Tim Gossage wants an AFL competition that is much more equal.
He believes the Victorian based clubs get it too easy from a fixture point of view in that they get to play ‘away’ games at their home grounds and travel exponentially less than their interstate counterparts.
The conversation started when he and SEN WA Breakfast co-host Scott Cummings were dissecting the AFL’s Opening Round fixture.
“They’re using Collingwood again as a drawcard to get some people to go to GWS,” said Cummings.
This comment set Gossage off…
“Collingwood have got to travel for the first week, wow, that will hurt their chances,” Gossage said facetiously.
“This is the thing, as a Collingwood man you (Cummings) make out that Collingwood is the central figure to the whole competition and that they should be in Melbourne because they draw the biggest crowds.”
A staunch Western Australian, Gossage continues to be perplexed by how lopsided the national competition is, favouring the 10 clubs in Victoria.
(It’s safe to say former Essendon, Port Adelaide, West Coast and Collingwood full-forward Cummings does not agree).
Read the transcript below:
Cummings: “I’ve never said that. I want them to travel here (to Perth) twice next year.”
Gossage: “They should travel more, they should travel 12 times like all the interstate clubs.”
"Forget about crowd sizes and membership numbers and worry about equality of the competition." 👀
— SEN WA 657 (@SENWestAus) November 14, 2023
Tim Gossage calls out the AFL for not trying to keep the competition equal after the release of next year's opening round fixture.@SENWABreakfast | #AFL pic.twitter.com/qH0rlI2C2f
Cummings: “The interstate clubs that joined the competition?
“They shouldn’t have to travel, that doesn’t work, there’s not 12 interstate teams for them to travel to.”
Gossage: “Well, travel at least once a year.
“You’re telling me that they joined the competition…”
Cummings: “That means intestate teams are going to have 14 home games in their own state.”
Gossage: “What? And Richmond and Hawthorn and Carlton and Collingwood, they don’t have 14 home games?”
Cummings: “Because there’s 10 teams in Victoria.”
Gossage: “Correct, so it’ll even up the competition.
“It is a lopsided competition. We’re not talking about a one-season fixture, we’re talking about over a period of time.
“The AFL system is not even an anomaly.”
Cummings: “So you want interstate teams to have more than 11 home games?”
Gossage: “Forget about interstate teams, the Victorian teams are interstate to the West Australian teams.
“Stop speaking as though the centre of the universe is Melbourne.
“These teams may have joined the AFL…”
Cummings: “Your one-eyed parochialism is denying you the opportunity to speak with an open mind.”
Gossage: “The fallback for you and a lot of other eastern staters is that the interstate clubs joined the competition.
“The competition is not the competition they joined. It has been morphed into, for those who don’t know, the Australian Football League. The last time I checked, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales, soon to be Tasmania, are all part of that one competition.
“Yes, there’s more teams in the AFL competition based in Victoria. That’s just the history of the game.
“What I’m saying is if you want to make the competition equal, forget about crowd sizes and membership numbers, and worry about equality of the competition.
“It is not a level playing field, not even close. Interstate teams travel every second week, Collingwood doesn’t.”
Cummings: “Are you serious? My god, you can’t be that one-eyed.
“They have 11 home games and they have 11 away.”
Gossage: “But that’s not the same as the Victorian clubs.”
Cummings: “Because there’s 10 of them there. So how do they work it then?
“I want you to come up with the fixture to make it even.”
Gossage: “You are dumbing it down to think away and home are equal to Collingwood travelling as an away game (in Melbourne).
“Interstate away games and travelling are different to Collingwood playing Melbourne in an away game. You’re trying to say home and away is we all play 11 (home and away). No we don’t.
“Over a period of time, the Collingwoods, the Melbournes, the Carltons, the Hawthorns, the North Melbournes, all those Victorian teams, and Geelong for that matter, I would be saying to them - ‘You will travel this year’.
“For instance, Collingwood are the benchmark. It’s not about being the best team, it’s the best team that plays 18 fixtures at one venue, more than any other team, and whether that be home or away, nothing changes for Collingwood at the MCG.
“West Coast don’t get 18 games at Optus Stadium, nor do Fremantle, nor do Brisbane, nor do Adelaide, they don’t, so it’s not equal.
“The competition is so far not equal. What I am saying is: Why don’t we just try it where Collingwood may travel to Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth once a year and maybe even twice a year. So maybe they get on a plane eight times, not 11, I’ll cut you some slack.
“And let’s just see how even the competition becomes.”
Cummings: “You can’t do it. If there 10 teams in Perth, then no worries.”
Gossage: “That’s semantics. I’m saying it’s not about one year.
“Give the challenge to those Victorian clubs who have a loaded competition in their favour, because there’s more of them there, but make them travel twice to Perth, travel twice to Adelaide, twice to Brisbane - West Coast and Fremantle travel twice there.
“Every interstate club travels interstate every second week. The competition is not equal.”
Cummings: “You’ve already admitted that there are 10 teams in Melbourne and there has to be football there, it’s as simple as that.
“They can’t abandon the city, they won’t do it. There’s two games of footy in each state every week.”
Gossage: “There’s only two venues in Melbourne, apart from the Geelong stadium.
“There’s plenty of football to be played there, it doesn’t mean you have to have the same teams there every week.
“My fixture would not be equal to the AFL’s, and guess what, their’s isn’t either.
“This is my point, it is impossible to get an equal competition base, but you know what? How about try it and see the difficulty of being an interstate team.”
Cummings: “What, just to show everyone that it’s hard? I was a part of two intestate teams, I know it’s hard.”
Gossage: “Correct, but don’t keep telling that because the interstate teams joined the VFL competition…
“I’m talking about the generic Melbourne (crowd).
“The competition is not equal, and embarrassingly so, and I’m saying test out the big dogs.
“Make it a true AFL competition.
“It’s ridiculous and ludicrous, the only time it’s ever happened here was in COVID.”