TOPIC:

The top man at the wafl seemed to suggest he could see an August wafl grand final in the pre-finals  bye if that was the only Saturday at Optus available. He favours a Saturday over a Sundayfor attendance reasons. Sunday wafl grandfinals at Optus have lost money. 

But August? Surely not. September is finals time. It's a great time to play footy.  Maybe I misunderstood. But,  If we can't play at Optus in September or first week in Octoberat the latest, then forget it. 

A good  interview. Suggestions of Sunday wafl to give amateur players a chance to attend. Salary and point concessions to Perth, for the good of the comp. Eagles prefer alignment. They don't have the resources to run a wafl team as they'd like by themselves given cuts to club spending.  A better injury run would help a lot,  though. 

The commission likey to stay at Tuart Hill while there are 2 teams at leederville. 

grand final in August is just ridiculous - we'd have to start the season a month or more earlier if that was the case
mind you the WAFC is the WAFC

Good to hear about the salary and point concessions.
Last time we had them we never used them.
Wonder if we are a bit smarter now.
Ooops, I don't think so!!!!!!!

Absolutley, JT also made this suggestion, I've advocated an earlier start and earlier finish for ages.

WAFL Finals in August make more sense, you only have to look at the media whitewash with the dockers finishing 5th, apparently according to the media they are a walk up for the flag 24/7, the WAFL gets no coverage at all come AFL finals.

Start earlier and end a bit earlier away from the AFL glare.

Get a few grounds upgraded with far better lighting and have more twighlight games in the warmer whether.

The WAFL season is starting to late and ending to late, he's spot on about playing it on a Saturday as well.

Demons Forever wrote:

Good to hear about the salary and point concessions.
Last time we had them we never used them.
Wonder if we are a bit smarter now.
Ooops, I don't think so!!!!!!!

I looked at the current points on the WAFC site, Perth already have 20 more than SF, CL, WP ect and 10 more than EF and Swans. Thats 2-4 ex-AFL players extra. Fat lot of good its done Perth! 

Ive always though that the Wafl should be played  over the summer.Under lights in mid 20 degrees like spring days.
The problems will be the loss of the two alignment sides.And massive lighting upgrades some Wafl clubs will need. One traditional winter season off .Not having a modern suitable 20,000 + stadium in Perths a real problem also.This would probably force the Wafl to go on its own and pull out of Wafc control.
Positives could be the a large increase in crowds ,with AFL fans attending.We have live streaming already+Channel 7 and maby even Foxtel and Kayo interested. Fringe AFL players injured over the winter season might also be interested to play,from all over the country.An average crowd of around 4,000 per game .Would make the competition sustainable with gate receipts, corporate and hospitality to raise more revenue.More sponsorship and a higher profile.

Footy is a Winter sport, always has been, always will. Summer no thanks. Don't know where you got August finals from?

I think its at least worth consideration having the Grand Final on the weekend of the AFL pre finals bye. I think most of us were in agreement that the WAFL season this year started too late ( April 16th from memory), so assuming that the AFL Grand final next year will be on the 30th September, the pre finals bye would be on the weekend of the 2nd September 2023, you would assume Optus would be available on that date.

The minor WAFL finals could then be played on the 12th, 19th and 26th August (or you could have a 3 week finals series if we revert back to a top 4)

If the season started on March 25th for example ( and seasons have started in March before), there would be 20 weeks between that date and the first final in August. So enough room for an 18 game qualifying round and 2 byes and provision for a state game as well  If that's too tight they could give themselves a bit more wriggle room by starting a week earlier ( 18th). You could play early season games as twilight fixtures. If West Coast drop out again and its only a 9 team competition then it will be a 16 game qualifying round which would of course would mean 2 extra byes for each club.

I know there will be a lot of resistance to this from people who believe that September is the month for footy finals but the reality is that our competition is engulfed by the AFL in that month and struggles to get any publicity at all.

Having the WAFL grand final on a weekend that there is no AFL footy gives us the best chance of having our show piece game played at the best stadium every year and maximise the chances of a big crowd as well as media profile. The October plan hasn't worked because we are now playing the Grand Final on a ground which is totally unsuitable for the occasion.

I know this is a big break with tradition but in these times I think we need to think outside the square to survive as a competition.

Your right Roman footy is a winter sport.
But 35 years after Wa's AFL entry.The demise of the Wafl continues.These days we don't even have a suitable venue to play our Grand Final.
There's impending trouble over the horizon.
The amount of cash the  Wafc gives the Wafl clubs.No big WCE dividend to the Wafc this year..Or the next couple of years,with the big  rebuild of there list. Hopefully Freo go deep into the finals.
The next generation of Wafl fans after where all gone.
There's whispers about an AFL reserves competition again.Disaster for the Wafl+Sanfl.
Something has to change with some thinking outside the box.
Attendances under 1000 fans at a game make the Wafl unsustainable long term.

mikeh wrote:

I think its at least worth consideration having the Grand Final on the weekend of the AFL pre finals bye. I think most of us were in agreement that the WAFL season this year started too late ( April 16th from memory), so assuming that the AFL Grand final next year will be on the 30th September, the pre finals bye would be on the weekend of the 2nd September 2023, you would assume Optus would be available on that date.

The minor WAFL finals could then be played on the 12th, 19th and 26th August (or you could have a 3 week finals series if we revert back to a top 4)

If the season started on March 25th for example ( and seasons have started in March before), there would be 20 weeks between that date and the first final in August. So enough room for an 18 game qualifying round and 2 byes and provision for a state game as well  If that's too tight they could give themselves a bit more wriggle room by starting a week earlier ( 18th). You could play early season games as twilight fixtures. If West Coast drop out again and its only a 9 team competition then it will be a 16 game qualifying round which would of course would mean 2 extra byes for each club.

I know there will be a lot of resistance to this from people who believe that September is the month for footy finals but the reality is that our competition is engulfed by the AFL in that month and struggles to get any publicity at all.

Having the WAFL grand final on a weekend that there is no AFL footy gives us the best chance of having our show piece game played at the best stadium every year and maximise the chances of a big crowd as well as media profile. The October plan hasn't worked because we are now playing the Grand Final on a ground which is totally unsuitable for the occasion.

I know this is a big break with tradition but in these times I think we need to think outside the square to survive as a competition.

Mike I agree with all you've said, we can no longer stick our collective heads in the sand and expect the AFL or Optus stadium managers to give the WAFL any preferential treatment at all, so we have to adapt. The dates you mention are only a minor shift from what we have had in the past, so I dont think it's an issue. If we could get a rock solid guarantee that Optus would be available on the post AFL GF saturday, then that would be the go but we cant rely on that as is the case this year. We already have a number of grounds with suitable lights for early evening games 6.00pm to6.30pm starts such as Lathlain, Leederville (needs an upgrade), Freo will have lights once the re-build is done, Rushton and Joondy? Not sure if Moss St gets lights in the re-dev, I'd be surprised if they didn't.