Mark Robinson: Footy has never faced an enemy quite like coronavirus menace
This is the twilight zone for the AFL. It doesn’t know what’s happening tomorrow, let alone what’s happening during the next six months. It is scary — for everyone, writes Mark Robinson.
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Football’s darkest hour is also its scariest.
It is the twilight zone for the AFL.
It doesn’t know what’s happening tomorrow, let alone what’s happening during the next six months.
It is scary — for everyone.
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AFL boss Gillon McLachlan was right — this game has survived wars and depression, death and drought.
But this is different.
The enemy is a stealthy, creeping menace, and in Australia it is still unsure how menacing it will be.
But football is on the brink of collapse, this season at least.
Hundreds of millions of dollars will be lost to footy and its sister industries, and the pain will be felt for many years.
So, we have a 17-round season.
It’s far better than no season at all, though there will be some interesting discussions with broadcasters Channel 7 and Fox Footy.
They pay $400-plus million to telecast 23 rounds and finals.
Take away six rounds and it’s about $80 million in limbo.
Maybe a night at Caterina’s restaurant in Queen St over a red and a medium-rare steak might sort it out, but likely not.
Eighty million dollars is $80 million, and the networks will need it as much as the AFL.
Make no mistake, money is up to its ears in this as much as the health and safety of the players and the community.
McLachlan was strong — possibly too late by some observers — but he, too, like most of us, is flying in the dark here.
Experts spruik from every corner, some of them disagreeing on what actions to take to avoid spreading the virus, which makes it terribly frustrating for us to make the necessary decisions.
Don’t shake hands, but do climb aboard buses, trams and planes. Keep the schools open. Keep the casino open. Keep bars and restaurants open.
In Italy, none of that is happening.
McLachlan couldn’t promise the season would start on Thursday night. How can he?
It’s why he can’t promise a 17-round season, either.
Anything can happen to disrupt the best-intentioned plans, and anything is likely.
If one player has the virus, it’s a 14-day lockdown.
If a second player gets the virus 10 days later, that’s another 14-day lockdown. A third? A fourth?
A 17-round season is the best-case scenario.
A season wipeout cannot be ignored, either, only because we don’t know what’s going to happen.
Footy has been hit out of the park, which is a modern-day miracle when you consider the power and popularity of Australian rules.
McLachlan announced the state leagues were postponed, but didn’t mention country and suburban football. Surely those leagues don’t kick off either.
Now, the players will have their say.
Most accept they will take pay cuts — the asking price reported to be 20 per cent — but some players have told the Herald Sun they are against a pay cut.
It’s also been reported players are concerned about starting Round 1 this week.
Does the AFL ignore those players, too?
How many concerned players would it take for the AFL to listen?
One? Ten? Fifty?
One senior executive said he met the club’s leadership group, who told him they wanted to play Round 1 and they would accept a pay cut.
He also said he told club staff some of them would likely lose their jobs, or be asked to work two or three days a week.
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Clearly, the football industry and the wider community has to pull together during this crazy time.
The AFL executive is not immune to belt-tightening.
If the players are asked for a 20 per cent cut, does the same apply to the AFL?
McLachlan’s executive team, of which there are a dozen staff, earns an average wage of $894,000.
McLachlan’s wage was disclosed as $1.74 million two years ago. That figure would now be well over $2 million.
“A number of measures are being looked at to reduce costs,’’ an AFL spokesman told the Herald Sun.
McLachlan confirmed he would sacrifice money.
It was good leadership because how could the AFL ask for cuts at clubs if it wasn’t prepared to do the same?
The twilight zone is upon us, and make no mistake — it will get scarier.
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