Ask Robbo: Herald Sun chief football writer Mark Robinson answers reader questions
After Jeremy Cameron claimed the Coleman Medal last year, an unheralded Giant leads the race after one round of footy. Could he stay there? Robbo answers your questions.
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It’s been another huge week in football as the industry, football community and world navigates its way through the coronavirus crisis.
We asked our readers to submit their burning footy questions for Herald Sun chief football writer Mark Robinson to answer.
He’s picked the 10 best and answered them below.
STATE CONTEST
JAMES: If we get to a situation where 17 rounds aren’t possible, how about a state v state competition. Scrap the season, it’s gone. Less than 17 games lacks integrity. Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, indigenous All-Stars, Tasmania & ACT, Queensland and NSW. Each team plays once, then a knockout to find a champion. Just a thought.
Robbo: Like the “agility’’ of your thinking, but that would be a last resort, methinks. And
I disagree about a 153-game season lacking integrity. I’m with Nathan Buckley here. This year’s premiership will be one of the hardest to be won.
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GET ANOTHER JOB
GLENN: Do you think it is time for clubs to do what Alastair Clarkson has encouraged at Hawthorn, whereby players experience and even take up another real-life job for an extended time? The days of the average AFL player making $350,000 per season might be behind us now. For their own wellbeing and security, players need to have a plan B for their post-football life.
Robbo: No, I don’t agree on an extended work role. Professional sports will return and they will be played by full-time professional sportspeople. The Clarkson move of putting players in real-life environments is about perspective and experience, which many applauded. Already, the clubs and the AFLPA encourage players to consider life after footy and many, if not all, have plans in place. But fundamentally they are full-time professional footballers for a short period of their working lives.
RETHINK ON HAWKS
MARK: I noticed yourself and other experts didn’t rate the Hawks much chance this year. In fact, almost nobody has. Could you tell me your reasoning?
Robbo: I didn’t think they were as good as other teams. But certainly after watching them dismantle Brisbane in Round 1, that has changed. There are plenty of ifs with every team, but at Hawthorn, if Chad Wingard can have a career year, if Tom Scully continues to find his game, if Sam Frost can stand up, if Mitchell Lewis can hold down key forward, if Jon Patton does the same, if Tom Mitchell doesn’t miss a beat … and so on. Reckon “experts’’ might have a rethink on the Hawks.
LONGER SHELF LIFE
ANTHONY: Let’s look at a positive for a delayed year — could this be the catalyst to extend some players’ careers? Could this break mean fans get one more year of Buddy Franklin, Gary Ablett, etc, as they have longer to get their bodies right and refresh mentally?
Robbo: It’s possible, but on the flip side, when the season returns, those same players will likely be required to play four games in three weeks. They will be rested, of course, but the demands will be greater than in previous years. We’d all like Buddy to play for another three years, but unfortunately, and not withstanding this unique season, the body starts to slow down with age.
ENJOY IT, HARRY
DAVID: Bit of fun: Can Harry Perryman hang on to his lead in the Coleman?
Robbo: Yes, for a couple of months anyway. He’d be 1 million-1 to win it overall.
SWEET PAY DEAL
ADRIAN: Can you explain or reason why footy players should be paid anything more than any other person in the community who lost their job, is stood down with minimum pay or no pay at all? What makes players think they deserve to be paid 50 per cent when they can’t play and clubs have no revenues?
Robbo: I probably don’t have an adequate answer. Clearly, they did well in the outcome agreed to by the AFLPA and the players. But the fact they have to continue to prepare for a return to work when the competition resumes was part of the agreement. I’m not dirty on the players at all, as I’m not dirty on any worker who can be paid through this.
PLAYING IT LEAN
GLENN: There is some real chance that there might be a trend back to grassroots-style football. Surely the gravy train of excess is over. The days of bloated staff are done. Some home grounds might need to be reconfigured and resume use such as Moorabbin, Carlton or the Western Oval. Is there a new “normal” coming that will significantly change the game in the short term as all the fat is trimmed from club budgets. Lean mince for all?
Robbo: Of course, changes will be made and I’m not sure what “normal’’ will be. Read the interview with Steve Hocking in The Tackle. Decisions will be on the soft cap, player salaries, list sizes and configuration of football departments. Clearly, the AFL wasn’t prepared for this emergency — which business was? But now it’s here, the AFL will need to redesign its business and reduce costs at clubs and within its own organisation. For example, the number of AFL staff and the salaries of executives, and even the future of its media arm. If clubs are being plundered and people are being lost, then AFL headquarters can’t escape the same measures.
18 IN, 18 OUT
PAUL: With the league taking over the clubs’ finances and the view that they have to pay back the loans, do you think that eventually some clubs may merge or be relocated?
Robbo: The question is: Can Melbourne sustain nine teams and one in Geelong? Wise heads say it is impossible in the long term. But don’t think because the league is assuming control of club finances at this time that it means merges and relocation are on the agenda. In fact, I’d say they aren’t. Gillon McLachlan said we are going in with 18 clubs and coming out with 18 clubs, and I’m not sure how he would explain the backflip if that didn’t happen.
TWO-TICKET DEAL
MICHAEL: Just a thought about the resumption of the game and the possibility of again having crowdless matches. Why don’t the clubs auction off two tickets of their allocations to the highest bidders? Those successful bidders then have free rein of the entire facilities. If I was in a financial position to be able to, I would pay almost anything to be one of only two paying spectators at an AFL game.
Robbo: That’s certainly “agile’’ thinking. To be honest, Mick, I don’t know if that’s high on the AFL’s agenda.
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