This is really interesting. I've loved reading the discussion.

Traditional Australian Rules Footy fans judge success of their team on where they finish on the ladder in a particular year, but to think that in the future, footy fans can judge success of their national team on a ranking system that accumulates and stays up to date, is pretty awesome. it also helps with teams who cant make some tournaments or play teams in other regions regularly, but can still have a presence in the ranks.

I like the system as a concept to adhere to for the future. But it's still a few years off being able to be a good indicator and have any merit in being an official ranking. the provisionals that brett added in are a good idea. How you phase Australia in there- I'm not sure. But i've no doubt they deserve #1 for quite a while.

set the system up, keep collating the info.

other comments:
-9s matches don't count. this is a ranking of standard international test matches played under AFL International Cup regulations. its for the long term. and you can still set up a separate international 9s ranking as that area of the game emerges. or use the experience playing 9s to one day also have a formidable 18v18 team. its ok to include some 16v16 matches- restricted by space or numbers, but i think thats it. brett has also made good points about 9s being euro dominated as far as national teams go and having played with different eligibility regulations in past tournaments. e.g. handicaps for aussies etc.
-if it becomes official, needs to have AFL involvement and endorsement. as international matches increase, and AFL effectively act as the IRB or FIFA, the AFL, or someone else, needs to confirm that a certain match is a sanctioned international test match that is played under proper rules and match officiation. then you are sure where the ranking counts. its a while away, but you could have arguments over whether a development squad of south africans on tour who play a match against china for example, and lose by 10 goals, and people think that china will head up the ranks. likewise with 'breakaway' groups or expat involved national teams. perhaps similar set up to 'friendlies' concept in soccer. i guess arguments are unavoidable either way, but someone needs to decide what is a 'test match' and what isn't.
-I think International Cup rules is a good indicator, there may have been some aussies technically playing in past IC tournaments, but in these cases, they applied and were deemed eligibile to play, and i don't think it affected many results anyway. still a good indicator of where the countries are at. games that end up being more for practice and experience and add experienced aussies in the 2nd half for example to even things up would unfortunately have to be deemed invalid.

Just so people know, Sanga is Andrew Sawitsch, who is heavily involved with development in China. And yes, I checked with him that it was okay to name him here (Sanga is his well known nickname). But he did note that the comments are "made as a long time fan of international footy rather than taken as any official statement etc."

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

I agree with Sanga that ultimately any ranking has to have AFL sanctioning, as do the matches that qualify, if it is to be considered official - for the simple fact that the leading nations recognise the AFL as the world governing body. So as long as that is the case then they would have the final say as to whether something is official.

But at this stage they don't appear to have pushed for such a system, so I figure if one is put in front of them that the Leagues support then there is a good chance they would sanction it down the track. And until such time that they do sanction some kind of system, then finding one is worth exploring. I think we pretty much all agree on that, although we may not all ever agree on what that system should look like!

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN