Coronavirus: better late than never for patient footy fans

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan has a pointed message for critics who say his code has fallen behind its rival the NRL.

AFL Chief Executive Gillon McLachlan has been a driving force in pulling the game from the biggest crisis it has faced, while negotiating the demands of different states. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan has a pointed message for critics who say his code has fallen behind the rival NRL, which is two weeks in front when it comes to ­returning to the field of play.

“How you start is a very small part of the story. It is how you finish­, in what shape on and off the field — that is more important and I am really bullish about how we are set up to get the season away,” he told The Weekend Australian.

The AFL will end three months of COVID-19 lockdown when the two “big guns”, Collingwood and Richmond, clash at the MCG on Thursday evening.

It will be exactly 14 days since the NRL season restarted under its brashly effective chairman Peter V’landys, who has received kudos for his forceful methods in getting rugby league back in action and enabling his code to generate huge TV ratings and fan interest.

His AFL counterpart Richard Goyder, a respected but reserved­ business leader who is also chairman of Qantas and Woodside, has been more circumspect but has worked forcefully behind the scenes with McLachlan to get the AFL back on the park.

Goyder plays a straight bat to the suggestion the AFL has been behind the eight ball. “Not at all,” he said, “I’m full of admiration for all sports that are getting back on the field,” adding there were enormous complexities for a competition with 18 teams across five states.

When asked if he sat down to watch the NRL’s return on television on May 28 with a hint of jealousy, Goyder said: “I watched a couple of old AFL games, actually. They were ripping games. But look, I’ve been pretty busy.”

Collingwood captain Scott Pen­dlebury described the prospect of the AFL returning as “a familiar joy … that is a bit like slipping on your favourite pair of old shoes”.

“The conditions under which we train and play are different and, at least initially, we won’t have crowds, but I get the sense that it is comforting for a lot of people to have the game back,” he said.

Pendlebury and his teammates held an intra-club practice under lights last Thursday evening in a bid to simulate match conditions for a clash that will take place in front of 100,000 empty seats — althoug­h it is likely to be the highest-rating telecast of a regular-­season AFL game for several years.

McLachlan said he was unsure if he would or could attend Thursday’s match, but added: “As a fan, I am just looking forward to watching some footy, to be honest with you. I am starting to get excited.”

Goyder will watch from Perth, where he lives, and said he had notice­d the heightened interest in the code’s first games back as its retur­n date edged closer and closer in the past couple of weeks.

“People absolutely love it. I said to a state politician at one stage, people don’t ask what the oil price is or what Qantas is doing. The only thing they ask is when are we getting footy back. They love it.

“Earlier this week, the doorbell rang and I was on the phone but went to answer it. It was the postie and he said, ‘oh, I know you’. I thought, ‘here we go’, and he said, ‘when can I go back to watch the (West Coast) Eagles? All I want to do is go back to the footy.’ I said not yet but we’re going to be playing at least. That’s what it is like.”

Yet while the AFL leaders are sanguine, there is a lot of financial pain to come. The league faces a $240m drop in revenue this year.