(BUT NOT ALTERNATE STRIPS)
by Leonard Colquhoun
The AFL Commission recently put this matter back into the headlines (week beginning Mon 31 Jan 06) with its ukase re uniform clashes in AFL matches; Greg Denham’s in The Australian was just one article on this:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18022109%255E36035,00.html
.
It’s
quite possible that many, maybe even most, football followers don’t give
flying fig about this matter, and equally likely that many club supporters would
be irked that a group whom they see as a cadre of glorified bureaucrats have the
power to rip up decades of tradition. Interesting, also, that this story did not
get an obvious run on www.afl.com.au . At
least that odiously foreign expression “alternate strip” didn’t get a
guernsey.
So,
perhaps a look at each club’s alternatives might be in order, particularly to
see how far tradition can or might be accommodated
- references to specific
designs can be viewed at http://www.footyjumpers.com/
[Thanks,
First
of all, as is meet, the Founding Eight:
Carlton:
the main clashes are with Essendon, Melbourne and Richmond
- the fetching pale blue
M&M strip from1997 is the obvious answer, though the Union Jack back of
King’s Birthday 1900 could be guaranteed to bring along big crowds of
republicaneers and monarchists;
Collingwood:
President McGuire already has the answer -
black stripes on a white jumper, pre-Eddie style, as distinct from white
stripes on a black one;
Essendon:
they’ll need an Nth Amendment to their Constitution, and maybe come up with a
red-based jumper when playing Carlton and Richmond;
Fitzroy:
oops, forgot about Mr. Oakley’s manoeuvres in mid-1996; see Brisbane;
Geelong:
a sad recent history of going for the wrong alternatives: “What were they
thinking?” -
perhaps a mainly white jumper with a cat in an open-top Ford? (According
to economists, Motown needs all the help it can get !!)
Melbourne:
already have a striking red-based guernsey, used vs. Carlton and Essendon in
2004, with that beautifully stylised Demon-M being one of the few examples where
the creative guys at PR got it 100% right;
St
Kilda:
used to have a white-backed jumper (with white long sleeves)
- anyway, they already have
more 'traditional' away jumpers than Essendon and Carlton have premierships;
Sydney:
easy -
use the old South Melbourne design against dark-clad opponents,
especially in Victoria.
Next,
the 1908 survivor and the 1925 trio:
Hawthorn:
doesn’t clash with anyone else’s -
no other club has such an execrable colour scheme;
North
Melbourne
(if their players can sing of “North Meeeeelbourne . . .” after a win, then
this article can, and will, keep calling them that): bring back the 1998-99
white jumper with the kangaroo and the short blue-n-white bars
- another rare designer’s
win;
Western
Bulldogs:
easy – emphasise the blue or the red according to their opponents’ home
guernsey; the 1935 design is another possibility.
And,
finally, the national expansion clubs, all of whom have few qualms about
adjusting their 20/15/10 year-old-traditions:
Adelaide:
to their eternal credit, their home design looks like a fair-dinkum footy jumper
- playing down the navy blue
against clubs like Carlton, Essendon, Melbourne and Richmond would be the main
change, as in their 1996-98 pre-season version;
Brisbane:
for darkly-coloured opponents, they can always 'Bring Back the Bear', or, much,
much more preferably, use their 2004 heritage one;
Fremantle:
now here’s a chance for distinctiveness lost -
the only guernsey predominantly green as in the 1995-97 Away design, so
what do they do? -
ditch it !! most of their
other appallingly complex designs support the notion that 'Less is More';
Port
Adelaide:
more teal, less black against darker-clad foes, and forget the pink or whatever
it’s officially called;
West
Coast:
avoid their dark-blue designs against opponents such as Carlton, although
reverting to their initial-season yellow horrors should not be considered an
option.
So there, not too hard, is it ? The only really difficulty is to get football journalists to exercise the [DELETE] on ”alternat(iv)e strip” (1).
Where now?
or
Notes
1. “Alternate” implies one week in, one week out, but the AFL fixture doesn’t work like that. [Back]