Are the AFL partly to Blame?

Murray · Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2002 7:53 am

I hope the Filth get everything that is coming to them.
I hope they lose their first two draft picks, get banned from the pre-season draft and get fined big time.

But are the AFL partly to blame? Brisbane and Sydney get salary cap concessions to keep and buy players. Clubs like the Filth then have to pay players under the table to compete.
I fully understand that the Filth knew they were doing something wrong but there may be reasons why they did it.

I hope I see them stay at the bottom for a couple of years regardless of the reason - coz its funny.

DARE TO STRUGGLE - DARE TO WIN

Pies Premiers 2003 · KEEP SEPTEMBER FREE Joined: 01 Nov 2002 Location: vic

The reason is John Elliot...

He was a great prez when it came to CHQ. book style running of a club....but now there are rules and regulations....you can't get away with paying players wives...like the old days...

Jack had to go, but the best thing is he has left the club at the bottom with potentially no draft picks...sweet

The AFL, will only be happy when its an all interstate GF and the six interstaters make the top six.....the price you pay for having a South Australian running the comp...

Screw the AFL and screw Carlton....its Collingwood who will spoil the party...then we can all celebrate for soooo many reasons...

BRING ON SEPTEMBER 2003!!!!!!

THE PIES GO MARCHING ON

JLC · Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2002 9:45 am

Pigs Arse the AFL is to blame

jlc

Essendon 2000 premiers
2001 runners up
2002 fifth
2003 ????
The slide continues

ramjet21 · Joined: 31 Mar 2002 Location: perth

whoever is to blame for the filth's woes should be given our heartfelt thanks and congratulations.

MagpieMad · Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2002 10:54 am

Well said ramjet21!
DIE FILTH DIE!!!!

COLLINGWOOD FOR EVER!!!!

http://magpiemad.magpies.net/

junkboy75 · Joined: 26 May 2001

yep - bad management, and john elliot has to shoulder a lot of the blame. look at most of the business ventures that he's been associated with. most have gone belly up. he was the one who decided to keep carlton at optus oval, when most of the bigger clubs signed deals with the MCG or colonial. he basically forced the AFL to schedule a minimum number of games there, to the financial detriment of other teams who then had to play home games there, i.e. melbourne.

he does business in the 1980s way, a la skase, and has paid the price. short term gains at the expense of long term planning.

"..we flew at them as a hawk to his prey, passed through them in the disordered state in which they were, separated them into two distinct parts and then tacked upon their largest division.." -- Captain Cuthbert Collingwood, 1797

Cam · Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2002 12:40 pm

Yes the AFL is partly to blame, and the AFLPA. Over the next 5 years players salaries will halve. Their current level of pay is unsustainable, they have had it far too good and it is going to change. I think the AFL is beginning to realise that costs in other areas are ballooning, real estate for one, and that the TV has @#$#ed everybody up thinking that that much money was the savior of the game. Its been the opposite as more people stay home. Attendances haven't dropped much, but being an farmers son i realise that 100 bucks for a bale of wool in 1969 is a bit different to 100 bucks for a bale of wool in 2002 if you get my drift. For the AFL to sustain growth in other areas than attendances need to growth at the same rate as well. This can't happen because of the limits of stadiums for a start. It certainly won't happen now because more people choose to stay home. This has been a bit clumsy but think about this:

1995 - 2,000,000 people attend, pay $15 a ticket = 30,000,000 revenue. costs are 25,000,000 = profit of $5,000,000 between clubs. small dividend to clubs. fitzroy already gone.

2002 - 2,000,000 people attend, pay $25 a ticket = 50,000,000 revenue. costs are 50,000,000 = no profit between clubs. clubs dependent on some income from afl in deep poo.

2005 - western kangaroos & carlton navy saints play off for the aussie home loans cup.

Hard at it. The Collingwood way.

PenshurstPie · Joined: 05 Mar 2001 Location: Sydney NSW

The problem the AFL has got is the difference between clubs' revenue streams. The Adelaide clubs, WCE, Collingwood Carlton and Essendon (and Brisbane?) have heaps of money and could pay more if they wanted to. But lots of clubs (and you all know who they are) are skint.

So the rich clubs seek 'creative' ways to keep their stars happy and at their club.

When they get caught, they get into trouble.

Be wary about cutting wages.

It mightn't seem like a problem for you Victorians, but kids and their parents can see the sort of money that Harry Kewell & co earn, and what 16 year old baseballers can earn, and what our top Rubgy (League and Union) players can earn. If the AFL continues to trim the salary cap to suit the Roos and Dogs of this world we WILL lose kids to those codes.

And don't kid yourself - the day is coming when we lose players especially to rugby union.

Don't blame the players - they have a five to ten year window of opportunity to set themselves up. These kids being drafted this year, what chance do tney have to build some other career, and when they are off loaded at 22 they have nothing to fall back on. They MUST earn enough from their short football careers to tide them and their families over the period while they are learning some other trade.

We ask a lot of them: they MUST be adequately compensated.

Murray · Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2002 4:54 am

Yeah Cam , I think you are right.
Although the league say they are happy with 16 teams I don't think they would stand in the way of any clubs that elect to amalgamate, in fact they would probably offer financial assistance.
Player salaries will drop and I think there is a clear need for that because at the moment they are way out of line. I understand we are paying Woewoden $450,000 a year, Bucks gets about the same.
No club can sustain those kinds of payments for long and yet still bring in other players.

The Filth did it under the table just so that they could compete albeit outside the rules and they got caught and they must pay the price. What I think happened was that they were forced to break the rules just to hang onto their players.

PenshurstPie, I do think we need to be wary of cutting wages, but unfortunately I think it is the only way clubs will be able to survive.
I think there will always be a large pool of talented kids who want to play AFL regardless of the wages, well at least in their formative years, later on they might think more deeply about it.

DARE TO STRUGGLE - DARE TO WIN