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AFL clubs preach loyalty and discipline. If anyone is not 100 percent committed to the team, they are punished – maybe even sacked. Recent examples include Melbourne’s Brent Moloney, who was out clubbing until 3am and subsequently stripped of the vice captaincy.
On the same night, Port Adelaide’s Hamish Hartlett had “a few drinks” with friends and was fined $2500.
And who could forget good old Brendan Fevola, sacked twice by two different clubs for dumb off-field behaviour.
Last week, despite being five rounds into the season, legendary NRL figure Wayne Bennett announced he will coach Newcastle in 2012.
Bennett will stay at the helm of reigning premiers St George Illawarra for the remainder of 2011, but was more than happy to publicly proclaim his plans with the Knights for next year.
A day later, Waratahs and Wallabies star Kurtley Beale confirmed he will join the Melbourne Rebels for the 2012 Super Rugby season. Beale, one of the most talented young Union players in Australia, agreed to the lucrative deal, which will see him don a dark blue jumper at the end of 2011.
While the NRL and Union communities shrugged these signings off like they meant nothing, the AFL community scoffed. If an AFL coach or player were to announce their future intentions at another club at the same time of year, fans simply wouldn’t stand for it.
Mid-season rumours and innuendo cause chaos and mental meltdown amongst the AFL community. Small talk over players and coaches potentially moving elsewhere next season, despite plenty more business to be conducted in the current season, is looked upon poorly and treated with contempt.
Why? Loyalty. Fidelity. Dedication.
Like Sandy from Grease, players and coaches are expected to be hopelessly devoted to their respective clubs in the public eye. If not – no matter where their heart lies – they’re out.
Towards the end of 2010, there was strong word Geelong coach Mark Thompson and star midfielder Gary Ablett were going to move clubs at the end of the season.
After the Cats were eliminated from the finals series, those rumours came proved well-founded, when Thompson accepted a senior assistant coaching role at Essendon and Ablett signed a multi-million dollar deal with Gold Coast.
To their credit, both men considered the club’s best interests and waited until the end of 2010 to announce their 2011 plans. They knew the enormous uproar they would have created if they told the footy public of their endeavours mid-way through the season.
Bennett and Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse have plenty in common. They are masterminds and wonderful tacticians of their respective sports, and have won 11 premierships between them. They are also the AFL and NRL’s reining premiership coaches.
But perhaps the most interesting similarity between the two is both could be elsewhere next season. While Bennett knows exactly where he will be in 12 months time, Malthouse’s future is yet to be determined.
Assistant coach and club champion Nathan Buckley is bookmarked to replace Malthouse at the end of this season and will coach the Pies in 2012 and 2013.
Therefore there has been tremendous speculation over Malthouse and where he will be next season. So if he, hypothetically, went against AFL tradition and did a Bennett in the coming weeks, would Collingwood fans stand for it?
No. In fact, there would be a strong chance he’d be kicked out of the club.
Yes, Malthouse is a legend of the game. Yes, he has already achieved the ultimate success with the Pies by winning the 2010 flag. Yes, he may have formed and developed a list that is set for a dynasty over the next few years.
But if he publicly announced he would coach another club beyond the 2011 season, but still planned to see out his contract with Collingwood, he would receive an avalanche of criticism.
The general consensus amongst the AFL community is that people who follow the two rugby codes think it’s normal for mid-season contract signings and announcements to occur. Well, it’s not normal.
Yes, the AFL community might be a little weak-minded or even a little immature to fail to accept a player or coach seeing greater opportunities and challenges elsewhere. But it’s so much harder for a footy club to function properly when it’s publicly known a coach or a star player intends to move to another club next season.
Dedication is everything in sport. If a team is in unison, both in thought and deed, success will come.
Part of the reason why Aussie Rules has become so successful is because of the loyalty and fidelity shown by the AFL community. Hopefully, for the game’s sake, AFL players and coaches never follow in the footsteps of Bennett and Beale.
Follow Ben Waterworth on Twitter
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