Being a former Carlton great, it goes against Robert Walls' DNA to support Essendon.

But the thought crossed the AFL commentator's mind at Etihad Stadium last Sunday when the Bombers kicked a record 15.4 in the first quarter to Gold Coast's 0.1.

Maybe, just maybe, Walls could hand the mantle over to Guy McKenna, as the coach who had the highest total score in league history kicked against his team.

He couldn't - Essendon finished on 31.11 (197), well short of the 37.17 (239) that Geelong amassed against Walls' Brisbane Bears in 1992.

"I never barrack for Essendon, but when they had 15 goals on the board, I started to," Walls said dryly.

"To be honest, I couldn't care less, but it would be nice for someone else to have the 'honour' of coaching the team that's been belted by the most."

Walls was far from the only person to recall the dim, dark days of the "Bad News Bears" as Essendon pulverised the Suns.

Those barren years at Carrara in the early 1990s are exactly what the AFL want to avoid as they pump hundreds of millions of dollars into their new, two-pronged expansion project.

The last two weekends have been the best of times and worst of times for the expansion cause.

A week before the Essendon disaster, the Suns had stormed home in the last term to upset Port Adelaide for their first AFL win.

Everyone outside the Power revelled in the moment.

But last Saturday, Greater Western Sydney continued to prepare for next season's AFL debut by playing the Northern Bullants in a second-tier Foxtel Cup match at the MCG.

The Bullants, a VFL team, smashed them by 89 points as GWS poster boy and rugby league convert Israel Folau had just two possessions.

Gold Coast's mauling on Sunday prompted a warning from former Sydney coach Paul Roos, who said the two new teams in rugby league strongholds could not afford to suffer such massive beatings regularly.

"In a rugby league state ... I can sense the media are going to have a field day in two or three years' time if this extends," Roos said.

"GWS really need to have a good look on the back of this and say 'is the right model what the Gold Coast have done?'"

Walls is not so concerned, noting that unlike the Bears and their disastrous private ownership model, Gold Coast and GWS have guaranteed multi-million dollar backing from the league.

The newcomers also have generous draft and trade concessions.

"The interest will grow ... when I was with Brisbane, people thought they were a basket case - by the time I left, they were on their way," he said.

AFL game development manager David Matthews said the Suns and GWS have good administrators in place and every opportunity to develop great young talent.

He also points out Essendon had several years to shape their team - Gold Coast have had a few months.

"Overall, fans of the game would have an expectation that these two clubs come into the competition and earn their places - I think that's what we're seeing," Matthews said.

But there's another key to all this, something much harder to define.

It's club culture.

Walls is particularly annoyed that Suns hard man Campbell Brown was suspended for four matches last month, right when the club needed him most.

For all the Suns' public dismissal of the issue, Walls is also convinced Gold Coast would have been rapt that the media focussed not long ago on Ablett's off-field activities.

"I reckon Gold Coast would be delighted we said it, exposed it and brought it to everyone's attention because they don't have to do it themselves," Walls said.

Former rugby league administrator John Ribot brings up culture repeatedly as he recalls the days on his code's "frontier".

Just as the AFL are going north, Ribot went south in the late '90s to help set up Melbourne Storm.

In just their second season, the Storm won the NRL title.

There are obviously massive differences, but Ribot's recollections carry weight.

"Sometimes the easy thing is buying the best players, the hardest thing is buying the best team," he said.

"We have little nicknames for clubs in rugby league where we call them transit lounges, zoos, all that sort of stuff.

"That all comes from the players - 'I will go to that zoo', or that's only a transit lounge if you want to go to (play in) England later in your career.

"Those stigmas, they will stay with you."

It followed that Ribot needed strong coaches to help set the right culture - cue Wayne Bennett at Brisbane and Chris Anderson at the Storm.

"It's alright for me in the front office saying all the nice things, but if I haven't got a good coach giving the right messages, I'm dead in the water," Ribot said.

He added he also hated the word "capitulation", saying "I don't mind losing if we have a dig."

On that point, Matthews noted that the Suns rallied from the first term on Sunday and actually outscored Essendon in the second quarter.

It was a short-lived rally, but it was something.

Walls stuck through such barren times and has fond memories of Bears stalwarts such as Roger Merrett and Martin Leslie.

In a way, Wall's toil and uncertainty at Carrara are more meaningful than coaching Carlton to the 1987 premiership, when the Blues wanted for nothing.

"They were hard yards, but they were very, very satisfying ... it makes you feel very good," Walls said

"A couple of the proudest days of my footy career were sellout days at the 'Gabba in '95, Brisbane games against Essendon and Collingwood.

"A few years before, we'd been giving away tickets for people to come."

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