Relegation: good thing or bad thing?

[Spikey]

seems odd noted Big 4 member Richmond are included with the have nots

 

[Jono]

I swear I did not mean to, meant to include Richmond in the first bit and Dogs in the last.

Edited now.

 

[Ausage]

Yeah was happy that the discussion came up regarding that. That being said, that doesn't prevent some teams being able to fly players to Arizona mid-season whilst others can't etc.

Its a tricky issue isn't it. Personally I am not 100% in favour of capping football department spending or numbers etc. as I think the innovation argument is strong.

At the same time, I cannot provide a solid alternative to ensure the game stays even. Particulalry if the fixture is always going to favour Collingwood, Essendon, Richmond etc. and screw over Bulldogs, Melbourne, North, Port etc.

Is the goal really to keep our competitions 100% even though? I'm a big supporter of a salary cap for Australian sports but having discrepancies in the sizes of clubs allows fans to build up rivalries, context and narrative that make following sport interesting. I'm not sold on the benefit of things like Arizona boot camps either and I'm not sure how (past a certain point) backroom football spending does all that much to obtain the best players and keep them playing at their peak. I think the diversity of grand finalists both codes have seen in the last decade backs that up.

For me there's much bigger question marks around the ability of bigger clubs to use their market share and corporate connections to obtain lucrative 3rd party deals. It's obviously a tough thing to police but that extra 200k per year is going to do far more to entice a star player than better facilities and an extra 30 administrative staff.

 

[vic_orthdox]

What's with the logic in making clubs pay 100% of the salary cap? Surely there has to be stages in a club's cycle where they can't be paying it.

 

[GIMH]

That's the key point here.

Unfortunately England could never implement it because there are other major leagues playing the same code in Spain, Italy, Germany etc. So this is an argument over theory.

But that doesn't mean one should criticise the cap and wear as a badge of honour the fact that the rich teams are the ones that win all the time. It's a testament to the passion of many football fans that they follow their team so passionately despite having literally 0% chance of winning the title, unless a billionaire Arab walks in and takes over their football club of course

literally wrong tbf

 

[GIMH]

In seriousness having bumped two threads to poke fun at Jono, I find these discussions really interesting. I am quite vocal about my distaste for many things in the modern game but still strongly believe many of the things I argued over the past decade on these sorts of subjects

Relegation is the most brutal thing in all of sports. Hopefully one day I'll find out what the opposite is like. But the fact it exists keeps our game honest, and though - let's be serious - Leicester are the exception that proves the rule (c Smitteh), what they have done vindicates this whole point about the dream that many of us footy fans have talked of. Over the course of this thread's life, Swansea have gone from League One to Prem, Bournemouth League Two to Prem (with a fair bit of yoyoing at the bottom I believe), Burton Albion have gone from deepest non league to the Championship. Exeter have gone from non league to League One and then back to League Two. My beloved TRFC have dropped from the top of League One to sixth in non-league in two and a half years. Wolves went from the Prem to League One then back to the Championship. S****horpe have been up and down about eight times.

It may be predictable at the top (this season aside, though we've not had back to back champions for a while now) but the fluidity of the pyramid as a whole remains a great thing and is the reason why millions flock through the turnstiles week after week.

Salary cap a different argument of course.

 

[Nate]

blackp00l

 

[GIMH]

blackp00l

How could I miss them from my summary. Can't remember what year they went up from League One, suspect it may have been 06-07 but possibly 07-08. If so then in this thread's lifecycle they've gone from League One to League Two via the premier league

And it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of fans

 

[Pothas]

Bees got relegated to League Two and won just 5 games the season that this thread was made.

 

[GIMH]

In the right context I think relegation can be a wake up call for a club. For us, after 13 years of stagnation it wasn't the case but when it comes out of the blue it can spur a club onto a rebuild. It's for that reason I expect Villa to struggle next season - their trajectory in the prem is similar to ours in league one. Honestly think they might go down again.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Unless Villa get sold quickly I am having a decent bet on them going down again. If Wolves can do 2 relegations then a shambles like Villa certainly can.

 

[sledger]

Reading this thread has just reminded me of what an utter **** benchmark is.

And what a gun Halsey is.