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Well well well, I stumbled across an interview on YouTube with Sam Newman interviewing Sam Kekovich. Five minutes into the interview Kekovich tells how he became a North Melbourne player.

His older brother was already playing for Carlton and he was signed on a form four to play for Carlton. But in 1968 the VFL introduced zones and one of the rules was the best performed country zone was assigned to the worst performed VFL side.

I've been arguing for a long time about zone changes and one of the arguments I have put forward is why can't they give the weaker clubs stronger country zones and why should a club with the strongest metro zone also have one of the strongest country zones ie Claremont?

Country kids wouldn't follow WAFL teams they follow AFL teams these days and once they leave their country town it shouldn't matter where they end up.

Now I've heard that Claremont could be losing Albany to be divided up between Perth and Swan Districts. I would argue Swans already have one of if not the best talent breeding grounds in Bunbury.

But there you go the VFL have been doing this since 1968 so it's nothing new or unusual. If it was considered fair back then then it's a fair policy to employ today.

Here's a link to the interview. And listen how he talks about how happy he was to go to a club on it's knees and experience seeing the joy of seeing a struggling club have success. What a great idea instead of the lopsided bullshit we've seen year in year out in the WAFL for several decades.


 

I guess if Perth had Cl country zones and their success over the years, and Cl were struggling as Perth have done over the years. Would Perth and their fans be happy to swap  zones to help Cl? Can see the obvious need to do so, but not sure it will ever happen.

Freezin wrote:

I guess if Perth had Cl country zones and their success over the years, and Cl were struggling as Perth have done over the years. Would Perth and their fans be happy to swap  zones to help Cl? Can see the obvious need to do so, but not sure it will ever happen.

Claremont wouldn't have struggled, they would still have the best metro zone and still have a country zone. It would create more of a level playing field. Isn't that what we want or are you and Claremont and a few other clubs happy to stick with the status quo that's served you so well??

DD Swans have been the biggest losers in the Wafc zone,reallocations.Swans. have struggled in the last decade.Only squeezing into the finals, two times.
Losing all zones west of West Swan Road
Apart from Averly.That they will lose in the next rezone.Even Caversham thats only a couple of Km's from Basso oval.
Three Wafl clubs share Bunbury.Swans ,EP and Peel.

gtrxuone wrote:

DD Swans have been the biggest losers in the Wafc zone,reallocation. Swans have struggled in the last decade.Only squeezing into the finals, two times.
Losing all zones west of West Swan Road
Apart from Averly.That they will lose in the next rezone.Even Caversham thats only a couple of Km's from Basso oval.
Three Wafl clubs share Bunbury.Swans ,EP and Peel.

Really gtr I didn't know that just always see SD have quite a few players from Bunbury on their list. Does East Perth have exclusive access to Busselton, Margaret River and Augusta?

I was made aware probably before you guys I might have broke it to you a couple of years ago that you were losing a bunch of suburbs around Ellenbrook, Dayton, Caversham etc...  Seems grossly unfair if are not being compensated. Your club has had some colts success but you are marginally a better performed league club than Perth over a fair stretch. 

Yep DD south Bunbury and Agusta +Margs
Good country zone 
Freo need a complete Peel takeover.Thats the only way we fix the zone inequality. South's push into Mandurah. And Perth pick up what they have now.
Or Perth relocate SE of Lathlain Park.And force the Commission to reallocate the zones.
It's really hard going for the 3 eastern suburb clubs.Swans,EP+,Perth.Compared to the western suburbs clubs.Who have over 80% of the population living under 20 kms from the coast.
.

 

SF lost all of Rockingham, Mandurah, Baldivis, Peel area when Peel Thunder were introduced. Got nothing in return. Was given  very new areas called Piara Waters, Harrisdale, etc which were then given to other clubs! 🤐

 

DD from memory, before this year, EF were 2nd in the queue for premiership droughts....and anything good that comes out of our country zone, goes into the AFL and stays there for sometime. In our premiership team, I don't think there was anyone from EF designated country zone.....so yeah EF definitely reaping the fruits of their country zone.

Freezin wrote:

DD from memory, before this year, EF were 2nd in the queue for premiership droughts....and anything good that comes out of our country zone, goes into the AFL and stays there for sometime. In our premiership team, I don't think there was anyone from EF designated country zone.....so yeah EF definitely reaping the fruits of their country zone.

And my club has produced the second highest number of 100+ game AFL draftees after EF over the last 30 years. Let's remember this includes metro zones where your club is leading the way alongside Claremont with 66 draftees each. You've had 28 go on to play 100+ AFL games compared with Claremont 14. Perth have had 41 drafted with 15 playing 100+. That's second on the 100+ game list.

I suggest the overall quality of your combined zones reaps your club a lot more fruit than ours and most others.
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And I go back to my argument I started several years ago that my club pales into comparison with most other clubs when it comes to producing tall key position players and ruckmen. I backed this up with statistics from all lists between clubs. We are always crying out for KPP and ruckmen while some clubs have them growing on trees.

www.codesports.com.au/afl/afl-draft-anal...ff?giftid=Yqm3jwUc4R

 

so that means South Fremantle are 3rd on the list considering we gave up all areas south to Bunbury when Mandurah were created - all those players would have been in our zones
you talk about what's been lost or not got go and have a look at how we've been affected by that alignment