AFL players are dreaming with hip-pocket call

The AFL Players' Association chief executive Paul Marsh addresses the media on Tuesday Picture: AAP

For The Record, The Australian’s sports results panel, has not appeared in the sports section for the past two days. The reason: there are no results to put in it.

Have you looked at your betting app lately – there’s virtually no sport to have a bet on, unless you know something about the Barbados Premier League basketball.

Every major sporting league in the world has either shut down or is struggling to carry on, playing matches in empty stadiums.

The NRL and the AFL are on the brink of disaster, aiming to continue without crowds but with no confidence about what happens in the near future.

As the coronavirus tightens its grip, sporting codes are bleeding money – ticket sales non-existent, sponsorship dollars down the toilet, broadcast revenue in doubt.

Undoubtedly, as is the case in the rest of the economy, many people working in sport will lose their jobs, companies involved in sport will collapse, sporting codes will stumble, perhaps fall, and clubs will go to the wall.

And in the midst of all this chaos, AFL players think they shouldn’t take a pay cut. They want to play the full 22 rounds and they want to keep their six-figure salaries.

They say it’s because of a “love of football”.

“They know how much people love and need football,” says AFLPA boss Paul Marsh. “The players feel a deep sense of responsibility to deliver. They feel a deep sense of responsibility to the game, the industry and the fans.

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I think it’s more likely they feel a deep sense of responsibility to their hip pocket.

My colleague Mark Robinson of the Herald Sun was absolutely correct when he said on Fox Footy’s AFL360 that it was all about the money.

“The players have pulled the wrong cord today. I think they’re going to get little or no sympathy from the greater public, a number of whom are losing their jobs, their livelihoods, some are going to lose their houses,” Robbo said.

“This decision by the players association, make no mistake, is all about money.

“They don’t want to take a 20 per cent pay cut. What has happened now is we’ve got this massive war going on and the key stakeholders, the players, are now fighting with the AFL less than 48 hours out from the start of the season.”

The sort of financial losses associated with the coronavirus crisis in sport are eye-watering.

In rugby league, for instance, every round is worth $14 million to the NRL in television rights from Fox Sports and the Nine Network. So every round lost is $14m the game doesn’t get.

Throw in another $5.5 million in ticket sales, corporate hospitality, merchandise, ground signage and food and beverage income.

Plus there is the $10 million Telstra naming rights sponsorship deal.

The figures for the AFL are similar, just a little bigger.

The Rugby League Players Association have set a far more responsible example that AFL players could do well to take a look at. The RLPA has raised the prospect of slashing representative payments, the retirement fund, the marketing pool and the injury hardship fund as part of a $15m sacrifice to help the game through the crisis.

Admittedly, this is the RLPA getting in early with an offer they hope will keep their base salaries intact. But they have recognised that everyone across the sport will have to take a hit and their sport will only survive if everyone is prepared to carry some of the burden.

AFL players are living in a dream world if they think they can emerge from the biggest crisis to hit Australian sport in decades without a few dollars rubbed off their generous pay cheques.