It’s September, and a President’s fancy turns to . . .

It’s a hardy perennial. No amount of ‘herbicide’ can kill it. When the calendar clicks around to September, you can be sure it’ll pop its old and wizened head up, just it like it did last year and the fifty or so years before that. It’s the yearly whinge of some President or other that their members are being diddled out of finals seats by the AFL’s seat allocation policies.

 

This year, getting an early start before the Grand Final is even a twinkle in anyone’s eye, it’s Barcode President Eddie “Everywhere” McGuire.

 

Give Eddie his due though. This year he’s come up with a rather novel stance. The AFL are trying to steal Barcode members apparently.

 

AussieRulesBlog will out ourselves as a paid up AFL Member. Silver in our case, and firmly an Essendon Club Support package. It’s a carryover from the Waverly days and came into its own for us when the Bombers relocated their home games from Windy Hill to the MCG. Now that the Dons play indoor footy at home, we’re seeing less value, but we keep it going anyway.

 

If you support one of the big clubs that call the G home and you’re not an AFL member, you’re a mug. More especially so if you occasionally like to pop along and watch teams other than your own go around.

 

According to McGuire, the AFL are trying to aggregate all club members into AFL membership. How? Well, the AFL allow AFL members to buy a limited number of Guest Passes — 1000 at $75 a pop, adult tickets elsewhere in the stadium range from $46 to $85 — for this Friday night’s game.

 

As is usual, many supporters find themselves unable to access tickets to the game. The AFL sells tickets to its members plus some guest passes, so therefore the AFL is the big, bad bogeyman.

 

This is getting boring in the extreme. A big club makes it to a final and some supporters who’d like to be able to go can’t get a ticket. Shock, Horror!Short of building a stadium with infinite capacity, there’s not a solution. The next obvious target is the MCC Members.

 

We’ll tell you what, Eddie. You could donate the tickets that you and your board and your sponsors are using and allow the poor downtrodden fans you pretend to be so concerned about to buy them . . .