Melbourne Hawks - Background

Background

Since the mid 1980s, the formerly all-Victorian Victorian Football League (VFL) competition had undertaken a large expansion program which saw the league expand from being a state-based competition (centred around the inner suburbs of Melbourne) to a national competition. The decision to undertake this expansion was in response to elite national leagues being run by other sporting codes (for example the Australian Rugby League, the National Basketball League, and the National Soccer League), which threatened to undermine interest in football at both a junior, and elite level. The VFL/AFL expansion included new teams from Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, in the addition to the relocation of South Melbourne to Sydney, and saw the league change its name from the VFL to the AFL.

The expansion led to Victoria holding a disproportionately large number of teams relative to the other states. By the mid 1990s, there were 11 teams based in Victoria – 10 of those in the inner suburbs of Melbourne – and concerns were raised about the long term viability (both on the field, and in an economic sense) of some of the 'weaker' Melbourne-based clubs. Members of the AFL Commission (the governing body for the competition) began to worry that, relative to the new interstate clubs and more powerful Victorian-based teams, the weaker Melbourne-based clubs would not have a sufficiently large supporter base to survive in the new national competition. Statistics published in newspapers like the Herald Sun showed that several Melbourne-based clubs (including Hawthorn and Melbourne) only had a fraction of the membership base either their interstate, or cross-town rivals. It was suggested by some at the time that the Melbourne market could realistically support no more than six to eight teams.

The AFL, under CEO Ross Oakley, proposed that the preferred outcome for these smaller Melbourne-based clubs would be to merge (or amalgamate) with other smaller teams. According to the AFL at the time, mergers would create super-clubs which would retain at least some of the traditions and history of its former teams; clearly preferable to having both teams eventually financially collapse. Merging with other Melbourne based clubs, rather than relocating interstate, would allow local supporters to continually attending their team's matches. Based on this logic, the AFL undertook an active program of pursuing mergers between Melbourne-based clubs. The AFL began this policy by offering A$6 million to any newly merged football team (an offer which grew to A$8 million by mid-1996).

Within Melbourne, discussions about potential mergers were often greeted with deep suspicion and open hostility. While the growth of a national competition from the former VFL has arguably been highly beneficial to the code of Australian rules football overall, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, many Melburnians were opposed to reform attempts. The merger debate led to widespread accusations that the league's administrators had grown out-of-touch with the sport's grass-roots supporter base. The league openly discussing the elimination of some Melbourne based clubs through mergers led to widespread anger, and disillusionment, towards the league.