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The shemozzle over the apparent double booking of Telstra Dome on February 28 raises a seriously worrying question: doesn’t anyone in the stadium’s management team have a diary?
Or did the prospect of two sellout games being played at the same time, with the attendant whopping boost to their coffers, blind them to the reality that you can’t really have four teams on the field playing two different games?
They could, of course, have their cake and eat it – play the AFL practice game early in the afternoon, clear the crowd out after it finished at, say, 4pm, then mark out the soccer pitch and put up the goals ready for the second sitting as the fans arrived, much as they change the tablecloths and cutlery at busy restaurants.
Just kidding, folks.
But seriously, somewhere there must be a piece of paper, or an entry on a computer, that will tell the world – or a law court, if it comes to that, which it could – who made the booking first.
If it was FFA, the AFL could play at Wangaratta or Shepparton and give the takings to the bushfire appeal. If the AFL made the first booking, the Victory could go to Olympic Park – the NRL season fortuitously doesn’t start until March 13, so they wouldn’t be likely to kick up much of a storm.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, so to speak, I’ve been dealing with a lot of similar questions to which the answer is two into one won’t go – selecting my second AFL Dream Team for the coming season.
And believe me, choosing one team from the twelve clubs that finished between fifth and sixteenth is a whole lot tougher than picking one from the top four, especially when part of the brief is to look for young players expected to improve as the season goes on and select them ahead of the oldies where possible.
Those last two words, “where possible”, have a big meaning.
There are some cases where older players demand to be picked because they’re clearly the best at their job, and the team would suffer considerably from their omission, while some others’ absence wouldn’t have quite the same impact.
That’s why you’ll find, for instance, Simon Black, Dean Cox and Jonathan Brown in my team, but not Andrew McLeod, Adam Goodes and Ben Cousins.
I think McLeod and Goodes might both end up wishing they hadn’t played that “one more” year, and while I think Cousins at his top would walk into the team, he has been away for so long that I’d like to wait and see before pitching him in at this level.
Of course, you can’t pick any team like this without incurring a lot of people’s disagreement and displeasure.
For instance, there will be a lot of argument about my choice of four Adelaide defenders among the back six. My answer is that last season the Crows had the equal third-best defensive record, with Sydney, averaging 85 points a game against. Only premiers Hawthorn (83) and runners-up Geelong (75) did better.
Here’s my AFL Dream Team from ‘the rest’ to compare with last week’s from the top four.
B: Graham Johncock (Ad), Ben Rutten (Ad), Paul Bevan (Syd)
HB: Kane Cornes (PA), Nathan Bock (Ad), Nathan van Berlo (Ad)
C: Mark McVeigh (Ess), Chris Judd (Carl), Matthew Richardson (Rich)
HF: Brent Harvey (NM), Jonathan Brown (Bris), Dane Swan (Coll)
F: Nathan Brown (Rich), Brendan Fevola (Carl), Ryan O’Keefe (Syd)
Foll: Dean Cox (WC), Brett Kirk (Syd), Simon Black (Bris)
Int: Aaron Sandilands (Fre), Kieren Jack (Syd), Jared Brennan (Bris), Adam McPhee (Ess)
Emerg: Jason Porplyzia (Ad), Danyle Pearce (PA), Scott Pendlebury (Coll), Austin Wonaeamirri (Mel)
Don’t forget to get your own entries in for the AFL Dream Team competition. It’s a lot of fun and there are some great prizes to be won.
Who’s in your ultimate team? Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars. For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Think. Is this a bet you really want to place? Set a deposit limit.