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For most football fanatics, the AFL free agency and trade period is an exciting time of the year. Hopes and nerves are high as every fan’s beloved club takes a gamble or three to improve their stocks for the upcoming season.
However, throughout this chaotic three-week period, I could not help but feel that it is the game itself which is trading away one of its own key tenets: loyalty.
It has been one week since the latest free agency-trade period came to a conclusion.
Thirty-five players found new homes across the 21 days, as did numerous draft picks. For a number of these footballers, this time of year provides an opportunity to gain a fresh start and redeem their careers at a new club.
Though, at the same time, there are a number of established players who left their club behind for – seemingly – little more than money.
Lance Franklin and Dale Thomas are, of course, two notable examples of this in the most-recent trade period.
Franklin, a figure synonymous with the brown-and-gold of Hawthorn, played nine seasons and won two premierships with the club before shocking the football world with a switch to the Sydney Swans in a nine-year deal reportedly worth $10 million.
Sure, it is crazy money. Most would not think twice about accepting such an offer. And with 580 goals to his name, as well as two Coleman Medals and four All-Australian appearances, some would say Franklin owed the Hawks nothing.
But, is that really the case? Do football clubs mean little more than a bit of leisure and a source of income these days?
Driving this point home more strongly is the case of Thomas.
A long-revered figure among the Collingwood faithful, the 2006 Harry Collier Trophy-winner delivered a stern slap-in-the-face to his fans (including yours truly) when he announced he had accepted a four-year deal to move to hated enemy Carlton.
Yes, a switch from Collingwood to Carlton!
If not astonishing enough in itself, the lack of media commentary questioning Thomas’ move was even more puzzling. Indeed, to the untrained eye, it seemed as though the switch to the arch nemesis across town was really nothing out of the ordinary.
While Franklin’s move to Sydney could be somewhat explained with a possible desire to escape the media spotlight in Melbourne, Thomas is unable to deploy such an excuse.
Media reports suggest the former Magpie was insistent on getting a fresh start away from Nathan Buckley’s tenure. If this is true, there are plenty of other options within Melbourne that would have avoided causing such a stir.
It is not an excuse merely because former coach Mick Malthouse now sits at the Carlton helm.
Thomas’ decision to move from Collingwood, an outfit which developed his career and paid his wages for seven years, to a staunch rival (be it Carlton or Essendon, for that matter) is like a knife to the stomach of VFL/AFL tradition.
Yet, is this standard practice in what has come of our modernised game?
Where colours and clubs mean precious little in the face of “superstar” players and their wage demands? Where century-old rivalries no longer mean anything?
Here’s to hoping this trend will be reversed.
Some things are sacred in footy. Well, at least I thought they were.
Bring back the days where footballers bled for the club and colours they played for.
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