happen. What we do know however is that Western Australian Football Commission has looked past 127 years of football and focused on the last 23. Those 127 years need to be recognised.
We as the Western Australian public have forgotten our own history, even our own paper ‘The West Australian’ only listed 1 WAFL moment in its top 10 of football history in WA. According to the paper in the past 20 years we are fortunate enough to have witnessed 90% of great WA football moments; we seem to have forgotten that football did occur prior to 1986.
Western Australia is a great state, WA is great at most activities its gives ago. Its especially great at football as proved by its long diverse history, supporting West Coast is not the way to go about supporting Western Australia. Supporting Western Australia is Western Australians going to their own competition instead of a Victorian one. We have lost everything and gained nothing.
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