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Welcome to the new AFL, in which players hold all the power and coaches are merely pawns in the players’ games.
An AFL where contracts are made to be broken, and being club captain means absolutely nothing.
One in which any player, is able to hold his club to ransom while not asking for, but demanding a trade to the club of his choice.
This is not too dissimilar to how the AFL’s player exchange period has operated for some time now, but one must admit that this year felt a bit different.
Although the number of completed trades was not particularly high compared with previous years, what was different was the manner in which contracted players simply declared their desire to play for a particular club, while in no uncertain terms telling their current employers to deal with it on their way out the door.
Don’t we all wish moving jobs was that easy?
The current crop of players appear to be more entitled than ever, conducting themselves under the impression that they can change clubs at their heart’s content, regardless of any contract.
Last time I checked, a contract was a binding legal agreement, but in this new AFL that is no longer the case.
This trade period was a farce – the events that took place last week at Whitten Oval saw to that.
Firstly, Bulldogs captain Ryan Griffen, with a year to run on his contract, inexplicably commanded the club trade him to the Giants, citing the need for a fresh start.
Keep in mind that all this occurred against the backdrop of rumblings that senior players were disenchanted with the methods of coach Brendan McCartney.
Stunningly, within 24 hours, McCartney had resigned, claiming his position was untenable.
Something is clearly amiss here. If McCartney was truly the problem, wouldn’t Griffen have been happy that the club ceded to his wishes and unceremoniously dumped the senior coach just for him, compelling him to stay with the Dogs? If a fresh start was really the reason for Griffen wanting to leave, aren’t there 17 other clubs out there that are not the Western Bulldogs? Why did it have to be Greater Western Sydney?
There are eight clubs located outside the Melbourne footy fishbowl, yet GWS was the only destination Griffen would consider.
As a result the Bulldogs, faced with their captain hanging them out to dry, had no option but to deal with GWS, for fear of being labelled inconsiderate, and of alienating any players that may play for the club in the future.
Sorry, but that’s not how it works. Recruiting personnel are tasked with acting in the best interests of the club when it comes to trades. That means maximising the return via trade when a player wants out. As one could imagine it is not always possible to do this when being backed into a corner by a disgruntled player.
In the real world, if we want to leave our job, we’re on our own. Other than possibly a positive reference, our previous employers certainly aren’t going to go out of their way to assist us in landing our dream job working for one of their competitors. The idea is preposterous, yet we consistently expect footy clubs to do this for their former players.
As we all know, the saga ended quite well for the Dogs, as they were able to pry Tom Boyd away from the Giants on a lucrative contract, which leads to another point.
Consider this scenario: the young upstart employee at work comes in one day and stipulates that he or she be released from their employment contract so that they can take a higher paying job at a nearby competitor. After they are laughed out of the room, you realise that they’re not joking and three days later there they are, working somewhere else and being overpaid to do so.
Sounds ridiculous, but that is more or less what happened with Boyd, the 19-year-old who has played nine games, kicked eight goals, and possesses enough clout to start making such sensational ‘requests’.
We tend to think of the AFL as being removed from the American sporting culture, but this new wave of players choosing where they want to play is slowly starting to resemble the free agency scene that is the norm in the NBA and the NFL.
In recent years, particularly in the NBA, we have seen star players force their way to teams of their choice through trade and free agency. AFL players are paying close attention and pining for that same degree of freedom, and we are only now starting to see that manifest itself.
We can only speculate as to who will be the next player to defy the terms of his contract. One thing is for certain though, he will get his way.
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