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Sports teams across the world all face the same challenge – uniforms clashing with the opposition.
It has become the obligation of the away side to alter their uniform to prevent any confusion, either by wearing their colours in a different design or wearing an alternative colour for the match. That seems to be a very simple and effective solution to the problem.
Well, in the case of the AFL it’s not so simple. Collingwood, a team that you either love or love to hate, has the famous black and white striped guernsey that has become the symbol of the club and is supposedly a trademark of Collingwood.
President Eddie McGuire has gone on record saying that Collingwood shouldn’t be subject to the alternate strip rule that applies to all clubs, because “it is the other clubs that have changed to be like us”.
So based on these beliefs Collingwood openly break the rules set out by the AFL regarding alternative strips and as recently as last year the AFL let them get away with it, to the detriment of the sides they were playing.
The history of all the clubs matters very little to the actual debate, so let’s not get into who owns what colours or guernsey. But for a club to simply refuse to follow clear rules set out by the AFL is outrageous.
Firstly, it’s unbelievable that the AFL, which likes to flex its muscles at every opportunity, simply rolls over to Collingwood. And secondly, that Collingwood is so scared of wearing something different. It almost appears that they believe wearing a different colour will somehow cause them to lose their identity.
The Collingwood argument that it’s their history and that wearing something else will tarnish or diminish that history is quite simply stupid. If an English Premier League club like Liverpool, with millions of fans all around the world and a history that at the very least matches that of Collingwood, can wear yellow or black instead of their famous red, and yet still maintain their history and image, how can Collingwood not have an alternate strip? St Kilda even tried wearing yellow as one of their clash strips. But Collingwood can not.
If Collingwood’s image can’t even handle having to wear a different colour a couple of times a year then there is clearly something seriously wrong with the club. A club’s success that is so dependent on a guernsey might need to look at how it is being run.
Nonetheless, either the AFL or Collingwood need to man up and stop this yearly problem once and for all. Every team has a responsibility to wear an alternate uniform when playing away and it’s about time they all fulfilled that responsibility.
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