Australian "Football" concept: AFL teams hit the gridiron

[BigKwell]

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!

I like to see how you handle a club like Essendon. I'm from the U.S. but I can't imagine not having that red slash on the uniform.

As a greater challenge, how about doing one for the expansion Gold Coast Suns, as well as former clubs Fitzroy, Melbourne University, and Brisbane?

[RuffDawg]

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!

Ha, I could have meant Adelaide with the horizontal reference but you're right, Geelong is coming up later today. I make the clues a little easy for my fellow Americans who would be lucky to have even seen one of these teams on the field before (I spent many years in Australia as a kid so I have a leg up on most over here).

As for the Hawthorn number patch, I could envision numbers inside a white patch on the back of the helmet but I'm thinking any large white area on the home jerseys would really clash with the road team's white jerseys, no matter who they were playing. I might play around with it and see anyway, just for the hell of it.

I like to see how you handle a club like Essendon. I'm from the U.S. but I can't imagine not having that red slash on the uniform.

As a greater challenge, how about doing one for the expansion Gold Coast Suns, as well as former clubs Fitzroy, Melbourne University, and Brisbane?

Essendon and Richmond (who have the same sash design) are probably the two teams I'm looking forward to doing least, simply because of the challenge they present... not to mention Essendon are the team my family cheered for when I lived down there so... yeah, I'd like to get that one right. Something will hit me out of the blue, I'm sure.

I will be including Gold Coast in this series and I also plan on doing two throwbacks as part of the Brisbane Lions set, one based on the old Brisbane Bears colors and one on Fitzroy. University might be a separate "what if" set.

[RuffDawg]

Geelong (pronounced "juh-LONG" for the 5.8 billion of us who don't live in Australia) are up next. Formed in 1859, they're the second oldest club in Australian football behind Melbourne and recently, one of the most successful. After 44 years without a premiership, Geelong appeared in three straight grand finals between 2007 and 2009 and won two of them, giving them 8 titles altogether. The nickname, "Cats" came about in 1923 when a newspaper cartoonist suggested the team needed a black cat for good luck to break a long losing streak.

Geelong's navy and white horizontal stripes have been the team's look since 1897. In other words, this is one I didn't want to mess with but incorporating it into the mostly solid-color world of American football was a challenge. In the end, I decided four stripes on the side panels either side of the number was the way to go. The panels themselves use a gradient fade from the jersey color to the pants color, reminiscent of an alternate uniform the team used in 1998. The home jerseys feature a white shoulder yoke -- designed to be a stripe in itself when viewed from the front and back -- and both jerseys have blue sleeves with the team logo incorporated into stripes. The team actually does this on their clash jerseys which have been used since 2008.

Above the NOB on both jerseys is the secondary logo which the team uses on the front of their AFL jerseys.

The pant stripes are scratch marks which are taken directly from another clash jersey, used in 2007. The team's long history called for another respectful "stick to block numbers", which are both given a double outline. It's harder to see this on the home jerseys, since the second outline is actually in Ford blue, a nod to the team's long-time sponsor.

Talking of cars, if you like sports cars (especially pink ones), the next team is for you...

[mbannon92]

This is the first set I really don't like...you just have a little too much going on. With the sleeve stripes, shoulder yoke, side stripes, gradient, and slash marks, it's trying to combine too many elements. I would definitely get rid of the slash marks and gradient, but I'm not sure about the rest. I'll leave it up to you to decide which elements you like best.

[mcrosby]

Slash marks and gradient need to go on this one. Maybe consider doing a Marquette/Syracuse striping down the pants instead-obviously with only two colors, not three. I don't know about extending it all the way up the sides of the jerseys, maybe just keep what you have on the jerseys now and do the same on the bottom of the pants.

http://www.campuscolors.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/9/C/9C4559_MARQ_NIKE-Y_GD_2.jpg

The sleeve stripes seem to be competing with the side stripes, as they are different sizes, this needs some sort of fix as well.

[InCase]

The gradiant definitely needs to go. But otherwise, another nice design, not sure I am liking the all white of Hawthorn, all white just doesn't seem to go with gold and brown, or at least that much white (maybe a colour for the pants rather then white?).

Looking forward to seeing the rest.

[RuffDawg]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I really wasn't sure about that one when it was finished either (there wasn't that usual brief moment of "damn, that looks great" that I've had with the others).

I've removed the gradient and the slashes on the pants and made the stripes on the side panels the same thickness as the sleeve stripes. I also re-positioned them slightly to keep them aligned with the numbers. The effect on the side panels is repeated on the pants, taking mcrosby's suggestion of the Marquette-style stripes.

You'll notice that there are now 8 stripes on both the jerseys and the pants, a reference to the 8 premierships the team has won.

[fumbler]

I like the second Cats setup better Ruff.

[RuffDawg]

I like the second Cats setup better Ruff.

Thanks, I'm a lot happier with it myself... I agree the first one was a mess. Don't know quite what I was thinking.

I'm making a suggested tweak to the Hawthorn uniform as I write this -- I'll post that and then move on to the next team.

[RuffDawg]

Two changes to the Hawthorn set, one of which is permanent and the other is experimentation. The white-on-white for the road uni is gone, replaced with brown pants. Since the team actually wears brown shorts on the field, it makes sense.

The other thing I did was incorporate the white number panel on the back of the home jersey, making the number black for authenticity. Personally, I don't like it and I don't think it would fly in any league over here given the potential clash with a road jersey, but at least this way I can say I've done it and you can see how it might look. Feel free to weigh in with your own opinion.

Now that that's done, I'm going up north.

[InCase]

The road uniform is much better, very nice.

I agree with you on the number panel, doesn't look right - granted it doesn't look right on Hawthorns guernsey either. The 'history' aspect is kind of void as well, seen as they have worn the number panel for only a quarter of their existance.

[RuffDawg]

That's true. It only made a return in 2006 after being absent since 1974 (and even then it was only first introduced in the 1950s). During the 1980s and 90s, the numbers were brown and no stripes existed on the back at all (as seen here). Those are the Hawks unis I remember.

[RuffDawg]

Here in the States, we sometimes forget how "normal" it is for a pro sports team to move to a different city. When the South Melbourne Swans were given an ultimatum by the Victorian Football League (the predecessor to the AFL) to relocate or fold, the team packed its bags and moved to Sydney in 1982 after 108 years in the south and just 3 premierships to show for it. Since then, they've added another premiership (in 2005) and attracted an entirely new fan base in Australia's biggest city. They became the first non-Victorian team in the VFL and paved the way for expansion to the national competition it is today.

Most other teams in the AFL have either a three-color design or have at least used an accent color here and there at some point in their history. There was no getting around this one: the Swans are red and white. Only twice in their history have the Swans been anything but straight red and white; they used black numbers in the 1900s and a black-outlined swan in a former logo. This made the concept very easy and very difficult all at once.

First off, the helmet. I borrowed some inspiration from the Philadelphia Eagles and put swan wings on the helmet in place of a logo. These are taken from South Melbourne's old logo since I'd set myself the rule of no concept logos. This is one of only two places I've used black in the entire concept; the other is the drop shadow outline on the numbers. There are two other teams I'm yet to do that have red and black as their primary colors, and one of those also uses white very prominently. I wanted to leave the Swans with a unique identity.

Beyond that, there wasn't much to do except try and faithfully incorporate the team's regular design. The yoke with the Opera House motif extends all the way over the shoulders and stops at the top of the nameplate on the back but unlike the original, doesn't go the entire width of the jersey. I added opposite colored sleeves to create the illusion of a V-shaped stripe, similar to what was worn by the team for the last five decades in South Melbourne and the first five years in Sydney. The V-stripe is repeated on the pants.

The number font used is the same as that used by the Arizona Cardinals, just enough of a break with normalcy that the teams don't all look the same. The last detail worth mentioning is the "SMFC" initials above the NOB; it stands for South Melbourne Football Club and has been used by the Swans in the same spot on their jerseys since 1996.

My next two teams will be one who changes their look almost constantly, followed by one who never has.

[mbannon92]

This might be your best set yet! I really like the wings on the helmet, and the jersey design looks really good. It's unique, but not over the top, which I like. And the small amount of black you used was used in the right places. No criticism on these, keep up the great work!

[Luigi]

So i'm guessing St. Kilda next, then the bulldogs? or maybe the lions?

[InCase]

So i'm guessing St. Kilda next, then the bulldogs? or maybe the lions?

Bulldogs have changed their guernsey a number of times. The second teams has to be Essendon.

I'm not sure on the next one though, quite a few teams have changed their guernsey recently.

Anyway, back to the design, the only small issue I have with the Sydney design is the 'V' it is too curved coming over the shoulder and comes in too narrow into the opera house. The V was a big part of South Melbournes heritage, I think that needs to be honoured in the design. But other then that, it's spot on, nice work.

[RuffDawg]

The Port Adelaide Football Club have been in existence since 1870 and were such a dominant force at state level (34 South Australian league premierships) that admission to the AFL was only a matter of time. The only problem was the team was known as the Magpies and wore black and white, which were already taken by Collingwood. I can only assume the meeting at PAFC went something like this:

"Guys, we need to add a color to our scheme since we can't use black and white. Any suggestions?"

"What decade are we in?"

"The 1990s."

"How about teal?"

And thus, the Port Adelaide Power were born. In addition to the color change, the Power have had no less than 28 different jersey designs (not counting throwbacks) in a 14-season history to date. Perhaps ironically, the original design used American-style block numbers. A lighter shade of teal was introduced in 2000 but most other changes have involved a simple switch in number fonts until the adoption of a new style in 2010. Other alternate and one-offs have included designs by 10 year old fans and monstrosities like this and this that would make the Mighty Ducks' Wild Wing jersey throw up in its beak a little. Basically this meant it was open season and I could do anything.

I resisted the temptation to go crazy. Despite the new look for 2010, I used teal for the home jersey being as there are several other teams with black as their primary color and IMO, the new design is pretty boring. To that end, I revived the slash design from the pre-2010 jersey and moved it to the sleeves on both home and road. The other element I brought over from that jersey is the "1870" above the NOB, the year of the club's inception. The side panels on both jerseys feature a dual-color stripe that matches that on the pants. The only other details of note are the double-outlined numbers on the road jerseys which I thought were just nicer looking, the silver facemasks to match the logo, and the black nameplates. The font for the numbers and the NOB matches the team logo.

As promised, the next team will be much, much more traditional and a lot more sensible.

[RuffDawg]

the only small issue I have with the Sydney design is the 'V' it is too curved coming over the shoulder and comes in too narrow into the opera house. The V was a big part of South Melbournes heritage, I think that needs to be honoured in the design. But other then that, it's spot on, nice work.

After looking at the Sydney design again, I'll play with the stripe. I originally tried to angle it to match the curvature of the shoulders and run parallel to the sleeves, but it does come in on more of a sharp angle on the Opera House than what the AFL jersey does. I'll see what I can do with it.

[mbannon92]

These are pretty good...I'm not sure what it is, but I just don't REALLY like them. One change I would make is to scrap the black nameplate, and I'm not sure what the sleeve pattern would look like from the side angle. I feel like only having it on half the sleeve would look odd.

And on a side note, this isn't a criticism, but I found it interesting that the helmet/jersey/number/pants color combination is exactly the same as the Jaguars.

[RuffDawg]

These are pretty good...I'm not sure what it is, but I just don't REALLY like them. One change I would make is to scrap the black nameplate, and I'm not sure what the sleeve pattern would look like from the side angle. I feel like only having it on half the sleeve would look odd.

And on a side note, this isn't a criticism, but I found it interesting that the helmet/jersey/number/pants color combination is exactly the same as the Jaguars.

Ugh... totally unintentional on duplicating the Jags' look but you're right. I went with white pants since black didn't grab me as much and it would have left me with either white-on-white for the road unis or, worse, teal pants. I guess the pants could be interchangeable depending on who they were playing.

As for the sleeve pattern, I'll try replicating it so it continues around to the other side. On the AFL jersey it stops at the seam under the arms and the back is plain black. On the outer sleeves, that's going to be a lot more noticeable.

Update coming.