Premium Wednesdays | Is there a place for promotion and relegation in the AFL Goulburn Murray system?

Promotion and relegation is something that European sports fans — football fans in particular, obviously — have long lauded over Australian and American consumers alike.

It’s fairer, they say — perhaps purer, even, in actively discouraging bottom sides from going out of their way to be worse than they could be.

“Tanking? What’s that?” says the puritanical English Premier League fan who might not have watched Sheffield United closely enough last season.

The thing is, jokes aside, it’s generally the right approach.

Now, obviously, we’re not talking about priority draft picks in the Goulburn Murray region — some sides are makeshifting their way into a starting 22 week-to-week.

That said, since there’s a generally more level playing field when it comes to attracting talent, with no transfer fees or things of that nature, this could be exactly the shake-up that galvanises a club or two.

There are two ways you could look at it — does the Picola competition stay or go within this framework?

If all four district competitions fell under the AFL’s watch, this would be a given, but you would either work with three divisions and 38 teams or four and 53, respectively.

There’s been uncertainty involving where some clubs fit in — no need to get too in-depth about that here — but let’s assume we include all 53.

At the moment, the four tiers of competition involve 12, 12, 14 and 15 clubs, in that order. Although, something about those numbers just doesn’t look right.

Sure, you’d expect the current Goulburn Valley and Murray league clubs to retain their places in near-totality, but a 12-12-12-17 model where the fourth tier teams play each other once in a 16-game season feels more snug.

Yes, Congupna is stiff, to get the ‘state the obvious’ part out of the way early.

Just as obviously, one can’t strip a competition — particularly a country competition — of everything that makes it logistically realistic.

We’re talking, of course, about geography — it’s been a cornerstone of local leagues forever.

That said, the Goulburn Murray leagues have already taken their fair share of liberties with the way the competitions are currently set up.

Yes, people fall out and clubs pack up and go elsewhere on occasion, but who looks at a map of the so-called Kyabram district and decides, ‘Ah, yes, this is precisely where Shepparton East and Dookie have always belonged’?

Let’s not forget Broadford’s brief flirtations with that competition last year either, which specifically only failed to make sense because of the geographical labels placed on these leagues.

Even then, though ... Avenel and Longwood found their ways in somehow, and maybe they could have used an extra friend on the south side.

Leaving those matters aside, though, there’s the equally important competitive element to discuss.

The model as it stands in most metro leagues is simple: premiers of the lower divisions move up a tier, while the wooden spoon team above them is relegated to the competition below.

Not only does it deter monotony, given that premiers cannot repeat year-to-year except where the best of the best play, it galvanises each set of teams by dangling the carrot of better competition in front of their eyes.

Mulwala could honestly have deserved a crack at top-division football in 2024, but as things currently stand, Congupna firms as the Murray flag frontrunner — which would obviously be more geographically pleasing.

In fact, you have the exact same situation up and down the pyramid, where all four defending premiers have won the past two flags in their respective competition.

How much more interesting would it be to see Waaia mixing it up with Murray clubs as opposed to further asserting its supremacy over sides that nobody expected to put up a fight anyway?

It might not be walking the Picola league this season, but surely it would have at least come close to earning that shot by now, as would Lancaster.

There’s something to be said for the business end of a promotion and relegation-driven set of competitions as well.

The Essendon District Football League is the quintessential example; long regarded as one of the strongest local competitions in the country, all you need to know is that someone who has signed for your club played there and the hype machine kicks in.

Do you think anyone’s stopping to notice whether he played premier division or third-tier football there?

There’s a big difference between Keilor, currently 9-0 in the top division and holding a long-established reputation as a ‘footy factory’, and Glenroy, currently bottom of the third division.

That’s where the name value of amalgamating the leagues comes into play, and where all clubs can benefit from the value of those at the top in terms of attraction.

Sure, being four hours out of Melbourne isn’t for everyone and it’s not a catch-all system in the country, as opposed to the city where locations can be interchangeable.

Surely losing to the exact same dominant sides every year with little or sometimes no sense of variety or competitive balance isn’t fun either?