therisingblues wrote:JK wrote:Although I'm not certain the dilution won't still have a detrimental impact on the standard. Mike Sheehan said the other week he reckons 12 teams, he believes, would be the ideal number. Obviously that won't ever be the case but it's an interesting thought about how good the teams would look.
Back in the 80's we had 30 teams playing top shelf footy in the SANFL, WAFL and VFL. T
In the early 80's the wealth of talent available in Tasmania was largely untapped,and participation rates in Queensland and NSW were much lower than today. Obviously those 3 leagues drew on a much smaller pool of players than today.
So why is it no one complained about the standard when we had 30 teams and less players to choose from, yet I am reading about this line of thinking now that we have only 18 teams and participation levels at an all time high Australia wide?
Nobody is comparing it to the 80s, they were comparing it to a 16 team comp - an extra 100 odd players playing AFL now than a few years ago, and clearly they are of a worse quality on average.
Think of maybe Shaun McKernan from essendon - no way would be still be playing AFL in a 16 team comp, as Essendon would have a young ruckman that is now on the list of GWS or GC