| Abstract: |
Until the last quarter of the twentieth century, non-metropolitan Australian
Rules football clubs prospered as volunteer organisations, operating in
regions that were protected by distance from clubs in larger, competing
leagues. They acted as places that people valued and were important components
of social capital in their communities, and in turn, received subsidies from
other community groups that reduced operating costs. Clubs appear to have
measured success in terms of their ability to attract the talent needed to
build a winning team that would boost the prestige of both the club and its
local community. The Victorian Football League’s regulations about player
payment and mobility gave country football clubs the opportunity to offer
attractive terms to League players, and this prevented the game’s most
powerful league, from crowding out its rivals. The circumstances that were
favourable to country football clubs have changed with the formation of a
major league, the Australian Football League. The televising of matches
nationwide allowed people in even remote regions to watch AFL games. Economic
and demographic decline in country areas, greater mobility and the lure of
metropolitan jobs has made it difficult for clubs to retain players. In this
challenging economic environment, many country football clubs have been unable
to survive in their own right. This paper reports on a survey of
administrators of Victorian country football clubs as to their perceptions of
what constitutes ‘success’ in this new environment. It provides
information about how individual clubs are responding to broad changes that
are beyond their control, and offers evidence about the ability of local
football clubs to continue to play their traditional role as places of
importance and generators of social capital in regional communities. |