Talk:Rivalries in the Australian Football League

How many of these "Recent rivals" are actually real rivalries? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thegio35 (talk • contribs) 08:31, 11 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Agree with this. About 23 "recent" rivalries? Methinks many of these will simply be transient eg. West Coast / Sydney, because they had two close grand finals. Murtoa (talk) 07:29, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

If Collingwood and Adelaide are rivals, I will go he. Close matches don't maketh the rivalry. Pies fans couldn't care less about the Crows. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.190.211.89 (talk) 12:34, 10 November 2010 (UTC)

Honestly, can we lock this page? Rivalries are something that are created between two sides over many years, not just because you support a certain team and want to have a rivalry with someone. Thegio35 (talk) 12:18, 2 September 2011 (UTC)
 * I'd prefer to delete the article entirely. It's all too subjective. But I really can't be bothered with the fight. HiLo48 (talk) 12:29, 2 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Best thing is to remove every single unreferenced section unless a reliable reference about the rivalry, not just the results, can be found. List of sports rivalries has been tightly controlled in this way for a while and isn't too bad.The-Pope (talk) 16:07, 2 September 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm happy to stick to removing all unreferenced content for now. HiLo48 (talk) 22:34, 2 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Even there, there's a lot in the media now about Hawthorn vs Geelong or Sydney vs West Coast rivalries – but these are likely to be temporary rivalries which will disappear when the when they're both at the bottom of the ladder five or six years later. Case in point: do North Melbourne and Essendon really still have a rivalry today which stemmed from the 69-point turnaround in 2001, such as is suggested in the article – or did that rivalry last only as long as both teams were successful. Hawthorn and Geelong fans practically forgot that they'd played each other in 1989 before 2008 came around. I'd agree with HiLo48 in that I'd like to delete the article, and let individual rivalries have their own pages if they warrant them - like the Carlton/Collingwood and Carlton/Essendon pages already have. Those pages aren't of particularly good quality, but I think it's a reasonable guide that if a rivalry cannot fill an article of that size, it's not worth bringing up.Aspirex (talk) 07:51, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

Essendon vs Melbourne
Seeking a consensus to a potential edit war. An IP editor is attempting to change the final statement in the Essendon vs Melbourne section to "However, with the exception of the 2000 Grand Final, this rivalry has lost its intensity." I would prefer to leave it as "However, in the modern era, this rivalry has lost its intensity."

My contention is that, by the definition in the lead of this article, "AFL team rivalries are matches in the Australian Football League which typically draw large crowds and interest regardless of both teams' positions on the ladder." The simple fact that two teams contest a Grand Final does not fit into this definition, because the large crowd and interest are drawn because of, not regardless of ladder position. This Grand Final did not lead to any sort of long-term invigoration of the rivalry between these two teams. Aspirex (talk) 01:23, 20 May 2012 (UTC)


 * I totally agree. Too much bullshit is written about mythical rivalries. Change it back. HiLo48 (talk) 01:42, 20 May 2012 (UTC)


 * In the absence of any further disagreement, I will make the change. Aspirex (talk) 05:27, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

Proposal of article renaming
I'm thinking about renaming this article. "AFL team rivalries" to me doesn't sound formal enough, and I think a better name for it would be "Rivalries in the Australian Football League". Likewise, I will propose the same change for NRL team rivalries, whereby I would change the name of that article to "Rivalries in the National Rugby League".

What does everyone think about this change? MasterMind5991 (talk) 01:30, 28 May 2013 (UTC)

Rivalry Round
Does it still exist?

The AFL has abandoned most "special" round names these days. I have a feeling Rivalry Round was one of those to disappear. HiLo48 (talk) 09:02, 17 April 2014 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 21:57, 26 June 2016 (UTC)

Gold Coast vs St Kilda
Could this be considered a recent rivalry?

For what it's worth, anecdotally I know many Melbourne-based St Kilda supporters who do not regard GC as a rival at the moment Striker161 (talk) 05:58, 12 August 2023 (UTC).

Recent rivals vs "Traditional" rivals
Due to the lack of survey data throughout VFA/VFL/AFL history, I guess this is all subjective anecdotal options? If this is true, I'd argue the following are recent rather than traditional rivals: - Hawthorn v Geelong: a fantastic team rivalry between 2008-2016 whilst both clubs were dominant, but since then, before then? Is there any evidence of a rivalry outside these years other than the epic 1989 Grand Final? - Collingwood v Geelong: Undoubtedly, these supporters despise each other now (in 2023), but what rivalry existed prior the last couple of decades? Striker161 (talk) 06:10, 12 August 2023 (UTC)