"Here's a great opportunity for fans to tell us what they think," AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson said on afl.com.au following complaints about Melbourne and Essendon's similar-looking jumpers in their NAB Cup clash on Thursday night.
"Do you prefer to see the clubs in their home guernseys, or, when they've both got dark guernseys like that, do fans prefer one of them wears a clash strip?"
And just as the fans responded with their trademark passion, they were divided right down the middle in their points of view.
One group threw punches from the 'tradition' corner. "It hasn't been a problem for the first 100 years of our game," they said. "Why is it suddenly now?"
"No need for clash jumpers," Andrew Andrikopoulos wrote on Facebook. "White shorts for the away team is sufficient.
"I never had a problem watching Collingwood against North even on black and white TV. There was no problem distinguishing the teams last night."
Over on afl.com.au, Shane Donoghue agreed.
"What a load of drivel," he wrote. "This is another ploy by the AFL and the clubs to boost coffers.
"European soccer clubs tell us as much. They have openly said this is the MAIN reason why they bring out alternative strips.
"I could tell the difference between Melbourne and Essendon easily last night. It's not rocket science. Leave the jumpers alone!"
But arguing the case for the clash strip, another bunch of footy lovers screamed for the AFL to "get with the times".
"I was watching it (Essendon v Melbourne) on a pub-style raised TV and I had to try to squint at the team's shorts to work out who was who," wrote Ashley Midalia.
"If it's good enough for clubs with proud traditions and iconic jerseys, such as Manchester United and Arsenal to have away strips, it should be good enough for our clubs.
"Failing to do so does a disservice to those paying their money to watch the game and is particularly unfair on those who may not have 20/20 vision."
Some fans offered a simple solution: make all teams create a mostly white away strip and have them wear it only in the rare games when a clash is imminent.
Others had a basic request: one in, all in.
"God forbid the AFL ever make any approach to Essendon to produce an away clash strip that is predominantly white," said Bombers fan Adam Serry.
"The large red sash clash strip is unacceptable."
As for Kimber Smith-Fidler, she just wants footy jumpers to be footy jumpers.
"It's not the clash/away jumpers that annoy me," she wrote. "It's the cartoon characters (like the Paddle Pop Lion), the pastel-ombre-who-the-?, and the disco looking jumpers.
"They're just awful. Some of them look like a bad craft project, or a three-year-old got loose with a bedazzler. Not a good look."
All in all, with more 100 comments on afl.com.au and 370 on the League's Facebook page by 4pm on Friday afternoon, the fans were split almost exactly 50-50.
Which leaves us right back where we started.
