“Everything I learned about morality and the obligations of men, I owe to football” – Albert Camus.
I grew up playing and umpiring Australian football. I come from a family of footballers who have played and served the game from local to national level since the late nineteenth century. I want my children to grow up playing Australian football.
Yet, I have a growing concern that this might not be the case. However well-intentioned, the AFL is slowly undermining the game we love.
What has made Aussie rules an enduring, successful sport in this country for generations is the connection between country, community and club. According to football orthodoxy, the sport was codified from an Indigenous game – marngrook.
Australian football is an expression of this island continent’s boundless plains.
Unlike imperial sports that were codified on an island bereft of space (e.g. rugby, hockey, soccer) Australian football is unique in that it does not have an offside rule. The offside rule regulates what space players may occupy in order to localise a game on a small scale.
In contrast, Australian football has immense scale. The early games in Melbourne in the 1850s were played on grounds over a kilometre long.
The first Australian football games were played between clubs formed from communities that wished to compete against each other.
In turn, these clubs formed leagues. This community-based organisational structure sustained the development of the game in this country for decades. But a club is nothing more than the people that make it.
All football fans owe a great deal to those that volunteer to make the sport what it is; those that coach, manage, run the canteen, mow the grass, umpire, take the gate.
A close up of a Sherrin. (AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy)
However, this voluntarist, community-led structure of the Australian football in this country is slowly being undermined by the AFL. This is being done through an over-emphasis on football-as-spectacle and the restructuring of community-based leagues throughout the country.
Before the AFL was formed in 1990, Australian football was a community-based sport. The sport was administered on a decentralised basis with decision making and power dispersed among the constituent states and territories.
The Australian National Football Council governed the sport until 1995. The ANFC was a body of delegates representing each of the state and territory leagues that controlled the sport in their jurisdictions.
The ANFC governed the rules of the game and managed interstate administrative and football matters. In 1995, the AFL took over the administration of the game throughout the country.
The AFL is governed by an eight-member commission elected by its 18 clubs. This structure of the commission ensures there are no formal links to community; community has no influence over decision making that affects their sport.
What is the AFL? The AFL is certainly not a sport; it’s a competition. I was never lucky enough to play AFL. But to explain Australian football to foreigners and anyone north of the Barassi line, I played AFL. The AFL brand transcends the sport, to the detriment of Australian football.
Moreover, the AFL is less an organisation that administers a football competition, more a media organisation that produces football content.
The AFL’s primary objective is to produce football-as-spectacle, maximising audiences, revenue for advertisers and broadcast partners. The AFL’s competition is not just other sporting codes, it’s anything it competes against for eyeballs: Netflix, computer games, sleep.
A tension emerges between the AFL’s drive to maximise audiences, administering a fair football competition and the long-term sustainability of the game at community level. Sometimes these concerns align, but often they do not.
Let’s quickly examine the AFL’s administration of its own league. The AFL has a series levers at its disposal it uses to develop football “narratives”. These levers include the draw, the rules, the draft, the salary cap, the umpires, and the match review panel.
None of these levers are open to scrutiny and decisions made often take precedence over quaint notions of procedural fairness and natural justice. The AFL can silence competing independent football narratives through cancelling the accreditation of journalists, which it sometimes threatens.
An emerging perception that the AFL engineers results damages its brand and Australian football. Characterising the AFL-as-media-organisation might explain a number of recent decisions: the Melbourne tanking non-decision, Adelaide’s player payment punishment, Sydney’s trading ban, COLA, the Essendon 34, Trent Cotchin’s preliminary final hit, score review debacles, fan expulsions from games, AFLX.
But to what end? Why does it seem like the AFL more interested in managing public relations than managing a fair competition?
The AFL tinkers with the rules for the elite competition to speed it up, slow it down, clear up problems of its own making, all to make the product more spectacular. There’s an old saying that you can’t fix what you won’t acknowledge.
Working in policy for the AFL would be amazing because they don’t only acknowledge problems, they revel in making them. The AFL finds problems and fixes them, only to make bigger problems that need fixing.
• Ball movement is too fast! The AFL changes the rules to slow the game down (subs, capped interchanges)
• Ball movement is too slow! The AFL changes the rules to speed the game up (we now have slower ball movement)
• Fremantle rests some players the week before finals! The AFL puts in a bye to stop that happening
• There’s nothing to do in the week before finals! The AFL suggests a wildcard round in the week before finals.
Gillon McLachlan (AAP Image/James Ross)
The policy objective that runs through most of these decisions is maximising audiences for football content, often to the detriment of common sense and Australian football
This isn’t limited to the men’s game; the AFL recently wrote to the women’s league directing it to make changes to increase scoring.
In response to criticism regarding rule changes and interpretations after round seven in 2017, Gillon McLauchlan, in an interview published on the AFL website with an AFL-employed journalist, said:
“I think we are not talking about the important role the rule changes have made to the quality of the game … The football is exceptional at the moment: high-scoring, entertaining, the crowds are fantastic and the ratings are fantastic.”
How fantastic for the umpires at a local level who must apply these rules and interpretations at a local level. Community umpires must contend with ever-changing rules handed down from the mountain, their often-illogical interpretations together with irate players, administrators and spectators who often think they know better than the umpires.
Increasing violence against umpires is a concern. The AFL must make community umpires’ jobs, easier, not harder.
However, more concerning is the AFL’s hubristic managerialism that is unwinding community-led football leagues that have endured and succeed for the past 150 years. The AFL is implementing a Soviet-style hierarchical structure to replace community-based football leagues with AFL-administered leagues.
Players compete for the ball in a grassroots game (Photo by Michael Dodge/AFL Media/Getty Images)
Why would the organisation that runs the elite competition wish to intervene at the local level? Because the AFL wants to implement a vertically-integrated pipeline of talent for the elite competition.
This disenfranchises communities. Young, promising players are plucked from community and enter elite “pathways”. Not only do the players leave the community, but so too their families.
A club loses a player as well as a coach, a goal umpire, someone to run the canteen, brothers and sisters. These people don’t necessarily return to community and once a player enters the elite system, they stay there.
By way of contrast, cricket maintains a horizontal structure: Test cricketers are state cricketers are club cricketers. Cricket in Australia, unlike any other sport, brings the global to the local and back out again.
The AFL undermines the local to serve the global. This is unsustainable long-term.
The AFL has set a course to develop its brand, boost audiences and broadcasting deals. There will come a time when the AFL doesn’t need broadcasters.
The AFL is following the NFL model: a fully vertically-integrated supply chain; producing and managing talent, making and selling its own football content direct to consumers.
When it achieves this, the AFL will not be accountable to anyone or anything. Other sports have demonstrated what can happen when administrators get it wrong. I hope the AFL doesn’t do the same, for the sake of Australian football.
I fear the AFL will irreparably damage Australian football unless the authority to make substantive decisions regarding the future of the sport is returned to communities.
The organisation that administers the elite competition must not also administer the sport in this country and set the rules of the game.
Republican
Guest
.......& the AFL like to 'grow' the code in non footy demographics at the expedience of heartlands. Examples are GC, GWS to name two. The nations capital and Tassie should have been supported in this respect if they had an iota of integrity in this respect. The AFL instead will throw good $'s after bad in the guise of 'growth', disenfranchising real footy communities along the way. This is to 'grow' their tele empire, nothing more, while they insult us with their platitudes that we are - 'commercially unviable' at the same time talking up places i.e. NZ as their next frontier for expansion. Their double standard is breathtaking.
Republican
Guest
.......ah, the old history footy wars rears its ugly head. Talk about controlling the narrative. The AFL employed historians ie the less than objective Blamey, to gospel the games historical narrative, such as the one you clearly support, arrogant in their abject dismissal of influences historically relevant i.e Marngrook and the Gaelic games. I find it incredulous and ironic, that those who are the greatest detractors of our great game are the very ones who set out to appropriate its historical DNA, i.e the Union fraternity. Rugby, Sheffield Rules wherever you choose to begin your historical truth, have been grossly overstated in this respect. Caid and Hurley are more likely to have influenced our code given the Irish diaspora at the time and the games obvious similarities, while Wills was exposed to Marngrook in western Victoria. The early scrimmages or trials of our game were said to have been hijacked by the Irish, insisting the game be played 'the Irish way' time and again. What is not written should not be written off, since much of our history has been passed down through stories, especially in indigenous culture and for that matter, Irish. The history my generation have been subjected to is as much about what has been left out, as what has been interpreted by and for Mother Albion, their intent having long been to dictate the Australian narrative amongst others, in maintaining their historically imperialist status quo. In that respect the AFL are a testament to - business as usual .......
Republican
Guest
.......completely concur with this sentiment and have for yonks and this is why I have long been so disaffected form the code at this tier. The AFL as with other commercially motivated behemoths, are a oxymoron in respect of 'sport'. Those who support the excessive commoditisation of our code that is run for and by television, gaming et el, are a symbiosis of the degradation of footy and prosaic in their ignorance, since our game should first and foremost be cared for as a cultural institution. The AFL as the codes 'governing body' are clearly unfit to assume custodianship of our indigenous game.......
Johnno
Guest
A very good article. I also agree with Allen he comments about AFL. AFL is the league. The game is Aussie Rules. So let the AFL manage the national competition. The WAFL manage the WA state competition, SANFL & so on. And get a truely national Aussie Rules Board to overseas all competions.
Chancho
Roar Rookie
I really agree with this article, thank you. I guess the one thing we mustn't lose sight of is that the administration of the league can't be left to the clubs, this structure is needed. It's the power AFL House wields that is the problem. This might be a bit small-minded, but on-topic, I hate that the AFL logo is so prominent on the team uniforms, so much so that some sides like the Dogs don't even have their badge on the guernsey. I hate that even here on the Roar, all the sports' tabs are named after the sport, except Aussie Rules, which is AFL.
Raimond
Roar Guru
excellent article
James Cheatley
Roar Rookie
Yep - what's playing out in Tasmania and Gippsland is an abomination
James Cheatley
Roar Rookie
Yep. Good point. It's the affiliate fees and insurance products that are bankrupting local clubs, forcing them into the arms of the AFL administrators
David Wayne
Guest
Finally someone gets it. As a person actively involved in the game of Australian Rules Football (not AFL) for 50 years as a player, senior coach, club administrator, regional league administrator and now as both a parent and coach involved in a junior league comp, I am troubled about the direction our great game is taking. I lost my paid job in regional football admin following a massive competition restructure by corporate biased boffins employed by the AFL machine who thought they knew better than the local administrators who had been successfully managing things for decades. Many years down the track improvements those 'know it alls' were adamant would improve things for everyone concerned have not eventuated, in fact quite the opposite. Any organisation that refuses to accept constructive criticism, and as a consequence also fails to admit to mistakes and apologise for them, is doomed. The latest debacle at attempting to manufacture crowd behaviour may well be the tipping point. They just don't get it. Give control of the game back to the communities that know their own back yards
IAP
Guest
That's part of the problem - they've created a little totalitarian state where everyone is employed by them, everyone is accountable to them and they're not accountable to anyone. Dissenting voices are punished so they all tow the company line.
IAP
Guest
This is an outstanding piece. The only thing is doesn't mention is the other way the AFL is crippling local footy; through affiliation fees. These fees are in the tens of thousands of dollars every year for no benefit to the local clubs. They receive nothing for this money other than the right to wear gear with AFL written on it. Of course, to do this they have to buy the AFL sanctioned gear, at a premium, plus they have to use AFL suppliers which pushes up prices and local businesses suffer. The AFL gets to collect more revenue to funnel into the next thought bubble whilst local footy suffers. It's akin to horse racing taking money from the studs to put into advertising; it's great in the short term but sooner or later they won't have any new horses coming through to replace the old ones.
Merlin Shmenkle
Guest
Great article. As we know, the real money currently rests with the broadcast rights, which have been underpinned by Foxtel to the tune of $800m. Recent reports suggest Foxtel are pulling back from their commitments to broadcasting live sport. The AFL’s house may crumble without Foxtel’s support. Player salaries, expansion clubs, Gil’s wages could all come a cropper. Watch this space....
Knoxy
Guest
I'm not sure they could even if they wanted to. I think I remember reading somewhere that the AFL owns the trademarks for club names or something. I could be wrong though.
Tazzie
Guest
The sooner the clubs jack up and clean out the current leadership of the AFL the better off the AFL will be, they behave like out of touch, disengaged, ego driven, self serving politicians
ChrisH
Roar Rookie
Best and most insightful article ever on the state of football. Every AFL-reporting journalist should read it and - even though they'd risk losing accreditation - put the heat on the AFL, asking the hard questions, challenging the way things are being done.
Knoxy
Guest
This article is spot on. The lack of an external body to oversee rule changes allows the AFL to tinker and fool around with the game we love to maximise profits. A good example is the supposed 'problem' of low scores. I'm convinced that the push for more goals is coming from Channel 7 wanting to fit in more advertisements. The fact that Channel 7 pay so much for the broadcast rights means that they can pressure the AFL to make changes. An external body that oversees the rules of the game would prevent this from happening. The fact that the AFL has absolute power over the game means that they can literally make up the rules as they go along. The game is becoming more of a corporate product than a game for the supporters. If it wasn't for my love for Collingwood I'm not sure I'd bother. Love the game, hate the AFL.
Scott
Guest
Brilliant article mate. Spot on especially with all the rule changes. They have totally forgotten that the rules flow down through every competition in the country and even all the way to kids playing in the backyard. The funniest thing is that they are trying to expand the game my making it way more confusing to understand. It’s not just confusing for foreigners it’s becoming confusing for kids that have the choice to play every other sport with their mates. They are officially shooting themselves in the foot and as you pointed out, introduce new rules to fix other new rules. JUST ADMIT WHEN YOU ARE WRONG AFL! You have pointed out perfectly how 8 people who run 1 league are ruining a whole sport by not consulting the communities, I’ve shared this opinion for years. It’s because they are in such a unique situation being only played in 1 country and only 1 major league. They can’t make knee jerk rule changes in other sports because they have to consult different communities and leagues all over the world. It’s easier to tell if a rule change has been effective because they can judge it across multiple leagues around the world. I feel these guys at the AFL don’t understand that and make knee jerk reactions off such a small sample size. When you think about it, the rules of our entire sport are based on the coaching styles of 18 blokes over 207 games each year. Consult every league in the country before creating new rules please AFL
James Cheatley
Roar Rookie
Break up the AFL. Let the AFL run the elite competition and negotiate with broadcasters. Set up a separate body to oversee the development of the game across the country, with support from the money the AFL secures from broadcasters. That body would oversee funding for state and local leagues as well as write and administer the rules of the game.
Voice of Reason
Roar Rookie
Great article James. I agree with it. The problem is - I don’t think we can turn back time. I still go the the WAFL every week but it, and my club West Perth, is dying before my eyes. I fear the only solution is more AFL funding, which furthers the vertically integrated supply chain. So what to do?
Gary
Roar Rookie
Totally agree with your observations. Can't see Gilligan leaving any legacy that benefits Aussie Rules or any competition that is not the AFL, he was even too spineless to say something when Goodes was being booed/bullied every week.