@Rising Power
You are exactly right. Anyone who thought these changes would not eventually happen was absolutely kidding themselves. Adelaide and Port Adelaide were always eventually going to enter teams in to the SANFL, as has happened in other states. It was not a matter of if, but when. Contrary to the sooking, paranoia, predictions of the sky falling in, conspiracy theories etc from some, the SANFL lives on and we now look forward to a great run to this year's finals, with nine teams still with a chance of playing finals. The best evidence that the no AFL case is out of steam is the increase in conspiracy theories around here lately, including talk of deliberately inflated crowds and money being put in people's pockets to only promote certain viewpoints. I mean seriously, how dare the media cater for the majority of South Australian Football fans who happen to support Adelaide or Port Adelaide, what a crazy idea that is!
I definitely know of one instance when the AFL told a radio station not to let callers to air that wanted to talk about a certain topic because it was damaging to the AFL. They just threaten the radio stations with taking away their broadcast rights.
It's the same with Crows and Power at the beginning of each season radio stations fight to have a partnership with them, which costs a lot of money. Of course the deal goes both ways and they expect favourable media.
Certainly cost a former AFL coach his radio job with a sports focused station because of his stance on several issues that the AFL didn't like....