Wedgie wrote:dinglinga wrote:wasnt it in 1984 Norwood attempted to become part of the VFL......was kept rather quiet ...
As I understood it, the VFL approached Norwood but they told the VFL to negotiative directly with the SANFL.
They had a bit of integrity and where did it get them? Nowhere.
Sadly, that is correct. I heard that Glenelg may have been the second club approached by the VFL after Norwood but I don't know if that part is correct. If you recall, Port Adelaide were struggling financially in the mid 1980s which may have have been unattractive to the VFL looking for financial support. I really detest the AFL, it took away everything I really enjoyed about football.
Pre-AFL my clubs Hawthorn and Norwood were two of the strongest football clubs in the land. Look at them now. The Crows took Norwood's corporate structure, strong supporter base, administration, etc and left us with bugger all. Ground Zero across the road from Norwood Oval, where our clubrooms once stood proudly is testimony to some poor administrative decisions in the Crows era. Hawthorn also nearly went belly-up after some poor administrative decisions trying to compete with better financially equipped competitors.
Two of the (then) 12 VFL clubs voted against expansion of the VFL in 1986 to include teams from Brisbane and Perth. One was Hawthorn, the other was funnily enough Collingwood, the Victorian club who has profited more than anyone else by it's involvement in the AFL. The other 10 clubs saw $ signs and took the money from affiliation fees.
The SANFL didn't need the VFL. It was strong vibrant competition. We had a thriving State of Origin competition that gave us all the interstate flavour we needed. We were in a position of strength as the VFL were desperate to have us involved. Bruce Webber's ambition and haste surrendered the SANFL's advantage and forced them to enter a team earlier than it was anticipated. I'll never quite forgive Bruce Webber for forcing the SANFL into that corner.
I used to love Friday nights with all the radio talk from 10 clubs, it was exciting stuff. Now all we get is a surfeit of two teams, neither of whom I have the slightest interest. Boring.