OUR columnist thinks AFL is the best managed sport in the world and enjoyed cheering Geelong to victory. He is worried the sport faces loyalty crisis as money battles loom. 

I’m sports-mad. I read the newspaper backwards and was late for a mate’s wedding because of a penalty shoot-out, which might have been excusable were I not the best man. He’s forgiven me since his divorce came through. Wife left him because he watched too much sport on the telly. Shocking habit.

I gave up watching sport when my children were born. This was their choice rather than mine. But last weekend I lapsed into former vices by booting Dora the Explorer off the couch and sitting down, beer in hand, to watch the AFL grand final.

My wife is under the impression that we moved to Australia for the schools, the jobs, the climate, the lifestyle … please don’t tell her that I came home so I could watch the AFL grand final. As a Geelong supporter it’s been essential viewing in recent years. Trying to watch it from overseas, however, has proven to be something of a sport in itself.

Following the live tracker worm on the AFL’s website simply hasn’t cut the mustard. It updates every 30 seconds and shows the movement of the ball around the ground. Up and down. Left and right. After a while I felt like a cat watching a goldfish rather than a man watching a Cat.

It’s not a question of patience. When it comes to following sport I have strong credentials in that department. While living in London I followed the entire 2006-07 Ashes series on Ceefax, the UK equivalent of Teletext, which updated once every over and ran from midnight until nine in the morning.

I told you I was sports-mad. My wife leaves out the “sports”.

In Italy I watched two AFL grand finals on Skype. My father trained a webcam on his telly in Cairns while I sat on my Italian sofa sipping beer for breakfast. Despite it being the wrong time of day to eat pies and abuse umpires, I thoroughly enjoyed the improvised experience. The only improvement I can think of would have been if I could see the ball.

I could well and truly see the ball from my front row seat last Saturday, though as a traditionalist I disliked the fact the season climax took place on the first Saturday in October rather than the last Saturday in September.

My beloved Geelong gave me the best welcome back present possible. Yet despite my delight at the Cats getting the cream, I am slightly concerned about the state of the AFL. Don’t get me wrong – it’s in the pink of health. But is it possible to be so healthy you get sick?

I think I was the only AFL fan not celebrating the recent announcement of the $1.25 billion broadcast rights deal. Call me old-fashioned,  call me what you will, but having spent the past decade in Europe bemoaning the state of play in the English Premier League, which is sponsored by a bank, I strongly believe that the only way to ruin the best sporting competition in the world, despite the fact it’s only played in Australia, is to throw money at it.

Yes, I want to see AFL come to Cairns on a regular basis. And, yes, I understand that no bucks equals no Buck Rogers.
But unless players are motivated by badge rather than bank balance, any sporting competition loses its heart.

And there is so much heart in the AFL. The only thing that could cause it to palpitate is money.

Already there is talk of disputes and possible strikes over the $1.25 billion because players don’t think they are getting enough of the pie.

As entertainers, and boy did they entertain last Saturday, AFL players are entitled to be highly-paid. And not for a second am I suggesting the AFL could compare to the EPL in terms of the money-go-round.

But there must always be a salary cap and wages must be less than ridiculous sums or, as in European football, club loyalty could be bought rather than breathed and the off-season transfer market could become the real arena where matches are won and lost.

Did you see Manchester City’s £250,000-a-week striker Carlos Tevez refusing to come off the bench and play as a substitute last week?

And did you see Geelong’s Cameron Mooney crying last Saturday because he wasn’t even on the bench? Did you see Cameron Ling having his broken nose jammed back into place so he could retake the field in the grand final?

The latter two are the actions of players who are part of a team rather than bigger than it.

I know European footballers who, in similar discomfort to Ling, would yelp for their mothers and be out of the game for six months. And they would have faked their injuries in the first place!

Money moves the goalposts. Already this season the vile shadow of players betting on matches has loomed. And this notion of needing money from poker machines and problem gamblers to keep the sport healthy at its grassroots is a lemon. Not five lemons in a winning row. Just a solitary, bitter, lemon.

We have had coaches replaced mid-season because the outcome of each match is more vital and losing streaks more costly. This is the disastrous domain of the EPL.

There’s no point Fox Sports throwing money at the AFL to show every match live if every match isn’t worth showing live and won’t attract an audience, either at the stadium because it’s too expensive or on the couch because it’s too one-sided.

Sky Sports did the same with the EPL. Ticket prices rose and the game was taken away from its real owners – the fans and, more importantly for AFL, the families.

Overseas, I told everyone who cared to listen (and some who didn’t) about how wonderful the AFL is because player salaries are capped, because our coaches are given time to nurture a squad, and, as a result, in the past 12 years we have had eight different competition winners. The EPL has had three in the same period and offers no prizes for guessing who will win it again this season.

I think AFL is the best sport in the world. I think it’s the best managed sport in the world. But I also think it’s on a slippery slope and, despite its players leaping high, needs to keep its feet on the ground.

I would rather watch a close match on Skype and not be able to see the ball than to have a front row seat for a whitewash.

Well, unless it’s Geelong beating Collingwood in a grand final. I want the Cats to get the cream. But I wouldn’t want them to get fat.
 

 

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