Review: AFL Premiership 2007 – An up country punt kick

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 20 June 2007 05:25

Opinion and Analysis

Microsoft Office 365

The retro uniform collection came about from a discussion during the AFL Premiership 2006 development period with Rob Meredith of Footyjumpers.com.

We thought it would be a fantastic platform to educate the football fans on the changes football jumpers have taken over the years. The addition of selectable guernseys for the 2007 game made the prospect of adding jumpers from the past even more attractive.

The selection process was an interesting one. As you view the history of a club's jumper you notice that over time there are periods of subtle change (a number font or larger stripe) and the major changes are few and far between. This meant we had to look at alternate jumpers like preseason, heritage and promotional ones to provide the variety. It was very easy to generate a large list of jumpers for inclusion into the game. At this stage we had not consulted the AFL for approval of their inclusion. The idea was to generate the art assets and allow the AFL and clubs to visualise its inclusion into the game more easily by showing rendered players sporting the retro uniforms.

Rob has a fantastic knowledge of the history of the uniforms so the process was a smooth one. I'd generate the textures and render them onto a player. These renders were then sent to Rob for approval and feedback. We started with over 150 uniforms that covered all 16 AFL teams. This process required a great attention to detail however. We decided we'd go all out to make sure the jumper, shorts, socks, numbers and even boots in some cases were as authentic as possible. There were some limitations with the player model and we made some changes to suit the model but in 98% of the cases this is how they looked.

We then submitted the uniform renders to the AFL who absolutely loved the idea and they were enthusiastic in their selling of the idea to the clubs.  Each AFL club looked at the proposed uniforms and suggested changes or in some cases alternate guernseys for approval. Major changes from the initial submission included adding the current AFL logo (removing old VFL and AFL logos) and removing sponsorship from uniforms and boots. The clubs were supportive of the proposal and the process of approval was a pleasure to work on.

Some teams provided deeper histories than others. Brisbane for example, allowed us to embrace the history of the Fitzroy Football Club. Likewise Sydney with South Melbourne. As a result these two sides have some very interesting uniform selections for the gamer.

The result was over 100 retro uniforms for inclusion into the game. We haven't included every jumper ever used by the clubs but we have a diverse and interesting collection that is sure to educate the gamer of the deep history the game of AFL has.

Highlights of the uniforms included are;
      A Collingwood guernsey from the preseason of 1982 that has no       vertical stripes!
      Richmond wearing yellow shorts
      Carlton with the light blue promotional jumper
      The Kangaroos orange jumper from 2000
      Hawthorn's awful jockey preseason jumper of 1995
      The classic Fitzroy guernsey we all miss
      Port Adelaide's prison bar jumper from the heritage round of 2003
      An all-red South Melbourne guernsey from 1921
      All uniforms prior to 1950 have players wearing old leather boots from the turn of the century
      Richmond and Hawthorn uniforms from the 70s have yellow boots