Warding off past loyalties

A second year with a brand new club set to debut and a second ‘marquee’ player seemingly keeping a deal under wraps until the current season is done and dusted. It’s not a good look, but is the alternative any more palatable?

 

AFL fans who are upset about the Gary Ablett Jnr/Callen Ward silences should cast an eye to AAMI Park or to Penrith. Melbourne Storm’s Adam Blair announced mid season that he would be playing with Wests Tigers next year. Penrith’s Petero Civinoceva likewise announced he would move to the Broncos while still turning out for the Panthers — but such is not the way of the AFL.

 

None of us can take the King Canute path and simply deny that money and salary caps and other reasons induce players to change clubs. And we’d do well to remember the old-fashioned concept of player loyalty when we blithely opine about some player or other being potential “trade bait”. Loyalty isn’t a one-way contract.

 

AussieRulesBlog is feeling quite fortunate. At least recently, the Bombers haven’t lost a required player to one of the competition’s new clubs, although they’ve done their bit in the past with Roger Merrett to the Brisbane Bears and Gavin Wanganeen to Port Adelaide.

 

Mention of the Bears raises the AFL’s previous strategy for creating a team in a greenfields environment. When the Bears were formed, each club was required to release at least a couple of players, from memory, to the newcomer with the balance then being recruited from the VFA, SANFL and WAFL. History suggests that attempt to give the fledgling club an immediate on-field presence wasn’t a lot more successful than the Gold Coast Suns with the Bears’ only finishing higher than 12th once in their first eight seasons.

 

Strategically, the Suns and GWS Giants give the AFL a team in all major population centres around the country — a prospect that NRL can only dream about. If it’s a given that these new clubs have to exist, and AussieRulesBlog would certainly argue that that is the case, then playing stocks have to come from somewhere.

 

The Bears’ early years show clearly that a group of seasoned elite-level players need time to build camaraderie, elan and club spirit. The Suns showed in 2011 that a small core of very good players (Ablett, Rischitelli, Bock), supported by some less-exalted experience (Fraser, Brennan, Harbrow, Harris) and fleshed out by some of the best young talent available will still take time to find its feet. It’s not hard to imagine that the early years for the Giants will be more difficult again, but players of the likes of Callen Ward will be key to building a team that can be genuinely competitive over time.

 

A long time ago, someone told AussieRulesBlog that there were three features about any transaction: price; quality; and delivery — choose the best in any two,  but you can never have all three. We think the issue of loyalty to and by clubs in this modern era is a similar sort of relationship. We can have most of the good things about the modern competition, but there’ll always be a price to pay somehow.

 

That said, most of the hand-wringing about Ablett and Ward has been a media construct and perhaps we just shouldn’t be taking much notice of that.