- Zoning (Australian rules football)
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Not to be confused with Zone defense.
In Australian rules football, zoning (originally called district football) refers to a system whereby a given area, either region or lower-level football league, is reserved exclusively for one club.
Zoning has been historically an important part of most major Australian football leagues, being usually justified as necessary to ensure a reasonably equitable competition.
Contents
Metropolitan zoning
In the early days of Australian rules football, players, though required to be amateurs, were free agents. Because a small number of clubs, such as Norwood in the SAFA and Fremantle in the WAFA, dominated, pressure to eliminate this inequality was always considerable. District football was first introduced in the SANFL in 1897, the year the VFL formed from the VFA. Under district football a player could only play for the club whose district he resided in. The effect on the competitiveness of the SANFL was noteworthy: whereas previously clubs often had runs of three premierships or four in five years, neither occurred again until West Adelaide won four premierships between 1908 and 1912 (the last after beating Port Adelaide who had been unbeaten in the home and away rounds).
The VFL adopted metropolitan zoning formally in 1915 under laws which required a player to play for the club in his zone he lived, unless he
- moved after becoming an established player
- was unwanted by the club to which he was zoned
Metropolitan zoning has been seen by historians of the VFL as improving the competitive balance of the league in the years following World War I. When Footscray, Hawthorn and North Melbourne were admitted for the 1925 season, they were allocated zones. Over time, boundaries were changed to cope with demographic shifts.
Whilst recent studies have shown that following the admittance of the three new clubs in 1925 – done primarily to avoid the necessity of a bye each week – metropolitan zoning became less effective at equalising playing strength, it was already firmly accepted by the majority of club officials in most Australian Rules competitions by the late 1920s and at no stage during the following forty years was there ever any thought of abolishing it. A tradition of club loyalty further entrenched the viewpoint that zoning was a legitimate policy.
With the great urban sprawl after World War II, newly developed areas were zoned almost as soon as they were developed. In the case of the VFL such areas were quite often zoned to a different club from the one who held adjacent, previously developed areas, whereas the SANFL tried to keep zones contiguous. These and other leagues remained concerned about the possible impacts if zoning were removed, and this caused their zoning laws to ossify.
Country zoning
In the early days of Australian Rules football, metropolitan clubs were unable to buy players from rural leagues, but the growth of Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth due to urbanization in the 1950s meant that city clubs could offer much more money - even if not as direct payments - than country clubs could. This permitted wealthier clubs to circumvent restrictions imposed by metropolitan zoning, as top country players tended to go to the club able to offer them most money. From the middle 1960s, Essendon, Geelong, Carlton and Collingwood dominated the competition because their greater wealth allowed them to monopolise top country players and build up greater playing strength than possible beforehand. Other clubs, such as Fitzroy, were in grave danger of folding.
The VFL's response was to zone rural Victoria and the Riverina of New South Wales in a similar manner to metropolitan Melbourne. Because of the sparseness of Australia's rural population, the country zones related not to the player's address, but rather to the league in which he played. This difference was a critical component of the failure of country zoning, because it made zone boundaries impossible to adjust.
Because the VFL was aware that discrepancies existed in the strength of zones, it was originally planned that the zones would be rotated so that each club would obtain a chance of receiving the best young country players. However - partly because those clubs with productive zones were naturally unwilling to give them up for less productive ones - the zones remained the same from the inception of country zoning until it was abolished. There was also no provision for demographic changes which occurred in the various country zones, which exacerbated the problems mentioned above.
Major Leagues and VFL clubs
- Bendigo Football League to Carlton
- Western Border Football League to Collingwood
- Wimmera Football League to Essendon
- Hampden Football League to Fitzroy
- Gippsland Football League to Footscray
- Latrobe Valley Football League to Footscray
- Geelong & District Football League to Geelong
- Mid Murray Football League to Geelong
- Goulburn Valley Football League to Melbourne
- Mornington Peninsula Football League to Hawthorn
- Ovens & Murray Football League to North Melbourne
- Sunraysia Football League to Richmond
- Riverina Football League to South Melbourne
- Ballarat Football League to St. Kilda
Effects of country zoning
Although the more even distribution of top country players at the beginning of the 1970s was such that the SANFL and WAFL quickly adopted country zoning, its gains were very short-lived. Carlton, Richmond, Hawthorn and North Melbourne won every VFL premiership between 1967 and 1983, a period of dominance not known in any other era. Strong country zones gave these clubs lists more powerful than any club could build without zoning. In contrast, Melbourne and South Melbourne, who had the worst country zones, only played two finals between them during country zoning.
Some writers on VFL history have argued that the inequalities created by country zoning were much greater than those created by club wealth beforehand and that some clubs lost many players they would have gained were players able to move to the club nearest to them. Most significantly, St. Kilda's return to the bottom of the ladder in the 1970s has been related to its loss (to Hawthorn) of many players from the Frankston area which was already becoming part of metropolitan Melbourne when country zoning began.
Defenders of country zoning have argued that it provided greater incentive for VFL clubs to look for players in country leagues, and that its abolition has meant that this incentive has been lost.
End of VFL zoning
In 1981, the system of player permits based on country and metropolitan zoning was threatened by two cases. In the better-known of these, a full-back from SANFL club West Torrens, Doug Cox, had his permit to play with St. Kilda challenged because he had played in the past for South Mildura, which was within Richmond's country zone. St. Kilda temporarily lost eight points for two wins against Footscray and Melbourne, and were fined $5,000 for playing Cox in the first eight rounds. Soon afterwards, South Melbourne centre-half forward Michael Smith admitted he gave wrong information on his application for a permit to play with South - his true address was in St. Kilda's zone. South were going to lose four points but the VFL, challenged by the Cox case to be more lenient about its now-archaic zoning laws, was considering changing the rules and South were not punished.
Then the Foschini Case of 1983, where teenage rover/forward, Silvio Foschini did not want to move to Sydney when South Melbourne did so in 1981/1982 but was refused a clearance to play with St. Kilda, declared previously unchallenged zoning an illegal labour market restraint. Although the VFL retained zoning for two more years, it had to radically alter the system of clearances and player contracts, and in 1985, with the competition less competitive than ever (only six clubs had made the Grand Final since 1972), reform of the system of player trading began. Zoning was replaced with a player draft, which studies have shown to be much more effective at equalising club strength than country zoning ever was.
In competitions such as the SANFL and WAFL, however, country and metropolitan zoning are still used today, despite the declarations concerning their use in the VFL. The SANFL, which introduced country zoning of South Australia in 1973 has made efforts to make country zoning less inflexible than it proved in the VFL though making provisions for the adjustment of zone boundaries. In the WAFL, however, there is already distinct concern country zoning is creating inequalities in available talent.
Further references
Categories:- Australian rules football terminology
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