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Let’s get one thing clear: I am not a fan of mass resting. In fact, as someone who has already booked a pricey ticket to tonight’s game more than a week ago, I was a bit pissed off when I heard it was coming.
North Melbourne are resting nine players tonight, and that’s going to make it bloody hard to win. While I’m sure the players who are coming in will give it everything they’ve got, we all know that winning tonight is not the team’s first focus.
And you know what? I’m okay with that. Yes, you should go into every game playing to win, but there’s nothing wrong with being honest and admitting that winning a final next week is more important than winning a dead rubber tonight.
Early in the week social media was full of voices saying North should consider resting players this week to avoid any chance of playing a final in Adelaide – even though the chances of us having to were about a hundred to one.
And make no mistake, they are, and they were even before the resting decision was made. For North to play a final in Adelaide would’ve required North to beat Richmond, Adelaide to beat Geelong, and either Brisbane to beat the Bulldogs or North’s margin over Richmond to be at least 100 points.
Realistically speaking, it was never going to happen. So let’s toss that in the bin right now, this is not happening on the desire to avoid the already nigh-impossible chance of a final in Adelaide.
No, the mantra behind this is very simple. North Melbourne is resting its players to give itself the best chance of a win next week. There is no desire at the club to lose either this week or next, there is simply a desire to do everything possible to guarantee a win next week.
Funnily enough now that the decision is made those same voices who were saying it would be a smart call are now outraged that North has actually taken their advice.
Their main issue is that through resting players, North is doing some damage to Adelaide’s chance of playing a home final. To get into sixth the Crows need one of Richmond or the Bulldogs to lose this week, and that seems unlikely given North’s resting decision.
Well, I can understand why Adelaide fans are a bit peeved, and fair enough, if it was my club in the same situation I would be a bit disappointed as well. But at the end of the day, it comes down to this:
It is not North Melbourne’s responsibility to help you get a home final. Their responsibility is to deliver themselves the best competitive advantage available, just like every other club in the league. And that is what they are doing.
You can pitch a fit and complain all you like but if it was your club in North Melbourne’s position you would not for a second think you should jeopardise your own chances of success in order to help out a competitor.
It’d be great for Adelaide to get a home final, and it still may happen, but if they don’t get one it won’t be because North Melbourne didn’t get the job done for them to open up their path.
It will be because the Adelaide football club did not win enough games during the season to qualify for one on their own merits. That is not the fault of any other team in the league.
I recognise that their position is somewhat impacted by the death of Phil Walsh, and along with the tragedy of that event to begin with, it’s another blow that the resultant missed game may cost them that home final.
But at the end of the day the fact remains that they’ve had plenty of opportunities to win that extra game and book a home final on the back of their own victories. They haven’t done that. That’s on them.
What North Melbourne is doing is permitted by AFL rules, and I believe that so long as you’re operating within the rules, you should do absolutely everything you can to be as successful as you can. Simple as that.
To wrap this up, I know a lot of people are disagreeing with the AFL on this one rather than having a go at North Melbourne, and if that’s your stance then fair enough, I can empathise with you on that one.
Personally, I don’t think it’d be fair to ban this kind of resting though, simply because clubs should have a right to pick their teams the way they want to. Otherwise we’re verging on forced labour and the AFL could find itself up against serious legal challenges.
I think the best way to make this a less common occurrence in the future would be to put a bye round between the end of the home-and-away season and finals. It would give finals more of a build-up and give every player a chance to rest.
Two weeks of rest can verge on leaving a player short of match fitness so most clubs I think would play the season out and then take the bye week without mass resting being a regular occurrence.