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Toronto Tempo

Ever since they were announced as an expansion team, they've been taking their followers through the "process" of working out their identity. Those posts, and the evidence of better names that were rejected, have now all been archived. They say they had over 10,000 submissions for name suggestions, and I'm 100% sure "Tempo" was not the most popular submission.

Somehow "Tempo" was the best they could come up with. Nothing that connects to the Raptors. Doesn't feel connected to Toronto or Canada either. It's just a word that starts with "T".

And then there's the logo…

It's incedibly generic, feeling more like a fan concept for an Indiana Pacers secondary logo, than the primary logo for the first Canadian WNBA team.

The dark maroon and light icy blue colour palette is insteresting, but it neither adds nor substracts from the identity as a whole.

Overall if feels like a name that would be at home in the new Unrivalled 3x3 comp, or the G-League, and a logo that's not worth of either of those. Big opportunity missed.

Golden State Valkyries

Unlike Toronto, Golden State chose to go with a name and overall vibe that aligned with their borther-team the Warriors in the NBA.

They made it their own with the V-shaped crest and distinct black and lilac colour scheme. I really expected them to use the same colours as the Warriors, but the black/lilac is quite nice.

Overall the stretch of the Valkyries name and the logo really drive home how poor Toronto's newly revealed effort is. But not to be outdone, the Valkyries reveleaed their inaugral jerseys, and tried to go with the "big logo in the middle" approach of the Warriors and it doesn't really work. The combo of big central logo, sponsor centered below, and number off to the side makes them look a bit haphazard. Maybe they could have tried to work the number into the logo like the Warriors do, but it would have been cramped, a better option would be to have not included the full logo (the wordmakr on its own is strong enough), and instead used the logo as a more subtle design element.

Also don't really like the white trim on the black jersey. I would have gone full lilac-on-black, and lilac-on-white (or maybe black-on-white) for the two jerseys. They've still got their third jersey to reveal at a later date, so fingers-crossed they are a completely lilac jersey with black trim and details.

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...

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.

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.