Club coaches Damien Hardwick and Nathan Buckley say players need to be careful what they’ve wished for as an AFL All-Stars game looms a fortnight before the start of next season.
A revamped pre-season schedule was part of several changes to the 2014 fixture ticked off by the AFL Commission this week.
It has been flagged that the NAB Cup grand final could be axed, with a representative match in a yet-to-be-determined format slated to replace it two weeks before round one.
Players overwhelmingly supported the concept of representative football in a recent AFL Players’ Association survey, with 86 per cent calling for its return.
But Richmond coach Hardwick doesn’t support the concept in pre-season and doubts the star players likely to be picked would be either.
“We’ve got $10 million worth of players and we’re going to put them out (in a pre-season) game,” Hardwick said, starting his response to the question of the showpiece match with a deep sigh and an ‘Oh, dear’.
“I’ll give you a tip. The 86 per cent of the players who want to play – you know who they are? They’re the ones who aren’t going to play.
“You know who the 14 per cent are that didn’t vote for it? They’re the team that are going to play.
“At the end of the day, it’s before round one of the season. We’ve got expensive players that are there to play for the Richmond Football Club. For me, that’s the No.1 thing.”
Collingwood coach Buckley, who could end up risking players of the quality of Scott Pendlebury and Dane Swan should the concept go ahead, wonders how much support players will give the idea ahead of a new home-and-away season.
“The players of the AFL at the moment are feeling that their voice is pretty strong and being heard and they’ve asked for this – the trick comes with how heavily they support it when it’s three days away,” Buckley said.
“I know personally State of Origin was always well supported by players, but when it came to the crunch they would quite often put their hand up and say not me, not this year.”
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