Norwood celebrates its thrilling one-point win in the 2022 SANFL grand final against North Adelaide. Photo: SANFL

Tasmania’s long-awaited and well-deserved clinching of the 19th spot in the Australian Football League has already led to speculation about just who will be the 20th team. And fair enough.

Former AFL chief executive Gil McLachlan confirmed at the Tasmanian team’s announcement that an even number of teams was preferred. And going to 18 teams would mean a painful merger or relocation of a Victorian club, an experience the AFL wants to avoid based on bitter experience.

So already there has been speculation about a team in the Northern Territory, the Darwin Dingoes, or maybe the Darwin Crocodiles (imagine the NT News headlines) or a team for Northern Australia playing in Darwin, Alice Spring and Cairns.

There is the Canberra option (depending on how GWS is progressing) and more far-fetched suggestions of a team in New South Wales, like Newcastle (hello Kevin Sheedy), the Central Coast, or even the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

A Darwin team would be in Aussie Rules country to the west of the “Barassi Line” that splits the continent between Aussie Rules football and Rugby League. The others are east of the line, with the exception of Canberra, which is right on the line, enjoying both codes, plus a strong rugby union following.

But what if the AFL went back to its heartland for a 20th slot? There are already 10 teams in Victoria, so why not a third team from either Western Australia or South Australia?

WA has claims given the strong state of the WA economy, the growing population, and the magnificent Optus Stadium. Another team in Joondalup or Mandurah has been touted.

However, the great rivalry built up between West Coast and Fremantle is now as fierce as Rangers and Celtic or Liverpool and Everton, highlighted by the western derby. Adding a composite team may not work. Look at the South Queensland Crushers in the NRL.

So what about SA? During the successful Gather Round in Adelaide, the Norwood Football Club hosted two AFL matches at Norwood Oval on the famous Parade in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs, as they did in 2023.

The matches were sold out, Norwood had a huge food and wine festival along the Parade, and the Premier, Peter Malinauskas, the architect of Gather Round, was a regular presence at Norwood, as he was everywhere.

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If there was a third team from SA, it would surely have to be Norwood. It is the second most successful club after Port Adelaide, and the next most famous. It boasts several celebrity supporters, like singer-songwriter Paul Kelly, who played for the under 19s, and folk singer Greg Champion of the “Coodabeen Champions”, not to mention local author and podcaster Malcolm “Rulebook” Ashwood.

Legendary South Australian Premier Don Dunstan, the great social reformer of the 1970s, was the Member for Norwood and ran a restaurant “Don’s Table” on the Parade. The Norwood-based seat of Dunstan (just won by Labor in a by-election) is named after its most famous MP.

Dunstan may have been famous for wearing pink shorts into the South Australian Parliament when he was premier on a sweltering February day in Adelaide, but it may not be as well-known that he was ejected from parliament for wearing a Norwood guernsey after the 1978 grand final.

And who ejected him? The speaker of the House of Assembly, Gil Langley, the Labor Member for Unley, a former wicketkeeper for Australian and rover for the Sturt Football Club (which Norwood had famously defeated by just one point).

Norwood has a few things going for it. Norwood Oval is considered to be AFL standard, and Adelaide Oval could have a third tenant along, with the Crows and Port Adelaide.

It has strong backing from Coopers Brewery and Wolf Blass wines. However, there would be likely opposition from the SANFL (which fears losing Port Adelaide to an AFL reserves competition) and from the Crows, who may lose supporters returning to Norwood.

Norwood would also have to modify its colours and playing kit, given the similarity with Melbourne, as Port Adelaide did to avoid the wrath of Collingwood when it entered the AFL in 1997.
The success of Gather Round has promoted some hope for Norwood, but there is a view that two teams is enough for Adelaide, and the Port-Crows rivalry is a nice equilibrium like the Eagles-Freo divide in WA.

However, the Redlegs certainly did their chances no harm with two excellent games at Gather Round, along with a great showcase of the Parade. If it is going to be a third team from SA as a 20th AFL team, it would have to be an existing club, not a composite team, and that club is Norwood.

Professor Tim Harcourt is industry professor and chief economist at the Centre for Sport, Business and Society (CSBS), University of Technology Sydney. He also hosts Footynomics – The Economics of Sport www.footynomics.com.au