Tank the fixture?

AussieRulesBlog is fascinated by the logical inconsistencies thrown up in the discussions on tanking and blowouts. On the one hand, it seems football community opinion is strongly against not doing everything possible to win every game, and on the other there’s a notion that the fixture has to be even further compromised to lessen the number of blowout games.

As we’ve made clear in recent posts, AussieRulesBlog isn’t perturbed by teams maximising their draft opportunities through selection and/or in-game match up decisions. If an opportunity exists, and it’s within the existing rules, clubs would be negligent not to seek to exploit it. We have a generally pragmatic idealistic view of the world, but we think those wringing their hands over so-called tanking are extraordinarily naive.

On the blowouts issue, who would have predicted last year — or even earlier this year — that Melbourne could have crashed to such a low ebb. AussieRulesBlog nominated the Demons, Tigers, Kangaroos and Bombers as the next ‘big four’ based on our assessment of the prospects with their developing lists. How could fixturing have accounted for the veritable white flag performances of Port and the Demons? Simple. It can’t. No-one outside of any club’s inner sanctum knows the true state of the playing list, both physically and mentally, or the capacity of the coaching panel or the patience of the Board or the overall cohesion of the club. Any of these factors can profoundly influence the on-field output of the club.

Clubs will always seek to gain maximum advantage from opportunities presented to them. Some teams will have days when they can do no wrong when playing a team that can do little right. No matter how assiduous the AFL might be in its efforts at equalisation, there are simply too many factors involved for there to be a perpetually ‘even’ on-field competition.