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Tasmania Devils

Honeslty, revealing the logo for the 19th AFL team a full 4 years before they are expected to join the league seems like slightly jumping the gun, but here it is!

They've said that "’brushstroke’ style represents the culture of craftsmanship", "helps create a ‘windswept’ effect" and "represents our vast and rugged native wilderness" ... which to me sounds like the sort of thing marketers make up once they're presented with the design.

It's definitely a unique look in comparison to the other AFL teams, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and at the very least they didn't mess around with the colours and gave us the green, yellow and red (or myrtle, primrose and rose, if you prefer) we all expected.

But it does feel quite busy, and in a landscape where so many team logos are being pared back to work in smaller — digital — applications, this one goes in the opposite direction. Without a distinct, recognisable silhouette its mostly disappears on darker backgrounds (like their jumper), and on light backgrounds looks more like a green tornado than a devil ... but maybe that isn't entirely accidental.

Also unveiled was their inaugural jumper, which is essentially the exact same myrtle with yellow map of Tassie and a red 'T' that other Tasmanian rep side have been using for years, just with a slightly more simplified/geometic map of Tassie, it's ok, but I kind of wish they'd done something different.

Overall it feels like an easy opportunity has been missed to craft a Tassie Devil logo that fits perfectly into the distinctive shape of Tasmania, but they won't take to an AFL field until 2028 so there's always time to tinker...

Auckland FC

The A-Leagues newest team have released their identity and their inaugural kit. Auckland were announced as the 13th A-League side in November 2023, and are set to join the A-League Men in 2024/25 and thent he A-League Women in 2025/26.

There are pieces of hidden meanign incorporated into the logo including the 'A' at the top, which also forms a peak which they say is a nod to Rangitoto Island, and if you look hard enough the sheild as a whole kind of makes up a knight's helmet which is to go along with their semi-unofficail moniker of the "Black Knigths".

However they probably could have gone with a slightly more obvious depiction of a knight, as even I missed that until I read about it...

Las Vegas Aces

Fresh off back-to-back WNBA Championships the Las Vegas Aces have completely uncessarily refreshed their brand.

The Aces have had one of the best colour palettes in the league with their 'very Vegas' black/gold/red, and ownership has decided "nah, let's just make them black and grey".

You might ask why, and that's fair, I think most people are, but the reason is simply because their owner Mark Davis also owns the Las Vegas Raiders of the NFL. I didn't say it was a good reason.

It does look like they might still keep a red jersey in their rotation for the coming season which is one small thing to cling to I guess.

Maybe more interestingly this returns the team to the colours they wore from 2003 to 2017 while they were the San Antionio Stars/Silver Stars.

LA Clippers

I had been very worried that the Clippers were going to move into their massive new shiny arena next season with their currently awful brand, thankfully that's not the case.

They have returned the nautical imagery to their logo set ... yes Internet, a Clipper is a ship, it's shocking how many basketball fans, even Clippers' fans apparently didn't know that.

The front-on angle of the ship they chose for the primary logo is a little odd, but it is at least a ship, and there is also the compass elemetns that they're worked into each of the logos in the new set.

Along with the logos they've also refreshed the jerseys, reinstating a modernised-version of the classic 'Clippers' script across the chest, and an updated colour set with a new darker blue, red, and a lighter/brighter blue as a highlight colour. I do wish they've gone with baby blue and and a more orangey-red, but can't win 'em all.

AFC Bournemouth

The club are insisting that despite this new design leaking that they aren't changing their logo, simple 'securing designs for other future uses'.

This new logo calls back to the design they used briefly in the early 80's, but it hasn't been super well received by fans who prefer the current logo — a version of which has been in use continuously since the early 70's with the exception of the aforementioned early 80's Cherries badge.

The skeptic in me says that they fully intened for this to be their new logo and furiously backpeddled when it leaked to less than favourable reviews.

As someone with zero attachment to the club? I actually kind of like the leaked logo...

Canberra Raiders

Having only tweaked the colours and simplified their logo back in 2020, the Canberra Raiders have taken it a step further with this latest iteration.

The navy is more saturated, as is the much deeper green — although the old green feels more classic 'green machine Raiders' to me.

The overall silhouete is near identical but everything has been simplified, less strokes, less jagged beard bits, less detail on the viking helmet.

It's a decent update that definitely helps its clarity at smaller sizes.

Queensland Firebirds

The old logo was feeling a little dated, and a littler like the Firefox logo if we're being honest. The new logo is really simple, it keeps the same 'firebird' but reduces it to a single-colour silhouette.

I can see the direction they were taking, but it feels like a miss. The logo now kind of looks like a purple venus fly trap.

I think there is probably a good logo hidden somewhere in-between these two, that has the modern simplicity of the new logo but the 'fire' of the old one.

Manly Warringah Sea Eagles

Having last updated their logo when they returned as a solo enetity after their "Northern Eagles" joint-venture with the Bears fell apart at the end of 2002, the See-Eagles were probably overdue for a refresh.

Like most other recent rugby league logo updates, this one again seems driven by a goal of simplifying things to work at smaller sizes. Gone is the full in-flight sea-eagle that they've used in some shape or form for most of their history, and in its place just the eagle head, now in a simple two-colour silhouette, remains.

There is a bit of a hidden 'M' in the feathers at the bottom of the head, but I don't know if that was fully intentional or if it is just an happy accident.

Wests Tigers — 25 years

The Tigers are commerating the 25th year of their joint-venture in 2024 and have unveiled a special logo to mark the occassion.

It takes their current primary logo, itself only recently refreshed, and places it upon a reasonably generic shield with a '25 years' ribbon across the bottom.

It might have been nice to see some elements of the Balmain or Western Suburbs history incorporated into the design.

Melbourne Mavericks

The license for Super Netball's newest team was awarded to SEN in July after the Colingwood Magpies side had folded following the 2023 season.

SEN have referred to the brand as "bold" and "game-changing", but I'm not sure in what sense, it's pretty generic, and I can't find much about a winged 'M' that says "Mavericks", if anything it seems like a rushed logo that will probably be replaced by something "bold" and "game-changing" in a couple of years time.

Canberra United

Canberra United are the only club in the A-Leagues that are only in the A-League Women, and they've been long overdue for refesh for a long time.

The abstract Parliament House element is now even more abstract, so much so that I'm guessing 99% of people probably won't notice it (and making the 'flagpole' green is an odd choice).

It's a strong update all around, and fits much better in 2023 than the logo it replaced.

Gold Coast Titans

The Tians had used the same primary logo from their inception, so they were due for an update, but they got it wrong. Real wrong.

It's clear they wanted something simpler, but this just isn't it. They could, and probably should, have used the 'titan' from the original logo and just cleaned hinm up and simplified/changed the colours, because the new 'titan' they've come up with is not great ... there is a ballence somewhere between the new and old, and they didn't find it.

Dolphins

The most controversial aspect of the Dolphins brand is that they chose to be just "The Dolphins" and not "Redcliffe Dolphins" which itself was already a rather strong, well-known identity in rugby league circles.

The dolphin itself is significantly less cartoony that the one that the Recliffe Queensland Cup side, but also stuck somewhere awkwardly between 'to anatomically correct' and 'not simple enough.

I think it will be hard to convince them to re-include 'Redcliffe', or any other locatilty, back into their name, but I can definitely see the logo being tweaked inside the next 5 years even if its only to improve its visibilty in small online uses.

Wests Tigers

You can definitely see the evolution in this logo, the same general tiger gesture is still there, but its all just cleaner.

the detail has been dialled back a bit, it is now much less busy, and the line weights are all chunkier making it stronger and, most importantly, much clearer at small sizes.

The black 'V' and floating tiger paws always looked weird in the old logo, so I'm glad they're gone.

Sydney Swans

The Swans red 'V' logo is a classic, and they could have easily messed this up, but thankfully they didn't.

What we got is a more prominent, and detailed, Swan over the same red 'V'. The very clear Opera House motif from the old logo is gone in favour of a more subtle representation in the featers on the Swan — probably in response to the increased fee that the Sydney Opera House Trust has introduced for the use of the Sydney Opera House 'shape' in logos.

They have, thankfully, kept the Opera House in the 'V' on their guernsey.

Newcastle Knights

It's a little disappointing to see the classic blackletter=style 'Knights' script retired, it would have been nice if they'd been able to keep it but modernise it slightly rather than lose it entirely.

The Knight, now facing to the right for the first time, has also bee simplified bringing it closer to the version that they used between 1998 and 2007.

I'm not sure they needed to drop the 'Newcastle' from the logo, or why exactly they did that.