Roar Rookie
Joined September 2016
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A man who has an idea or two about things. He will tell you some.
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The last two weeks of the AFL’s home and away season are usually only consequential for teams battling for finals position. But rather uniquely,…
So, trade period is over, which thankfully means a 348-day respite from trade radio, but also means that the instant assessment of the trade…
Does the AFL know what it is doing with the draft anymore? Is it a redistributive tool or a vessel for romanticism and 'great…
So the Gold Coast Suns have lost 11 matches in a row. They’ve never made the finals, and in their nine-year history they’ve won…
Officiating in the AFL is about to reach breaking point, with a real danger that the rules and how they are adjudicated may start…
The Australian Football Hall of Fame night is one of the great nights. It is wonderful hearing the old stories and learning about the…
Many have voiced concern about the proposed changes put forward by the AFL Players Association that would widen free agency. In particular, the proposal…
Callum Ferguson has seen the highs and lows of being a professional sportsman in one short week. Brought to Hobart as possible injury cover,…
We've heard a lot in recent weeks and months about 'playing to your base.' A political term born in the USA, which means pleasing…
Jordan Lewis is a Dee. Sam Mitchell is moving to Perth. We still don't know what Jimmy Bartel will be doing next year. It…
Many in the media lament that a Todd Goldstein or Lance Franklin can put up a good showing in the Brownlow Medal but cannot…
Firstly, two of your misses played in premierships.
And the point is, the risk was only available for Geelong to take on those players. This is something only we do – everyone else in the world would (rightly) consider it ridiculous. Not every club gets the opportunity because it is entirely down to dumb luck.
If you support the father-son rule, why support a draft? To make things slightly fairer, possibly?
The entire point of my piece is that the AFL isn’t doing enough to make the competition fairer, and are actually doing less than they did 20 years ago. As clearly demonstrated by the teams near the top of the ladder (the preliminary finalists were all replete with players no other club had access to, between F/S and academies) and the long standing premiership droughts of most of the teams that didn’t make the finals.
Time for AFL to get serious about equal opportunity
The father-son rule does make AFL unique – other sports are fairer.
Competition involves rules that are fair – Geelong, the Doggies and Collingwood don’t have father-sons other than for stupid luck. A component of success in the AFL is based on past players’ abilities to sire sons. Read that last sentence again. Federer dominates due to tennis skills, attitude and ability. None of these have anything to do with some former player’s progeny falling into a team’s lap. The academies do something likewise. I don’t care for the romanticism argument – the on-field product should be sufficient to put bottoms on seats.
Time for AFL to get serious about equal opportunity
Clarko may be deflecting, but he isn't wrong about the AFL's compromised draft
He was drafted in 1989, which as far as the draft goes, may as well been 1889.
A priority pick for the Suns? Sorry, Saints first, please
The. Bulldogs. Won. The. Premiership. Three. Years. Ago.
A priority pick for the Suns? Sorry, Saints first, please
My question on the Gold Coast is: have they been unlucky? Brisbane got a priority pick because they were struggling to retain players. St Kilda had their #1 draft pick and their 2nd best player of 2017 fall off the face of the footballing earth. I don’t think you can discount St Kilda have been seriously unlucky, as well as any other reason you’d like to suggest for their lack of success.
A priority pick for the Suns? Sorry, Saints first, please
When I was growing up, shepherding was something you did when your team had their hands on the ball. Happens more now in marking contests (when the ball is in the air rather than in a team’s possession) than in general play.
Eight simple rules (to change) to make the AFL better
Personally, I like treating posts like they are in all the other sports (in off the post and all that) but didn’t want to change the nature of the game that much, which I think your suggested change would do as well.
Eight simple rules (to change) to make the AFL better
So in your opinion the Hall of Fame would just be the Team of the Century? I wouldn’t have Nick Riewoldt in my AFL Team of the Century, because Wayne Carey would be the CHF.
On a matter of accuracy, Riewoldt averaged 2.14 goals per game through his career. But then again, over the course of your posts, you said he wasn’t the best stats wise, had stats shown to you, then said stats (marks) didn’t matter. Again, on accuracy.
St Kilda won 7 finals Riewoldt played in. He was BOG in 5 of them (2004 SF, 2008 SF, 2009 QF, 2009 PF, 2010 PF).
Anyway, I’m going to leave it there so you can have the last word if you want it, but the only reason I mentioned him was to stress the point that not many players should make the Hall of Fame, including those from my club.
Time to change the Hall of the Very Good
I don’t think the “stats” argument washes with Riewoldt. As far as marks are concerned, he was at least 30% better than anyone else during his era who played at least 250 games (Riewoldt played 336). His disappearance in the 2010 finals looked like 19 disposals per game, 8 marks and 2 goals per game.
He was also the league MVP in 2004 and should have been in 2009, when he was also clearly the league’s Most Valuable Player (not best, different award).
And the “league’s best player in that position” argument would eliminate the following players from consideration: Doug Wade, Jason Dunstall, Gary Ablett Senior, Kevin Bartlett & John Nicholls.
But I suspect the Hardie comment belies your real intent.
Time to change the Hall of the Very Good
My article pretty much just relates to those inducted as players.
Time to change the Hall of the Very Good
BTW, I wrote about this on this site last year.
Four practical ways to improve player movement in the AFL
Lowering the age for free agency to kick in is paramount because players will have longer in their careers to see success post free agency.
But player wages need to keep rising to the point where financial concerns are the primary concern for players looking to change clubs, otherwise the salary cap as a talent cap is redundant. See Dylan Shiel leaving half a million on the table to chase “success” – the money difference is not great enough to ensure he goes to a bottom club with money to spare.
Four practical ways to improve player movement in the AFL
This is a benefit of the college system for American sporting franchises – athletes have already left home for a year (at least) before they are drafted.
Free agency needs refining to bring equity to the AFL
Battier was one the NBA’s best citizens – he’s an outlier. NBA players repeatedly turn down offers for $20 million per so they can get $25 million per somewhere else, because $5 million is a lot of money. $100,000 per year for a footballer isn’t really a lot of money.
If we continue to bastardize the system, then we may just as well go back to recruiting, transfers and academies, but as a GWS supporter I understand why you would like that.
The Giants were able to sign good players when they had no players but cap room. Imagine if all the poor clubs with no players had the extra cap room to do this.
GWS have too much talent and should be losing it, but you’ll keep trading it out for more early draft picks. I don’t see a foreseeable future AFL where GWS aren’t more than competitive.
Free agency needs refining to bring equity to the AFL
The current salaries don’t provide enough incentive for players to move for purely financial reasons. So they take slightly less to do what Lebron and Kevin Durant did in the NBA. This means that the salary cap as a “talent cap” doesn’t work.
If you take the money to a level where it is head turning – like it was for Gary Ablett and Tom Scully – then the salary cap will act more like a talent cap. Gary Ablett went from a team that had dominated the league for four years to a team just starting. This is exactly what the salary cap is meant to do – act as a mechanism to prevent teams collecting a prohibitively noncompetitive amount ot talent and send it to the teams that don’t have talent, but because of this, have room in their salary cap.
But considering what Robbo tweeted yesterday, I appreciate the comparison.
Free agency needs refining to bring equity to the AFL
I actually wrote it Wednesday am, submitted it for publication, and while it was under consideration, Bartel annouced his retirement. Other than that nothing in the piece changes.
Are we seeing a new way of AFL players retiring?
They don’t get first pick. Adelaide didn’t get Ugle-Hagan in 2020. He was unavailable to them. Similarly Ashcroft this year, which is why North traded the pick.
Time for AFL to get serious about equal opportunity