Challenges of AFL fixture and AFLW expansion leave league chief Gillon McLachlan with a busy off-season
GILLON McLachlan in the next two months will deliver a vision of how the AFL will look for season 2019. In this three-part series, Michelangelo Rucci talks to the AFL chief executive about the state of AFL.
- Part one: ‘Can’t get complacent’: Gillon’s plans for more change
- Rucci’s Roast: The biggest 2018 shakers in SA footy
- ‘Silly season’ has fans more confused than ever
- AFL integrity unit looking at Crows camp
GILLON McLachlan’s season is about to start. As soon as the glitter is blown off the MCG at the end of the AFL grand final on Saturday, September 29, the attention turns to the off-field decisions at AFL House.
McLachlan and the AFL Commission have to deliver the final word on rule changes and the AFL fixture by October — and reassure many that the league can indeed afford 18 teams, including one on the Gold Coast rather than in one of the game’s traditional cradles in Tasmania.
The fixture can consume fans — and media critics — for debate. In Adelaide, there will be heady anticipation that one of the Showdowns — after two epic derbies this year — will finally be on the Friday night stage as promised by McLachlan’s predecessor, Andrew Demetriou, six years ago as a reward for taking the game to Adelaide Oval.
McLachlan’s team will build the fixture next week, as soon as the elimination finals determine which two teams of Sydney, Melbourne, Geelong and Greater Western Sydney join the Crows and Port Adelaide in the second pool of teams ranked 7-12.
Will it be a 22-round fixture detailed from October or a new “17-plus-five” program? Will there be a bye at the end of the home-and-away season or wildcard finals for teams ranked seventh to 10th? Who is Port Adelaide playing in Shanghai?
As troubled as the 22-round fixture is — with inequality in the five “double-up” games, there is no compelling solution. Even the 17-5 model now troubles the AFL.
“Of all the alternatives, 17-5 is the best … but it has a couple of big issues,” said McLachlan of the proposal that splits the league into three round-robin groups (1-6, 7-12 and 13-18) for the last five games of the home-and-away series.
“One critical issue is the bottom-six teams will be playing among themselves for five weeks with their games having no influence on the final eight. There is a real risk those six teams become dislocated from the league.
“We saw this year that Brisbane could beat (top-four side) Hawthorn twice. And in the last game of the year the Lions were seen as a chance to beat (second-ranked) West Coast at the Gabba. The Lions were influencing the eight from 15th spot.
“The other problem is the top-six teams would have a very tough lead into the finals. The fifth and sixth-placed teams would start the finals against the seventh and eighth-ranked sides that, in theory, would have had a softer run.
“It is accepted that we can’t — with our financial ecosystem in football — we can’t go backwards from 22 rounds. And we can’t have any more games, particularly with the issues of player fatigue.
“So it is 22.”
McLachlan introduced the bye between the home-and-away season and finals three years ago to stop tanking before the finals as coaches protected their stars from seemingly meaningless games.
The AFL players last month gave 40 per cent approval for the bye to be replaced by wildcard finals — 7 v 10 and 8 v 9 — to determine the last two qualifiers for the major round. McLachlan is still not convinced.
“The bye was introduced, predominantly, to deal with an integrity issue,” he said. “And we have had unbelievable finals series with record crowds and ratings the past two years.
“Supporters appreciate the extra time to get organised to go to finals. Teams get time to prepare to put the best players on the park. And the players appreciate the week off to refresh so that they can play at their best.
“The bye has added something to the finals series.”
McLachlan still is not noting strong support for a change to the finals series with wildcards.
“There is the view from the clubs that the teams that come out of the wildcard play-offs will be disadvantaged in the first week of the finals — it is not worth doing,” McLachlan said.
Port Adelaide is expected to have a new opponent in Shanghai in May next year — St Kilda, with strong Victorian State government support, rather than Gold Coast.
“Certainly, it is proposed that we are going back to China … but the team is working through what that looks like,” McLachlan said. “(Gold Coast or St Kilda?) It is being worked on.”
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THE EXPANSION GAME
GILLON McLachlan did not take the AFL to the “Bermuda triangle of Australian sport” on the Gold Coast. But he remains as optimistic as his predecessors — AFL Commission chairman Mike Fitzpatrick and chief executive Andrew Demetriou — were that the Suns could shine in the sand that has swallowed up so many other professional sporting teams on Queensland’s south-east coast.
“I have great faith in (Gold Coast chief executive and former AFL football boss) Mark Evans,” McLachlan said. “Mark has made huge changes — coach (Stuart Dew), head of football, list management, commercial. It needs a bit of time.
“I look at Brisbane … Four years ago the Lions lost players such as Jared Polec, Sam Docherty, Elliot Yeo, Billy Longer, James Aish … but with a new coach (Chris Fagan), new head of football (David Noble) and with their players re-signing contracts there is genuine excitement about where Brisbane is going.
“That’s where Gold Coast can look to Brisbane — and before that Melbourne — for a way forward.”
As the AFL remains strongly committed to the Gold Coast, McLachlan cops the brunt of those wishing he would pull the pin on the Suns and dedicate the league’s big money to Tasmania.
“I’m really pleased with the plan we have rolled out in the middle of the year for Tasmania,” McLachlan said. “It has a significant lift in the investment — and improved process and structure around community football, talent development and the State league and we will end up with a vision that takes Tasmanian football forward.
“There will be a Tasmanian under-18 team that we hope morphs into a VFL team and then a pathway to somewhere. It is going to be shoulder to the wheel for some time.”
On the money front, the AFL expects club debt that fell by $10 million last year to be cut by another $7 million this season.