Australian "Football" concept: AFL teams hit the gridiron

[RuffDawg]

Inspired by thebigeh's concept of NFL teams in Australian rules uniforms, I've decided to tackle a concept that is the exact opposite. Over the next few weeks, I'll aim to put all 17 Australian Football League franchises (including the new expansion team, the Gold Coast Suns) onto the gridiron, thereby completing the bizarro world switch-up that thebigeh started.

Since I'm really only versed in Photoshop, I'll be using HarperK's PSD template, likely with a generic cut for the jerseys as this is more about the designs of the uniforms themselves than an argument about what Nike/Reebok/Under Armour would actually do or what the AFL would allow, etc etc. It's a concept, it's fantasy, I'll try and keep it simple.

The only other degrees of difficulty/simplicity will be:

* No concept logos; if it doesn't exist in the club's logo or wordmark history, it can't be added

* Keep it faithful to the club colors; no adding of black or silver as accent colors (white is obviously the exception for road jerseys)

* Incorporating league and club sponsors' logos that currently exist on the AFL jerseys (this is already done by the CFL and virtually every pro sports team outside of North America so it's hardly blasphemous)

The first team will be the 2010 league champions, Collingwood. I'm announcing the concept early in case anyone has any comments, suggestions, do's and don'ts, etc (since this will be my first concept here).

[RuffDawg]

First cab off the rank, as previously announced, the Collingwood Magpies. The team have been around for almost 120 years, making them unsurprisingly one of the oldest clubs in Australia. They are also the third-most successful with 15 premierships (Aussie speak for a championship), most recently this year. They also have one of the most simple color schemes imaginable and it was a good place to start.

I took inspiration from both the New York Jets and the Baltimore Ravens; the former for their sleeve striping and the latter for the monochrome black-on-black for the home uniform. The helmet logo is the head of the magpie used in the team logo, which appears in its entirety on the pants. The home uniform also features three vertical white stripes, a nod to the team's on-field jersey which in turn is a nod to their uniform supplier, adidas. The three stripes on the pants are also for this reason.

Given the long history of the club, I felt a traditional block font was appropriate for the letters and numbers. The home jersey's numbers are double outlined as they got lost with the chest stripes so close.

Comments and constructive criticism are much appreciated. Up next, I'll go from the league's best team in 2010 to its worst...

[Luigi]

these are great! Being an Aussie NFL fan i really like these (but like everyone else in Australia, I hate collingwood!). Being from Perth I can't wait to see what you do next with the West Coast Eagles.

[RuffDawg]

From one of the oldest clubs to one of the newest, from the best team in 2010 to the worst. The West Coast Eagles have a short but successful history in national competition, entering the league in 1987 and winning the premiership three times since then, most recently in 2006. Their blue and gold color scheme has undergone some changes over the years and after feeling a little trapped with Collingwood's monochrome and tradition, I decided to have a little fun this time around.

I tried blue and gold for the helmet before eventually settling on white with a blue facemask. That made the whole thing a little too Chargers-esque for me so in the unlikely event Australian football players would ever need long sleeves, they're gold to offset the jersey. The home jersey itself is a series of nods to past uniforms worn by the Eagles; the hooped stripe with white piping invokes the jersey worn in the late 90s, which leads into a love-it-or-hate-it gradient running down the sides that calls back to this jersey, worn in the early 2000s.

I flirted with the boundary of my own rules and modified the current Eagles logo ever so slightly, allowing for a Seahawks-style wrap effect on both the helmet and the sleeves. The wings on the pants are taken directly from the logo and are changed from blue to gold on the road pants so they actually show up. The font used for the NOB is Friz Quadrata, matching the typeface on the logo. I tried the same font for the numbers and wasn't crazy about it, so settled on the Ravens' style as a compromise.

Up next, the Eagles' in-state rivals...

[mbannon92]

Both of these are really well done. I like the simplicity and traditional look of Collingwood, since it's a very old team as you mentioned. You did a good job on West Coast of making a modern uniform that isn't over the top, and I love the wraparound logo. My only suggestion is to have the gradient fade from yellow to white on the home and blue on the away, so the bottom of the side panel matches the pants. Since the stripe isn't continued on the pants, I think this would help the jersey flow with the pants. Great work though!

[RuffDawg]

Both of these are really well done. I like the simplicity and traditional look of Collingwood, since it's a very old team as you mentioned. You did a good job on West Coast of making a modern uniform that isn't over the top, and I love the wraparound logo. My only suggestion is to have the gradient fade from yellow to white on the home and blue on the away, so the bottom of the side panel matches the pants. Since the stripe isn't continued on the pants, I think this would help the jersey flow with the pants. Great work though!

Thanks a lot for the comments and the advice. Coming from you, that's high praise and I appreciate it. I'm about 90% done with the Fremantle uniform and after that, I'll go back and revise the gradient on the West Coast jerseys and post it here for review.

[RuffDawg]

Concept #3 is Western Australia's other national-level team, the Fremantle Dockers. Named for the city's important shipping industry, they entered the AFL in 1995 and hold the dubious distinction of being the only active team (until 2011 when Gold Coast joins the league) not to have won a championship or even been to the final. Weird trivia: The "Dockers" nickname was unofficial between 1997 and 2010 (the official name is simply Fremantle Football Club) after Levi Strauss & Co (who own the Dockers clothing brand) filed suit. The nickname was (and still is) used in the media and by fans and will return to official status for the 2011 season following a re-design of the uniforms and logo.

Which leads me to the concept. This proved a little sticky as I wasn't aware until I looked the team up this morning that they have, in fact, made wholesale changes to their uniforms and logo for the first time in franchise history. Gone is the anchor design and the green & red accents, replaced by a three chevron design based on the team's old uniforms prior to joining the AFL (which were red and white). Gone too is the "Anchor Man" logo, in favor of this more basic effort which, if you ask me, makes me think of Dockers pants more than the last logo did... but I digress.

The problem with the old identity was that I liked it and so, this being my concept and my fantasy, I kept some key elements of it while incorporating the new style into it. The three chevrons on the chest were a must-have but the new logo has only found its way to small placement above the NOB. Anchor Man is revived as the helmet logo and also appears on the sleeves, in both cases without the garish green and red shield behind it. The home jersey does, however, feature green, red and white striping around the sleeves as a throw back to the old design.

The three stripes on the pants are intended to match the chevrons on the jerseys and aren't an adidas thing (since they don't supply the team's uniforms). The number font is the same used by the Miami Dolphins, which for some reason I thought looked more docker-ish than the standard block. Thanks to the new logo incorporating a gray wordmark (which it does on the team's official website), I was able to add a gray facemask and outlines around the numbers without breaking my rules.

Following the re-do of the West Coast jerseys, I have some Demons to face...

[InCase]

Absolutely love Collingwood, perfect cross over.

Being an Eagles fan I was most excited about that but it's my least favourite tbh. It's pretty hard to crossover the Eagles as their traditional design elements don't convert easily, like the wings on the guernsey.

Fremantles is very very nice, you could possibly try a double sleeve stripe instead of triple. White, red on the left; White, green on the right, to indicate Port and Starboard. I don't think the man logo is needed on the shoulders either. Gotta say, I love the pants stripe.

[mcrosby]

I love the chevron's and the new simplicity of the Dockers set. That said, I think you should get rid of the anchor man-maybe use that for a throwback set (please do throwback sets). I also really like InCase's idea of red-green to represent starboard and port, just the hem of the sleeves being the respective color.

[RuffDawg]

I've revised the Fremantle set -- InCase, thanks for your idea about the sleeve stripes, I think it was an improvement but I'll let everyone else be the judges of that. Removed the logo from the sleeves and replaced Anchor Man with the new logo on the helmet. Throwbacks are now a definite possibility but I'd like to get some more teams done first.

[RuffDawg]

Per mbannon92's suggestion, I tweaked the side panels on the West Coast jerseys. The home jersey now fades from gold to white, and the same effect has been added to the road jersey and fades from gold to blue. The numbers on the home jersey have also changed; they're now gold with a white outline, which is closer to what the team actually wears. This necessitated (IMO) a switch to blue sleeves to avoid losing the numbers in a sea of gold.

I'm ready to call this one done. Melbourne up next.

[RuffDawg]

After some input and guidance from the community, I feel like I've hit my stride with team #4. The Melbourne Football Club (who earned their nickname in 1933 following a coach's pep talk which instructed his players to, "lift your heads and play like demons") are not only the oldest team in Australian rules football, they are responsible for the very creation of the rules of the game which have remained largely unchanged up to today. The club is steeped in tradition despite a recent premiership drought (they've won the title 12 times but not since 1964) and have used the same uniform design since 1935. My initial thought was to give that as much respect as it deserved.

Then I laughed, said "naah", and went to town. The red V-yoke does indeed make it over from the team's actual uniform (it was, incidentally, adapted from a design that first debuted in 1919). Rather than have this end at the stitching, like the Collingwood and Fremantle concepts, I continued this into a full shoulder yoke, the shape of which is designed to evoke images of bat wings, a devil's cape and other such demonic imagery. It also forms a natural "M", for Melbourne. The yoke is blue on the road jersey with a red collar, sort of a jersey within a jersey, as making the yoke red didn't give the road uniform enough of the team's primary color, blue. This means the similarity to the Buffalo Bills' road uniform is fairly obvious but was unintentional.

I added as much red accent as possible, including the facemask, belts and socks, the latter of which is a nod to the team's old nickname, the "Redlegs". I couldn't decide between silver and blue for the helmets, so I've provided both and I'll listen to second and third opinions. The number font is the same as that of the Detroit Lions, which I liked because of the flame-like hooks in the numbers, again with the intent to fit with a demon-based theme. To that end, the pants also feature the "M" from the club's primary logo from 1995 to 2007. The new demon logo, introduced in 2009, is used on the helmets.

Last but not least, how did I get away with using silver? The club introduced it as an accent color twice: in 2001 and 2008.

Next team on the agenda is one with which the Demons almost merged, but never did...

[mcrosby]

I'm liking Melbourne, but they too have a new logo.

[RuffDawg]

I'm liking Melbourne, but they too have a new logo.

I saw that in my findings and just couldn't find a good place on the uniform to put it. I'm thinking the back of the helmet would be a good fit, which obviously doesn't show on the template.

[fillmont]

These are all stupendous. I only just this past year got into Aussie Rules (didn't even knew it existed a year ago!) and so it's fun to see these. Great work!

[mbannon92]

Fremantle: I really like the striping on these. It's really unique and looks nice. Not much else to say here.

West Coast Update: That looks a lot better.

Melbourne: I actually like the shoulder yokes, and they look 100x better than the Bills yokes. I would use the blue helmet on the home set...there isn't really enough silver in the color scheme to have a silver helmet IMO. Also, I might make the flame design on the road pants blue to match the yokes, but it doesn't look bad either way - your call.

Can't wait to see the next!

[RuffDawg]

Next up is the youngest Victorian team in the AFL, at the rambunctious age of 108 -- the Hawthorn Hawks. They've won the premiership a total of 10 times, half of which came in an 8-year span during the 1980s and early 90s (the most recent came in 2008). The team's colors were originally blue and red but changed to brown and gold to avoid confusion with a crosstown rival, and came with the unfortunate nickname "Mayblooms", which was changed in 1942. The unfortunate color scheme, however, remains (and that's coming from a Cleveland Browns fan).

Like several other teams in the AFL, the Hawks' on-field jerseys (1990s-era example shown) are simply vertical stripes of the team's two primary colors. After considering different combinations, I finally went with a gold helmet and pants, drawing inspiration from Arizona State who use a very similar shade. In a small nod of thanks to ASU, I gave the cuffs a brown-gold-brown stripe design and matched it on the collar. The three stripes on the chest of the home jersey are carried over from my Collingwood concept (I promise not to do that for all the teams that have vertical stripes, but this time I think it looked good).

The Hawks changed their logo to this very slick design in 2008 and as well as using it on the helmets, I've made it a theme of the entire uniform. The feathered edges of the hawk's head became a wing design for the sleeves and I also carried it over to the pant stripes, which are the same color as the side panels of the jersey for synergy's sake between the jersey and pants (thanks to mbannon92 who pointed it out with my West Coast concept and it's now one of the things I look for).

After all that modern-ness, I felt any number font other than the traditional block would be overkill. And don't even ask me about the white square they stuff the number into nowadays. Ugh.

With as many vertical stripes as there are in the AFL, up next I think I'm coming over all horizontal...

[thebigeh]

Love what I'm seeing so far. The Magpies, Dockers, and Hawks unis are my favourites so far. Can't wait to see what you come up with next.

[RuffDawg]

Melbourne: I actually like the shoulder yokes, and they look 100x better than the Bills yokes. I would use the blue helmet on the home set...there isn't really enough silver in the color scheme to have a silver helmet IMO. Also, I might make the flame design on the road pants blue to match the yokes, but it doesn't look bad either way - your call.

I just now noticed your comment on the Melbourne set. I think you're right about the blue helmet. I didn't want to go with the monochrome look if I could help it but trying to force a silver helmet in there just doesn't look right the more I look at it. The color scheme reminded me a lot of the Texans, particularly the shade of red used, and it works for them.

As for the flames on the road pants, I tried it in blue and it just didn't look... flame-y enough, I guess?

[Luigi]

I really think you should include the white patch on the back of the home jerseys. The only reason Hawthorn do it is because it's a historic thing. Can't wait to see what you do with Geelong, should be difficult but I'm sure your up to it. Please start making your 'next team clues' a little harder, it's way too easy!