AFL’s compromised fixture, travel, among the key issues between clubs in battle for competitive balance
The gloves appear off in the AFL’s national war for fairness. SAM LANDSBERGER investigates the issues causing the most friction between Victorian clubs and the rest of the country.
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Chris Scott is flying the flag from Victoria.
“I’m not sure the two Adelaide teams should just get an extra home game against an away team,” the Geelong coach said on the eve of Gather Round.
“The clear and obvious solution is there should just be another Showdown. It’s something the AFL can and should address.”
South Australia scoffed at the suggestion.
“Chris Scott, cry me a river,” Port Adelaide chairman David Koch responded.
“You talk to West Coast about travel, talk to Freo about travel, talk to us about travel. Give me a break.”
Scott also questioned the integrity of Opening Round after the AFL launched the season one week early with four stand-alone games in Sydney and Queensland.
“Those teams (that played) get two byes compared to every other team,” he said.
“Don’t pretend it’s not a compromise. Of course it is.”
This time it was Scott’s former star Jimmy Bartel, now a director at Greater Western Sydney, who fiercely defended the fixture free kicks.
“You know that ‘A’ in AFL? That means Australia, and so you’ve got to actually give the northern clubs something,” Bartel said.
“They (Gold Coast and GWS) don’t have blockbusters because they’re relatively new clubs.
“They don’t have the opportunity of playing at the MCG in those big games. So you’ve got to actually give them something.
“People go, ‘But then they get the byes!’ We’ve got 18 teams in a 24-week season. It’s never going to be fair. The whole entire game is compromised.”
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon declared Opening Round an “unqualified success” on the back of sellout crowds, bumper TV ratings and a 30 per cent spike in Giants membership.
But Sydney received byes in rounds 6 and 13 whereas Western Bulldogs’ only bye doesn’t come until round 15 and Geelong’s in round 14.
Collingwood started the season 0-3 and used its round 6 bye to repair parts of its game.
“I didn’t realise how much we needed the break,” Magpies coach Craig McRae said.
Is it fair?
“There’s no way that you could look at the draw and say it’s fair anywhere,” McRae said.
“Everyone understands it, it’s just which bit is yours. We play more games at the MCG than anyone else. Is that fair? Clearly not.
“And then how much West Coast and Fremantle have to travel and the others. There’s no way it’s fair.”
One club chief executive was adamant on Friday that a fixture reform should top the list.
Covid created an equal 17-round season in one year only (2020), but he said a crisis had been wasted.
How can clubs spend millions of dollars searching for a 1 per cent advantage when it is so blatantly distorted?
Essendon played West Coast and North Melbourne twice last year. Charlie Curnow kicked 19 goals in two games against the Eagles on the way to winning the Coleman Medal.
“I’ve been doing this 16 years and every single year you try to make sense of the fairness of the fixture, and I can guarantee every year you can’t do it,” Melbourne boss Gary Pert said.
Scott’s comments shouldn’t be conflated with a blindly pro-Victorian slant.
Much of the Cats’ frustration stems from the fact that they run an excellent football program yet for all of their hard work the AFL hands out assistance packages to mismanaged rivals.
As Scott said when North Melbourne received more priority picks last year: “The AFL pretty quickly has to get to the point where they just get out of the way and let the system operate without this blatant manipulation”.
Fortunately, Dillon is personally against priority picks and wants to move past them fast.
But the revelation that a Victorian club privately suggested Western Australia teams were not disadvantaged by travel because they received 12 business class seats ignited a war between Victoria and the west.
It was a tone deaf argument and Virgin planes only include eight business class seats these days anyway.
But ironically, West Coast celebrated the upgraded seating when it was announced.
“We’re delighted with the 12 business class airfares for our players, we think it’s a terrific outcome from a player welfare point of view,” former Eagles football boss Craig Vozzo, who is now Essendon’s chief executive, said in 2017.
“The fact that the AFL are paying for it as part of the CBA is a really good outcome.
“We’ve always looked to provide additional business class flights for our players, but they’ve been at our cost in the past, so this is a much welcomed change.”
Times have changed.
Ross Lyon’s “anywhere, anytime” mantra when coaching Fremantle has expired and leading the charge against the competition’s historical Victorian bias are expats in power at non-Victorian clubs.
Victorians like Simon Garlick (Fremantle chief executive), Tim Silvers (Adelaide chief executive), Damien Hardwick (Gold Coast coach) and Adam Kingsley (GWS coach).
“I’m three years into the job and you start to see some of the inconsistencies,” Silvers said.
“We’ve been talking about it as interstate CEOs over the last little while just how much of an advantage it is to play at the MCG.”
Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir accused the AFL of “neglecting” a heartland state in WA.
Swans chairman Andrew Pridham said: “The only level playing field in the world is the cemetery.
The fight for fairness is on, and the gloves are off. Or so it has seemed.
Perhaps that is only be true publicly.
“What struck me is how selfless they (clubs) care,” AFL boss Laura Kane told this masthead on Saturday.
“I worked in a footy department (Kangaroos) for a while, I’ve seen the best and the worst of a competitive competition and how challenging it is to try to rise through a ladder.
“But I was taken aback at how selfless all 18 clubs, even in a condensed market like Victoria.
“Our clubs wanted the best for the game.
“We would often get feedback from clubs that would go against their individual desires in the upcoming player movement period, but knew that it was better for the game overall.
“I actually was really heartened by the clubs knowing that we were diving into this for the long term betterment of the game.
“Not just the immediate term and what does it look like for this year and next year.”
Largely, the requests from the two-club states shared “consistent themes” barring subtle differences from their history, staff or strategic phase.
Adelaide and Port Adelaide want out of the SANFL. They are prohibited from signing quality top-up players and are often uncompetitive.
They say that sabotages their development of AFL players.
The Giants and Swans want COLA (Cost of Living Allowances) to better pay their assistant coaches. Salary cap relief for draftees and poorly-paid players would also help.
Ex-Giant Dylan Buckley lost money on his last $70,000 rookie deal. The Swans seem to delist and re-rookie Robbie Fox repeatedly. How much would he be banking?
Game development boss Rob Auld often gets told he is too preoccupied with NSW and Queensland.
Swans coach John Longmire wants more action, saying Gather Round in NSW was a “no-brainer” due to the dense population from Wollongong to Newcastle.
Suns football boss Wayne Campbell estimated travel was worth three goals per game.
The Dockers and Eagles travel roughly 60,000km annually. Carlton its closer to 13,000km.
Freo attempt to stay on Perth time on the road. They call it “Docker Dial”. The AFL organised more training access to the MCG and Marvel Stadium for captain’s runs this year.
But the WA clubs want an extra home game, as the away team against Victorian clubs, and no more pre-season travel.
“Probably just listening to us would be the first thing that they could probably do, and actually act on some of the recommendations we have, knowing that we’re not trying to get a competitive advantage,” Eagles coach Adam Simpson said.
“We’re just trying to even it up a little bit.”
Sam Collins said a bus in traffic to Brisbane airport, long-haul flight and another bus made for an eight-hour travel day.
Lions coach Chris Fagan has experienced a home and away MCG grand final day.
He has told the AFL to provide more flights and accommodation for the families of a non-Victorian competitor.
The AFLPA also wants change as part of the review. They want clubs indexed based on their ability to offer players an equal shot at success.
“Are you a net advantage or net disadvantage club? And then what levers can we pull just to even that up and it might be to do with additional money for those clubs,” boss Paul Marsh said.
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