After a savagely successful debut attempt, the AFL has opted to reward the state of South Australia with the keys to Gather Round for the next three years.
Sold-out crowds, an endless vibe and buzz, great footy and entertaining extra-curricular activities across four days made the first Gather Round sojourn a complete success.
SEN’s Andy Maher is a massive fan of the concept and believes South Australia, and Adelaide in particular, is the perfect place to host the event.
Maher believes the point of Gather Round is not to expand into non-traditional footy states like Queensland and New South Wales, yet to offer the non-Melbourne heartlands a well-deserved bonus.
“This is not about growing the game, this is about rewarding heartland,” Maher said on SEN’s The Run Home.
“It would be like the NRL bringing Magic Round to Melbourne because they want to grow the game or take it to Adelaide to grow the game.
“Imagine if you take this to Sydney, they can’t even get crowds to the Giants. Queensland can’t get crowds to the Gold Coast Suns, so until we’re seeing full houses at the Showgrounds and at Carrara.
“You reward the heartland and it has to work. You can’t take it up there and have no one turn up and have it a poor vibe. You can’t, you have to take it somewhere where the town and the community is going to embrace it.
“This is not all about people coming into South Australia. This was a success because of the way the South Australian Government, the South Australian people and the way, geographically, Adelaide embraced the concept.
“I’m not sure this can be done anywhere else.”
However, Andrew Gaze believes there remains a great opportunity to grow and expand into the northern states even if South Australia hosted superbly.
“They ticked every box, well done, absolutely no criticism whatsoever in what they did,” said Gaze.
“But here’s the thing, in a state like New South Wales, you bring this to New South Wales and people come from all parts of this great land to New South Wales.
“What happens is that generates a buzz, it does help grow the game, it does help improve the audience and it does help in the marketing and promotion to get kids playing, to get all the elements to go with elite level sport.
“So how do you improve that? Doing the same and just repeating it? But you bring something like this and you get an influx of people that love the game and can educate the locals and they can get around it and gather around it, then I think it can have a positive impact as well.
“I hear what you’re saying and they (SA) do deserve it for a little longer, but I would not say that this has to be South Australia forever and a day.”
Maher replied: “No, no one is saying that.
“But this is not a device to grow the game.”
The decision to host Gather Round in SA for the next three years has certainly not sat well with everyone.
West Australian Football Commission chair Wayne Martin expressed his view on SEN WA Mornings, saying: “I think I speak on behalf of all West Australians, probably indeed everybody outside Adelaide and Victoria, to say that it’s disappointing to see they’ve locked it in for that long.
“I don’t understand why they had to lock it away for three years, unless they got a really good deal from the South Australian Government in order to do that, which is what I’m guessing must have happened.”
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“IT’S DISAPPOINTING”: WAFC CHAIRMAN CONFUSED BY KEY DETAIL OF AFL’S SA GATHER ROUND EXTENSION
Regardless, SA will remain as the home of Gather Round until 2026.
Listen to the Gather Round conversation below: