AFL risks player backlash over Inglis poaching
Roar Pro
By Justin Rodski, 7 Jun 2010 Justin Rodski is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- AFL, Essendon Bombers, Greg Inglis, Israel Falau, Karmichael Hunt, nrl poaching
Australia's Greg Inglis races away for a try. AAP Image/Hagen Hopkins/PHOTOSPORT
I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to slightly enjoying the hysteria and frenzy created by the AFL’s recent brazen attack on rugby league.
But now though, with everyone on high alert and the battle lines drawn, ironically the AFL might end up being its own worst enemy.
In pledging its support for Essendon’s bid to poach Greg Inglis, the AFL is treading on dangerously thin ground and running the risk of completely alienating its own players.
The Greg Inglis situation is poles apart from Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau and funding his defection is fraught with danger for the AFL.
The smash and grab policy in its new expansion markets has been both brave and shrewd, marching into enemy territory the coup was well planned, extremely well funded and executed to perfection. It needed to be.
Fair enough, there was always going to be ridicule from some sections of the industry, however in this case, the potential pioneering impact has been too seducing for even the harshest critics to ignore.
The same can’t be said when it comes to Greg Inglis.
Two new teams, two new markets and two new high profile recruits. Money is money, but the exposure and publicity is invaluable and has landed the AFL an important minor victory in the long running war that is the battle of the codes.
This is big picture stuff and whether Hunt or Folau even play a game is irrelevant in the scheme of things anyway.
Apart from being incredible athletes in their own right, they are well and truly novelty recruits. The lure of Inglis is not.
If the AFL was to offer a similar promotional arrangement for Greg Inglis to switch to a Melbourne based club I can guarantee you right now they won’t be afforded the same autonomy from the current playing group, coaches and the AFLPA.
I wonder how big an impact this could potentially have ahead of next year’s collective bargaining agreement too? Why wouldn’t the players strike or demand far more than they would otherwise if the AFL keeps forking out bundles of cash to code swappers?
It just threatens to create an unnecessary divide, it totally makes a mockery of the salary cap, and fails to reward the elite players already playing the game.
The suggestion his indigenous background would help further promote the game baffles me a little too; the AFL has over 80 indigenous players already playing the game. Sure not many are from New South Wales or Queensland, but to use Inglis’ heritage as justification just isn’t going to fly on this one.
There’s no legal issue but it becomes an interesting moral one for the AFL. Any club can pre-list a player as an international rookie providing he had not been registered in a recognised AFL competition, but here in lies the problem, when the governing body is funding the move, the lines become blurry and the boundaries are lost.
This in a sense opens up Pandora’s box.
Every Melbourne club or any other club for that matter will find a boom recruit from another sport and request the AFL fund his salary outside the cap.
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Brett McKay said | June 7th 2010 @ 8:29am | Report comment
Justin, wouldn’t the Draft and Rookie List systems in their current form basically prevent Essendon signing Inglis anyway?? Surely if Inglis wanted to join an existing club, he’d have to play the lottery of the Draft??
Justin Rodski said | June 7th 2010 @ 8:43am | Report comment
No Brett, they can list a player as an international rookie because he hasnt played in a recognised AFL competition in the past three years, and if the AFL funded the move partially that part of his salary would remain outside the cap.
This is bound to ruffle the feathers of the playing group and as we’ve seen already from Troy’s article this morning on the Roar, they wont be happy and the AFL should be careful now it doesnt get greedy.
Brett McKay said | June 7th 2010 @ 8:56am | Report comment
Indeed it will Justin, thanks for the clarification..
Redb said | June 7th 2010 @ 8:48am | Report comment
Good article Justin.
The potential signing of Greg Inglis is an entirely different situation to Hunt and Folau.
The AFL through David Matthews the newly appointed Game Development Manager has to sniff the air and realise the pace of the changing recruitment climate is going to make players, fans and clubs very nervous. Not to mention the NRL.
I heard Matthews being interviewed on SEN and he certainly did not say 100% the AFL will pay a portion of Inglis’s salary. He said they would look into it, as they would with West Coast if they put Nic Natinui forward in an ambassadorial role in the Pacific Isles.
However, his comments have set off a change of events that he did not foresee. They need to sniff the air at AFL House, take a step back and slow things down a bit.
If Nic Natinui has a marketing worth above his playing salary at West Coast, then the AFL should pursue that and other options of existing AFL players as well. Apparently every club has a $500K sum above the cap they can utilise for marketing the game.
It is a stretch for the public and fans to get their head around Inglis in an indigenous ambassador role to justify paying him over the odds. At the moment all anyone is seeing are NRL players reaping the marketing rewards. That perception needs to settle down.
From an Essendon perspective, we have a young list with exciting players like Hurley, Gumbleton, Ryder, Melksham,etc. If Inglis is any good as a an AFL player he should only be paid what he is worth to help us win a premiership.
Sure some marketing component for Inglis is probably justified, but there are other existing AFL players also worth exploring. There may well be already, but if I was the AFL I’d would make sure these come to light.
Baz35 said | June 7th 2010 @ 9:58am | Report comment
Great article Justin and right on the money. It would be just wrong for a number of reasons for the AFL to “kick in” for Greg Inglis. If Essendon want to pay him $600,000 which i’m guessing would be outside of the cap for the first few years (?) then I have no problem with that. It is speculation by a club that has the money to speculate. North Melbourne cannot afford the maximum cap so would never be able to compete with the big clubs for the AFL’s “marketing premium”.
The AFL would want to draw up some pretty thorough guidelines before they even contemplated subsidising code poaching of established clubs. Even then it would still be wrong.
Republican said | June 7th 2010 @ 11:00am | Report comment
This will alienate many of it’s supporters as well
I find this insulting to our code as a long time Australian Football supporter on a number of levels including what message this sends to the games grass roots, i.e. that the game is easy to pick up and since you won’t see the converse happening where League look to poach AFL elite players, then it’s probably accurate. The games governing body are paradoxically devalueing their code.
I really believe the game is selling itself very well, without resorting to this sort of agressive and dare I say hostile appraoch.
The AFL is cutting of it’s nose to spite it’s face and I for one support League fighting back using whatever means they have at their disposal.
ac said | June 7th 2010 @ 11:20am | Report comment
The backlash has begun already. This cheap trick of a publicity stunt by the AFL just smacks of arrogance. AFL Supporters who love the game will see this as what it is. The NRL fans are just shocked and stunned by what AFL INC has done to get back page publicity. Young AFL players go over to NRL now and you will be recognised earlier and for more $ well before your peers within the AFL
Andrew said | June 7th 2010 @ 11:32am | Report comment
You are competing for market share in the Australian sports entertainment market. The money available for AFL players is tied to the entertainment value in the sport. If AFL players want more money, the game has to increase its market share so competing TV providers pay more for “television rights”.
To the author (and to Chris Judd) I will make it simple: if you want a bigger slice of pie, the pie itself has to be bigger.
I don’t care much for AFL (I live in Sydney). And I don’t care much for the Swans. Luring high profile NRL players into the AFL is a good business strategy. Players like Inglis, Folau, Hunt have huge ‘brands’ (awareness, recognition, relationships) with lots of people in NSW and QLD. If they can make it in the AFL then teenagers in NSW and QLD might think twice about Union or League.
How long have the Lions been in QLD? How long have the swans been in NSW? These individual clubs have exhausted the growth of AFL in these two NRL/ARU strongholds. And their market share is negligible. Demetriou (who I don’t like) and the AFL are showing themselves to be savvy businessman/investors.
The only thing that will stop the AFL’s strategy is a backlash from small minded, ignorant people.
JVGO said | June 8th 2010 @ 8:31am | Report comment
Why are people who object to a purely profit oriented business strategy being small minded and ignorant. When the oil companies put profit ahead of safety are we being small minded and ignorant to object. Or when the strategy backfires and the beaches are full of pollution are the companies exposed as the ignorant ones. This is purely a business strategy, and people have every right to object.
M1tch said | June 7th 2010 @ 11:37am | Report comment
It will be interesting to see the west sydney junior rugby league and afl participation numbers in 2011
Beaver Fever said | June 7th 2010 @ 11:47am | Report comment
I would be hoping that West Sydney auskick and footy would drag numbers away from soccer as i believe it would have the most kids not really committed to the code, besides the fact their numbers would be huge so a couple of hundred or a thousand kids across the board would not have as great a impact on them.
Dont really have a clue what GWS clubs auskick numbers would be, but they are the building blocks for strong junior clubs, but junior footy from under 10′s up in the area is quite weak considering the population. North west is a stronger area though, but Swans lay claim to this ?.
Republican said | June 7th 2010 @ 12:29pm | Report comment
Bever
The ACT are now cosidered part of the GWS demo and therefore any Aus Kick stats from here will be appropriated by them I believe. The ACT has a very high Aus Kick patronage and the code is now represented in EVERY govvy school in the ACT.
Republican said | June 7th 2010 @ 12:35pm | Report comment
Andrew
I don’t consder myself as small minded or ignorant however I am anti the corporate culture that is killing the true virtues that sport should espose. I do therefore take issue with your justifiaction that sport is a business and therefore beyond reproach in this repsect.