Pretty big week hey? Everyone got their moral dignity pants on and had their tuppence to say about Ross and Harvs and of course, I have to do the same.
*Yawn*
It was a lovely distraction from the real issue that we should all be up in arms about but for some strange reason are not. And no, I don't mean the great Campbell Brown shown shirtless and somewhat prostrate in a pair of handcuffs (although I don't doubt the "Browndawg" minded the distraction out west). What I felt slipped through the cracks was far more significant for the future of the game than boys being boys, and men behaving like boys.
Yet you all barely batted an eyelid.
It was in this space that recently I suggested the AFL would do well to have looked at the Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) of North American sports with salary caps in order to have implemented a fairer system for the handling of the signing of Free Agents by the two new "franchises", the Gold Coast Suns and Greater Western Sydney.
I also recently posted of my pride at one of our own, one of Albury/Lavington's favourtie sons, and how he was spreading the gospel of Australian Rules Football around the world. An impossible dream? Well, it could be soon enough.
Yes, the standoff between the AFL and its Player's Association to sign terms on a new CBA and their refusal to come to an agreement seemed headed for front page news but apparently some squabble about musical chairs with coaches was far more important. Let's think about that; it was far more important than the possibility of there not being an AFL season at all in 2012. Never mind. It's no biggie.
So, many of us didn't get to read the smug Matt Finnis suggest that our game isn't a game, but rather closer to a business and as such, the players couldn't agree to guarantee us five more seasons of AFL football. This is because such contracts never, ever exist in the "business" world where what may happen in three years time is unpredictable, let alone five.
Sure, the AFLPA should be given credit for backing down from demands for a percentage of league revenue but because nobody was paying attention to that, they all missed the odious and arrogant retort from Andrew Demetriou, a man who DOES get paid dependent upon the amount of money the AFL makes. Unlike the AFLPA, he made no retraction from his stance that the AFL's offer to the players was fair and equitable. He described their rejection of the deal as "disappointing" and I imagine many of us would be disappointed that neither side could come to agreement, if only we were paying attention. Especially disappointed with your refusal to budge Mr. Demetriou. Then again, we've come to expect nothing less from you. You're always right, even when you're wrong.
The only silver lining that I can see is that players and league alike have expressed that they would not be willing to strike over their disagreements and have promised that season 2012 is not in any danger of being compromised at all. Hopefully they are being truthful because they only need look over the Pacific to see the damage a lost season can inflict upon a sport. The NHL has been down this road, a season lost due to a player strike in 2004, and are only just recovering.
Strangely enough, the situation in this case was reversed; player salaries had spiraled out of control due to the lack of a salary cap and as such, the richest clubs in the league were paying in some instances three times as much on wages than what the poorer clubs could afford. The owners of these poorer clubs, losing millions of dollars due to their inability to ice competitive teams, were dying slow deaths. Eventually, even the wealthy clubs agreed the madness had to stop; they were cutting each other's throats throwing more and more money at free agent players. So the league and the owners demanded not only a salary cap to limit the spending but to tie that salary cap to the revenues raised by gate takings and TV money that the league negotiated. Sound familiar? The players, knowing they would earn considerably less under such a system, went on strike. It was a strike that lasted well into the season proper before the brutal reality that there was not going to be a season came to fruition. And for what? The players to accept the terms outlined by the league the following season. Those Ferrari leases weren't going to pay themselves, so little Jean-Paul Canucklehead and Magnus Puckardsson decided to take the $4 million per season on offer instead of the $9 million they once earned. Boo-hoo-hoo, you're a breakin' my heart.
Except that they did break the heart of not only me but millions of Canadian ice hockey fans. Not that they needed worry about that, those that truly loved the game were always going to come back. Yet hockey is Canada's national sport and not that of the US, the nation that gives home to 25 of the 32 clubs of the NHL. So what happens to Joe in Atlanta who has never seen his hockey club play a playoff game in the history of his fair city? Well, there are many sports he can spend his money on. It was Joe, the casual fan who went from having a passing interest in his team to having none at all when he didn't get to watch them for 12 months. Only now are these type of fans returning to the game.
Can you see where this is going?
Sure, you and I will return to following the AFL (won't we?) should the inconceivable happen and we lose a season, but aside from the damage done to newly established teams and markets, who would also suffer most from the AFL locking out its players? I'll give you a little hint: they may not be so keen to practice their drop punts in Reykjavik next season.
So here is my most sincere, heartfelt plea to the powers that be on both sides of the rift: Can you please lock yourselves in a room, sit your fat-cat arses down, engage on some dialogue that is people talking to people as opposed to sniping each other through cocky, self-righteous media statements, and not emerge from said room until you have agreed to terms on the next three to five AFL seasons. Don't worry, if it takes some time we will make sure you have enough caviar and bottles of Penfolds Grange to get you through but let us make one thing clear. Crystal clear.
Should you balls this up and make the outstanding efforts of Brett Kirk spreading our game to the world redundant then I will never, ever attend an AFL match again nor buy any AFL related merchandise nor be a club member ever, EVER, again.
I, and the collective footy world, are putting our faith in you blokes. Please don't let us down lest I not be the only one who gets off the train. THAT, is what you call "disappointing" Andy and Matt; biting the hand that feeds you.
I had best leave you now as my blood pressure has probably risen high enough for one evening. Should you be attending a preliminary final this weekend I wish your club that is not Collingwood (sorry guys!) the best of luck and who knows? Should you be in Melbourne to support your club and want to tell me I'm wrong over a beer or several you can hit me up on twitter at @White_Ox and that would be great. Until then, stay well good people,
Whitey.
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