Why did AFL have to drop nuclear bomb?

Magpies head coach Nathan Buckley says the season should be called off if players have to be in a hub for 20 weeks Picture: AAP

At the start, Eddie McGuire said a nuclear bomb had been dropped on the AFL. On Tuesday, the AFL dropped a nuclear bomb on its players. Naturally, there was push-back on the proposal to quarantine players, without families, for a possible 20 of 21 weeks.

It might be necessary to house players, coaches, staff and umpires in a “low-level prison” — as one club official described it on Wednesday — but it’s debatable if it was necessary for the AFL to reveal its worst-case scenario.

Why didn’t the AFL deliver its best-case scenario? Or at least deliver the players a plan for the first eight weeks and then say it would reassess after that, depending on the evolving situation Australia finds itself in, particularly on border restrictions.

In other words, gently take the players with it through this period of uncertainty. Instead, the AFL created a hive of fear and panic.

The league’s administrators have to make decisions, we get that, but did they really think this one through? Maybe they’d argue they were left with little choice other than to drop the bomb.

If they had their time again, would they release such information differently, considering the backlash. Maybe an empathetic press conference from Gillon McLachlan on Tuesday would’ve soothed the waters.

Evidently, when the news broke on an AFLPA conference call with the majority of the players late Tuesday afternoon, there was an immediate shift in mood — inquisitive to stunned. Mainly from senior players with children.

Most of the younger lads, without kids, reckon life’s an adventure anyway, so the push back from them was minimal, if any.

How Tuesday played out also raised eyebrows at club level. Nathan Buckley indicated he wasn’t aware of the proposal until word filtered out from the AFLPA conference call. Even some chief executives weren’t aware of this worst-case scenario.

There’s so many pieces to this pie. Players have every right not to join the hubs and it’s ridiculous to throw them all under the one umbrella.

One player, who is separated from his partner, has access to his child every two weeks. What a horrible situation for him.

Others have pregnant partners or have very young children. They might have relationship issues. Some might argue their families are more important than football.

And the low-life who broke into Easton Woods home and stole, among other items, his premiership medallion didn’t help. These are desperate times and desperados need money and with players away for eight weeks at a time, it means security and health concerns for their partners and children at home can’t be ignored.

Players are being unfairly criticised. The tennis players have had a crack which was unedifying.

Even the public has turned on their one-time heroes, calling them selfish and living in a bubble.

One former footballer (pre-2000) said the players were soft, arguing they have to “hub up” because it was their job. It’s all too nasty. Buckley’ views on SEN Radio were interesting.

He has clout and a level head and he effectively said you might as well call the season off if 21-weeks in quarantine was required. But there’s the other side, too.

Tens of thousands of people rely on football for their livelihoods and any talk of abandoning the season means football would be abandoning them, too.

It’s a hell of a burden to put on the players.

But that’s exactly what the AFL is asking them to do, to not only consider the associated jobs, but to help the AFL save the game.

No, the season can’t be called off. It won’t be called off. The prevailing view is more than 95 per cent of the players will do what the AFL asks of them. The other five per cent might not and still get paid 30 per cent of their wage.

While this initial plan seems radical, if not draconian, AFLPA boss Paul Marsh was calm in his response to the 20-week hub plan.

It’s a discussion point, he said, and anyway the likelihood of 20 weeks in isolation for the players is extremely unlikely.

So, did we really need Tuesday’s nuclear bomb?

Herald Sun