- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
An interesting article appeared in the Sunday SMH from Craig Foster: Tim’s army is winning code war.
The title drew me in immediately, but I was soon left a bit disappointed to find Fos descending into the wide eyed speculation and wishful thinking we sometimes see of our younger bloggers.
I have a great deal of respect for Fos, in particular, the analysis and understanding he brings to unraveling the tactics managers use in games at the elite level, but on this occasion, I can’t help thinking he has missed the mark by a wide margin.
Early on Fos mentions attending a charity luncheon in Melbourne, which he describes as venturing into the “heart of a rival code”.
This immediately struck me as odd. Melbourne, the home of the biggest and most successful football club in the land, reduced to being viewed as the home of a rival code instead?
Much of the article then goes through various “smell the fear” cliches that we’ve heard without cessation since the establishment of the FFA some 5 years ago.
Towards the end of the article, Fos draws on a quote from an AFL rep, that “everyone can coexist”. Fos took this as a sign of weakness from the AFL, foreshadowing a times-are-a-changin’ scenario of biblical proportions “as the strong become weak and the weak ever stronger”.
Now I understand how segments of his readership would lap up that sort of wishful thinking, but people should be aware that all indicators presently available to us show that what Fos is saying isn’t based on anything too solid.
But never mind what the financial figures and metrics show, let me all give you an insider’s view of how the AFL hierarchy contemplates such matters.
It was some 10 years ago that I attended a presentation made by the then AFL CEO, Wayne Jackson, at the National Press Club.
He responded to a question very similar to the kind Fos heard at the luncheon, and his response was along similar lines: “All the codes can coexist”.
Let me tell you, the AFL has been trotting that line out since the national comp was first formed in 1990 (when the VFL officially became the AFL).
Sitting in Sydney, seemingly oblivious to all relevant metrics and indicators, Fos probably can’t see it, but I see it as clear as day.
When an AFL CEO says “we can all get along just fine”, I promise you this: he doesn’t say it from a position of weakness!
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.