Returning to Football Park sends wrong message, says Michelangelo Rucci

YET again the AFL has proven that it is a great organisation for shooting itself in the foot, writes Michelangelo Rucci.

Patrick Dangerfield and Hamish Hartlett during Showdown XXXV between Adelaide and Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium.

YET again the AFL has proven that it is a great organisation for shooting itself in the foot. The NAB Challenge draw is another classic example.

Just weeks after making that baffling decision to deny Port Adelaide its home jumper for its first home final at Adelaide Oval, the AFL has topped this with another crazy decision while announcing its pre-season trial games.

MORE:SUMMER SHOWDOWN AT FOOTY PARK

Try this for getting it wrong again and again:

1. Port Adelaide and the Crows are going back to Football Park. Surely not. No, no, no. SA football fans do not need to be sent to a concrete bowl — that has had seats ripped out — to be reminded during a hot summer day why the game is better off at Adelaide Oval.

2. The much-anticipated duel between new Crows coach Phil Walsh and his former boss Ken Hinkley at Port Adelaide will not unfold for the first time in round three of the premiership season at Adelaide Oval — but in round three of the NAB Challenge at Football Park on Saturday, March 21. This devalues the real Showdown.

3. The Crows and Power will finish the pre-season with need to hold back their best. This is hardly the ideal way to close a summer campaign.

New Adelaide Football Club chief executive Andrew Fagan and his Port Adelaide counterpart Keith Thomas need to unite with two objectives:

1. Kill off the summer derby once and for all.

2. If the summer Showdown is to be played, move it to a country ground — say Clare — and get away from Football Park.

And while the AFL is on the telephone, Thomas should ask for the NAB Challenge opener against West Coast on Sunday, March 8 to be moved from Norwood Oval to Alberton. Port Adelaide at Norwood Oval? What is the AFL thinking?

Fagan may ask why would the AFL have the Crows open the trial games against North Melbourne at Port Lincoln on Sunday, March 1. The two teams face each other again for premiership points a month later at Adelaide Oval. Again, what is the AFL thinking?

This NAB Challenge draw not only needs to be thought out again, it needs to be rewritten.

NAB CHALLENGE

AFL pre-season fixture

CROWS

Sunday, March 1 (4.10pm) — v North Melbourne (Port Lincoln)

Thursday, March 12 (6.40pm) — v Geelong (Kardinia Park)

Saturday, March 21 (3.40pm) — v Port Adelaide (Football Park)

POWER

Sunday, March 8 (4.10pm) — v West Coast (Norwood Oval)

Saturday, March 14 (4.10pm) — v Richmond (Albury)

Saturday, March 21 (3.40pm) — v Adelaide (Football Park)

All SA times

Originally published as Returning to Football Park sends wrong message, says Michelangelo Rucci