Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is the pre-eminent professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL serves as the sport's governing body, is responsible for controlling the laws of the game; the league was founded as the Victorian Football League as a breakaway from the previous Victorian Football Association, with its inaugural season commencing in 1897. Comprising only teams based in the Australian state of Victoria, the competition's name was changed to the Australian Football League for the 1990 season, after expanding to other states throughout the 1980s; the league consists of 18 teams spread over five of Australia's six states. Matches have been played in all states and mainland territories of Australia, as well as in New Zealand and China to promote the sport abroad; the AFL season consists of a pre-season competition, followed by a 23-round regular season, which runs during the Australian winter. The team with the best record after the home-and-away series is awarded the "minor premiership."
The top eight teams play off in a four-round finals series, culminating in the AFL Grand Final, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground each year. The grand final winner is termed the "premiers", is awarded the premiership cup; the current premiers are the West Coast Eagles. The Victorian Football Association was established in 1877 and went on to become Victoria's major Australian rules football competition. During the 1890s, an off-field power struggle occurred between the VFA's stronger and weaker clubs, the former seeking greater administrative control commensurate with their relative financial contribution to the game; this came to a head in 1896 when it was proposed that gate profits, which were always lower in matches involving the weaker clubs, be shared amongst all teams in the VFA. After it was intimated that the proposal would be put to a vote, six of the strongest clubs—Collingwood, Fitzroy, Geelong and South Melbourne—seceded from the VFA, invited Carlton and St Kilda to join them in founding a new competition, the Victorian Football League.
The remaining VFA clubs—Footscray, North Melbourne, Port Melbourne and Williamstown—were given the opportunity to compete as a junior sides at a level beneath the VFL, but rejected the offer and remained for the 1897 VFA season. The VFL's inaugural season occurred in 1897, it made several innovations early on to entice the public's interest, including an annual finals tournament, rather than awarding the premiership to the team with the best record through the season. Although the VFL and the VFA continued to compete for spectator interest for many years, the VFL established itself as the premier competition in Victoria. In 1908, the league expanded to ten teams, with Richmond crossing from the VFA and University Football Club from the Metropolitan Football Association. University, after three promising seasons, finished last each year from 1911 until 1914, including losing 51 matches in a row; as a result, the club withdrew from the VFL at the end of 1914. Beginning sporadically during the late 1890s and from 1907 until World War I, the VFL premier and the premier of the South Australian Football League met in a playoff match for the Championship of Australia.
South Australia's Port Adelaide was the most successful club of the competition winning three titles during the period along with an earlier victory. In 1925, the VFL expanded from nine teams to twelve, with Footscray and North Melbourne each crossing from the VFA. North Melbourne and Hawthorn remained weak in the VFL for a long period. Although North Melbourne would become the first of the 1925 expansion sides to reach a Grand Final in 1950 it was Footscray that adapted to the VFL with the most ease of the three clubs, by 1928 were well off the bottom of the ladder. Between the years of 1927 and 1930, Collingwood became the first, only VFL team, to win four successive Premierships. In 1952, the VFL hosted ` National Day'. Matches were played at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Brisbane Exhibition Ground, North Hobart Oval, Albury Sports Ground and Victorian country towns Yallourn and Euroa. Footscray became the first of the 1925 expansion teams to win the premiership in 1954. Melbourne became a powerhouse during the 1950s and early 1960s under coach Norm Smith and star player Ron Barassi.
The club contested seven consecutive grand finals from 1954 to 1960, winning five premierships, including three in a row from 1955 to 1957. Television coverage began with direct telecasts of the final quarter permitted. At first, several channels competed through broadcasting different games. However, when the VFL found that television was reducing crowds, it decided that no coverage was to be allowed for 1960. In 1961, replays were introduced although direct telecasts were permitted in Melbourne. In 1959, the VFL planned the first purpose built mega-stadium, VFL Park, to give it some independence from the Melbourne Crick
Port Adelaide Football Club
Port Adelaide Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Alberton, Port Adelaide, South Australia. The club's senior team plays in the Australian Football League, whilst its reserves team competes in the South Australian National Football League. Port Adelaide is the oldest professional sporting club in South Australia and the fifth-oldest club in the AFL. Since the club's first game on 24 May 1870, the club has won 36 South Australian league premierships, including six in a row; the club won the Champions of Australia competition on a record four occasions. After winning an AFL licence in 1994 the club began competing in the Australian Football League in 1997 as the only pre-existing non-Victorian club—and has subsequently added the 2004 AFL premiership to its achievements. By the late 1860s Port Adelaide's river traffic was growing rapidly; the increasing economic activity around the waterways resulted in a meeting being organised by Port Adelaide locals John Rann, Mr. Leicester and Mr. Ireland with the intention to form a sporting club to benefit the growing number of workers associated with the wharfes and surrounding industries.
As a result of their meeting the Port Adelaide Football Club was established on 12 May 1870 as part of a joint Australian football and cricket club. The first training session of the newly formed club took place two days later; the Port Adelaide Football Club played its first match against a team from North Adelaide known as the'Young Australians' on 24 May 1870 at the family property of inaugural club president John Hart Jr in Glanville. John Hart Sr would become premier of South Australia the week following the first match. During these early years, football in South Australia was yet to be formally organised by a single body and as a result there were two main sets of rules in use across the state. Port Adelaide's main opponents during the years prior to the foundation of a governing body for the code in South Australia were the now defunct Kensington and Old Adelaide club; the rules of the Old Adelaide club, which more resembled the rules used in Melbourne at the time, were adopted across Adelaide in 1876.
In 1877, Port Adelaide joined seven other clubs to form the South Australian Football Association, the first governing body of Australian rules football. For the first few seasons in the SAFA the club competed in white shorts. In 1878, Port Adelaide hosted its first game against the established Norwood Football Club with the visitors winning 1-0. A rivalry between these clubs would soon develop into one of the fiercest in Australian sport. In 1879, the club played reigning Victorian Football Association premiers Geelong at Adelaide Oval in what was Port Adelaide's first game against an interstate club. In 1880, Port Adelaide moved to Alberton Oval which remains to this day the club's training and administrative headquarters. In 1881, Port Adelaide played its first game against Carlton at Adelaide Oval; that year the club travelled to Victoria and played its first game outside South Australia against the Sale Football Club. During the 1882 season Port Adelaide overcame Norwood for the first time after nine previous attempts winning by 1 goal at Adelaide Oval.
On 2 July 1883 Port Adelaide played its first game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground against Melbourne. In 1884 Port Adelaide won its first SAFA premiership. On 25 May 1885, Port Adelaide played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground against South Melbourne, drawing with the eventual VFA premiers in front of 10,000 spectators. In 1887 immense interest led into the round 8 meeting against Norwood as the previous two matches between the clubs resulted in draws. Norwood won in front of a then-record 11,000 spectators at Adelaide Oval. Attending the match were Chinese Commissioners to the Jubilee Exhibition General Wong Yang Ho and Console-General Yu Chiung who were provided the South Australian premiers private box at Adelaide Oval. During 1889 the club played against the Richmond Football Club at Punt Road, with Port prevailing by a goal; the 1889 SAFA season ended with Port Adelaide and Norwood equal top, leading to the staging of Australia's first grand final. Norwood went on to defeat Port Adelaide by two goals.
In 1890 Port Adelaide won its second SAFA premiership and would go on to be crowned "Champions of Australia" for the first time after defeating VFA premiers South Melbourne. In 1891 the club defeated Fitzroy at Adelaide Oval with Indigenous Australian Harry Hewitt playing for Port Adelaide; as the 1890s continued Australia would be affected by a severe depression with many players were being forced to move interstate to find work. This exodus translated into poor on field results for the club. By 1896, the club was in crisis and finished last causing the clubs committee to meet with the aim of revitalising the club. Historian John Devaney suggested that there was a "conscious and deliberate cultivation by both the committee and the team's on field leaders of a revitalised club spirit, whereby playing for Port Adelaide became a genuine source of pride", it had immediate results and in 1897 Port Adelaide won a third premiership finishing the season with a record of 14-2-1 with a scoring record two and a half times its conceded total.
This is one of only four occurrences since 1877 that the team that finished last won a premiership the following year. Stan Malin won Port Adelaide's first Magarey Medal in 1899. During the 19th century the club had nicknames including the Cockledivers, the Seaside Men, the Seasiders and the Magentas. In 1900, Port finished bottom in the six-team competition, which it has not done in any senior league since. In 1902, Port Adelaide took the field i
Mount Gambier, South Australia
Mount Gambier is the second most populated city in South Australia with an estimated urban population of 28,684. The city is located on the slopes of Mount Gambier in the south east of the state, about 450 kilometres south-east of the capital Adelaide and just 17 kilometres from the Victorian border, it is the most important settlement in the Limestone Coast region and the seat of government for both the City of Mount Gambier and the District Council of Grant; the city is well known for its geographical features its volcanic and limestone features, most notably its Blue Lake and gardens, caves and sinkholes. The peak of the dormant volcano was the first place in South Australia named by European explorers, it was sighted in 1800 by Lieutenant James Grant from the survey brig, HMS Lady Nelson, named for Lord James Gambier, Admiral of the Fleet. The peak is marked by Centenary Tower, built in 1901 to commemorate the first sighting, at 192 m above sea level the landmark is the city's highest point.
Before European settlement, the Buandig people were the original Aboriginal inhabitants of the area. They called it'ereng balam' or'egree belum', meaning'home of the eagle hawk'; the peak of the dormant Mount Gambier crater was sighted in 1800 by Lieutenant James Grant from the survey brig, HMS Lady Nelson, named for Lord James Gambier, Admiral of the Fleet. The Henty brothers who owned large holdings in Portland, Western Victoria, laid claim to the land but were forced to retreat when the lands were granted to Evelyn Sturt, the brother of the explorer Charles Sturt. Industries soon began to appear; the Post Office opened on 22 September 1846, John Byng built the Mount Gambier Hotel in 1847, Dr Edward Wehl arrived in 1849 to begin a flour-milling operation. Hastings Cunningham founded "Gambierton" in 1854 by subdividing a block of 77 acres. From 1861 to 1878 the Post Office was known by this name before reverting to Mount Gambier. Local government appeared in 1863 when Dr Wehl, who now owned a substantial millhouse on Commercial Road, was elected chairman of the District Council of Mount Gambier.
In December 1864 this became the District Council of Mount Gambier West and, at the same time, a separate District Council of Mount Gambier East was formed. Incorporation in 1876 saw a further division, with the creation of the Town Council and Mr John Watson elected Mayor. Mount Gambier was governed in this fashion until 1932, when the District Council of East and West merged to form a single District Council of Mount Gambier once more. On 9 December 1954, Mount Gambier was declared a city, is now an important tourism centre in south-east South Australia. Mount Gambier's urban area is located along the northern slopes and plain of a maar volcano of the same name, Mount Gambier. Comprising several craters, it is part of the Newer Volcanics Province complex of volcanoes. One of these contains a huge lake of high-quality artesian drinking water which changes colour with the seasons. In winter, it is a steel grey and changes to a spectacular cobalt blue in the summer, giving rise to its name, Blue Lake.
This 70-metre deep lake accommodates a range of unusual aquatic flora and fauna, in particular fields of large stromatolites. There are several other craters in the city including the Leg of Mutton Lake; the region surrounding the city includes other volcanic features such as Mount Schank, along with many karst features such as water-filled caves and sinkholes. The urban area extends outside of the City of Mount Gambier into the District Council of Grant where the following suburbs now exist: Suttontown, Mil Lel and Worrolong to the north of the city and Yahl to the east, Compton to the west, Moorak and OB Flat to the south. Mount Gambier has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate; the town has cool wet winters. July is the wettest month with an average of 100.2 mm falling on 22 days whilst February records the lowest rainfall with an average of 26 mm on an average 8 days. The highest temperature recorded in Mount Gambier was 44.9 °C on 2 February 2014 and the lowest temperature recorded was −3.9 °C on 20 June 1950 and 2 July 1960.
Mount Gambier has 40.5 clear days on an annual basis. The government in the south-east area of the state, consisting of three local councils, amounted to a single administration. In consequence, many residents of Victoria used to look across the border to Mount Gambier as their centre. During the 1970s many elderly locals relocated to Victor Harbor and Moonta, both rural areas but with more resources available to cope with an ageing population. A 1976 study found that less than 10 per cent of residents aged over 65 had lived in the area for less than 5 years, leading to a lack of specific aged-care facilities. According to the 2006 Census the population of the Mount Gambier census area was 24,905 people, making it the largest urban area in the state outside Adelaide, the 50th largest urban area in Australia. 51.7% of the population were female, 84.9% were Australian born, over 91.5% of residents were Australian citizens and 1.6% were indigenous. The most popular industries for employment were Log Sawmilling and Timber Dressing, School Education and Retail Trade, while the unemployment rate is approx.
7%. The median weekly household income is A$814 or more compared with $924 in Adelaide. According to the 2006 Census, 60.0% of residents identified themselves as being Christian. The largest denominations represented were Catholics at 21.5%, Anglicans at 11.4%, the Uniting Church at 8.6%, Presbyterians at 6.9%. 26.9% of people claim no religion. A further 12.1% of people chose eithe
AFL Grand Final
The AFL Grand Final is an annual Australian rules football match, traditionally held on the final Saturday in September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Australia, to determine the Australian Football League premiers for that year. The game has become significant to Australian culture, spawning a number of traditions and surrounding activities which have grown in popularity since the interstate expansion of the Victorian Football League in the 1980s and the subsequent creation of the national AFL competition in the 1990s; the 2006 Sweeney Sports Report concluded that the AFL Grand Final has become Australia's most important sporting event, with the largest attendance, metropolitan television audience and overall interest of any annual Australian sporting event. The winning club of the grand final receives the premiership flag. All players in the winning team receive a gold premiership medallion; every club has played in the grand final, with the exception of the two recent expansion clubs, Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney, two former clubs, the short-lived University and Brisbane Bears.
The concept of a "grand" final evolved from experimentation by the Victorian Football League in the initial years of competition following its inception in 1897. During the 19th century, Australian football competition adopted the approach that the team on top of the ladder at the end of the home-and-away series was declared the premiers. However, the fledgling VFL decided that a finals series played between the top four teams at the end of the season would generate more interest and gate money. For 1897, the VFL scheduled a round robin tournament whereby the top four played each other once and the team that won the most matches was declared the winner. However, this method had flaws, so the VFL continued to experiment, playing "section" matches after the regular season and a finals series where first on the ladder played the third team and second met fourth; the winners of these "semi" finals met in a final to decide the premiership. The first such final was contested in 1898 between the Essendon Football Club and Fitzroy Football Club at the St Kilda Cricket Ground, which Fitzroy won scoring 5.8 to Essendon's 3.5.
The second finals format was discarded by the VFL after the unsatisfactory conclusion to the 1900 VFL season, where Melbourne won the premiership after having finished sixth out of the eight teams after the home-and-away season with a record of 6-8. The new finals system caused problems in 1901 when Geelong finished on top of the ladder but was eliminated when defeated in the semi final. A "right of challenge" was introduced, giving the team that finished on top at the end of the regular season the right to challenge if they lost the semi final or the final; this challenge match came to be called the "grand final". The first four grand finals were scattered around various Melbourne venues: one at Albert Park, two at St Kilda's Junction Oval and one at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground; the selection of the venue could depend on the portion of the gate demanded by the ground's landlords. The public remained ambivalent to the concept of finals football until the VFL pulled off a coup in 1902; the MCG was unavailable to football in the early spring months as it was being prepared for the coming cricket season.
The VFL convinced the Melbourne Cricket Club to rent the ground for the finals series and the first grand final at what is today considered the home of the game attracted more than 35,000 people to watch Collingwood down Essendon. The success of the finals at the MCG was proven with big attendances every year, soon all the major competitions around Australia were employing what was known as the "amended Argus system" of finals; the "original Argus system" had been instituted by the VFL in 1901, the amended system was instituted by the VFL in 1902. By 1908, a new record attendance of 50,261 was set, on a day when the crowd was so huge that it broke through the fence and filed onto the ground, sitting around the boundary line to watch the action; this figure was beaten in the 1912 Grand Final. The big finals crowds prompted the MCC to cut down the eleven fifty-year-old elm trees inside the ground and turn the stadium into a concrete bowl, complete with extra stands and standing room; the record fell again in the last grand final before World War I, when the excitement of St Kilda's first premiership attempt drew 59,479 spectators.
The war had a considerable effect on the impact of the grand final and attendances plummeted. One critic called for the Carlton team to receive the Iron Cross after they defeated Collingwood in the thrilling 1915 Grand Final dubbed a "glorious contest" by famous coach Jack Worrall, but many diggers supported the continuance of the game, both the 1918 and 1919 grand finals were notable for the large number of Australian servicemen in attendance, many of whom wore uniform. During the 1920s, the VFL grappled with the problems associated with the "amended Argus system" that a true grand final was not played if the minor premier won both the semi final and the final. Although new attendance records were set in 1920 and 1922, these were for the semi finals, which drew bigger crowds than the grand final. There was no grand final in 1924; the league reverted to the "amended Argus system" for 1925, when t
South Australia
South Australia is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of 983,482 square kilometres, it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, fifth largest by population, it has a total of 1.7 million people, its population is the second most centralised in Australia, after Western Australia, with more than 77 percent of South Australians living in the capital, Adelaide, or its environs. Other population centres in the state are small. South Australia shares borders with all of the other mainland states, with the Northern Territory; the state comprises less than 8 percent of the Australian population and ranks fifth in population among the six states and two territories. The majority of its people reside in greater Metropolitan Adelaide. Most of the remainder are settled in fertile areas along River Murray; the state's colonial origins are unique in Australia as a settled, planned British province, rather than as a convict settlement.
Colonial government commenced on 28 December 1836, when the members of the council were sworn in near the Old Gum Tree. As with the rest of the continent, the region had been long occupied by Aboriginal peoples, who were organised into numerous tribes and languages; the South Australian Company established a temporary settlement at Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, on 26 July 1836, five months before Adelaide was founded. The guiding principle behind settlement was that of systematic colonisation, a theory espoused by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, employed by the New Zealand Company; the goal was to establish the province as a centre of civilisation for free immigrants, promising civil liberties and religious tolerance. Although its history is marked by economic hardship, South Australia has remained politically innovative and culturally vibrant. Today, it is known for numerous cultural festivals; the state's economy is dominated by the agricultural and mining industries. Evidence of human activity in South Australia dates back as far as 20,000 years, with flint mining activity and rock art in the Koonalda Cave on the Nullarbor Plain.
In addition wooden spears and tools were made in an area now covered in peat bog in the South East. Kangaroo Island was inhabited; the first recorded European sighting of the South Australian coast was in 1627 when the Dutch ship the Gulden Zeepaert, captained by François Thijssen and mapped a section of the coastline as far east as the Nuyts Archipelago. Thijssen named the whole of the country eastward of the Leeuwin "Nuyts Land", after a distinguished passenger on board; the coastline of South Australia was first mapped by Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin in 1802, excepting the inlet named the Port Adelaide River, first discovered in 1831 by Captain Collet Barker and accurately charted in 1836–37 by Colonel William Light, leader of the South Australian Colonization Commissioners"First Expedition' and first Surveyor-General of South Australia. The land which now forms the state of South Australia was claimed for Britain in 1788 as part of the colony of New South Wales. Although the new colony included two-thirds of the continent, early settlements were all on the eastern coast and only a few intrepid explorers ventured this far west.
It took more than forty years before any serious proposal to establish settlements in the south-western portion of New South Wales were put forward. On 15 August 1834, the British Parliament passed the South Australia Act 1834, which empowered His Majesty to erect and establish a province or provinces in southern Australia; the act stated that the land between 132° and 141° east longitude and from 26° south latitude to the southern ocean would be allotted to the colony, it would be convict-free. In contrast to the rest of Australia, terra nullius did not apply to the new province; the Letters Patent, which used the enabling provisions of the South Australia Act 1834 to fix the boundaries of the Province of South Australia, provided that "nothing in those our Letters Patent shall affect or be construed to affect the rights of any Aboriginal Natives of the said Province to the actual occupation and enjoyment in their own Persons or in the Persons of their Descendants of any Lands therein now occupied or enjoyed by such Natives."
Although the patent guaranteed land rights under force of law for the indigenous inhabitants it was ignored by the South Australian Company authorities and squatters. Survey was required before settlement of the province, the Colonization Commissioners for South Australia appointed William Light as the leader of its'First Expedition', tasked with examining 1500 miles of the South Australian coastline and selecting the best site for the capital, with planning and surveying the site of the city into one-acre Town Sections and its surrounds into 134-acre Country Sections. Eager to commence the establishment of their whale and seal fisheries, the South Australian Company sought, obtained, the Commissioners' permission to send Company ships to South Australia, in advance of the surveys and ahead of the Commissioners' colonists; the Company's settlement of seven vessels and 636 people was temporarily made at Kingscote on Kangaroo Island, until
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily compact newspaper owned by Nine in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia and a national online news brand; the print version of the newspaper is published six days a week. The Sydney Morning Herald includes a variety including the magazines Good Weekend. There are a variety of lift-outs, some of them co-branded with online classified advertising sites: The Guide on Monday Good Food and Domain on Tuesday Money on Wednesday Drive, Shortlist on Friday News Review, Domain, Drive and MyCareer on SaturdayAs of February 2016, average week-day print circulation of the paper was 104,000; the editor is Lisa Davies. Former editors include Darren Goodsir, Judith Whelan, Sean Aylmer, Peter Fray, Meryl Constance, Amanda Wilson, William Curnow, Andrew Garran, Frederick William Ward, Charles Brunsdon Fletcher, Colin Bingham, Max Prisk, John Alexander, Paul McGeough, Alan Revell and Alan Oakley.
The February 2016 average circulation of the paper was 104,000. In December 2013, the Audit Bureau of Circulations's audit on newspaper circulation states a monthly average of 132,000 copies were sold, Monday to Friday, 228,000 copies on Saturday, both having declined 16% in 12 months. According to Roy Morgan Research Readership Surveys, in the twelve months to March 2011, the paper was read 766,000 times on Monday to Friday, read 1,014,000 times on Saturdays; the newspaper's website smh.com.au was rated by third-party web analytics providers Alexa and SimilarWeb as the 17th and 32nd most visited website in Australia as of July 2015. SimilarWeb rates the site as the fifth most visited news website in Australia and as the 42nd newspaper's website globally, attracting more than 15 million visitors per month, it is available nationally except in the Northern Territory. Limited copies of the newspaper are available at newsagents in New Zealand and at the High Commission of Australia, London. In 1831 three employees of the now-defunct Sydney Gazette, Ward Stephens, Frederick Stokes and William McGarvie, founded The Sydney Herald.
In 1931 a Centenary Supplement was published. The original four-page weekly had a print run of 750. In 1840, the newspaper began to publish daily. In 1841, an Englishman named John Fairfax purchased the operation, renaming it The Sydney Morning Herald the following year. Fairfax, whose family were to control the newspaper for 150 years, based his editorial policies "upon principles of candour and honour. We have no wish to mislead. During the decade 1890, Donald Murray worked there; the SMH was late to the trend of printing news rather than just advertising on the front page, doing so from 15 April 1944. Of the country's metropolitan dailies, only The West Australian was in making the switch. In 1949, the newspaper launched The Sunday Herald. Four years this was merged with the newly acquired Sun newspaper to create The Sun-Herald, which continues to this day. In 1995, the company launched the newspaper's web edition smh.com.au. The site has since grown to include interactive and multimedia features beyond the content in the print edition.
Around the same time, the organisation moved from Jones Street to new offices at Darling Park and built a new printing press at Chullora, in the city's west. The SMH has since moved with other Sydney Fairfax divisions to a building at Darling Island. In May 2007, Fairfax Media announced it would be moving from a broadsheet format to the smaller compact or tabloid-size, in the footsteps of The Times, for both The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Fairfax Media dumped these plans in the year. However, in June 2012, Fairfax Media again announced it planned to shift both broadsheet newspapers to tabloid size, in March 2013. Fairfax announced it would cut staff across the entire group by 1,900 over three years and erect paywalls around the papers' websites; the subscription type is to be a freemium model, limiting readers to a number of free stories per month, with a payment required for further access. The announcement was part of an overall "digital first" strategy of digital or on-line content over printed delivery, to "increase sharing of editorial content", to assist the management's wish for "full integration of its online and mobile platforms".
In July 2013 it was announced that the SMH's news director, Darren Goodsir, would become Editor-in-Chief, replacing Sean Aylmer. On 22 February 2014, the final Saturday edition was produced in broadsheet format with this too converted to compact format on 1 March 2014, ahead of the decommissioning of the printing plant at Chullora in June 2014. According to Irial Glynn, the newspaper's editorial stance is centrist, it is seen as the most centrist among the three major Australian non-tabloids. In 2004, the newspaper's editorial page stated: "market libertarianism and social liberalism" were the two "broad themes" that guided the Herald's editorial stance. During the 1999 referendum on whether Australia should become a republic, the Herald supported a "yes" vote; the newspaper did not endorse the Labor Party for federal office in the first six decades of Federation, but did endorse the party in 1961, 1984, 1987. During the 2004 Australian federal election, the Herald annou
