CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
The fight for a spot in the AFL’s top eight is being exclusively fought between Melbourne based teams, as the the top 6 spots on the ladder are held comfortably by out-of-towners.
Questions are now arising as to whether the MCG should even get to host the AFL Grand Final, or should it be played in a city that is actually good at the game, like Brisbane or Sydney.
And even with the Melbourne clubs battling it out to make sure at least one of them represents their city in the finals, but the damage that can be caused by the Gold Coast should also not be discounted – following their humiliating after-the-siren defeat of the Bombers at Marvel Stadium last Saturday.
As the NRL, and even the Wallabies, begin to dominate the mid-season ratings – it seems that either Melbourne has simply given up on Aussie Rules. That, or they simply do not understand what the game as become.
It appears that the foundation clubs that crowd the Victorian capital cannot adapt to the Queensland flair, or the South Australian pace, or the Sydney glamour, or the Western Australian grit that has been injected into the game ever since the AFL expanded interstate over three decades ago.
The inclusion of the Geelong Cats in the top 6 only cements the fact that this is purely a Melbourne issue.
It is not yet known what kind of rules-changes the AFL will now introduce into the competition to help protect their darling Melbourne clubs from irrelevance – with both the game’s top brass and Victoria’s political elite more than willing to tip the scale in favour of these lacklustre insitutions.
The fact of the matter remains clear, Melbourne just don’t get AFL.
