In Australian rules football, country zoning refers to a system whereby clubs in a competition are given parts of the rural area and the football clubs within that area as exclusive zones for the recruitment of players. In the VFL, country zoning is often referred to colloquially by historians as simply "zoning", even though it is closely linked with the metropolitan zoning of players from local urban leagues that had been used for over fifty years before country zoning was introduced.
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Background
Country zoning was introduced by the VFL as an effort to prevent the monopoly by a small number of clubs of the best players from the major country football leagues. The ability of a small number of wealthy clubs to buy the best country-based players had led, in the late 1960s, to a situation whereby only six of the twelve teams then competing in the VFL were able to make the finals between 1965 and 1969. In earlier generations, the metropolitan-based clubs did not have the finance to pursue top country players, but with increasing urbanisation and the concentration of resources in metropolitan Melbourne, such clubs as Essendon, Geelong, Carlton and Collingwood were able to buy so many players from country leagues that their dominance of the competition was becoming entrenched. Country zoning aimed to alleviate this problem by giving each of the twelve VFL clubs a zone from which they, and they alone, could recruit players. The idea was that the best country-based players would be much more evenly divided amongst the twelve clubs than had been the case during the later part of the 1960s. Metropolitan zoning had in previous decades done quite a bit to prevent the best players being monopolised by any one club, but the value of metropolitan zoning was being lost as country-based players moved in increasing numbers to Melbourne.
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The rules of country zoning were strict, so that a player within a given country zone was legally tied to the club who held that country zone and was eligible to play only for that club - except in the event of a clearance when the club who ordinarily would hold him allowed the player to leave. Combined with metropolitan zoning, it meant every potential VFL player was tied to a particular club. Country zoning, as drawn up by the VFL between 1967 and 1969, covered Victoria and the Riverina region of New South Wales, extending up to the Murrumbidgee River, north of which rugby league is the dominant code of football. Because of the sparseness of Australia's rural population, the country zones did not relate, as did metropolitan zones, to the player's address, but rather to the league in which he played. (As it turned out, this difference was a critical component of the failure of country zoning, because it made the zone boundaries impossible to adjust, whereas metropolitan zones were constantly adjusted to even up the strength of various clubs' zones). Because the VFL was aware that discrepancies existed in the strength of each zone, it was originally planned that the zones would be rotated so that each club would obtain a chance of receiving the best young country players. However - partly because those clubs with productive zones were naturally unwilling to give them up for less productive ones - the zones remained the same from the inception of country zoning until it was abolished. There was also no provision for demographic changes which occurred in the various country zones, which studies have shown to exacerbate the problems mentioned above.
Effects of country zoning
Country zoning undoubtedly had profound effects on the history of the VFL during the period in which it was in place, not all of which have been generally regarded as beneficial. Probably the most profound consequence of country zoning was the dominance of the VFL competition during the period it was in place by a small number of clubs. Between 1967 and 1983 only Carlton, Richmond, Hawthorn and North Melbourne won the VFL premiership. Australian Rules historians have constantly noted that these clubs were assigned the best country zones. Having strong country zones permitted these clubs to build up lists more powerful than any club could build before or after zoning. In contrast, Melbourne and South Melbourne, who had probably the worst country zones, only played two finals between them during country zoning. Some writers on VFL history have argued that the inequalities created by country zoning were much greater than those created by club wealth beforehand - let alone inequalities from metropolitan zoning - and that some clubs lost many players they would have gained were players able to move to the club nearest to them. This was especially true of St. Kilda, whose return to the bottom of the ladder in the 1970s has been related by some to its loss (to Hawthorn) of many players from the Frankston area which was already becoming part of metropolitan Melbourne when country zoning began (and was complete when it ended). Defenders of country zoning have argued that it provided greater incentive for VFL clubs to look for players in country leagues, and that its abolition has meant that this incentive has been lost.
End of VFL country zoning
By the beginning of the 1980s, many were realising country zoning was not having the effects the VFL originally desired it to. In 1981, the system of player permits based on country and metropolitan zoning was threatened by two cases. In the better-known of these, a full-back from SANFL club West Torrens, Doug Cox, had his permit to play with St. Kilda challenged because he had played in the past for South Mildura, which was within Richmond's country zone. St. Kilda temporarily lost eight points for two wins against Footscray and Melbourne, and were fined $5,000 for playing Cox in the first eight rounds. In a similar case, South Melbourne centre-half forward Michael Smith admitted he gave wrong information on his application for a permit to play with South - his true address was in St. Kilda's zone. South were going to lose four point but the VFL, challenged the Cox case to be more lenient about its seemingly-archaic zoning laws, was considering changing the rules and South were not punished. The end of zoning, though, came in the 1980s with the Foschini Case, whereby the Sydney Swans and St. Kilda had a protracted legal battle over a teenage rover/forward, Silvio Foschini. Foschini, who did not want to move to Sydney when South Melbourne did so in 1981/1982, was refused a clearance to play with St. Kilda. After a prolonged court case, Foschini was ruled a St. Kilda player, and in the process zoning was declared to be an illegal labour market restraint. The VFL retained zoning for two more years but radically altered the system of clearances and player contracts. In 1985, with the competition less competitive than ever (only six clubs had made the Grand Final since 1972), the VFL realised that reform of the system of player trading was needed. This led to the replacement of zoning with the player draft, which studies have shown to be much more effective at equalising club strength than country zoning ever was. In competitions such as the SANFL and WAFL, however, country and metropolitan zoning are still used today, despite the declarations concerning their use in the VFL. The SANFL, which introduced country zoning of South Australia in 1973 has made efforts to make country zoning less inflexible than it proved in the VFL though making provisions for the adjustment of zone boundaries. In the WAFL, however, there is already distinct concern country zoning is creating inequalities in available talent.
