Footy has always had an intrinsic relationship with space. The origins of the game, right to the first game, have foundations in paddocks and parklands.
Of all the codes of modern football, the Australian game requires the most real estate to play.
The first game of Australian football was played in the paddocks in front of what we now know as the MCG, the gigantic field making scoring hard.
Given the large amount of space, winning territory is critical to the way the game is played. To win games of football you need to score; to score you need the ball at your end.
Winning territory off the field has long been a focus for the administrators of the game as well.
For more than 100 years, games at the top level have been shipped to cities, country towns and even overseas. The main focus has been to grow the game and reward country areas already devoted but often overlooked.
The first interstate V/AFL game was held 120 years ago, when Collingwood and Fitzroy headed north to play in front of 20,000 Sydneysiders. Since then, the AFL has grown into a national competition.
This weekend sees the latest evolution of the expansionist ideal: the AFL's first Gather Round, where all nine matches will be played in South Australia, akin to the NRL's Magic Round in Brisbane.
The festival of football is the first time in about two years that all the games in a round have been held outside Victoria. And unlike last time, COVID isn't the reason.
Two new venues will be added to the list of grounds that have hosted V/AFL footy: one that hearkens back to its suburban days, and one that represents a place rarely visited.
For the AFL, Norwood and Mt Barker represent a lived past and an imagined one.
The game in the town that doesn't exist
Some traditions are built over time, others are deliberately created. In 2015, one of the latter was conceived, with the AFL holding the first Country Match.
The festivities around the game featured a farmer's market, farm equipment and decorative hay bales. Unfortunately, the game's intent was undercut by being within 1.5 kilometres of the CBD of the biggest city in the continent.
On Saturday, the clash between Brisbane and North Melbourne will be played in an area much closer to the country and the paddocks seen in the early days of the game.
While other codes, and even football leagues, have embraced rural and regional areas to host matches in recent years, the AFL has rarely played competition matches outside cities.
Mt Barker represents possibly the smallest town (or isolated suburb) in which the AFL has set up shop for a premiership match since the ruling body of the day decided to take the game across the nation in 1952 with the Australia Round.
Games were sent to more obvious cities, such as Sydney, Brisbane and Hobart, as well as regional Victorian and border towns.
Bendigo originally lobbied for a game before the local associations rejected it, with the main reason being that locals would prefer seeing their local clubs play than VFL teams.
Trafalgar, a small town in Gippsland, was then mooted, before St Kilda raised concerns over facilities.
In the end it was the trio of Albury, Euroa and Yallourn that were selected. The last of these holds a special place in V/AFL history as the only match to take place in a town that no longer exists.
Yallourn was a company town built solely as the base for coal mining and coal-fired power stations.
Victoria's State Electricity Commission was responsible for much of the employment in town. These days, most people know Yallourn from the name of the coal plant there, one of three remaining in Victoria.
On game day, conditions were horrid across much of the eastern seaboard. The game in Brisbane was postponed a day, while the Sydney match was played in driving rain.
Albury and Euroa were mostly able to avoid the adverse conditions, and bumper crowds turned up at both games. It was estimated that 7,500 people turned up in Euroa — remarkable considering only 1,900 people lived in the town.
In Yallourn, the conditions were even worse than in the northern states. Coal dust was used on the ground to soak up some of the rain, but it just turned into ankle-deep sludge.
Goals were hard to come by and the locals were reportedly less than impressed by the elite players' ability to hold marks. St Kilda were able to make better use of the conditions and held on for their first win of 1952 over Footscray, practically ending the Dogs' finals chances.
In the coming years, the ground and eventually the township were eaten up by the neighbouring coal mine pit. Some houses were relocated to neighbouring areas, and these days, according to the 2021 Census, just 143 people live in the regional properties around the Yallourn area.
Mt Barker is unlikely to follow down the Yallourn pathway — the Adelaide Hills is one of the fastest-growing regions in the state, and it sits just 30 kilometres from Adelaide itself.
The local club, affectionately known as the Barkeroos, have been around for over 141 years and show no signs of slowing down.
Compared with other Hills Football League rivals, the club hasn't produced many AFL players, but has been competitive on the field.
On Saturday, all the locals will hope the rain stays away — or is at least delayed.
From the suburbs
Just a generation or so ago, almost all major footy games were played in venues tucked inside suburban streets. Each club's home ground was their fortress, often with unique ground dimensions and nuances to make the opposition feel uncomfortable.
As the V/AFL professionalised, the era of the suburban ground came to a close. Unlike in the NRL, or the state leagues, the AFL rapidly moved to only playing games at the biggest venues in the home team's region.
This weekend, however, sees a return to the past. The proud Norwood Football Club will host two games across Gather Round. In recent years, Norwood Oval has been redeveloped, but still managed to retain its century-old charm.
Like the grounds of old, Norwood has its quirks, including a square wing — a straight line, parallel to Woods Street.
It's a relatively common feature in Adelaide where grounds were built around the expanding suburbs, and not the other way around, constrained by Adelaide's planned grid.
Norwood Oval is currently the narrowest regular home ground in use in the SANFL.
The Norwood club is also a powerhouse in South Australia, having won 31 premierships in the SANFL's history. That's second only to Port Adelaide, and well ahead of the rest of the pack.
The AFLW has brought elite national footy to the ground in recent years, and now the Gather Round represents another chance for footy fans to remember or experience for the first time how footy used to be, albeit with slightly nicer conditions.
Cash Rules Everything Around Me
There's another element to why games get taken away from their usual locations: money.
After initial speculation that the concept would be used to drum up football interest in Sydney, the SA government came through and offered up a big premium to bring the round there.
Given the commercial-in-confidence nature of the bidding process, the exact cost of Gather Round has yet to be fully disclosed, with the best estimates varying.
These estimates suggest the South Australian government are paying a higher per-game rate when compared with purchases of AFL games by other states and territories.
But the focus given to this round clearly places it as a premium product with two double-headers, four Adelaide Oval fixtures and seven events total.
For their investment they've reported selling about 60,000 tickets outside South Australia across the four days, possibly filling around 5,000 extra hotel rooms compared to a normal April weekend.
Instead of games involving only low-drawing teams, each and every team is guaranteed to be represented, drawing fans from across the nation.
Time will tell if the concept will stick, or go the way of the Australia Round.
