Growing pains to hit clubs as AFL expands
December 14, 2009
Any AFL club on the slide in 2010 can expect the rebound to be painfully slow.The league's main levers to help strugglers - the salary cap and the draft - will be blunted as new clubs Gold Coast and Western Sydney make their entrance.
With the bulk of early national draft picks to go to Gold Coast in November 2010 and Western Sydney a year later, a youth-led rebuild will be a severely compromised strategy.
Similarly, underperforming clubs' ability to use salary cap space to lure established players from stronger rivals will decrease.
The two new clubs will hold all the cards in that respect, with each having $1 million more than anyone else to pay players in their inaugural year.
It is not just clubs near the bottom of the ladder, or headed that way, that have cause for concern.
In each of the next three post-seasons, one of the newcomers will have the AFL-given right to poach uncontracted players from their established rivals, with young stars the obvious targets.
So, how well is each existing club placed to weather the storm?RICHMONDThe question that has been hovering over the Tigers like a dark shadow is about to be answered - how can they cope without Richo? Apart from being a standout in a struggling side, star forward Matthew Richardson has also ensured long-suffering fans have at least had something to enjoy. He is far from the only departure, in a huge cleanout that has seen the exit of Kane Johnson, Joel Bowden and Nathan Brown, plus a host of lesser lights. The Tigers turned heavily towards youth with seven national draft picks. But the downside of not having been quite as bad as Melbourne is that they did not get quite the same access to top-end picks. It means new coach Damien Hardwick takes over a team that should gradually improve, but still looks vulnerable in the ruck and key forward departments.
http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/growing-pains-to-hit-clubs-as-afl-expands-20091214-krhh.html
