Zoning (Australian Rules Football) - Metropolitan Zoning

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) perennially dominated the competition, pressure to eliminate this inequality was always considerable. District football was first introduced in the SANFL in 1897, the year the VFL was formed from the VFA.

Under district football, a player could only play for the club whose district he resided in, and the effect on the competitiveness of the SANFL was noteworthy: whereas previously clubs often had won three premierships in a row or four premierships in five years, neither occurred again until West Adelaide, who had perennially struggled and were close to or at the bottom of the ladder in their first ten years in the competition (1898-1907), won four premierships between 1908 and 1912.

The VFL formally adopted metropolitan zoning in 1915 under laws which required a player to play for the club in his zone he lived, unless he:

• a) moved home after becoming an established player, or
• b) 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 metropolitan zoning became less effective at equalising playing strength following the admittance of the three new clubs in 1925 (done primarily to avoid the necessity of a bye each week), 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, while 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.