NAB Challenge future: Mark Robinson and Jon Ralph debate what should happen with the pre-season competition

MARK ROBINSON says the NAB Challenge is dead, but JON RALPH argues there needs to be a prize for the pre-season competition to be treated seriously. Who do you agree with?

NAB Challenge, AFL : Tigers v Port Adelaide

MARK ROBINSON says the NAB Challenge is dead, but JON RALPH argues there needs to be a prize for the pre-season competition to be treated seriously.

WHO DO YOU AGREE WITH? TELL US WHAT YOU THINK

MARK ROBINSON: Hardwick stance heralds the end

IT was a debacle on Thursday night, which once again puts the NAB Challenge under the spotlight.

They are separate arguments, the worth and the length of the pre-season competition as opposed to Richmond coach Damien Hardwick’s dummy spit on the boundary line, but together they raise two fundamental questions:

WHAT is the NAB challenge?

HOW do you fix a competition that always seems be broken?

Hardwick was wrong to challenge the AFL to end Thursday night’s game against Port Adelaide early. Way wrong.

He kicked the toys out of the cot and left no one in doubt about what he thought of the pre-season competition.

The Hardwick blow-up exposed how pathetic the NAB Challenge is

Injuries and a morale-shattering loss will do that, but Hardwick also knew he and Richmond had responsibilities to the AFL, to the broadcasters, to the fans and to Port Adelaide.

Port treated NAB 3 as it should have: Play close to your best team in the final hit-out before Round 1.

Hardwick thought the same until his team collapsed mentally and physically, and that’s when he thought he and the Tigers were above the rest of the competition.

You feel for him somewhat because they once were practice matches turned into a money-making venture.

That means TV rights and gambling money. At the same time, you can’t put your hand up to end a game when, for so long, you’ve put your hand out for the cash to play the game.

Still, the league believes it to be serious and Hardwick — on this night anyway — thought it wasn’t so serious and that’s why he didn’t want to risk further injuring his players in a warm-up game.

The Hardwick blow-up exposed a) his short fuse, and b) how pathetic the NAB Challenge is.

The welcome fallout is that Hardwick’s behaviour has prompted a competition-wide debate about its future.

That, of course, has left us with various opinions ranging from Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge wanting a trophy and a grand final to Port’s Ken Hinkley wanting only two games and an extension of the season proper to 25 rounds.

The AFL also gave us an indication of its stand. Football boss Mark Evans said on Friday if coaches wanted it scrapped that could happen.

Robbo says Tigers coach Damien Hardwick was wrong to demand Thursday night’s game be cut short. Picture: Wayne Ludbey

So, it’s important, but not that important that it has to continue.

It is a competition that has never been absolutely right.

The format has changed constantly, probably because of the whinging from clubs and probably because of the money.

The encouragement with prizemoney is long gone, mind you, despite the AFL making money of the competition via its betting deals.

And on the field, kids play one week and miss the next, while veterans play one week and miss the next, depending on how each team plans its preparation around travelling.

Let’s cut to the chase. Dump the three weeks and play one intra-club game, one pre-season game and then let’s kick off the season.

If the season is extended, then reduce the minutes played in each game, as Hinkley has suggested.

That, however, could mean four poor-performing clubs playing kids from Round 17 to Round 25, which would be ugly.

See, there’s always an issue.

But Hardwick wins first prize. For the first time in memory, a coach demanded a game be called off, which can only mean one thing: The competition is dead.

JON RALPH: Pre-season comp needs a premiership cup

EDDIE McGuire has carped for 36 interminable years about North Melbourne’s Kerry Good robbing Collingwood of the 1980 night Grand Final.

The last time Melbourne won anything — the 1989 night premiership — Nathan Jones was a year old.

The Demons and Magpies should be playing off this weekend for the NAB Cup premiership as the highest-scoring unbeaten teams of the pre-season so far.

Would it have anywhere near the cache of the real thing in October?

Not on your bloody life.

But the very definition of a competition is that it builds to something of consequence rather than ebbing away to a meek conclusion.

You can understand why Richmond coach Damien Hardwick attempted to call off the Tigers’ clash against Port Adelaide on Thursday night when everyone seems to think so little of the current format.

Of course the AFL was right to reject Hardwick’s plea, but when there is no prize at the end of the competition how can anyone take it seriously?

It is amazing one crazy and bizarre night has seen some call for the complete abolition of the NAB Challenge.

Those same pundits have been in raptures over the kids they have seen these past 20 games, kids who get a chance in prime time only because the format is a full three games.

Think Jack Silvagni or Mabior Chol, Mason Cox, Jake Long, Sam Menegola and Dallas Willsmore.

If the format was a two-week smash-and-grab job we might never see those kids until they make their AFL debuts — potentially years down the track.

The three-week format serves its purpose by allowing clubs to mix and match, exploring the depth of their lists as they play all their stars in two of the three.

If we eradicated it, the clubs would play five intra-club games in preparation for the season proper and the AFL would get even less promotion before its March 24 kick-off.

In an 18-team competition some clubs might never again win a flag, so even a pre-season version is something to build dreams around.

When there is no prize at the end of the competition how can anyone take it seriously?

In 1980, North Melbourne’s Good famously marked a Malcolm Blight kick well after the final siren, but was allowed to take his kick and nailed the goal to give the Roos a three-point win. Try telling Magpies fans there is no passion in a pre-season final.

The Demons won brilliantly against Port Adelaide and just got over a Western Bulldogs side missing 16 players.

Again, try telling a side with a premiership drought stretching to 52 years that pre-season cups mean absolutely nothing.

Can understand why AFL refused to call the game off but surely they could have let Richmond play with 15 for last 5 mins of meaningless game

— Jon Ralph (@RalphyHeraldSun) 10 March 2016

What better chance than a NAB Challenge final against the Pies to see if they have crossed the Rubicon under Paul Roos or are just shaping as a March champion?

Some may argue that teams wouldn’t try in a pre-season final, but do you think Roos, in his last season, and Nathan Buckley, with that contract extension not yet in his grasp, wouldn’t have a point to prove?

Buckley seems a good chance to get that extension at Tuesday’s season launch, but imagine validating it with a bit of pre-season silverware.

Broadcaster Fox Footy would love to hype a pre-season Grand Final, especially when it has been handed the thankless task of screening 27 games over four weekends.

Rival codes are coming at the AFL over the late summer period like never before. Isn’t that a signal to start the pre-season with a bang rather than a whimper?

AFL football boss Mark Evans on Friday broached the suggestion of a longer season and no NAB Challenge.

But the season is long enough already at 28 weeks.

Nope, the pre-season format isn’t bust, just the lack of a prize at the end of it.

PRE-SEASON HISTORY

1988: The VFL starts a pre-season competition involving only its 14 teams. The competition replaces the Australian Football Championships night series which ran from 1977-87, included teams from South Australia and Western Australia and featured midweek games during the regular season. Hawthorn beats Geelong in the first pre-season grand final by three points at Waverley Park in front of 35,802 fans.

1988-99: The competition is a knockout tournament. Before there were 16 teams in the AFL, the previous season’s top ranked teams (either the premier or both grand finalists) advanced directly to the second round.

1993: Essendon beats Richmond by 23 points in the night grand final on March 20. The crowd of 75,533 at Waverley Park is a record for the pre-season competition.

1996: A lightning premiership is held for the only time in the modern era — on one weekend (Friday-Sunday) in February. There were four games each evening at Waverley Park, each consisting of two 17.5-minute halves. Essendon wins the title.

2000-02: A round-robin format is introduced. Sixteen teams are split into groups of four, each playing three pool matches with the winner of each group advancing to the knockout semi-final.

2003-10: The knockout format returns.

2003: The AFL introduces the nine-point “supergoal”. Three points for a rushed behind is also trialled.

2005: An immediate kick-in from a behind is tested and later introduced to the premiership season. Play-on if the ball hits the goalpost and bounces back into play is also trialled.

2006: Play-on is called for backward kicks, except when that kick takes place within the attacking team’s forward 50m.

2011: Eighteen teams are broken into six groups of three and play a round-robin series of half-length games. The winner of each pool, plus the two teams with the next-best records, advance to an eight-team knockout tournament of full-length games.

2012-13: Each team plays two “lightning” matches and two full-length games. The teams with the best two records over the four matches face off in the grand final.

2014-16: The competitive aspect of the pre-season is abandoned and replaced with a series of practice matches spanning a three-to-four week period. The format features no ranking or overall winner. No trophy is awarded.