[allemnendup]

great article GM agree totally with your sentiments; both AFL teams need to understand that football here in WA belongs to all Western Australians & is not just an instrument for them to be used for their own financial benefit/gain to be changed at a moments notice to suit their current whims. Football here belongs to all those volunteers who rock up every sunday morning to help develop our future AFL stars; it belongs to all those individuals who play or volunteer on a regular basis in any of the amatuer & country league assocaition that dot this great state & it belongs to the players & supporters of WAFL clubs past present and future.

WAFL history goes back some 125+ years, long before the birth of the Eagles and will continue long afterwards. Both AFL teams need to understand that the funds that purchased their AFL licences and existence came from the investement made by the 8 founding WAFL clubs who agreed to enter into the national competition & not the other way round. This invitation was provided to WAFL to create a new national competition that encompassed all mainland states (except SA who canned the idea) by the VFL as a number of Victoria Clubs had significant financial troubles at the time and their competition needed a large cash injection to prop up a number of poorly run & broke Victoria teams. Something that has not changed to this day the number of unvaible Victoria Clubs with the exception of Fitzroy. The investment made by the WAFL clubs into the national competition (VFL) was made with the knowledge that it would be to the benefit of the sport here in WA across the board and would probably hurt the WAFL brand at the time nevertheless we chose to jump in boots and all. This investment also provided both the Eagles & Dockers the legitimacy to truly be called Western Australian teams and not defacto Victorian teams transplanted from Victoria which probably would not have received the public support needed for either team to survive in the long-term.

I follow the AFL however i feel those in charge of both the national competition/local teams are idiots full-stop. The expansion from 16 to 18 teams is stupidity of the highest level especially given the number of clubs that remain not financially viable in both Victoria & South Australia. Any proposal for the Eagles & Dockers to have reserve teams in the WAFL is ludicrous as is the cheif idiot Andrew F*****T wanting to control of the 2 AFL licences in WA.

If football is to remain strong in WA for the forseeable future; control of all levels must remain here in WA.