Ron Fuller SANFL future insight

[darley16]

Respect for past.

Wednesday 2nd May - By Ronny's Blog



It was very pleasing to hear Peter Moody talk of the great history that South Australian has in regard to the countries horse racing past and why it was one of the reasons he brought Black Caviar to our city to compete for her 20th consecutive win.

As a young man I can remember horses like Manihi and Tobin Bronze competing in the countries big races, as well as Rain Lover winning two Melbourne Cups.

Bart Cummings and Colin Hayes were also two of the biggest trainers in the country and they were based in this state.

Moody quite rightly said he hoped having his horse race here would give the industry in this state a much needed boost.

The state does have a great history in horse racing but it also has a great history in Australian football.

When the AFL was formed all the Melbourne clubs retained their history and as such people like John Nichols, Ted Whitten Bob Skilton and many, many more great players maintained their status.

In South Australia though, all of our past champions were put into a smaller bag as only SANFL players.

Even when Port Adelaide went into the AFL as a club there was no recognition of Bob Quinn or Fos Williams or John Cahill or Russell Ebert as past premiership players or 100 game players in regard to their VFL compatriots.

There are many people who wouldn’t mind if the SANFL just went away in fact, but I wonder how much thinking has gone into how the SANFL will be run in future years.

I have not heard of any strategic plan as to how the next 10 or 20 years will look for SANFL clubs or their supporters.

I have read the SA Football Commissions plan but it doesn’t discuss the SANFL competition.

It talks of the Adelaide Oval precinct and the AFL clubs, which is very exciting as well a terrific for the sport, but it merely scratches the surface on what we can expect local football to look like.

If you don’t think it won’t disappear, you only have to look at how the horse racing industry has virtually disintegrated in South Australia to understand that if too many people are ambivalent about our planning, the future may be bleak.



Ron Fuller.

[heater31]

Ron has typed some very wise words there...... Those that matter at West Lakes take note

[PhilH]

Sounds very familiar to my two part piece about the SANFL in 2017 written for the FOOT-e TIMES SA. (April 18 & 27 editions).

Some major challenges lie ahead on multiple fronts.

[Grahaml]

Sounds very familiar to my two part piece about the SANFL in 2017 written for the FOOT-e TIMES SA. (April 18 & 27 editions).

Some major challenges lie ahead on multiple fronts.

Pre-emptive plagiarism?

[leggies]

Awesome stuff.. Hope we get more coaches and officials onboard, rather that just us diehard supporters. Thanks Ron Fuller!!

[stampy]

no.1 priority should be to get rid of olsen

[FOURTH ESTATE]

and the idiots that run the community football board. What a waste of time and money these idiots and ill informed morons are!!!

[Sojourner]

Could not agree more, the SANFL should have be publicizing how they intend to promote and grow the SANFL competition, my concern is that we have seen some of the SANFL clubs embrace night footy and upgrade their venues, especially in the case of West Adelaide it has improved attendance figures remarkably, yet this has all happened because of the clubs taking their own initiative and not the SANFL administration leading the way.

My suspicion is the reason they don't is because they are waiting for an SANFL side to fall over and are happy for that to happen so they can go to an eight team competition.

Would be a good thing to have Olsen respond to this article, I am guessing he wont however simply because they don't like to face this type of questioning!

[CUTTERMAN]

Great article Ronny

[o five]

Get Ronny to nominate for the board!

[Wedgie]

Don't always agree with all of Ronny's stuff (agree with most of his articles though) but it is always compelling. Keep up the good work Ron!

[Aerie]

Number one on the list must be to keep the current clubs alive and prospering. Almost every club has links back through to early last century or the century before and this tradition can't be replaced. Almost all South Australian families have a link to at least one SANFL club. Even though Central have been dominant over the past decade, at least all the other clubs have shown something to keep their supporters interested and the bottom teams haven't been as bad as some of the bottom teams of the past so at the moment I'd say the competition is reasonably healthy.

It would be nice to know what plans the SANFL/AFL have in place, whether we like it or not.

[on the rails]

I can tell you after speaking with some high ranking SANFL Club officials in recent times (not from my club I might add) that the time of the SANFL clubs taking over majority control of their own comp is not as far away as some may think! If you could get rid of the likes of Whicker and some of his yes men like Darren Chandler we would be a lot better off!

[Aerie]

I can tell you after speaking with some high ranking SANFL Club officials in recent times (not from my club I might add) that the time of the SANFL clubs taking over majority control of their own comp is not as far away as some may think! If you could get rid of the likes of Whicker and some of his yes men like Darren Chandler we would be a lot better off!

If that happened, what things do you think might change (or stay the same)?

[on the rails]

I can tell you after speaking with some high ranking SANFL Club officials in recent times (not from my club I might add) that the time of the SANFL clubs taking over majority control of their own comp is not as far away as some may think! If you could get rid of the likes of Whicker and some of his yes men like Darren Chandler we would be a lot better off!

If that happened, what things do you think might change (or stay the same)?

No Crow or Power Ressies that's for sure! All 8 clubs (Port don't count as they get no vote) are deadset against it!