csbowes wrote:The problem I see with the Glenelg situation is this...
Chiggy - We're voting to bring the AFL teams into the league.
Member - Do you mind explaining how that will benefit our club and promote membership long term?
Chiggy - F*** you.
1 week later...
Chiggy - Can we have some money?
Member - F*** you.
That said, there'll be a lot of members who will transform into sheep and baaaa their way to the charity box and handover their hard earned. At the same time, many diehards won't do squat. If Glenelg folded, would that push the other clubs to act?
Maybe.
Would I sacrifice Glenelg to test that theory?
Unsure. Maybe.
The fact is the league is in a pretty ordinary state and generally run by pretty ordinary people who eye an AFL role more so than covet their SANFL one, a sure sign that the league will continue to whore itself out to benefit the few over the many.
As I think about it a bit more, Glenelg folding could be good. It'd bring it to a head, we would either see a swift move by the 7 remaining clubs to reinstate their authority over the league or we'd see the league collapse in quick time.
Both results would give us victory / closure.
Good post csbowes. I'd also say that's a fair summary of the relationship between the 'yes' voting clubs and their membership, albeit to differing extents.
I don't want the Bays to fold by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm also attracted to the idea that a sacrificial lamb (so to speak) might be the catalyst to prompt the clubs into a rethink. I'm not that confident, though. I think the reserves sides have been a factor but are not the dominant one in accounting for Glenelg's dire financial situation.
If Glenelg went to the wall I suspect the remaining clubs would see them as victims of their own management and not a reflection of a more pervasive problem re: the relevance and integrity of the comp. Their heads would prefer to be in the sand, not eat humble pie and clutch to the hope of the Footy Park dole payments and their earnest but deluded self-belief in generating interest within their community and zone to somehow stay relevant mid to long-term. How this happens with the long-term presence of the Crows and Port (and the presence of the teams fullstop makes it challenging for the SANFL clubs to maintain territory, let alone participating in the same comp) is something I cannot fathom. It seems the clubs have crossed their fingers really hard and are hoping to be viable rather than having any strategy to ensure this happens.
For example, I couldn't see North sympathising given its considerable pokie takings over the years and recovery from near extinction in 2003. I think North truly believes it can function as a worthwhile footballing organization into the future, even though everything else is pointing to a slow extinction and descent into irrelevance as far as the wider SA footy community is involved.
I'm not confident that the reserves comp egg can be unscrambled now, as much as people might want them out. We've read some commentary about how the Crows have wielded their massive influence to get what they want by getting the teams in. They're not going to back down and give it up. The damage has been done. Like a Trojan Horse they're now inside the SANFL and ransacking everything until they can stick an AFL logo on it and run it by the AFL's rules to suit their footballing agenda.
So with a heavy heart I think the latter of your two predictions is the more likely outcome.