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The tradition-cracking juggernaut of the naming trial has sailed away and the footy purists can breathe a sigh of relief for a moment.
Footy hasn’t been taken over by Uncle Sam and we can go back to grumbling about rolling mauls and full-forwards never kicking 100 goals anymore.
Putting player names on the back of jumper has to come back soon, though, and the most obvious argument for this is that somebody needs to think of the children.
Kids love to mimic their heroes and dream that one day they will match their feats.
As a Collingwood fan growing up in the 1990s I would have loved to have rocked the Rocca name on my back as I practiced my long bombs at goal. Sporting the jersey of Nathan Buckley, Alan Didak, Chris Tarrant, Scott Burns or Simon Prestigiacomo would have been just as fantastic.
The game is all about the big names, and that’s why we need to copy America.
A massive NBA fan said to me the other day that most people watch sport simply because they want to watch stars. Many footy tragics might be obsessed with the intricacies of Ross Lyon’s defensive structure, but other people just want to watch Gary Ablett Jr because he is flipping awesome.
The NBA is a brilliant example of how star player jerseys have promoted the game and entered into popular culture. Think of how many teenagers you see on the streets these days wearing the Michael Jordan strip even though his playing days peaked before they were born.
Countless young people also want to have Kobe Bryant or LeBron James on their back because it says something about their identity, their fashion sense, their swag, or whatever else you want to call it.
At 35 years of age, Bryant isn’t the highest-paid player in the NBA because he’s the best; it’s because he brings crowds, promotes the game and sells jerseys.
In an AFL context, player names on jumpers could really promote the game in the rugby league heartlands of Greater Western Sydney and the Gold Coast. It doesn’t take much marketing imagination to figure out that the naming move is going to sell more jerseys.
More people buying jerseys in Blacktown and Surfers Paradise means more people walking around as AFL advertising boards, which means the likes of Jaeger O’Meara, Jeremy Cameron or Callan Ward have a greater chance of becoming household names.
The names aren’t necessarily for us to recognise players while we’re at the ground or watching on TV. Some fans have pointed out that their eyesight is simply not that good.
Instead, the whole move is part of the AFL strengthening their market expansion across Australia, and AFL players have been giving the move the thumbs up.
Port Adelaide forward Jay Schulz, the Brisbane Lions’ Brent Moloney, and Geelong young gun Cameron Guthrie have praised the move on Twitter. Lion star Tom Rockliff tweeted, “Great call by the AFL to throw your family name on the back of jumpers. Nice touch, represent your club and your family.”
I’m not sure why we have to be so traditionalist about names. It’s not as if they’re adding an extra post to the game or doubling the value of a goal.
The administrators of the game back in 1911 had the radical idea of putting numbers on the back of jumpers, and the guts to implement it.
Surely we’re not going to let those wild early-20th-century innovators outdo us.
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