Fox trot
Last year

NH Norwood bid to join AFL

Just heard that Norwood is putting together a bid for entry into AFL as a third SA team

Why can't we get the same level of support for another Adelaide team in the NBL?

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Zodiac
Last year

I'm a third-generation Norwood supporter but I can't see much chance of this happening. Port Adelaide, our arch nemesis, always had the biggest supporter base in the SANFL so tried to enter the AFL in 1990, which as I understand it was effectively blocked by all the other SANFL clubs.

That lead to the formation of the Crows which was basically all the other SANFL clubs amalgamating together to get a team into the AFL before Port did, which happened in 1991 and then Port finally got their own team the Power into the AFL in 1997.

If you're Norwood supporter pretty much by definition you're also a Crows supporter like I am as are most non-Port SANFL club supporters. Obviously pre-Crows some older SANFL supporters also had a VFL they supported in my case as a kid it was St. Kilda until the Crows came in.

Therefore I just can't see the supporter interest in this. The SANFL is run these days closer to amateur level than AFL level and even though Norwood are considered the most professional and financially successful of the independent SANFL clubs it's coming from a low base.

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Weedy Slug
Last year

Hell no.

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curtley
Last year

Something almost no one realises is that sometime in the mid eighties the SANFL and WAFL came within a whisker of merging into one league to take on the then VFL. Had that happened the current AFL would look completely different and Norwood would probably already be there. There may even be two divisions of 16 teams each.

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